The Torch

Sunday morning here in Prague and I just finished napping after a 90' row this morning. The water was glass without much boat traffic which was a welcome surprise. It has been a pretty solid week of training with no major distractions, just getting the work in and resting. Usually with training the times you are getting the most out of it are the times when it feels routine and normal-- nothing too special, just keeping your head down and doing it. When you pick your head up after a few weeks of doing that you find yourself in a pretty good place-- usually a little stronger and faster than before. On the other hand, you can try to knock training out of the park and over stride on a daily basis...while the intention is good, this often ends up in injury. Most elite athletes have been down that road before. This year I have really enjoyed doing the work the best I can, but when I'm down, turn it off, enjoy something else fir a while and then go at it again when it is time. I am hoping that come next Friday in hamburg I will feel like I made some good progress here in Prague and am in a better place than I was in Munich. Speaking of Hamburg, my goal is to get faster every race no matter what the result. I want to learn something every race. I did that in Munich and I would like to pick up where I left off. While in munich I felt like I had prepared poorly in the US for racing, I'm excited to get back on the course next week. I did some oar testing yesterday over 4 x 500 m against the 2x and had the fastest 500 meter pieces I have ever done. I also found my fastest piece to be with the new oars I have been using this week-- a change from the Fat blades I had been using. For some perspective, I went 1:34.3 on my best 500, the double went 1:28.7. The fastest with my original rig was 1:36.9.In my opinion, this is a decent margin for a single to have on a double and a considerable difference between the two oar types. so I am hoping this speed can translate over 2k in Hsmburg... If it does, it might put me in a good
position to crack into the A-final- my performsnce goal for this trip. It is a perfect time to test some new equipment since I am just trying to figure out what is fastest for trials in august and onto the world championships.