A full week in the books with new management and new energy up here and it feels like we are now moving with momentum. The last week has been characterized by an urgency to make it count, every warm up, every practice, every opportunity to learn about making the boat go faster. Larry and Troy have both done a great job of sparking our interest to learn and to be cerebral about producing speed. It reminds me that none of us are here to just put together a quad based on erg average, we came here because we believe there is another way to make world class speed; power is certainly an element of that, but not even close to the only thing. Since we began practice under Larry and Troy last Tuesday, we have worked very hard, rowing more distance than we are used to while also excecuting pre row circuits that previously would have been thought of as an entire workout. The first day, I left the gym with both quads incapable of flexing or supporting my weight on the short walk from the gym down to the water. I don't know whats going to happen this year, but I can guarantee as long as we are doing these pre rows my legs will be considerably stronger than they've ever been. I and most of the team was limping around for most of the week. I joked with Larry that this is truly quad selection or more like natural quad selection. What is intriguing to me is that it is obvious that we are all hungry to work hard and to improve, no one is complaining about doing more work, it's what we want.
On Wednesday, we did another doubles matrix and the top four from the last matrix were unchanged but this time Willy was not far out in 5th. So we have been rowing different permutations of those five guys, Ben Dann, Ben Davison, Peter, myself, and Willy. The combination of rowing singles, doubles, and quads with these guys has been very productive. We are after a quad that is made up of not ony scary fast single scullers but athletes that are dynamic enough to row world class doubles with anyone in the boat. Every combination: stroke and three, stroke and bow, three and two, bow and three, you name it, it has to work very very well. If there is a kink in one of those combinations it will rear its head somewhere down the road. So we are spending the time right now to assemble a boat that is sealed tight and can withstand the storms we are going to row into this year. We are very close to having a lineup. I believe that a theoretical boat of scullers 5-8 that trained together for 6 months would beat the lineup of scullers 1-4 that were thrown together at the last minute. We are doing our best to put scullers 1-4 in the boat together as soon as possible so they can begin preparing to win the Olymic qualifier in May. This boat will need to be special in every way to do so. Clever starting speed, unwavering base speed, and deadly sprinting speed.
Looking ahead, we will be taking the 4x down to Princeton the week after Fall Speed Order to do some work with the M4- / M8+ group. This is something that was incredibly useful to us and the 4- in 2014 . The competition undoubtedly raises the standard of rowing in both boats. Since we are coming off a good deal of hard work, Larry was thinking of having us not do the Speed Order, but when we heard that the sweep guys would be doing it, we wanted to show some solidarity and go into pieces the following week on the same level of fatigue as them. Peter and I joked to Larry about splitting us into pairs. Larry's eyes lit up and I could tell that we had struck a chord. " I think that's a wonderful idea. It'll be a hoot. " Haha, Larry is always up to mix it up and so are we. " Anyone , Anwhere, Anytime " is a classic Gluckmanism that he instilled in us at a young age. He truly believes in being athletic , dynamic, and versatile. And so do I. There is no question that the reason we are going down to Princeton is to get some quality work in the quad, but I think this will be a great way to keep things fun. We won't prepare much in the pairs, maybe a couple rows to check the rig, but our training is not going to change as a result of us entering pairs.
After doing 30 min at 22 on the erg on Tuesday afternoon, this morning we were back on the water for 2 x 6k at 26 spm in singles. Thankfully, the pain was softened by perfect conditions on the water. This was an awesome workout for getting an honest sense for our flat ( and cold) water speed at that intensity. I was able to hold an average of 1:55 on both pieces which I thought was solid. I felt like I held my length very well throughout the workout and had some of my fastest splits in the last hundred meters of the second piece. Typically, I have trouble repeating the speed on the second piece in a workout like this, but it was encouraging to see that I had the legs to hold the pace.
On Friday and Saturday, we are doing step tests on the erg with the mask on. I'm interested to see where I am right now since I haven't been tested since last Janurary. The protocol is typical a 10-11 min piece that steps up the intensity every 90 seconds starting around 1:55 split and moving down to 1:28. We can hopefully use this data to properly cater the training to the individuals' physiological strengths and weaknesses. These tests can definitely be uncomfortable but its a small price we pay to get data that demystifies our queries.
I will try to get some video up soon.
On Wednesday, we did another doubles matrix and the top four from the last matrix were unchanged but this time Willy was not far out in 5th. So we have been rowing different permutations of those five guys, Ben Dann, Ben Davison, Peter, myself, and Willy. The combination of rowing singles, doubles, and quads with these guys has been very productive. We are after a quad that is made up of not ony scary fast single scullers but athletes that are dynamic enough to row world class doubles with anyone in the boat. Every combination: stroke and three, stroke and bow, three and two, bow and three, you name it, it has to work very very well. If there is a kink in one of those combinations it will rear its head somewhere down the road. So we are spending the time right now to assemble a boat that is sealed tight and can withstand the storms we are going to row into this year. We are very close to having a lineup. I believe that a theoretical boat of scullers 5-8 that trained together for 6 months would beat the lineup of scullers 1-4 that were thrown together at the last minute. We are doing our best to put scullers 1-4 in the boat together as soon as possible so they can begin preparing to win the Olymic qualifier in May. This boat will need to be special in every way to do so. Clever starting speed, unwavering base speed, and deadly sprinting speed.
Looking ahead, we will be taking the 4x down to Princeton the week after Fall Speed Order to do some work with the M4- / M8+ group. This is something that was incredibly useful to us and the 4- in 2014 . The competition undoubtedly raises the standard of rowing in both boats. Since we are coming off a good deal of hard work, Larry was thinking of having us not do the Speed Order, but when we heard that the sweep guys would be doing it, we wanted to show some solidarity and go into pieces the following week on the same level of fatigue as them. Peter and I joked to Larry about splitting us into pairs. Larry's eyes lit up and I could tell that we had struck a chord. " I think that's a wonderful idea. It'll be a hoot. " Haha, Larry is always up to mix it up and so are we. " Anyone , Anwhere, Anytime " is a classic Gluckmanism that he instilled in us at a young age. He truly believes in being athletic , dynamic, and versatile. And so do I. There is no question that the reason we are going down to Princeton is to get some quality work in the quad, but I think this will be a great way to keep things fun. We won't prepare much in the pairs, maybe a couple rows to check the rig, but our training is not going to change as a result of us entering pairs.
After doing 30 min at 22 on the erg on Tuesday afternoon, this morning we were back on the water for 2 x 6k at 26 spm in singles. Thankfully, the pain was softened by perfect conditions on the water. This was an awesome workout for getting an honest sense for our flat ( and cold) water speed at that intensity. I was able to hold an average of 1:55 on both pieces which I thought was solid. I felt like I held my length very well throughout the workout and had some of my fastest splits in the last hundred meters of the second piece. Typically, I have trouble repeating the speed on the second piece in a workout like this, but it was encouraging to see that I had the legs to hold the pace.
On Friday and Saturday, we are doing step tests on the erg with the mask on. I'm interested to see where I am right now since I haven't been tested since last Janurary. The protocol is typical a 10-11 min piece that steps up the intensity every 90 seconds starting around 1:55 split and moving down to 1:28. We can hopefully use this data to properly cater the training to the individuals' physiological strengths and weaknesses. These tests can definitely be uncomfortable but its a small price we pay to get data that demystifies our queries.
I will try to get some video up soon.
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