Worlds Prep
After a quick bout of racing at Trials, Lucerne, and U23's, Ben and I are back in Craftsbury and locked into our prep for World Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. It was great being able to hop in the boat and just get right into the fun stuff of racing overseas, but now we are faced with a full training load, and that doesn't feel quite as good. It definitely took me a couple weeks to feel normal again in training after Lucerne and I think Ben is still recovering from racing hard three out of four weekends in July.
Looking back at Trials and Lucerne, I am pleased with how we executed our plan and then mixed it up with the M2x field at WC3. We knew that we would have a far from ideal lead up for both events, but we felt like there was a lot to be gained by going overseas and getting a sense for where we are and informing our training going forward. Given the circumstances, I thought we raced well but we were bummed not to make the Final. Unfortunately, we never got a chance to race the Dutch double that was 6th in the Final--a crew we felt confident we could beat. In our semifinal, we just did not have the training to draw upon to find a sustainable rhythm early, so we blasted off and rowed 39-40 the entire race. This was brave, but the next day in the B Final, we found that we could find similar speed 4-5 beats lower for the first half and then shift into the higher gear. Like I said, we were not upset that we didn't do this in the Semi, it would have been unrealistic for us to expect that level of patience from ourselves given our preparation. We had not spent any time working on base rhythm, we only had one speed: on or off. Leaving Lucerne, we felt like if we could find a sustainable rhythm that could carry us with the pack for 1k-1250, we would be able to change speeds and make a formidable charge. This is what we are working on now and will continue to address in the next four weeks.
We are still spending a decent amount of time in singles, but now that we are passed U23's, we are probably closer to 70% of our practices in the double and 30 % in the single. With four Empower Oarlocks now rigged up on our boat, we are able to see in real time how we are matching with our main focus being matching arc lengths. It's been incredibly helpful as a bowman to be able to see what Ben is doing and using the information to help me match perfectly. We will have the oarlocks on for two weeks and then will take them off for the last couple of weeks leading into Worlds. It's important to have the data and to use it to implement changes but it's also crucial that those changes are linked with our boat feel. I worry that if we kept the oarlocks on we would begin relying too heavily on what the speed coach is saying and not what we are feeling. The Empower Oarlock is not allowed at FISA events, so we don't want to be dependent on it.
This week, Steve is a away with the U23s in Canada, but we've been lucky that my brother Peter has been around to coach us for a few days. It's been really great having his voice back in our boat and bringing our focus back to a few of our staple technical concepts from last year. Peter is getting married in two weeks, so he has his hands full this summer, but I'm thankful that we were able to work with him a little bit. We are fortunate that we have a lot of people that are looking out for us and everyone has something slightly different to say or a slightly different way of saying it. We try to keep our ears open because we never know when we might hear a tidbit that sparks new speed.
Recently, I have started feeling an extra level of relaxation, flow, and togetherness in our boat. I hesitate to say that time and miles in the boat together fixes everything, but it does seem like in the last couple of weeks we have started to become more unified. I feel it mostly in patience to let the drive unfold naturally and in our effective length. The tendency when you first get into a combination is to over push the front end in an effort to hit speeds. This works for short distances but in the second thousand you need the relaxed suspension to carry you when you are tired. At Trials and Lucerne, not surprisingly, this is exactly what we were doing. Just pushing as hard as we can and rowing high. A notable breakthrough for me has been finding Ben's length and matching the speed of his drive better. When that happens it feels like we are really tying our body weight together and getting uncomplicated, sustainable speed.
We have a week and a half in Craftsbury before heading down to Princeton for some pieces on the buoys. We will then be back up north for a week before flying out of Montreal on September 2nd for Bulgaria. Thanks to everyone who is supporting us and cheering from afar. Every stroke we are getting closer to that A Final, we can feel it. I'll try to keep the updates coming. Go USA!
Looking back at Trials and Lucerne, I am pleased with how we executed our plan and then mixed it up with the M2x field at WC3. We knew that we would have a far from ideal lead up for both events, but we felt like there was a lot to be gained by going overseas and getting a sense for where we are and informing our training going forward. Given the circumstances, I thought we raced well but we were bummed not to make the Final. Unfortunately, we never got a chance to race the Dutch double that was 6th in the Final--a crew we felt confident we could beat. In our semifinal, we just did not have the training to draw upon to find a sustainable rhythm early, so we blasted off and rowed 39-40 the entire race. This was brave, but the next day in the B Final, we found that we could find similar speed 4-5 beats lower for the first half and then shift into the higher gear. Like I said, we were not upset that we didn't do this in the Semi, it would have been unrealistic for us to expect that level of patience from ourselves given our preparation. We had not spent any time working on base rhythm, we only had one speed: on or off. Leaving Lucerne, we felt like if we could find a sustainable rhythm that could carry us with the pack for 1k-1250, we would be able to change speeds and make a formidable charge. This is what we are working on now and will continue to address in the next four weeks.
We are still spending a decent amount of time in singles, but now that we are passed U23's, we are probably closer to 70% of our practices in the double and 30 % in the single. With four Empower Oarlocks now rigged up on our boat, we are able to see in real time how we are matching with our main focus being matching arc lengths. It's been incredibly helpful as a bowman to be able to see what Ben is doing and using the information to help me match perfectly. We will have the oarlocks on for two weeks and then will take them off for the last couple of weeks leading into Worlds. It's important to have the data and to use it to implement changes but it's also crucial that those changes are linked with our boat feel. I worry that if we kept the oarlocks on we would begin relying too heavily on what the speed coach is saying and not what we are feeling. The Empower Oarlock is not allowed at FISA events, so we don't want to be dependent on it.
This week, Steve is a away with the U23s in Canada, but we've been lucky that my brother Peter has been around to coach us for a few days. It's been really great having his voice back in our boat and bringing our focus back to a few of our staple technical concepts from last year. Peter is getting married in two weeks, so he has his hands full this summer, but I'm thankful that we were able to work with him a little bit. We are fortunate that we have a lot of people that are looking out for us and everyone has something slightly different to say or a slightly different way of saying it. We try to keep our ears open because we never know when we might hear a tidbit that sparks new speed.
Recently, I have started feeling an extra level of relaxation, flow, and togetherness in our boat. I hesitate to say that time and miles in the boat together fixes everything, but it does seem like in the last couple of weeks we have started to become more unified. I feel it mostly in patience to let the drive unfold naturally and in our effective length. The tendency when you first get into a combination is to over push the front end in an effort to hit speeds. This works for short distances but in the second thousand you need the relaxed suspension to carry you when you are tired. At Trials and Lucerne, not surprisingly, this is exactly what we were doing. Just pushing as hard as we can and rowing high. A notable breakthrough for me has been finding Ben's length and matching the speed of his drive better. When that happens it feels like we are really tying our body weight together and getting uncomplicated, sustainable speed.
We have a week and a half in Craftsbury before heading down to Princeton for some pieces on the buoys. We will then be back up north for a week before flying out of Montreal on September 2nd for Bulgaria. Thanks to everyone who is supporting us and cheering from afar. Every stroke we are getting closer to that A Final, we can feel it. I'll try to keep the updates coming. Go USA!
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| photos: Val Stepanchuk |
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