Henley-on-Hosmer
The draw came out on Thursday and featured four selected crews in the M1X: myself, Josh Konieczny, Hugh McAdam, and Steve Whelpley. If everything worked out, Steve and I would meet in the final.
The way the progression of this race works is that is starts as a 2600m race and gradually shortens each round. Round 2 is 1100 m, semi is 800, and the final around 600. We had never done it like this before but in theory, it would really test the fitness of the athletes by changing the predominant physiological system that they use each race. It starts fairly aerobic and by the end of the day is all about max power.
The first round featured some very intriguing match ups. I drew my doubles partner and buddy, good 'ol Ben Dann. What are the odds? After having just spent much of the last two months trying to go as fast as possible with Ben, now we were pitted against each other. From my perspective, no one knows my strengths and weaknesses much better than Ben or maybe my brother Peter. Historically this year, I have been faster than Ben in the single but I will never take a piece for granted against him. He is one of the best racers I have ever been around. Our 2x was characterized by having so-so practices but always showing up when it counted. Thats what I respect about him the most. He can be rediculously absent minded in practices sometimes, but when the flag goes down, he will get that bow ball to the line with every fibre of his being. It's pretty cool. Bottom line is I have a ton of confidence racing with him, which makes it unnerving to race against him! I have the Head of the Hosmer record now at 9.48, but prior to this year Ben had it at 9.54.
We both got off the line well and Ben stuck around for the first 750m until I was able to exploit some of his steering mistakes and get out to a comfortable margin. So I moved on to race Charlie Biddle in the quarter final of 1100 meters.
In the quarter, I blasted off and got a comfortable lead early but Charlie was moving pretty well and made it so I couldn't save too much energy. He has definitely picked up some speed since we saw him in VT last.
The semi final distance was 800 meters and my opponent was Josh Koniezcny, a new GRP member and 3 seat of the US U23 LM4- this summer. Josh also hopped in the single this summer and raced Andrew Campbell at Trials, only losing by a few seconds. Josh is a very promising athlete. He pulls an outrageous erg score: 6.06 on a stationary erg at 155 lbs. He has the potential to do some really great things in sculling/ rowing. I knew that Josh would not be a pushover. He has the engine to race with the best and his technique is getting there as well. Off the start, I was able to get out to an open water lead. But I knew the start was not going to be Josh's forte. With 250m to go, he kept pressing and impressively kept dropping the speed to the line. I had to dig really deep to keep his bow ball on my stern. The finish margin was about 3/4 of a length over 800m. Definitely an impressive piece from Josh. It was a fast piece. Probably about 1.38 average, which is right around world record pace. In the other side of the bracket, Steve had a good race with Ricky Holak, but I don't think it was quite as much of a burner as ours was. Our time of 2.38 was 6 seconds faster than the other semi.
The final was thirty min later. Steve and I sat on the shore together joking about how little we wanted to do this last 500m piece. My body was definitely a little shaken up from the racing. A lot of racing, not much food, etc. The body starts to wear down. At that point I was just running on silliness. There was a good crowd down by the water and a great vibe. There were two kegs by the water. Everyone was feeling good, drinking beers, and watching the gladiators duke it out. I had a few sips of beer and launched again with Steve!
I was hurting. I knew I had about 40 seconds of max rowing left in me. My only chance was to get up on him early and hope that was enough. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. There was nothing aerobic about this piece. Whoever had the most power left would win. Steve had some juice left. After 250m, I had sold the farm and we were dead even. I took the next 10 strokes to go against everything my body was telling me, to breakthrough this looming storm of lactic acid. It did not work. I had used up all of my max power strokes. I lost my stinger. Steve cruised in about a length up for the win.
While it was a little frustrating to lose, I'm not to worried about it. I was honestly pleasantly surprised about how fast I was able to get my boat going at this point in the year. Any way you slice it, I put down a lot more hard strokes leading up to that final than Steve did. And he knows that. It's just the way Henley style racing goes. It would have been unrealistic to expect to go much faster than I did yesterday. This was good speed work for the Charles.
I pumped about how the level of competition on our team has been raised so drastically. In order to beat the best in the world, we need to be bringing world class efforts day in, day out, and making that type of speed commonplace. I think a lot of how the NZL team works off each other and gradually raises the bar to the point where they are much better than the rest of the world. That is the model.
Coming up next: some rest and focus on the Charles. We will be heading down the boston on Wednesday to row on the course and get familiar with the marks. I am bow number 6 this year, starting right ahead of London Olympic champion Mahe Drysdale. Should be a good test-- very excited.
The way the progression of this race works is that is starts as a 2600m race and gradually shortens each round. Round 2 is 1100 m, semi is 800, and the final around 600. We had never done it like this before but in theory, it would really test the fitness of the athletes by changing the predominant physiological system that they use each race. It starts fairly aerobic and by the end of the day is all about max power.
The first round featured some very intriguing match ups. I drew my doubles partner and buddy, good 'ol Ben Dann. What are the odds? After having just spent much of the last two months trying to go as fast as possible with Ben, now we were pitted against each other. From my perspective, no one knows my strengths and weaknesses much better than Ben or maybe my brother Peter. Historically this year, I have been faster than Ben in the single but I will never take a piece for granted against him. He is one of the best racers I have ever been around. Our 2x was characterized by having so-so practices but always showing up when it counted. Thats what I respect about him the most. He can be rediculously absent minded in practices sometimes, but when the flag goes down, he will get that bow ball to the line with every fibre of his being. It's pretty cool. Bottom line is I have a ton of confidence racing with him, which makes it unnerving to race against him! I have the Head of the Hosmer record now at 9.48, but prior to this year Ben had it at 9.54.
We both got off the line well and Ben stuck around for the first 750m until I was able to exploit some of his steering mistakes and get out to a comfortable margin. So I moved on to race Charlie Biddle in the quarter final of 1100 meters.
In the quarter, I blasted off and got a comfortable lead early but Charlie was moving pretty well and made it so I couldn't save too much energy. He has definitely picked up some speed since we saw him in VT last.
The semi final distance was 800 meters and my opponent was Josh Koniezcny, a new GRP member and 3 seat of the US U23 LM4- this summer. Josh also hopped in the single this summer and raced Andrew Campbell at Trials, only losing by a few seconds. Josh is a very promising athlete. He pulls an outrageous erg score: 6.06 on a stationary erg at 155 lbs. He has the potential to do some really great things in sculling/ rowing. I knew that Josh would not be a pushover. He has the engine to race with the best and his technique is getting there as well. Off the start, I was able to get out to an open water lead. But I knew the start was not going to be Josh's forte. With 250m to go, he kept pressing and impressively kept dropping the speed to the line. I had to dig really deep to keep his bow ball on my stern. The finish margin was about 3/4 of a length over 800m. Definitely an impressive piece from Josh. It was a fast piece. Probably about 1.38 average, which is right around world record pace. In the other side of the bracket, Steve had a good race with Ricky Holak, but I don't think it was quite as much of a burner as ours was. Our time of 2.38 was 6 seconds faster than the other semi.
The final was thirty min later. Steve and I sat on the shore together joking about how little we wanted to do this last 500m piece. My body was definitely a little shaken up from the racing. A lot of racing, not much food, etc. The body starts to wear down. At that point I was just running on silliness. There was a good crowd down by the water and a great vibe. There were two kegs by the water. Everyone was feeling good, drinking beers, and watching the gladiators duke it out. I had a few sips of beer and launched again with Steve!
I was hurting. I knew I had about 40 seconds of max rowing left in me. My only chance was to get up on him early and hope that was enough. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. There was nothing aerobic about this piece. Whoever had the most power left would win. Steve had some juice left. After 250m, I had sold the farm and we were dead even. I took the next 10 strokes to go against everything my body was telling me, to breakthrough this looming storm of lactic acid. It did not work. I had used up all of my max power strokes. I lost my stinger. Steve cruised in about a length up for the win.
While it was a little frustrating to lose, I'm not to worried about it. I was honestly pleasantly surprised about how fast I was able to get my boat going at this point in the year. Any way you slice it, I put down a lot more hard strokes leading up to that final than Steve did. And he knows that. It's just the way Henley style racing goes. It would have been unrealistic to expect to go much faster than I did yesterday. This was good speed work for the Charles.
I pumped about how the level of competition on our team has been raised so drastically. In order to beat the best in the world, we need to be bringing world class efforts day in, day out, and making that type of speed commonplace. I think a lot of how the NZL team works off each other and gradually raises the bar to the point where they are much better than the rest of the world. That is the model.
Coming up next: some rest and focus on the Charles. We will be heading down the boston on Wednesday to row on the course and get familiar with the marks. I am bow number 6 this year, starting right ahead of London Olympic champion Mahe Drysdale. Should be a good test-- very excited.
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