Fall Wrap Up, Winter Update

It has been a long time since my last update - I have been busy working extra to get the bills paid from traveling so much last Summer. Now I can try to do a quick recap of how the last few months have been.

Head of the Charles was great - I finished 7th, stronger than last year and beating a few people who had beaten me in 2010. It was a strong race, but not quite where I wanted to be. John Winter rocked it out, kudos to him. The rest of SRC did well: Dave Smith finished 11th, Liz Robinson finished 5th, and Lindsey Meyer finished 3rd in their respective events.

I managed an 8 second PR on my 6K this Fall and have dropped half a split on my 60 minute test.

For Head of the Lake, Dave and I teamed up to win the Open 2x, my first HotL victory in the 7 years I have raced it. It felt damn good.

I have begun a regimen of Creatine, Glutamine, and Beta-Alanine supplementation to see if I can eek out performance benefits that I am not rocking through training.

Winter has been productive, with a pretty even split between rowing, erging, and cross training. Huge strength gains, getting my dead lift up to 300 lbs for two rep and holding 1000+ joules on average for 10 minutes on the RP.

Lots of fantastic new people around the boathouse for the holidays: college kids coming home, new juniors, and a few new faces with the development group.

This is also the first Winter during which I have taken a long break away from Seattle and the boathouse. I just spent a week in Long Beach, CA with family, doing some light rowing bust mostly getting my bronze on and catching up on sleep. I feel recharged, ready to hit the training hard again. My mindset for this Spring is as such: I will be the scourge of my competitors. I will continue to pour as much work and effort as needed for every bit of speed gain. No cost is too high.

Buy PowerBars. Or not.

New Season, New Fall

We have start Fall training at SRC and things are getting heavy fast. We are geared up for the Olympic year, with 18 workouts per week. Many of us are preparing for Head of the Charles - there will be five rowers representing SRC in Boston this year. Our training is focused on power per stroke and shaping our force curves at lower rates, with the occasional race-pace tempo work on the weekends.

I have largely set aside my car and have been biking everywhere. This is usually the time of the year that I feel like I am getting fat, but currently, with all the biking, I am struggling to hold onto my weight. It is awesome.

It has been great to be back in Seattle. The ranks of the elite and development team have swollen, with more coming in all the time. Seems like we're the cool new place to be on the West Coast.

The Holy Names athletes are underway with their season as well, having just completed their first ever sculling races at Row for the Cure. They have an entry at Head of the Charles in the 4+ and 8+, which is handy for me as it helps reduce my own travel costs for racing.

I am uber fired-up!

End of the Season

Well, Pan Am Trials wrapped up for me yesterday. I finished 3rd/4 in my heat and 3rd/3 in my rep in the Open Men's 1x. I fought hard in my rep, hoping to force the top seed to work harder than he wanted to in order to diminish his chances of progressing should he win the event. I had an awesome first thousand, but I could not hold the pace I set for me. The stroke rate was solid in the low 30s, I just could no maintain that much power and length that I had in my first half through the whole race.

I learned a lot about my stroke and body this season and look forward to applying this knowledge into the upcoming Olympic year. I have made some technical leaps this Summer and some big physiological gains last Spring. Having David Smith at SRC this year will be a boon, as it gives me a regular competitor and set us up nicely for a 2x, should that prospect seem good.

I head back to Seattle on Monday after a brief stay in Vermont to celebrate my good friends' marriage.

Princeton 2011, part deux

I got into Princeton last night, after two buses and a train from Boston; as Conal declared, "the Hobo way to do it." My time in Boston since World Trials was not as productive as I hoped do to illness and a lack of training partners. However, I think I made a successful effort making some tweaks for my next race. A little firmer at the release and quicker to get the hands away.

I am thankful for all the help I received during my time in Boston. Michael Wales lent me his boat and oars, Charlie Butt permitted me to use the Harvard Boathouse to train, Andrew Hashway helped me find some training partners and transportation, and David Smith hooked me up with a place to crash. Of course, it would not have been financially possible without my parents' help as well.

I am using a Sykes M20 for the next race. I am not familiar with the hull, but I have rowed and raced in Sykes in the past and like their feel. This boat is a little big for me, to the tune of 20 kilos, but it rows well enough. If I have a bad piece, it won't because I have too much wetted surface area! Had a solid row in it this morning and I am looking forward to feeling it out over the next couple of days and testing it in the heats.

The rest of the SRC gang and some guests from Potomac show up over the next couple of days, then we race!

Bummer

Pan Ams start in less than a week and I have conjunctivitis (pink eye). Bummer.

Senior Trials

I am done racing for the week, and while I did not get as far as I wanted to in the selection process, I can brag about some major improvements in my on-the-water speed. A new PR of 7:16 in my single, shattering my previous PR by 15 seconds! And a much more efficient style and aggressive mentality all the way down the race course.

My heat this morning was about what I expected. I had some guys faster, some slower, and so I did not get very aggressive (last 500 at a 25 SR!). I resigned myself to the repechage, knowing that I would not be a likely candidate to win my heat. Other athletes I know had stronger performances: Hashway, Campbell, and Ruckman all won their heats and went straight to the semifinal. North had an experience similar to me. New to the Northwest elite sculling world is Nick Trojan - he has some speed and I am excited to see him come along. Lindsey finished 2nd in her heat and moved to the semifinal and Helen finished third and was sent to the reps.

In the reps, I had a very exciting race, rating higher than I ever had before (base pace at 34-35 SR and a starting 20 around 42-44 at one point). Slowly, my opponent inched away and I was unable to get back on terms after the 750, but I fought hard, with my usual mantra when I am down: "push hard, the race isn't over, everyone else could still fade." I was happy with my performance but disappointed in my result. Helen also did not make it to her semifinal, so only Lindsey continues to race from SRC this week.

I look forward to watching the remaining races and planning out my remaining time on the East Coast, the duration of which has yet to be determined.

Princeton

Made it to the lake just fine with Hashway. Got our boat all taken car of and I met up with the rest of the SRC gang. It is good to be back in the mix with my team after a Summer away. Now it is just about counting down to the start of our race (heats and reps tomorrow for light men's 1x and open women's 1x), so we'll all be mixing it up at least once. What time is it? Game time. Bam.