The Torch

Wow, a full month since my last post. It doesn't feel nearly that long. Worlds is still a very fresh wound, but I feel very fortunate that I was able to get away from rowing for a couple of weeks, turn it all off, and find new perspective going into the 2015-2016 season. My girlfriend Felice and I travelled around southern France for a week and then made it out to Colorado for a friend's wedding the following week. As I got further away from Aiguebilete, I could feel myself calming down and anxiety dissipating. In the grand scheme of things, rowing is not a stressful pursuit, but it was obvious that more than in years past, this year took a toll.

If the World Championships was the malady then the Green Mountain Head was the remedy. I got back to Craftsbury a couple days prior to the race, hopped in the single and remfamilarized myself with it before heading down to Putney, VT for the 5k stake race. I love pulling into the cornfield and seeing familiar faces about 90 min prior to race time, rigging up,  warming up, and then racing it up. On this stretch of the CT river, wind is rarely found. Each of the last four years it has been peaceful calm for racing; a great juxtaposition from the incredible bounce that is found at World Champs. I can't believe this was my fourth GMH. I can remember each of them so clearly; each of them in their own way sending off the previous year and blasting into the new season with rejuvenated optimism for speed. I think I touched on this last year around this time, but the GMH is a fairly honest indicator of speed from year to year. It is an out and back, with slight head current on the first leg and slight tail on the way back, but the current is rarely strong. The average of the two directions gives you a very good idea of your honest speed over the distance. I have enjoyed trying to shave seconds off every year.  Since moving to Craftsbury in the Fall of 2012, my time has gone from 19:29 ('12) to 19:06 ('13) to 18:56 ('14) to 18:49('15). Improvement from year to year gets me really excited but I would lying if I didn't say I was mostly in it for the maple syrup.

So now back to work. If we hope to qualify a sculling boat for Rio we have plenty of it to do. As a group we need to decide what boat that will be in: 1x, 2x. 4x. I have given that decision quite a bit of thought and have found it difficult to quiet the externalities and focus on what gets ME out of bed every morning. I can easily fall into trying to make everyone happy, but when this is all over in a year, I want to look in the mirror and be able to take full ownership of every stroke I took. I'm weighing all the options,  except the lightweight 2x.  I may be able to make weight by the time Trials come around but as fun as losing 15 lbs is, I'm going to leave Josh and Andrew to do their thing. They are on a great trajectory. Besides, no one wants to see skeleton John again. Except maybe Pepa. When April comes around I'll do something special to commemorate the 4 year anniversary of me racing at 154 lbs at LM2x Trials. 

The focus in the near team is making speed in 1x and racing it up at Head of the Charles and the Fall Speed Order in the beginning of November. There will likely be some sort of joint 4x camp in FL this winter to bring together all interested parties, but I think our goal in Craftsbury is to have our lineups set for the most part before we get off the water this Fall. Like I said, for me personally, that could be single, double, quad. I am drawn to the honesty of the single and for many reasons would like to pursue that boat but I also feel a strong obligation to my teammates and to anyone who believes in US sculling to make a team boat that can really fly. 

This weekend we did 7 x 1k in doubles switching partners every piece. Steve and Willy were not involved, but the end results showed that myself, Ben Dann, Ben Davison, and Peter were all moving the doubles about the same speed. Any combination of the four of us was fast. Ben Davison definitely showed that he will be an asset to any boat he is in. On Monday, we went out in the 4x and those double results were confirmed with a very solid first row in the quad. Plenty of easy speed at low rate and race pace. 

Much of the group is going down to Boston this weekend to race the Head of the Kevin but I'll be staying put in an effort to get some rest before going down for the real thing the following weekend. Much more to come as the fall rolls on and we begin figuring things out.