Well, my lack of blogging recently has mostly to do with lack of internet at our house and not lack of things I want to write about.
Since the weekend of racing, we took a day drip to Boston to scope out the Charles before HOCR next weekend. We were fortunate enough to launch out of Harvard's boathouse due to the generosity of Linda Muri, Charley Butt among others. I always enjoy going down there but have yet to have a piece I am proud of on that course. I have raced the Champ 1x three times, 2009, 2010, 2011, and each one has been a little bit better than the other. That being said, none of them in my opinion were indicative of my speed at the time, mostly because of my approach to the race. The Head of the Charles is not about straight line speed and I need to get that through my skull. It's a very very fun race unlike any other and thus should be treated like it. So I am excited to just let loose down there and see what happens.
Had a nice conversation with Coach Charley Butt on the dock. What a great coach/man. He came up to me and had some really nice things to say. He said he was impressed with how I raced this year and that it was fun to watch me scull. That means so much coming from him. To get any sort of approval from a guy like that is very humbling.
He went on to talk about how competitive he feels like sculling is at the top right now, something I could not agree more with. His parting words, which he seemed to say with a twinkle in his eye were, " You would do well to pay close attention to how the Norwegians are sculling." It was like when he said it, the room turned dark, his face was illuminated, and his voice got lower. Haha. I will be interested to see how the Harvard varsity men look this year. My guess would be, eerily fast. Anyways, great guy.
Yesterday, I ran on the trails for about 90', which actually felt great. The trails are incredible right now. Soft grass and foliage. I went down to the water around 6 pm for an evening bungee row and was greeted by absolute glass. I rowed for about an hour until it got dark,what a pleasure.
Since the weekend of racing, we took a day drip to Boston to scope out the Charles before HOCR next weekend. We were fortunate enough to launch out of Harvard's boathouse due to the generosity of Linda Muri, Charley Butt among others. I always enjoy going down there but have yet to have a piece I am proud of on that course. I have raced the Champ 1x three times, 2009, 2010, 2011, and each one has been a little bit better than the other. That being said, none of them in my opinion were indicative of my speed at the time, mostly because of my approach to the race. The Head of the Charles is not about straight line speed and I need to get that through my skull. It's a very very fun race unlike any other and thus should be treated like it. So I am excited to just let loose down there and see what happens.
Had a nice conversation with Coach Charley Butt on the dock. What a great coach/man. He came up to me and had some really nice things to say. He said he was impressed with how I raced this year and that it was fun to watch me scull. That means so much coming from him. To get any sort of approval from a guy like that is very humbling.
He went on to talk about how competitive he feels like sculling is at the top right now, something I could not agree more with. His parting words, which he seemed to say with a twinkle in his eye were, " You would do well to pay close attention to how the Norwegians are sculling." It was like when he said it, the room turned dark, his face was illuminated, and his voice got lower. Haha. I will be interested to see how the Harvard varsity men look this year. My guess would be, eerily fast. Anyways, great guy.
Yesterday, I ran on the trails for about 90', which actually felt great. The trails are incredible right now. Soft grass and foliage. I went down to the water around 6 pm for an evening bungee row and was greeted by absolute glass. I rowed for about an hour until it got dark,what a pleasure.
This morning, we did 6 x 3 min. The first four were at 24 spm, the next two at 28 spm. The idea behind these pieces is to build long powerful strokes at low rating. We had a very strong flight of singles going head to head this morning and was a glimpse into the future of how competitive this group is going to get. It was Steve, myself, Ben, Josh, Hugh, and Kyle. Peter is down in Boston right now training in the 4 for the Champ 4 at the Head of the Charles. At 24, Steve and I were pretty much level, about a length up on Ben and more on the lightweight guys. The surprise on the lightweight side was that after switching boats, Kyle was beating both Josh and Hugh. Pretty cool to see. He is a very good athlete and I think it was only a matter of time before he got his sculling feet under him. It also shows that boats matter. As the pieces progressed, Steve and I remained close, I probably had a little more of a margin on him but it was all tight. Ben was doing a good job holding his own ahead of the lightweights and nipping at our tails, it was good to see him rowing confidently. When we moved up to 28, I definitely started to feel better as my stroke is certainly suited for the higher rates. There is a little more athleticism involved at the higher rates and I enjoy being a little more clever at either end to create a gap between myself and everyone else. On the fifth piece, I pulled out to about a length on Steve. I could tell that he was starting to hurt, he had gone on a four hour bike ride the day before and I knew he probably didn't have six pieces in him. To his credit, he did quite well to go that fast for that long. On the sixth piece, I knew I had a lot left in the tank and finishing the workout with something in there is not OK. From stroke one I was at what I remember Jason Read calling, SYP, or Shit Yourself Pressure. Ben and Steve recognized what I was doing I think and held it for a little while. Then I went again and again. At the half way mark I could see that I was leaving and just kept unloading without any concern with how much of the piece was left. I was enjoying throwing my body at every stroke and with about thirty seconds to go I was a few lengths clear water of the next boat, which I think was Ben. Steve was paddling at this point, drained from his bike ride and unable to change gears. Dan yelled that someone was coming down the lake the wrong direction, so I kind of stopped, looked around, and finished the piece only a couple lengths up on Ben. But he had a good piece as well finishing well ahead of everyone else. As far as speed goes, this workout was pretty good. At the 28, I was going probably faster than I've gone at that rate. On the last piece, I was rowing 1.44-1.45 the entire time, which I think is decent considering its the 6th piece , dead calm,and 6-8 beat below race pace for me. This is definitely the type of specific strength work that is beneficial for me. Just learning how to pull very very hard and stay within the technique. I have been working on making my front end as quiet as possible and I think I am making progress on it, but its an endless pursuit. It takes a lot of miles and I'm excited to be putting them in. Each time I take the right stroke, as LG would say, its a deposit in the bank.
Comments
Post a Comment