I can wait..
After a few days of volume, I have gotten back into some work at race pace. It has been a welcome change of pace mostly because I am hungry to make improvements where it really matters- at race cadence and race pressure. There's no doubt that the time and distance at low intensity over the last few days has allowed my aerobic system to open up fully, which feels good, not sure I had that going for me in Eton last week.
I did a 4 min piece with the Trinity men's four and we finished even. It was a very challenging piece where I had no choice but to hold them off with everything I had or risk having them pass me and wake me. A very good exercise. I surprised myself with just how deep I could push and still hold on. Good practice for the type of racing I will have to do to stay in this regatta.
This morning I did some finishing work in the last 1200m of the course. My dad was out there on the bike timing me going back and forth. This is exactly the area where I need to own come race day and at the moment is my weakness. But I love it. A weakness means opportunity. It means a chance to get a lot faster. So I laid it down this morning and put out some finishing strokes that I was proud of. For me, sprinting is just about being a wild animal. There is nothing rational or fluid about sprinting. I know people say you need to relax, but ah, not for me. Its an out of body experience; if its not, I am not sprinting fast enough. It needs to be instinctual and uncalculated. Like a tiger searching for and then pouncing on their dinner. It will never be given, it must be taken. This is what I am trying to engrain in my racing. I did 2 x finishing 1200m, 2 x finishing 600m, then 2 x finishing 400m. It was getting better and better. More than anything, I was getting angrier and angrier as the workout went on. It wasn't that the boat didn't felt good, because it did. It wasn't that I wasn't going fast, because I was. It was that it was only practice and it only matters that you do it on the day. I just wanted my competition to show up right there and just race it up right then. I was angry that it wasn't the day. It angers me that its possible to have a great training session and a poor performance on race day. But I do realize that rehearsing it, like a good band, minimizes the chance of having a bad show. So that's OK , I can wait...
I did a 4 min piece with the Trinity men's four and we finished even. It was a very challenging piece where I had no choice but to hold them off with everything I had or risk having them pass me and wake me. A very good exercise. I surprised myself with just how deep I could push and still hold on. Good practice for the type of racing I will have to do to stay in this regatta.
This morning I did some finishing work in the last 1200m of the course. My dad was out there on the bike timing me going back and forth. This is exactly the area where I need to own come race day and at the moment is my weakness. But I love it. A weakness means opportunity. It means a chance to get a lot faster. So I laid it down this morning and put out some finishing strokes that I was proud of. For me, sprinting is just about being a wild animal. There is nothing rational or fluid about sprinting. I know people say you need to relax, but ah, not for me. Its an out of body experience; if its not, I am not sprinting fast enough. It needs to be instinctual and uncalculated. Like a tiger searching for and then pouncing on their dinner. It will never be given, it must be taken. This is what I am trying to engrain in my racing. I did 2 x finishing 1200m, 2 x finishing 600m, then 2 x finishing 400m. It was getting better and better. More than anything, I was getting angrier and angrier as the workout went on. It wasn't that the boat didn't felt good, because it did. It wasn't that I wasn't going fast, because I was. It was that it was only practice and it only matters that you do it on the day. I just wanted my competition to show up right there and just race it up right then. I was angry that it wasn't the day. It angers me that its possible to have a great training session and a poor performance on race day. But I do realize that rehearsing it, like a good band, minimizes the chance of having a bad show. So that's OK , I can wait...
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