Ready to start

Its been three weeks since our loss at Trials and I have had a good amount of time to think and decide where I want to go from here. I have really enjoyed doing some of the things we weren't able to do while we were training, i.e. meeting people, hanging out on the beach, and just relaxing. I have been doing a lot of reading and having a fair amount of long talks with friends and family. It's nice to be able to step back and better understand my place. 

When I sat down with Coach Gleeson to decompress after Trials he encouraged me to decide where I want to be in the future and then work backwards from there. Sounds simple, but it is great advice. He encouraged me to stay the course and to not take the legs out from under the progress I have made this year. I would agree that the Trial result was not a proper indicator about how this year has gone...

Dave is an incredible mind. He has a very good grasp of long term planning and rowing development at the international/olympic level as he learned from famed coach Igor Grinko. Dave is really interested in working with a group of athletes on a four year buildup to the Olympics. His biggest regret from this year was just not having enough time with us. With four years, he would be able to build the foundation of physiology and technique then perfect it in the Olympic year. 

I feel privileged to have someone like Dave in my life and helping guide my career. I am not sure I am ready to say "I am committing 100 % for 2016", but I am pretty close. I am going to continue working with Dave this summer in the single and see how far we can take it...So after three weeks, I am ready to start. I will try to learn from some of the wrong turns I took this year and prepare myself to deal with new challenges in an effort to take the world by storm in the lightweight single. Last year, I was 9th and 5th at the first and second World Cups respectively, but I didn't continue on to row the single at the World Championships. I tried for the double and lost...my frienemy Andrew Campbell did a great job last year and finished 4th which was an amazing result. My goal is to go as fast as I possibly can and not worry about the result. I just want to train and race without limits. So here it goes.