Riverside and Pan Am Trials

I went to Riverside along with Phil Grisdela, Phil Henson, Jake Georgeson, Pete Schmidt, and Tobin McGee to try and put together a competitive men's 2x for Pan Am Trials and, we hoped, a men's light 4x for Senior Trials.  Margot Shumway was still coaching there, which I think is terrific.  Margot is one of those amazing coaches who is undervalued - her athletes benefit a great deal from her presence and involvement.  We tried to get Hugh McAdam and Matt O'Leary into our group as well, but they paired up into a double without selection.  Can't blame them for it - they just had a different belief into what and who would make a fast boat.

So we grinded through two weeks of seat racing in 2xs.  At the end of it, Pete and Henson were out with rib pain.  Jake and I were double together, and Tobin and Gris were doubled together for Pan Am Trials.  I was very happy to get Jake as a partner.  He had done the best in seat racing, and we had trained and raced together in 2013.  It was pretty easy for us to get the boat moving well together and agree on a race attack.

We got to Princeton the day before the time trial.  USRowing has started shifting time trials into the afternoon.  Nothing is quite as much fun as having to make weight for a 6:00 PM race - you spend the whole day eating little or nothing, throw on a bunch of layer in muggy weather, and grind it out for a few ounces on the warmup erg.  Yay.

Our time trials was probably our best rhythm of the weekend.  We felt like the conditions and out focus really helped us find that light and quick blade placement that allowed us to really tap deep into our aerobic system without getting tight or muscley.  We finished third, behind the Malta/CBC combo and the Hugh and O'Leary double.  Given our results from NSR I, this was no surprise.

Slugging out a great rhythm in our time trial.

We finished second in our heat to Colin and Austin, which forced us into the Reps that afternoon, which we won easily with a rough row to get a spot into the A Final along with Tobin and Gris, Matt and Hugh, and Colin and Austin.  We knew it was going to be toughed, but we had big dreams.  Unfortunately, those dreams did not materialize.  We had an OK race for our final, about 5 seconds off of Colin and Austin and 2 seconds off of Matt and Hugh.  We would not be the Pan Am 2x.

Shortly after the conclusion of the regatta, we also learned that Colin, Austin, Matt, and Hugh were going to race the light 4x at Senior Trials as well.  Now, I am a big advocate of always having a belief in yourself that winning is possible.  But I am also an economist and statistician by training.  I weigh my expected costs and benefits.  So those of us who had been training out of Riverside for the last four weeks decided we would abandon our goal of racing the 4x internationally this year.  Instead we would be making a leap for the lightweight 8+.