Olympic Final: Last One, Fast One!

First off--thank you for the tremendous support! We had our first race Sunday and the outpouring of good luck and go get 'ems that you sent to me and the women in the 8+ were so wonderful. It was awesome to go to the line knowing how many people we have pulling with us!

Mary Whipple, Caryn Davies, Caroline Lind, Elle Logan, Meghan Musnicki,
Taylor Ritzel, me, Susan Francia, and Erin Cafaro off the start!

Our race was a good starting point for us--our first race together in this lineup. Some good things and lots to improve on. We lined up against Germany, Great Britain, and Australia at 11:50am, just after some brewing thunderclouds had us wondering if racing would be delayed. We were called into the blocks pretty early, so there was a lot of time to sit there, get acclimated to the noise of the camera overhead, the 20 or so photographers on the dock, the spectators shouting, and the huge buoys that mark the starting line and the boot. The boot is a huge plastic guard that keeps the bow aligned as the boats sit ready; when the starting beep sounds, there's a huge WHOOSH as the boots drop into the water and the boats surge off the line.

We had a solid start and were able to get out of the blocks and into our rhythm. The cheering of the fans on the shore built as we went--especially cheering for the home town boat in our heat! We were very internal and focused on executing our race plan. The conditions seem to be craziest in the middle thousand, but everyone in our event handled them well. As we reached the last 500, the grandstands surrounded us, lessening the wind a bit but also enclosing us with the thunder of thousands and thousands of spectators. It was literally deafening and so awesome!!!

Natalie Dell, Kara Kohler, Megan Kalmoe, and Adrienne Martelli
showing off the hard-work hardware!

Today, we watched the first round of USA crews line up and race for Olympic gold. Our women's quad pulled out an awesome bronze finish, the first time the USA has medaled in the event since 1984! I'm so stoked for these women--the rockstars we train with every day--Adrienne "Hammer" Martelli, Megan Kalmoe, Kara Kohler, and my roommate Natalie Dell!

Sara Hendershot and Sarah Zelenka, two of the biggest rockstars I know.

Our women's pair had a heartbreaker of a fourth-place finish, just 0.2 seconds behind last year's World Champions New Zealand. Sarah Zelenka and Sara Hendershot have had an amazing year, building up to an incredible race that was literally stroke for stroke, surge for surge. Tough, gutsy, and so confident--we are so proud to have you representing the USA!

David Banks, Grant James, Ross James, Will Miller, Giuseppe Lanzone, Steve
Kaspyrzyk, Jake Cornelius, Brett Newlin, and Zach Vlahos gettin' after it.

Similarly, our men's eight nearly caught Great Britain at the line, and finished just 0.3 seconds outside the medals. After earning the last spot here just two months ago, our guys performed so well, and did our country proud. Zach Vlahos, Brett Newlin, Jake Cornelius, Steve Kaspyrzyk, Giuseppe Lanzone, Will Miller, Ross James, Grant James, and David Banks, you are All-American all-stars.

Tomorrow, at 12:30, we'll line up against five other crews we've raced before: Australia, The Netherlands, Canada, Romania, and Great Britain. It's the Olympic final. But it's still 2,000m from start to finish, four 500m quarters to make the most of. I'm so excited to build off Team USA's momentum from today and leave everything I can possibly give out there on the water tomorrow.

It's been a long journey here, but now that we are about to race, I am thankful for every up and down along the way that has prepared me to give my best here in London. I know how much work (and good luck, too) went into being here, being the most physically, mentally, and technically prepared I've been in my career. I remember watching the Opening Ceremonies four years ago from a TV at my friend's house in Berkeley, excited to see what promised to be the most incredible Olympics yet, but so incredibly devastated at falling short of making it there.

The last four years have been a fight to be the best rower I can be, to push myself past what others and what I thought my limits were, to, if nothing else, make sure that I had used each day as best I could to never feel that feeling again. And I would never have been able to do those things without your support. The teammates who pushed me, trained with me, talked rowing with me, and who have become my best friends. The people who encouraged me, who believed in me, who helped me believe that the things I dreamed about weren't impossible. The people who housed me and fed me and who talked me through that tough practice or the ups and downs of selection or erg testing, even if you didn't know exactly what I was talking about.

So...thank you. Thank you so much for helping me get to the start line here in London, knowing that I am here in this boat with eight amazing women, that together we are ready to take on whomever we find ourselves lined up against. I am so proud to be representing my country, and I know that when we take that first stroke, we are each going to feel the hundreds of legs of everyone who has helped us get there pushing right with ours.

Thank you for giving us this opportunity. I am so excited to see what we can do with it tomorrow.

GO USA!!!

The Row to London!

My roommate Natalie Dell and I with awesome door decor from our
teammate Sara Hendershot on the naming date!

We're now just 27 days away from our first race in London! After a few days of media tagging along to practices last week, we're back to normal, training and getting ready to race here in Princeton.

USRowing and the National Rowing Foundation have teamed up for the Row to London, a fundraising competition to cover the costs of travel, housing, and equipment for the 52 athletes racing at the Olympics and Paralympics, plus our alternates, coaches, and support staff! You can make a donation through my page here (I'm about 25% of the way to my goal of $2,500! Thanks to everyone who's donated so far!!!) and learn more about the Row to London project here.

We've also been reaching out to the incredibly supportive Princeton community. It's been awesome to meet so many great people who are excited about the Olympics and excited to support us! We hosted the inaugural Go for the Gold 5K last weekend and it was awesome to meet so many rowers, runners, and Olympic enthusiasts! We also got to meet the women's Under 23 8+. That was the first national team boat I raced in, and it was great to meet some of the women I'm sure will be heading to Rio in four years!

Some of the USA W8+ and W4x meeting the U23 8+ at the 5K!

My teammate Susan Francia and her family hosted an awesome Olympic sendoff Bar-B-Q this weekend...the highlight (besides the tour of the Francia home, getting to see some great awkward prom photos, and the homemade Hungarian goulash!) was this amazing cake Susan made of our eight! Yes, it's seven feet long...yes, the Barbies are wearing unisuits...yes, that's an Empacher...and yes, Mary is Skipper!

Erin, Susan, me, Taylor, Caryn, and Mary checking out the details!
Look out, Cake Boss!

For now, it's back to training and getting ready for the big show in just a few weeks! Thanks for your support and GO USA!!!

Warmup jog--ready to start another day of training on Lake Carnegie.

Bled 2011: Ready for the Final!

Out of the blocks in our heat.   Photo courtesy of Igor Meijer.

Tomorrow is the big day for us: lining up against Canada, Great Britain, Romania, the Netherlands, and China for the World Championships final. We go off the line at 1:24pm here in Bled (that's 7:24am Eastern and 4:24am Pacific); you can watch the racing live on TV (Eurosport) if you're on this side of the pond, and live on Universal Sports here. There is also a live race tracker with audio commentary here.

It's always a bit funny to me to have a year of work boiled down to a single race, but I am nothing but excited for tomorrow's final. We have done a lot of solid work, have prepared for this, and have really come together as a crew. We are ready to test ourselves, and I can't wait for our race tomorrow.

Today's racing by USA crews both buoyed and inspired us to go to a new level in our final tomorrow. The women's quad had an incredible final, never letting up the pressure on Germany even when both crews had miles of open water on the field, and took silver, notching the first medal of the regatta for USA crews.

Megan Kalmoe, Adrienne Martelli, Natalie Dell, and Stesha Carlé: 
the USA W4x killing it!  Photo: Allison Frederick 

The men's eight never quite hit their stride in the B-final. In spite of having a solid piece, the guys finished a few seats down to Ukraine, yielding the final Olympic qualification spot. It is really tough to see your friends and teammates come that close to the mark, but the guys already have their heads in the game as to getting back on track for qualification next year, and I know they'll make it happen.

USA M8+ at the starting line.  Photo: Allison Frederick.

And in action earlier today, our teammates in the women's pair held off a late-charging Canada to qualify the hull for the Olympics by 0.06 seconds. Way to make it exciting for the folks watching back home, Kady and Caryn!

USA W2- out of the blocks.  Photo: Allison Frederick.

For now, it's an early bedtime and getting ready for our race. So much training, tapering, and now...racing is here! I can't wait to sit on the starting line with my boatmates tomorrow and feel all this energy ready to unleash. So ready to race!

We've had an incredible outpouring of support here in Bled and from messages coming in from overseas. It means so much to me and to all of us to know that you are cheering us on from the grandstands, from your living rooms, from in front of your computer! Thanks for all of your support, and Go USA!

Finals: Sunday in Lucerne

Final strokes of the rep!  Photo courtesy row2k.com

After a good solid race in our rep yesterday, we are feeling confident and excited coming into this afternoon's final. Reps aren't always a good way of gauging your speed, because you never know what other countries' race strategies are to qualify for the final, but we had a solid and aggressive piece that we are ready to build off of for today's final.

We are lining between Great Britain, the defending World Champs, and Australia, with Germany (World Cup leaders this year), New Zealand, and Ukraine filling out the rest of the starting blocks. Our race goes off the line at 1:29pm (7:29am Eastern/4:29am Pacific), and there will be live video streaming through the World Rowing website at http://www.worldrowing.com/video. You can also see the splits and results via live race tracker at http://www.worldrowing.com/live-results.

The weather has been interesting here--alternating lovely sunny skies with rain and occasional thunderstorms. There will be variable weather this afternoon, but whether 70, sunny and tailwind or 60, bumpy and pouring, we're excited to get to the line and drive down the race course with everything we've got.

Some USA crews have already raced this morning in the B finals, and we will have crews racing throughout the morning in the A finals, so be sure to tune in to the live streaming video starting at 10:15am to see the racing! Thanks for the support, and GO USA!

Lucerne 2011: Day One Done!

Off the line in our heat!    Photo courtesy row2k.com

We had our first race together today, and while we definitely have places to go, it was a solid starting point. We lined up against Germany (World Cup 1 and 2 winners), Australia (who I raced last weekend at Henley), China, and Russia. We ended up a second and a half off of Germany, and will be racing in the rep tomorrow with a solid field, including Ukraine (World Cup and Worlds medalists from the last few years). We’re racing at 3:12pm (9:12am Eastern, 6:12am Pacific) and you can see live results at http://www.worldrowing.com/live-results.

Kristin Hedstrom and Julie Nichols dominating the LW2x

USA overall did very well for Day 1, with some extremely strong performances to boot. The lightweight women’s double of Julie Nichols and Kristin Hedstrom won both their heat and quarterfinal races, making it look easy in the heat by nearly a length of open). The women’s pair of Taylor Ritzel and Caroline Lind also moved out to open water in winning their heat, and the women’s eight won their heat by a length after a fighting back through the field. Our men’s eight also had a great race today. Our guys went for it against defending World Champions Germany, were within a second of them the entire race, and nearly caught them in the sprint. The other heat of the men’s eight featured a 0.01 second win by the Netherlands over Worlds silver-medalists Great Britain—a big sprint that produced one bowball’s lead and avoided a trip to the reps for the Dutch.

M1x Ken Jurkowski

Another exciting performance of the day was from men’s single Ken Jurkowski, who took second in his heat before winning his quarterfinal (Mahe Drysdale took third) to advance to the A/B semi tomorrow.

The women’s double of Sarah Trowbridge and Kate Bertko finished a tight second in their rep this afternoon after finishing a tight second in their heat this morning, and advanced to the A/B semi tomorrow. Our men’s double of Will Miller and Glenn Ochal put on a good sprint to win their rep and also advanced to tomorrow’s A/B semi. Our other pair, Meghan Musnicki and Susan Francia, finished second in their heat to advance to the A/B semi, where they will face off against USA1.

Banks, Stitt, Monaghan, and Stafford in the M4-

There was also exciting racing by our men’s fours. Both took a trip through the reps after tough draws this morning, and both won their reps, including a win by Silas Stafford, Ryan Monaghan, Sam Stitt and David Banks over defending World Champions France. The two fours will face off tomorrow in the A/B semifinal. The second women’s lightweight double of Ursula Grobler and Abby Broughton also made it through to the semifinals after a trip through the reps, and will race alongside USA1 in the A/B semi tomorrow.

Our men’s pair, Justin Stangel and Tom Peczek, will race in the C final tomorrow, as will our lightweight men’s four and men’s quad. After an extremely close rep, women’s single Gevvie Stone will also be racing in the C final tomorrow.

That’s all from Lucerne—bedtime here! Check back tomorrow for more updates and photos. Go USA!

***All photos courtesy USRowing.***

Ready to Race: Lucerne World Cup 2011!

After a whirlwind of racing last weekend and traveling on Monday, we have gotten in a good few days of training and are all gearing up to race tomorrow. The last few days have been pretty uneventful, but this afternoon we had a freak rain/thunder/hailstorm at the course! We just managed to get our boat racked and tied down before the deluge started...our lightweight men's four, however, wasn't so lucky, and had to row through the craziness just to get in.

We haven't had much of a chance to explore, but I have managed to take a few photos around the city and at the course. I put together a little slideshow here:

I am racing tomorrow in the women's quadruple sculls at 12:30pm Lucerne time (that's 6:30am Eastern, 3:30am Pacific, in case you're still up!) My boatmates Natalie Dell, Megan Kalmoe, and Stesha Carle and I are all excited for our first race together and to get out there and go! You can follow along at http://www.worldrowing.com/live-results to see both the live race results and a list of race results from the day.

First glimpse of us in action--this afternoon's race against the thunderstorm!

Thanks for all of the support and cheering during last week's racing...it means a lot to me and all of the other rowers here. This is our first official race of the season, and we can't wait to get to the starting line tomorrow. Boom. Go USA!

Fun Times in the One-Times:How to Succeed in the 1x without Really Trying

It's summer again. Championship racing is either just over or just beginning for you. And chances are, you will be hopping in a single at some point this summer, whether to race it, because there's an odd number of rowers at practice, or because your coach has told you it will be "good for you."

It's no secret that the single is the most technically difficult boat to row. While some might claim it’s the naturally-asymmetric pair—perhaps also because of the pair feature that the late coach Mario Katunarich explained as, "If something is wrong, it’s either you or the other guy…and it's usually the other guy”—the responsibility of moving the single rests entirely on you. Unlike an eight, where there is a coxswain calling "Ports—tap down at the finish!" or "Catches in!", in the single there is simply a constant internal monologue: "Row better—me!"

The women's team has spent most of this year sculling, in singles and larger boats, and we are currently training in singles for at least one practice every day. Although I've been sculling for more than ten years, this is the first year that I've really felt I can move a single well. Every day is still a learning process, though! I talked to some of the best scullers on our team, who are also rowing in singles right now, to see what insights they had on rowing the boat. Believe it or not, the best scullers in the world are thinking about the same things that people just learning to scull should be thinking about! Sometimes, it's funny to me how simple our sport is (although rowing the single is anything but simple!)

--The single only moves forward when your blades are in and your leg drive is connected to them. The single actually moves very slowly. For steady state, unlike an eight, you could actually keep up just by running along the shore. Therefore, it’s that much more important that you make sure you are connected before you drive, because an ineffective catch will not only add less speed, it will make the heavy boat even heavier and slower before your next catch. Stesha Carlé, who raced the 2x at the 2010 World Championships, says that one of her favorite drills to build a good leg drive is the reverse pic drill.

Sit comfortably at the catch with blades flat on the water, feeling your body weight down in your hips, with your core engaged so that your chest isn't supported only by your quads. Square your blades and bury them. Tap down with both hands and "bounce" in the water, fully submerging and fully releasing both blades, about one catch every second or two. By itself, this catch placement drill is great for feeling comfortable in the boat and confident at the catch.

To build off of the catch placement drill: after ten catches, use your last catch to connect and take a top-quarter stroke (use about 4-6 inches of your track, moving only your hands—to catch—and your legs to drive). Row top-quarter on the feather for ten, then lengthen to legs only for ten strokes. Take your time, making sure you can feel the blade submerge before you drive the legs. Add the body: place the catch, drive the legs, connect the torso. Don't jerk the finish to yank the blades out—tapping down lightly at the end of the connection will pop them out. Finally, add the arms. Don't worry about your boat speed; just try to feel the connection from the catch all the way to the finish in a smooth, aware motion. Try to carry that feeling over into the rest of your row.

--The worst thing that can happen in the single is that you'll flip. Okay, actually, hitting something could be worse, but most of what holds us back from trying to make technical changes is the fear that we'll lose our grip on an oar, catch a crab, or do something else that will cause that long, slow, tip over, as the thought "Agghh! I knew this would happen!" flashes through our minds. All in all, though, flipping's not that bad. Imagine being a pole vaulter or a ski jumper and having your coach tell you that you need to make a technical change. At least we're not 25 or 80 feet in the air when we realize we're having an "Oops!" moment!

We all try to be comfortable in the single—the boat’s inherent instability is one of the reasons it’s so difficult to row well—and pause drills and square blade rowing are the means to achieving better comfort and a feeling of control. Multiple-time NSR1 single winner, Head of the Charles Champ Single winner, and U23 World Champion Gevvie Stone says that core awareness and square blade rowing help her stay balanced and level in the single. “Not only does square blade rowing help the balance, but it also helps me to be more horizontal on the drive and recovery,” said Stone. “It also helps me have a cleaner release and catch,” she added.

Besides square blade rowing, the same pause drills and catch placement drills you did with your high school, college or club program in sweep boats are very useful for improving in the single. Drills such as a double pause at the finish—tapped down, blades off the water—and then at the gunwhales—with knees relaxed, arms extended and body over—can help you find relaxation on the recovery and a confident catch. Stone focuses on engaging her core and feeling connected to the footplate through the entire stroke to keep rowing well, even through the final strokes of a race.

--Don't pull so hard! When you're trying to learn to scull or make technical changes in the single, one of the worst things you can do is to get competitive and try to go at a certain speed or beat someone else on the water. If it's a piece that your coach is timing or a race, don't hold back. But if it's a technical row, treat it like a yoga class—it's not about "beating" other people, but about focusing on yourself and improving the things you need to work on. If you're only focused on beating someone else, chances are you're not thinking about putting your blades in before you drive, or you're going to tense up in the boat because you're not working on the set.

"The single is reactive—you can't throw yourself around," says the stroke of the 2010 World Championships quad, Natalie Dell. "Everything has to be three times smoother and more patient than you think it needs to be." Taking deliberate and effective strokes will ingrain good habits, so when you do bump up the pressure, you'll be able to think about racing, not just whether or not you're going to catch a crab!

For those looking for a magic bullet: unfortunately, the best way to get better in the single is to...take more strokes in the single! But if you focus on these things, you will find yourself rowing better very quickly. Just remember to relax, breathe, and maybe even enjoy it!

**Photos courtesy of Katelin Snyder and USRowing**