The Torch

Incredibly fun weekend in Boston but none of us can afford to spend much thinking about it because we have work to do. While I was thrilled to have a piece this weekend that represented well my ability to produce speed in the single, the task of qualifying for the Olympics is the real focus now and it's happening right now. The race may be this spring, but it is being won or lost right now. As I'm sure many have heard, things are changing up in Craftsbury and I believe for the better. Coach Roock did many great things for the program, but he does not feel like he has the enthusiasm or energy to give us what we need going into this year. I think we all appreciate him being honest so that we can move forward. Larry Gluckman and Troy Howell are the interim coaches and I couldn't be more excited about it. Larry is the only person I call Coach. It felt so right having him dish out orders this morning. We met in the weight room for a circuit before getting on the water this morning and there was a tangible change in the energy on the team. Everything Larry does is for a specific reason. His phrase " practice makes permanent" is the foundation of his program. The exercises we did were designed to activate the feelings and body awareness that we are after in the boat. As a result, I felt like I was ready to go when I got on the water this morning. We did 5k laps switching doubles partners in preparation for a doubles matrix tomorrow morning. I rowed with Willy, Erik, Ben Davison, and Peter. This was only the second  time I have rowed with Willy and I think there is potential there. Tomorrow, over the course of 5 pieces we will row with everyone. With Larry and Troy taking margins and the GPS data in the boats we will be able to establish a ranking. This is the beginning of us learning about our personnel and putting together the most competitive combinations we have. Hopefully before too long we will see trends and Larry and Troy will be able to help us establish a smart plan going forward. As I mentioned in my previous post, the last matrix we did, which Willy ( and Steve) were not around for, showed us that any double combination of Peter, Ben Davison, Ben Dann, and I was very close in speed to Ben Dann and I in the double, which is exciting. So it should be interesting to add Willy to that mix and see if we can produce an even faster combination. My guess is that this weekend we will then test out some 4x, 2x, and 1x lineups against each other over race distance or longer. All in all, feels great to be making progress and to feel like we have strong leadership guiding the process and our development. We have the parts to make a high performance racing machine and this week we are trying to assemble it. Exciting times. More to come later in the week.