The Torch

Woke up to some pretty big thunderstorms this morning. The inclement weather gave me an excuse to leisurely drink coffee and eat some oatmeal this morning. It has been a treat training here in Cincinnati over the past week. I have been able to focus completely on training and resting without doing much extra like coaching. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent with the Long Beach Juniors this year, but I concede that it is a lot of work and is not always conducive to peak performance.  Since being back at home, I have been rowing, sleeping, and eating. My dad brainwashed us kids to believing that this was the "highest form of living"...it's hard to disagree completely...

As far as my on-water prep goes, things are coming along. First of all, being on still water is huge. A lot of things just inexplicably come together just by getting off of a tidal waterway. Its difficult to completely relax your upper body, shoulders, grip, etc in uncertain water. In predictable, even windy conditions, its cake. So many frustrating days out on the channel in Newport, fighting current, wakes, etc. Its hard not to feel now that the calm I have out on the water right now is a direct product of those struggles. I need to continue to learn how to find the peace amidst the chaos. The ability or inability to do so is what makes margins on race day. 

This week I had some indicators that would suggest I am able to access a higher level of speed than last year or years past. I broke 3.30 for 1k for the first time in the single. I have always been close but have never quite been able to push through, it seemed to be a physiological barrier for me. I have always been able to reproduce pieces very close to 100 percent of my max, for example, going 7.04 for 2k, but not being able to break 3.30 for 1k. My max speed has always been lacking. As uncomfortable and different this year of training has been, Dave addressed the physiological weaknesses we had. Sure we did not really see the fruits of that labor at 2x Trials, but I believe( well, I actually am starting to believe..) that the things we thought might be possible are real.  Peter has been showing it at 4x camp(He beat Warren Anderson( member of the Great Eight and 5.40 erg), not once, but twice by 11 and 12 seconds over 1500m). On Wednesday, I felt like I was flirting with it. The workout was 5 x 1k and its the type of workout in which you need to pace yourself to finish. The average of all of the pieces is a great indicator of what you can do for 2k. After doing a decent time 3.34 into a slight headwind, I spun around and did the next piece with a breath of tailwind over a flat course. I launched off the start and lengthened out to base and just began suspending my body weight time after time... At 500 down I looked at my GPS and I was holding splits I have never seen at base. At that point, I felt extremely confident. I was not thinking about fatigue or pacing, I was just excited to make this a special piece and take as much as I could. I had never broken 3:30, but forget the numbers, rowing this fast was fun. From a standing start replicating the first 1000 of the race, I went 3:24.9. My GPS showed that my max speed during the piece, usually in the first 20 strokes, was 2:54/ km. This translates to 1:27 per 500 m. The fastest I have ever seen is 3:00/km or 1.30. To give you an idea of what my numbers were like at NSR 1 this spring, my max speed during the Time Trial was 3:21/km and in the Final it was 3:14/km. Wow. It is evidence that we were racing mostly on base endurance and were not accessing our top end power. At NSR 1, I was happy with how I felt in the middle 1000 of the race, I just didn't feel like I had the ability to change speeds very well. I am hoping those days are over and that I can cover the distance like I did the 1k pieces: crazy off the start, punishingly steady in the base, and unwavering in the final 250. Speaking of the finishing part of the race, in the afternoon following the 5 x 1k, the workout was race rehearsal of the final 400 m. The sequence that is popular within the family is 40 strokes at 40 strokes per min in the final minute. This originates from the 2005 Trinity College 8 that won the Temple Challenge Cup at Henley. Peter and Tom carried that race plan with them into elite rowing in the 2x and have won two World Championship Trials Finals by walking through the opposition in the last 250 with a ridiculous display of speed at the end of the race. Coach Gluckman also made this sequence commonplace for crews at Craftsbury--most notably the Donald Sisters who won a bronze medal at the 2010 U23 World Championships by less than a second with a massive 40 @ 40. So, there is a lot of history to it. 8 x 400 m sprints are a great way to make it habit. I feel more ready to sprint wildly and effectively to the line then ever before. As my brothers keep reminding me, the only thing that matters in the sprint is that you cross the line not being able to move or take another stroke. I can be better at this, but I am getting better. I am trying to be brutally honest with myself. Is that actually everything I have? When I decided to pursue my full potential in rowing, was this everything I thought I could do? Could I do more? So far, I have answered "yes, I could do more". I will keep pushing until the answer is "absolutely not."