NSR I

A my second NSR I, I finished 13th overall, winning the C-Final and improving by 9 places over last year. I am very proud of my result, although I want more and will continue to work until I am finishing 1st. I had a shaky time trial, barely making the cut to progress by only 1/100th of a second. My heat was fast (arguably the fastest, but weather makes that tough to determine), and my final was strong. I have made huge leaps and bounds over the last 12 months and I think I will continue to see more. Now I am looking for the next step. My top choice is to hook up with a partner in Seattle and go for the Pan Am light double. My second choice would be to relocate to OKC and make a big boat there, and while I would prefer to scull, my interest in a 4x camp is strongly depended on what kind of support I can find financially. I am very excited for the summer.

This week I am headed to Brentwood with Holy Names Academy for our first big regional speed test of the Spring. I am pretty pumped up about my light 8+. as it has shown tremendous growth in speed since SDCC.

On a non-rowing note, I am at the do-or-die point in deciding whether or not to return to graduate school at U of Oregon. I hope I can hear back from some of my contacts so I know what my summer schedule will look like. I don't want to stop racing!!

SDCC Lighties

Everybody out of the boat!

Rowing Montage

A few clips from my preparations for the 2011 NSR I.

San Diego and Erg Movement

This weekend, we took the Holy Names Academy team down to San Diego Crew Classic where they face some stiff competition and threw down their best races yet. Our Varsity 8+ finished 11th, the same position as last year, the Junior Varsity 8+ finished 11th, two places back from last year, and our Light 8+ finished 6th, a first showing for HNA at this regatta. It seems as though the athletes rose to their highest level - they were technically proficient and rowed to exhaustion. We have the greatest depth in athletic talent that we have had in years, so this leads me to scratch my head and wonder how it is we are so far back on the curve. We will be tinkering with training and rigging throughout the next 7 weeks in the lead up to Regional Championships.

Today, I hit my PR on a 2K erg test and at a lower weight than I usually train at. Pretty jazzed about this, especially so close to NSR I and II. I plan on being on fire in Princeton this year.

Hope to get some pictures up soon from this weekend. I am super proud of the girls and had a great time down there - San Diego is always such a pleasant getaway at this time of the year.

Green Lake and Pocock Scrimmage

Pretty good weekend for rowing - Saturday really felt like the first day of Spring for the Pacific Northwest. Yesterday was the Green Lake Regatta, the opening sprint race for Northwest Jr. and Master teams. Both Seattle Rowing Center and my own girls at Holy Names Academy were well represented, taking home a number of top 3 finishes. I am particularly hopeful for my JV and lightweight athletes, both of which had strong performances while missing 4 of their heavy hitter due to injury. It made me optimistic both for San Diego and for Regionals in May.

David Smith was around this week and it was my first week back on the Row Perfects and water full time. My back is feeling great; certainly much better than a month ago. I am getting very jazzed for NSR I in late April. Today we did some 1500 meter pieces at a 30 against the folks at Pocock. Helen cleaned up the women pretty nicely and I held onto to Warren North pretty well - having never beaten him or been within contact of him on the water, to duke it back and forth and barely get taken at the end is a huge improvement for me over the last 12 months. And Ryan rocked out their big guys, though none of those PRC heavies are particularly stellar.

Looking forward to the next 4 week push - one month to the big one. I have my weight sitting at 153 and am looking to find some big guys with whom I can battle out in team boats.

Elk Lake Spring Regatta

Pretty awesome weekend up in Victoria for Seattle Rowing Center. We brought up a hefty contingent of junior and elite athletes. All level performed well. Our junior team won the women's Jr. 2x and the Men's Jr. 2x. We had strong contention in other events, with a number of second and third place finishes that came down to the wire. Our elite team won the women's Open 1x. I raced in the Open 1x against the big boys and finished 3rd with some pretty hearty (and exhausting) racing. I was quite proud of my effort and composure in a gnarly cross wind. I lost only to the largest and fiercest of fat-weight rowers. I also finished 2nd in the lightweight 2x, in which my partner was a Junior with an erg score barely under 7:00. We lost only to the Canadian national team. Our Open 4x race was run uncontested with little to write home about. All and all, and fantastic event. The host were well organized, and though the venue was muddy, the weather was reasonably quality with no meaningful delays. I always enjoy a trip up to The Promised Land: Canada!

Ergomania

I won the lightweight division for the 2011 Northwest CRASH-B qualifier. I went 6:28.1, which is not a PR but is a season best. I think I was much better prepared for this test than others; I was more warmed up and had better nutrition and race planning/pacing. I busted out the best sprint I have ever had on a 2K. It was great.

SRC did well as a whole. We won the lightweight collegiate, openweight junior girl, and took second in the open men and open women events. My Holy Names girls made a strong showing and took 3rd in the lightweight junior girls event with a number of PRs in both the openweight and lightweight events.

We just bagged a bunch or Rowperfects for the boathouse and Carlos Dinares is moving in to provide coaching to masters in the Seattle Area. Folks around here should get excited as Carlos is a quality technical coach with access to tremendous resources. Seattle U has also moved into the boathouse. The club is doing an excellent job of diversifying its revenue sources without expanding costs.

I am getting pretty pumped for our opening Spring regatta in Victoria in a month as well as for more erg testing. The goal is 6:23 or fast this season.