The Charles and beyond

October has been a nice stretch of training here in Craftsbury. We moved into our house a couple miles away from the Center which has made life a little more comfortable. It's an old farm house that is heated only by a wood stove and features great views of Mt. Mansfield in the distance. Our training has a very long term view towards it so we have continued to do lots of easy distance working on technique. However, when we do pieces, the competition is fierce. I have really enjoyed the competitive dynamic we have. 

This past weekend was the Head of the Charles. It was a regatta that I was really looking forward to laying down a great performance. Unfortunately, I ended up having one of the worst rows of the fall. As I write this, I have a pretty bum rib that was bothering me the few days leading up to the regatta. Just poor timing. A lot of people will look at the Champ 1x results and say, " wow, John really improved this year! good job!" In reality, I had a horrible piece. When I crossed the line, I had no idea how I had done, I just knew that it was nothing close to my best. When I finally saw the results it left me with a sour taste in my mouth. Steve Whelpley, a great guy and great sculler who is now training up here, got second place, missing the gold by 2 seconds. That's great except for the fact that I beat him by 20 seconds over 6k the tuesday before our race. I had beaten him in every piece the week leading up to the race. It's tough not to think about the fact that with a normal performance I probably could have won the event. BUT, my ribs making life pretty difficult during that race. I can't think about that anymore, though. I need to move on and focus my assault on another date. That date will be November 10-11 in Princeton at the Speed Order. 

For now, I am focusing on getting my rib better. If I don't rehab now, I won't be rowing in a few weeks so its extremely important. 

I have just been biking the last couple of days and giving it some time to build back up. Hopefully I won't get too bored. Time on the bike is good for mental preparation.