It seems like its about three weeks out from a race that I start to feel different. My morning coffee seems to get me a little more buzzed, Arcade Fire sounds louder in my headphones, and I tend to not count the strokes in training as much as I normally do. What we're looking for in the last couple of weeks leading into World Champs is not easily found. It's the rare combination of focus and looseness, tension and relaxation, drive and recovery. A combination that seems to elude those who go looking for it. There has to be bravado, swagger, and above all fun found amidst the pressure of racing to fuel a truly peaked performance. Easier written than executed but more fun executed than written.
When I came to Craftsbury in the fall of 2012, I told coach Roock that I wanted to do whatever it took to make a heavyweight double that could qualify for the Olympics and go unexplainably fast in Rio. I had just gotten back from watching Peter compete at the 2012 Olympics in London and was most affected by watching Joe Sullivan and Nathan Cohen sprint through the field to win their heat, semifinal, and then Olympic Final. Seeing the only two 5'11'' heavyweight rowers in the event standing amidst 6'5'' giants with gold medals around their necks could not have inspired me more. I wanted to use my body the way the did, as a vehicle for unmatched top end speed, a vessel for true grit. I wanted to be at my best on the biggest stages and grandest of occasions. There are definitely times recently when I feel overwhelmed by how quickly the last three years have gone by, but I feel more that I have yearned for this time. I love how the quality increases with the pressure as the race approaches. With three weeks left to 2015 Worlds, time seems scarce; we cherish the time and look for more opportunities to improve. I look back to 2012-2014 and how we trained with such frivolity and at times it was really hard for me because it felt like we were just training for the sake of training--I never liked that. I wanted to prepare not just train. I love this tangible urgency that is now unspoken and driving everything we do. This all being said, I think I underestimate how Ben balances me out and left to my own devices my urgency can often offset the balance that I eluded to earlier. I definitely expect a lot from myself and from Ben and Coach Roock for that matter, and I need to do a better job of appreciating where we are, understanding our limits, my own limits, and being thankful for the unique combination we have , while still pushing for more. I want to make sure I am thankful to have such a symbiotic relationship with him in the boat. It would be mistake for me to be dwelling on the negatives or sweating the small stuff as we make our final preparations for World Champs. I hope to muster the perspective to relish in our abilities and enjoy the opportunity that we have without the shackles of expectations.
Fortunately, through some small changes and reallocation of our training, we have found our platform in the double again, and I couldn't be happier about it. It's pretty embarrassing how much stress is dissipated for both of us by feeling like the boat is going well again. There's a saying that goes, " Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn..", I would have never planned it this way, but we have been learning all summer. We have shown flashes of our true selves( the heat in Varese being a prime example of the type of rowing we can do) but it has been fleeting with many instances of us struggling down the course. I like to think that when you are struggling it is just the universe telling you that you are lacking something and you need to address it if you are to make it through the challenges ahead. In order for us to be at our best in Aiguebelette, sooner or later, we were going to need to confront these problems. By going to World Cups and going through the gauntlet, those issues were highlighted. It forced us to address them now and not just skate by to the World Champs. I felt like last year we fell victim to this in the 4x. We had a really good early season result in Lucerne and because of that success, there was less pressure to make some of the changes we needed to make. Being comfortable seems to be the surefire indicator that you are not improving. Everything is in motion, nothing is stationary. We are either getting faster or slower, but in relation to someone else, its easy to be deceived as to what the truth is. The technical issues we have been dealing with are varied, but it all boils down to us being able to hold strong rhythm for 2000m. In Europe, we began to come away from the release slightly differently and that was exacerbated in the bumpy water of Lucerne. Our bodies were pretty far out of balance from only rowing the double and this has been remedied effectively by getting back to our singles. I am a believer in a 50/50 breakdown between doubles and singles. Getting a strong foundation in the single makes every boat faster from a pair to an eight. The other thing that has helped us sync up over the last week or so especially has been rowing together on the linked dynamic ergs before practice. This is our version of Brad Lewis and Paul Enquist's shadow rowing. We use a mirror to make sure we are doing exactly what we think we are doing. This has also helped greatly to eliminate some instability and uncertainty on the recovery. Yesterday we had Larry Gluckman out in the launch with us and he was coaching us on the release position. As we get closer to rate our release position gets shorter and changes more than we thought. He recommended training the way we race and using that slightly abbreviated angle during our low rate rowing so that the stroke we take in training is exactly the one we take in the race. Simple but highly effective--a sentence that describes Larry's coaching perfectly. Today we rowed in our singles and tried to engrain the same release angle. I think this could be hugely beneficial to us. We looked at video after practice and there is a more uniform structure and position at the release when we are accentuating the change.
We leave for Eberbach, Germany next Wednesday evening. We will spend a week there training alongside Andrew Campbell and Josh Koneizncy of the Light Men's Double and Women's single sculler Gevvie Stone. Go USA!
When I came to Craftsbury in the fall of 2012, I told coach Roock that I wanted to do whatever it took to make a heavyweight double that could qualify for the Olympics and go unexplainably fast in Rio. I had just gotten back from watching Peter compete at the 2012 Olympics in London and was most affected by watching Joe Sullivan and Nathan Cohen sprint through the field to win their heat, semifinal, and then Olympic Final. Seeing the only two 5'11'' heavyweight rowers in the event standing amidst 6'5'' giants with gold medals around their necks could not have inspired me more. I wanted to use my body the way the did, as a vehicle for unmatched top end speed, a vessel for true grit. I wanted to be at my best on the biggest stages and grandest of occasions. There are definitely times recently when I feel overwhelmed by how quickly the last three years have gone by, but I feel more that I have yearned for this time. I love how the quality increases with the pressure as the race approaches. With three weeks left to 2015 Worlds, time seems scarce; we cherish the time and look for more opportunities to improve. I look back to 2012-2014 and how we trained with such frivolity and at times it was really hard for me because it felt like we were just training for the sake of training--I never liked that. I wanted to prepare not just train. I love this tangible urgency that is now unspoken and driving everything we do. This all being said, I think I underestimate how Ben balances me out and left to my own devices my urgency can often offset the balance that I eluded to earlier. I definitely expect a lot from myself and from Ben and Coach Roock for that matter, and I need to do a better job of appreciating where we are, understanding our limits, my own limits, and being thankful for the unique combination we have , while still pushing for more. I want to make sure I am thankful to have such a symbiotic relationship with him in the boat. It would be mistake for me to be dwelling on the negatives or sweating the small stuff as we make our final preparations for World Champs. I hope to muster the perspective to relish in our abilities and enjoy the opportunity that we have without the shackles of expectations.
Fortunately, through some small changes and reallocation of our training, we have found our platform in the double again, and I couldn't be happier about it. It's pretty embarrassing how much stress is dissipated for both of us by feeling like the boat is going well again. There's a saying that goes, " Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn..", I would have never planned it this way, but we have been learning all summer. We have shown flashes of our true selves( the heat in Varese being a prime example of the type of rowing we can do) but it has been fleeting with many instances of us struggling down the course. I like to think that when you are struggling it is just the universe telling you that you are lacking something and you need to address it if you are to make it through the challenges ahead. In order for us to be at our best in Aiguebelette, sooner or later, we were going to need to confront these problems. By going to World Cups and going through the gauntlet, those issues were highlighted. It forced us to address them now and not just skate by to the World Champs. I felt like last year we fell victim to this in the 4x. We had a really good early season result in Lucerne and because of that success, there was less pressure to make some of the changes we needed to make. Being comfortable seems to be the surefire indicator that you are not improving. Everything is in motion, nothing is stationary. We are either getting faster or slower, but in relation to someone else, its easy to be deceived as to what the truth is. The technical issues we have been dealing with are varied, but it all boils down to us being able to hold strong rhythm for 2000m. In Europe, we began to come away from the release slightly differently and that was exacerbated in the bumpy water of Lucerne. Our bodies were pretty far out of balance from only rowing the double and this has been remedied effectively by getting back to our singles. I am a believer in a 50/50 breakdown between doubles and singles. Getting a strong foundation in the single makes every boat faster from a pair to an eight. The other thing that has helped us sync up over the last week or so especially has been rowing together on the linked dynamic ergs before practice. This is our version of Brad Lewis and Paul Enquist's shadow rowing. We use a mirror to make sure we are doing exactly what we think we are doing. This has also helped greatly to eliminate some instability and uncertainty on the recovery. Yesterday we had Larry Gluckman out in the launch with us and he was coaching us on the release position. As we get closer to rate our release position gets shorter and changes more than we thought. He recommended training the way we race and using that slightly abbreviated angle during our low rate rowing so that the stroke we take in training is exactly the one we take in the race. Simple but highly effective--a sentence that describes Larry's coaching perfectly. Today we rowed in our singles and tried to engrain the same release angle. I think this could be hugely beneficial to us. We looked at video after practice and there is a more uniform structure and position at the release when we are accentuating the change.
We leave for Eberbach, Germany next Wednesday evening. We will spend a week there training alongside Andrew Campbell and Josh Koneizncy of the Light Men's Double and Women's single sculler Gevvie Stone. Go USA!
2015 USA M2x
view from the office.
Size matters not.
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