Apologies for such a long hiatus. My lack of blogging typically is related to holidays and/or accumulation of fatigue that seems to stunt my desire to do anything other than eat and sleep when im not training. In this case, it seems to be a combination of both, but luckily for you, I made an excellent cup of coffee and now it seems that nothing can stop me from chronicling the past month and explaining what we're doing in Vermont right now.
First of all, our December camp was an important few weeks for us. We knew that our 4xlineup had promise and natural speed/ compatibility, but it's a whole other can of worms living together, rowing the boat everyday, communicating, making changes, and just keeping the whole project moving forward and trending positively. It's easy to hop in the boat and have it feel pretty good; some coaches even like to think that a crew gets all of its speed right away through some divine synchronization and matching. It's certainly true that a lot of it comes right away but I guess I just can't afford to believe that; in fact, I refuse to. It's a cop out. It's a very brave thing to decide to train and prepare in a particular boat, especially a team boat, and to not just rely on what comes easy. It should not be overlooked or forgotten what is the basis for the cohesion but that inital feeling is not alone enough to make it work. I might as well be giving relatiomship advice right now. Training in a team boat( or dating someone) is a commitment that requires the highest levels of trust and humility--a daily practice to not eliminate the self, but rather dedicate it to engendering the whole. I believe that process is sacred and its one that I have not been a part of probably since college, but I recognize it again. I recognize that my pursuit of speed over the last few years has been very internal and individual and that for this particular dream to manifest itself it will be crucial that I always put we before me. We emerged from the December camp more confident than we were when we got there. This was largely due to the quality of work we were doing but mostly due to the chemistry and cohesion of the group. Sure, the two Ben's sometimes have to endure the occasional brother fight between Pete and I, but in general, we operated as a unit that humbly understands the great body of work that is ahead. I was pleased that even after an encouraging piece or workout there was no sense of a finish line( even though Ben Dann sometimes gives Ben Davison a hard time for occasionally glancing for the line). We are not rowing to Rio, we are rowing through Rio, there's no destination for us, pure process. As the camp came to a close, we packed up our equipment and sent the trailer over to Sebastien, FL where we will be training on Canal 54 from Feburary to April.
We all split up for the holidays, except Peter and I, of course. We were at home with our parents and big brother Tom for Christmas. Amidst a week of fighting for erg time with the whole family we really had a great Christmas. I take it for granted all the time, but it was special having everyone together and seeing everyone happy and healthy. As a typical youngest child, I am the moper of the family and always can find something to complain about. It seems like despite my efforts, it is a role that I always slip back into around my family. I just wish I wasted less time complaining and more time appreciating it all because I'm very lucky to have such a loving family.
I spent the week leading up to New Years in Princeton visiting my girlfriend, Felice. And when I say visiting what I mean is training. The truth about our relationship at the moment is that if we want to hang out, we have set aside time to train. There may be a time in the future when we don't have to make sure we are training a few hours a day, but that is not now. Fortunately for me, when I go to Princeton I always know I can find an erg. The US women are reknown for the ease with which they seem to win World and Olympic medals. They are also the world's most feared erg team. There is not a thing that is easy about what these girls do--any accolades they receive on the water they have first earned on the erg. A microcosm of the womens' success can be found in the stories of probably every girl at the Training Center, but my particular favorite story is Lauren Schmetterling. Felice and I are Lauren Schmetterling super fans. It all started a couple years ago when Felice would always talk about how cool and badass " Schmett Dawg" was. Schmett Dawg? There's a girl on the team named Schmett Dawg? After hearing her story and easily recognizing the admiration and respect in Felice's tone, I quickly jumped on Schmett Dawgs' bandwagon. As the legend goes, Lauren was not immediately absorbed in to the Training Center like you might expect and was once not fast enough on the erg to be a shoe-in. So she proceeded to set up on an erg at Riverside Boat Club and crush 100 min pieces twice a day until it was time to go back to Princeton for another shot. I think that's fairly historically accurate. In the fall of 2012, she showed up at Fall Speed Order, threw down a big 6k and fast water piece and surprised a lot of people. As improbable and impressive as her massive erg improvement was that year , it seems to me the trajectory that she has continued on since then is even more inspiring. Since coming to Princeton, it seems as though she has never stopped being hungry for improvement( and the occasional post workout Crunch bar) and every day is just another chance for her to PR. She has won World Championships, set world records, been consistently one of the fastest ergs at the TC, and yet shows no signs of complacency or slowing down-- she wants her next stroke as bad or more than she wanted the last one. While I was in Princeton, I had the priviledge of doing a few 10 minute pieces next to her on the erg and it was incredibly motivating to experience the unmeasured pouring of her fitness on to those pieces. Much too quickly I was faced with dropping Felice off at the airport, sending her off to San Diego, and driving back up north to Vermont on my lonesome. Of course, I was sad to see her and the holiday break go, but as I drove into familiar territory in the Northeast Kingdom I could feel the excitement building within me. 2016 is here.
Since being back in Craftsbury, I am reminded of how sweet training can be here in Janurary and Feburary. The trick is striking the proper balance between skiing, lifting, and erging; but I find that it really agrees with my body. Instead of the feelimg of being broken down and melting away on the water, skiing in particular seems to have the effect of balancing and building up my body. Time spent on skis now is potential speed down the road, but unfortunately this year we just cant afford to spend more than the month of Janurary up here considering the accelerated schedule of the Olympic year. I was talking on the phone the other day with former GRP rower and perennial Tuesday Night 5k contender Kyle Lafferty about what we're doing for training right now. He thought back to our days training together and said, " Let me guess, a couple 3 x 40' ergs, a few max dead lifts, and a few Tuesday night 5k ski races...that's really all you need." Haha and he is not wrong. Those things used to be a lot more fun with you around, Kyle. We are currently at the back end of a four week block of land training that is centered around strength development in the weight room and challenging ergo work including VO2 testing. Coach Gluckman has laid out a plan that makes it easy for us to track our improvement and has put an emphasis on marked objective progress. Much of my focus on the erg has been trying to put myself in a position to break 6 min for 2k for the first time. Right now there is a 2k scheduled for Feb 13 when we are in FL and a 6k before we leave. In lieu of technical focuses on the water, which there will be plenty of in the next three months, its been fun( and very good for all of us) to get nasty on the erg. We will be able to smooth it out but we must never forget to just be wildly aggressive. The month of January is about finding our inner Schmett Dawg.
I spent the week leading up to New Years in Princeton visiting my girlfriend, Felice. And when I say visiting what I mean is training. The truth about our relationship at the moment is that if we want to hang out, we have set aside time to train. There may be a time in the future when we don't have to make sure we are training a few hours a day, but that is not now. Fortunately for me, when I go to Princeton I always know I can find an erg. The US women are reknown for the ease with which they seem to win World and Olympic medals. They are also the world's most feared erg team. There is not a thing that is easy about what these girls do--any accolades they receive on the water they have first earned on the erg. A microcosm of the womens' success can be found in the stories of probably every girl at the Training Center, but my particular favorite story is Lauren Schmetterling. Felice and I are Lauren Schmetterling super fans. It all started a couple years ago when Felice would always talk about how cool and badass " Schmett Dawg" was. Schmett Dawg? There's a girl on the team named Schmett Dawg? After hearing her story and easily recognizing the admiration and respect in Felice's tone, I quickly jumped on Schmett Dawgs' bandwagon. As the legend goes, Lauren was not immediately absorbed in to the Training Center like you might expect and was once not fast enough on the erg to be a shoe-in. So she proceeded to set up on an erg at Riverside Boat Club and crush 100 min pieces twice a day until it was time to go back to Princeton for another shot. I think that's fairly historically accurate. In the fall of 2012, she showed up at Fall Speed Order, threw down a big 6k and fast water piece and surprised a lot of people. As improbable and impressive as her massive erg improvement was that year , it seems to me the trajectory that she has continued on since then is even more inspiring. Since coming to Princeton, it seems as though she has never stopped being hungry for improvement( and the occasional post workout Crunch bar) and every day is just another chance for her to PR. She has won World Championships, set world records, been consistently one of the fastest ergs at the TC, and yet shows no signs of complacency or slowing down-- she wants her next stroke as bad or more than she wanted the last one. While I was in Princeton, I had the priviledge of doing a few 10 minute pieces next to her on the erg and it was incredibly motivating to experience the unmeasured pouring of her fitness on to those pieces. Much too quickly I was faced with dropping Felice off at the airport, sending her off to San Diego, and driving back up north to Vermont on my lonesome. Of course, I was sad to see her and the holiday break go, but as I drove into familiar territory in the Northeast Kingdom I could feel the excitement building within me. 2016 is here.
Since being back in Craftsbury, I am reminded of how sweet training can be here in Janurary and Feburary. The trick is striking the proper balance between skiing, lifting, and erging; but I find that it really agrees with my body. Instead of the feelimg of being broken down and melting away on the water, skiing in particular seems to have the effect of balancing and building up my body. Time spent on skis now is potential speed down the road, but unfortunately this year we just cant afford to spend more than the month of Janurary up here considering the accelerated schedule of the Olympic year. I was talking on the phone the other day with former GRP rower and perennial Tuesday Night 5k contender Kyle Lafferty about what we're doing for training right now. He thought back to our days training together and said, " Let me guess, a couple 3 x 40' ergs, a few max dead lifts, and a few Tuesday night 5k ski races...that's really all you need." Haha and he is not wrong. Those things used to be a lot more fun with you around, Kyle. We are currently at the back end of a four week block of land training that is centered around strength development in the weight room and challenging ergo work including VO2 testing. Coach Gluckman has laid out a plan that makes it easy for us to track our improvement and has put an emphasis on marked objective progress. Much of my focus on the erg has been trying to put myself in a position to break 6 min for 2k for the first time. Right now there is a 2k scheduled for Feb 13 when we are in FL and a 6k before we leave. In lieu of technical focuses on the water, which there will be plenty of in the next three months, its been fun( and very good for all of us) to get nasty on the erg. We will be able to smooth it out but we must never forget to just be wildly aggressive. The month of January is about finding our inner Schmett Dawg.
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