One Down, One to Go in Essen

R to L: me, Sarah Zelenka, Jen Kaido, and Sara Hendershot accepting our medals!

Yesterday was the first sculling race for half of our boat--and the first win for them, too! After having our exhibition race/race for lanes cancelled in the morning, we had a straight final in the afternoon. International races are always a bit touch-and-go in the warm-up area, and yesterday was no exception, especially with about half the crews competing here being Under-23 and almost entirely without coxswains. We made it to the line feeling ready to race, at which point we were told we were moving lanes because one boat had scratched--and because an EIGHT would also be racing in our event! The official's racing instructions included: "In the eight: pay no attention to the starting command or lights. You will be started ten seconds after the quads."

It was a bit crazy, and we couldn't help but relax a bit in our boat--your coach always says, "Be ready for anything out there!", but I'd never have guessed that would include racing an 8+ while in quads. Anyhow, we executed our race plan well, especially in some choppy cross-tail to cross-head conditions, and ended up with a 3.4 second win over the other USA boat. We were both well ahead of the third quad, a Swiss U-23 boat that was a little over 16 seconds back. All in all, it was a good first race for both boats--we were excited to finally be racing!--and fired us both up to come back this afternoon and race each other again.

B to S: Adrienne Martelli, Ashley Kroll, Desiree Burns, and Mara Allen.
Photos courtesy of Mara Allen.

This afternoon, we're racing another straight final, this one at 3:28 (9:28am EST). Results will be available soon after via the regatta website here. We are event #66: SF 4x- A. As of now, we will be lining up against a senior Swiss quad and the U-23 German quad. And, who knows, maybe even another eight or two!

Exploring Essen and Racing Updates!

Yesterday, we practiced twice in the morning--some good hard pieces and a circuit--and had the afternoon off. Since we're in lovely Essen, we decided to take a short jaunt to the downtown and look around before heading back for an early dinner and bedtime to get some pre-race resting in!

I thought I'd put up some photos to introduce the crews...unfortunately, intermittent launch availability has made it a bit tricky to get photos of us rowing, but here are some from our trip to downtown Essen!

The Mostly Mercer 4x: Adrienne Martelli, Ashley Kroll, Desiree Burns, and Mara Allen.

The Pretty Much Princeton 4x: me, Sarah Zelenka, Jen Kaido, and Sara Hendershot.

We didn't get a chance to see too many of the sights, but we did get to check out the Essen Cathedral, which was lovely! It was rebuilt after it was bombed out in WWII, but Gothic cathedrals are always beautiful, even if they're mostly from 1958!

Visit to the Essen Cathedral

 We also managed to get a few rowing-related photos (credit to Mara Allen and Jen Kaido):

The whole crew, at our first practice in Essen!

Jen Kaido, Sarah Zelenka and I fiddling with rigging and hanging out...

Our boat (almost) in action!

Our fearless leader, Annie Kakela. Andreas working his magic.

We have a few updates on our races. We were originally supposed to have heats Saturday and Sunday morning and finals in the afternoons of both days, as we were entered in two separate events. It now looks like we will have a straight final Saturday afternoon, and possibly also on Sunday. We are still not sure of our competition...our coaches have said that it will be some of the teams that were originally entered on the Entry List, and possibly some new ones. As of now, here are our race sheets:

That's all the news thus far from Essen...more to come tomorrow!

Grüße aus Essen!

Essen Slideshow

We arrived in Essen on Monday, and we're absolutely loving it. We took a quick red-eye flight from JFK to Düsseldorf, and then had about a 45-minute drive, mostly through gorgeous German countryside, to Essen. It's an industrial city, but most of what we've been able to see--the area around our hotel and the racecourse--is beautiful.

Essen racecourse, looking towards the starting line

There are eight of us here, comprising two quads. We are racing this weekend in what will be the first national or international sculling races for many of the group--two elite sculling events here that each have a heat and a final. I've never raced on an eight-lane course before where all eight lanes are being used, so there are some firsts here for me, too!

My quad's lineup is, from bow, Sara Hendershot, Jen Kaido, Sarah Zelenka, and myself. Our teammates are racing with the lineup of, from bow, Adrienne Martelli, Ashley Kroll, Desiree Burns, and Mara Allen. We're being coached by Annie Kakela and Katie Bitz, and assisted by the always awesome Andreas. We'll get some photos together today and put them up so you can see our smiling faces! In the meantime, please 
check out the photo slideshow above to see our travel and training adventures so far.

Everyone loves a red-eye!

We have been training a lot--building back up to our training volume from Princeton while also getting ready to race this weekend. I don't know exactly how our event names are translated, but we will be racing four times on Saturday and Sunday, which I'm very excited about! It seems early in the season to be doing so many 2K races, but then again, NSR1 has already happened and NSR2 is next week, so we are ready!

Today we had amazing water--it's been a bit windy so far this week--and were able to get in some good work, 2K pieces that I think helped us very much with getting ready to race. We will do a bit more race prep tomorrow before fine-tuning Friday and then putting it on the line on Saturday!


I'll be putting up photos and another post tonight from our adventures around Essen today (afternoon off!), so check back soon! You can also find out more about the Hügelregatta here: http://www.errv.com/10Regatta/regatta.php

6K ESSENtials Playlist

While most everyone who races and reads this blog is in the midst of 2K racing, we're prepping for 2K racing and taking our final 6K of the season on Saturday. I also found out Monday that I will be racing in a quad at the Huegel Regatta in Essen, Germany, on the first weekend in May. I'll be bringing my camera, of course, and documenting our travels, adventures, and racing there, so stay tuned! The USA will be bringing two quads--as of right now, my lovely boatmates are Sarah Zelenka, Jen Kaido, and Sara Hendershot, and we will be accompanied by Mara Allen, Desiree Burns, Ashley Kroll, and Adrienne Martelli. Some newbie scullers, but also an Olympic sculler and some U23 and Senior team medallists. It should be good racing experience for all of us!

So, lots of hangin' and bangin' in the near future...this calls for a new playlist! Special thanks to Elle Logan, Catherine Starr, and occasional bike buddies Kady Glessner and Ellen Tomek for their contributions and inspiration.

You know the drill...repost on Facebook or retweet before the end of the week to win a copy of the playlist!

6K ESSENtials -- April 2011 Playlist

1. Spotlight (Oh Nostalgia) - Patrick Stump

2. Baby Don't Cry (Remix) - Tupac ft. Wyclef Jean

3. Everlasting Light - The Black Keys **Check out Megan Kalmoe's awesome camp video featuring this song here!

4. Remember Me - Blue Boy

5. Knock You Out (ft. Emily Haines) - Tiësto

6. Beyond Right Now (Pretty Lights Remix) - STS9

7. Sunday School - Pretty Lights

8. Finally Moving Remix - Pretty Lights

9. Hidden Hand, Hidden Fist - STS9

10. Touch Me - Rui Da Silva

11. Feel I'm Falling (Vocal Mix) [ft. Jennifer John] - 16 Bit Lolitas & Raz Nitzan

12. My Love Is Your Love (Jonathan Peters Radio Mix II) - Dyme & Whitney Houston

13. Hick Chick (Dance Mix) - Cowboy Troy **Check out Sarah Trowbridge's amazing camp video featuring this song here!

14. XXXO (Fulton Yard / WaltBoogie Remix) - M.I.A. & Jay-Z

15. Up All Night - Alex Clare

16. Under the Sheets (Chiddy Bang Remix) - Ellie Golding

17. Feel It In My Bones (ft. Tegan and Sara) – Tiësto

18. The Ghost Inside – Broken Bells

19. Son's Gonna Rise - Citizen Cope

20. Back to the Life - Spoon

21. Failsafe – The New Pornographers

22. Waiting for the End - Linkin Park

23. Every Night Is Friday Night (Without You) – Old 97’s

24. Shooting Stars – Bag Raiders

25. Heartbreaker (ft. John Legend) - MSTRKRFT

26. Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up) – Florence + The Machine

27. Yeah Yeah Yeah - New Politics

28. Help I'm Alive - Metric

29. Intro - The xx

30. Symphonies (ft. Kid Cudi) - Dan Black

31. California Stars – Billy Bragg & Wilco

32. I Feel It All (Diplo Remix) - Feist

33. Erase Me – Kid Cudi & Kanye West

34. You Be Killin Em - Fabolous

35. Six Days (Remix) – DJ Shadow & Mos Def

36. Here I Come - The Roots

"It's Not About the Bike"...except for when it is.

Home for the past few weeks...Mercer bike dungeon. Thanks to the juniors
for the politically correct and supportive sign.

I've just started rowing again after four and a half weeks of cross-training. Yes, this was my second stint on the bike so far this year. The good news is, overall, my training time on the water has been more than my training time on the bike, and I've actually managed to gain fitness both times on the bike. I've finally rejoined the rowing group--still not 100% on weight training, and I'll be testing my fitness on the water and erg this week for the first time in five weeks, so we'll see where I actually am!--which is a definite step in the right direction. But I just thought I'd take a moment to write about my thoughts about being injured and things I've learned from being injured about how to recover and bounce back as fast as possible.

1. Rest as much as possible. Whether your injury is from overuse or from a sudden event, your body needs to put energy and healing into whatever is injured. When you are not at practice or school/work, you should be icing, resting, napping, and hydrating. It sounds cliché to say, but rest really does work.

2. Take pressure off your injury when you are cross-training. Common rowing injuries are back strains/disc problems, rib problems (stress fractures/stress reactions, intercostal strains, chostochondritis, etc.), hip problems, and shoulder problems.

• If you cannot bike comfortably for cross-training, try wheeling the bike into a weight cage that is set up for back squat at a height you can rest your arms on (the bar should go under your armpits, like you're at the edge of a swimming pool). This can keep the weight of your upper body off your low back and may feel better.
• Running can be a good cross-training tool if it is not painful on your injury. Try jogging for five minutes and build up in five minute increments. Be aware that running requires an engaged core (can be hard on your lower back) and can jostle injured ribs and shoulders.
• If you have an injured rib or shoulder, try to avoid using that side of your upper body while cross-training. For example, when biking, don't use your injured side to brace against the handlebars, or to pull yourself up or balance while standing on the bike.
• Similarly, if you find that there are some weightlifting or circuit exercises you can do, do not lift plates or move weight equipment around with your injured side. It feels silly to always pick things up with one hand, but you will heal more quickly if you're smart about it!

3. Keep your injury and the muscles around it loose and mobile. One of the worst things you can do to an injury is let it get tight, and let the muscles and tendons around it lock up. Always follow your doctor or PT's recommendations, but in general, heat your injured area up before you work out, and always ice after.

Heating pad--available at CVS for ~$20

Take a knee next to the ball, then stretch over and extend.

   

Alternate back and forth between Cat (top)
 on the exhale and Cow (middle) on the inhale.
After 10 of each, press back into your heels
for Child's Pose (bottom).

Ice pack--available at CVS for  <$20

Once you have heated and also warmed up a little, try some light stretching and mobilization of the area. For example, when I injured a rib last year, I would bike lightly for 15 minutes with a heating pad over my rib. I would then try and open up my side by stretching over a physioball and doing some gentle yoga moves, such as Cat/Cow and Child's Pose. I would also stretch between pieces on the bike and after practice, and then ice for 15 minutes immediately after.

4. Listen to your body. The surest way to stay injured or re-injure yourself is to ignore symptoms--whether it's your injury hurting again or something new bothering you--and push through. When you are building back into training, your body won't be used to things, so it won't be pain-free. At the same time, there is a difference between "unused rowing muscles being used again and feeling tired" and "my rib is hurting again, the same way it did when it was stress-fractured". Your body may try to use other muscles and tendons to compensate for what was injured, so be sure to heat, stretch, ice, and rest a lot as you start rowing again.

5. The mental energy that being injured requires is greater than the physical energy you put into cross-training. I work very hard to stay fit and not lose any power when I'm injured, and I have to work much harder than that to stay positive and keep myself focused on my long-term goals. There's no easy way around it--being injured sucks. You want to get back on the water and row. It's painful to see lineups every day that you're not part of. You have to watch people PR-ing on erg tests and winning practice pieces or races and getting faster, and there's nothing you can do about it. People ask you every day "How are you feeling? When will you be back? Are you rowing today?"...and you have to not get angry at them because no, you're still not 100% and you don't know when you'll be back! That being said, focusing on healing and taking it one practice at a time is the best way to let your mind stay calm. You can't race people on the water or on the erg at the moment, but you can train as best you can off the water and heal as quickly as you can, and those two things will get you back onto your team and training for your goals as soon as possible.

Injury prevention, healing, and building back into training are all inexact sciences. Your best bet is to be smart, focus on being positive, and treat your body as nicely as you can--it's the only one you've got!

This One Goes to '11

Afternoon off means...time for the playlist to go up! Last week's Grammy's plus plenty of car time/erg time over the past month has made for some good new tunes and some awesome remix ideas and introductions. This playlist's a little more electronically-oriented than my previous ones, but still perfect for the start of 2K race season (or the continuation of 6K erg season, for some of us!)

This One Goes to '11
(All links go to the iTunes store for your previewing and/or purchasing pleasure.)

1. Born This Way - Lady Gaga
2. Barbra Streisand - Duck Sauce
3. Starstrukk - 3OH!3
4. Save Me - Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark
5. I Wanna Fly (Michael Mind Project Radio Edit) [feat. Jamie Sparks] - Sunloverz
6. Shine On (Heiko und Maiko's Gute Laune Edit) - Sunloverz
7. Dog Days Are Over (Yeasayer Remix) - Florence + The Machine
8. Tenderoni (MSTRKRFT Remix) - Chromeo
9. Pyramid of the Sun - Maserati
10. Dirty Talk - Wynter Gordon
11. Somebody to Love (Remix) [feat. Usher] - Justin Bieber
12. Only Girl (In The World) - DJ Dizzy
13. Tonight (I'm Lovin' You) [feat. Ludacris & DJ Frank E] - Enrique Inglesias
14. I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho) [More English Extended Mix] - Pitbull
15. S&M (Joe Bermudez Chico Radio) - Rihanna
16. New Babies; New Toys - Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark
17. Human - The Killers
18. Cameras - Matt & Kim
19. Ahead Of My Time (Feat. Daddy Boastin') - Teddybears
20. She Came Along (feat. Kid Cudi) (REUP Radio) - Sharam
21. White Night - The Postelles
22. Rolling In the Deep (Jamie xx Shuffle) - Adele
23. Firework - Katy Perry
24. The Newark Airport Boogie - Electric Six
25. Don't Trust Me - 3OH!3
26. Derezzed - Daft Punk
27. Cobrastyle (feat. Mad Cobra) - Teddybears
28. F**k You! - Cee Lo Green
29. Runaway - Kanye West & Pusha T
30. Daylight - Matt & Kim
31. Pigeons - The Hundred In the Hands
32. Young Blood - The Naked and the Famous
33. Until Heaven Stops the Rain (feat. Mattic) - Wax Tailor
34. Coming Home - Diddy - Dirty Money & Skylar Grey
35. Something In Common - Free Energy

Howdy from Oklahoma!

View of downtown Oklahoma City from Devon Boathouse

This post comes from the land of country music and big ol' boathouse dreams! Eleven of us from the Princeton Training Center are here in Oklahoma City, training out of the new Devon Boathouse for two weeks.

So far, our experience has been awesome. We kicked things off our first night with a trip to Earl's BBQ, which was only made better by the Grammys playing the same night: BBQ plus Bieber?! Amazing.

The training center itself is perhaps the nicest boathouse I've ever been in. There's a large erg/bike room, two weight rooms, four locker rooms, tanks, a perpetual swim tank, an ice bath, an altitude training room, and conference rooms with sweeping views of the Oklahoma River. Oh, and can't forget the giant flat screen TVs in every room! Everything is brand new--they've literally been painting and hanging pictures this week, and putting the finishing touches on all of the different rooms.

Our on-the-water experience has been okay. We arrived here the day the temperature shifted up about 60 degrees Fahrenheit, but although it's been warmer and drier here than it's been for our teammates still training in California, it's also been windier. In the works for the training facility is a 40' high wall that will run the length of the 2K course, trying to minimize the impact of the often strong winds on training and racing. The rowable 5K length of the river is partially sheltered already, as it's dug into the banks, but the best water we've had so far was with 9 MPH winds. That doesn't stop the 40 athletes or so training here from going out in singles, pairs, doubles, and single kayaks every morning, though!

Yeehaw! The ladies of USRowing: Team OKC 2011!

The OKC High Performance Center had an open house-style event on Thursday to show off Devon Boathouse and to welcome us. We met the leader of the push to make Oklahoma City a high-performance rowing and kayaking mecca, OKC Boathouse Foundation Executive Director Mike Knopp, and received some awesome cowgirl hats to help us fit right in here!

Teammates (twins?) Amanda Polk (standing) and
Natalie Dell (testing), mid-test

Today we're back at Devon Boathouse to get lactate testing done, administered by Dr. Fritz Hagermann. It was really neat for me to have this opportunity, because Dr. Hagermann actually did lactate testing on both of my parents in the late 1970s, at the since-closed Lake Tahoe Olympic Training Center.

Me with Dr. Fritz!

For everyone who asked, January's playlist is now February's playlist, and will be up this coming week. Just in time for you to find your pump-up jams before spring racing starts! (And just in time for my birthday!)

Good luck to everyone racing tomorrow at CRASH-Bs (and to Linda Muri & Co. with the volunteering)! Here's to puke-worthy PRs all around! :)

Kicking off the New Year!

So 2011's been around for a week and a half now, and it's been a pretty good start.

We're back in Princeton, slogging through snow everywhere, but getting some good training in and getting back in rowing and racing shape after the funny schedule of Worlds this year.

A November bike mishap led to training for a month on an elbow that I didn't know was fractured (oops)...I've been logging some miles on the (stationary!) bike while I waited for it to heal, but have started back up on the ergometer after getting an all-clear last week. It's frustrating to feel like I wasn't able to start the winter season exactly how I'd envisioned doing so, but I've definitely improved my fitness, and I'm eager to get back into the team's workouts so that I can show that.

Two big things: first, my friend Jen Whiting wrote a really neat piece about our 8+ from this summer and the experience of training with the group here in Princeton. We sat down for dinner a couple of times this past summer and fall, and I think she did a really great job on the article. It's the feature story in the latest Rowing News Magazine, which you can check out in a boathouse near you or order online here.

Second (for all you ergers out there!) I will finally be putting out my January playlist this week! So get excited. Props to Adam Barhamand (you can find his music-focused blog here) for once again putting together an exceptional genre-spanning collection that pointed me in some good directions for the playlist. I'm planning on putting together at least one playlist per month for this year...so if you have any suggestions for songs, artists, good music blogs, or anything else, feel free to leave them via comment or email!

Happy training,
Esther

Hello from Chula Vista!

Hello, world!

I've revived this blog, which I've kept on and off since 2007, in the hopes of 1) more regularly publishing content and 2) not needing to start a new blog for each USRowing-linked event! This year's two blogs can be found at the following links:

2010 Lucerne World Cup
http://usrowinglucerne.blogspot.com

2010 World Rowing Championships
http://usrowing2010nz.blogspot.com

We're coming into the final few days of our week-long camp at ARCO Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA (near San Diego). The camp has been great so far--nice weather and good conditions have allowed us to get in a bunch of training. I'll try to post more pictures before we head out on Sunday, but for now, enjoy a brief panorama of the weight room/cross-training tent. It's really neat to get to work out here in part because we get to train alongside athletes from other sports. This morning, I was in there with athletes from track and field, weightlifting, boxing, and BMX. Cool!!!



That's all for now from San Diego...

NYT article: HS sports make women better at life

First, this is the article I'm referencing:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/15/as-girls-become-women-sports-pay-dividends/?em

Sports had a huge impact on me. Even when I was sure I was not going to pursue volleyball, basketball, or even rowing at a college level, being a part of a team sport and learning to push myself when I sucked at something made me part of who I am today. (And yes, just got to revisit that when we were up at Lake Placid, and I had to skate-ski for two or three hours every day while being painfully bad at it.) I don't know if this was true for other women, but sports helped me feel like my height and strength could be positives, when otherwise my middle-school self felt awkward about towering over my classmates and insecure about my looks. Learning how to work with teammates to win a game, learning the discipline of practicing a skill until you know how to do it well--I don't know how many hours I spent in our back yard, serving the volleyball at a chalk "X" on the wall--and how to be "coachable"...all very important things that come up on a daily basis, whether or not you're an athlete today.

As Dr. Betsey Stevenson says in the article: “It’s not just that the people who are going to do well in life play sports, but that sports help people do better in life...While I only show this for girls, it’s reasonable to believe it’s true for boys as well.”

Ecclesiastes 3:12

Sometimes, the best thing to do is to hang tight. Not to give up on your ability to move forward, but to acknowledge that you are not doing anything wrong, that you are in fact doing many things right, and to breathe and let go and stop fighting.

In the boat, that doesn't always mean that things feel better or move better, not right away. But deciding that you're not going to do whatever it takes to hold the boat up, or try to fix with your own recovery what the person in front of you or behind you is doing--the boat flops, it lurches, and maybe a stroke for a seat or two is rendered ineffective--and then, it relaxes. Unfortunately, if you and your boatmates don't take that as an opportunity to maintain the change, it becomes a cycle: maybe lasting a piece, maybe a practice, maybe a week.

It's incredibly frustrating to feel like you know what you're doing, to see in other boats that you actually do know what you're doing, but in the boat where it matters, to feel lost. This same feeling of powerlessness can be anywhere--not just in practice, but maybe in a class where a teacher doesn't seem to like your work, or a relationship that you care very much about but cannot steer, or trying to maneuver future plans while facing several unknowns and the plans of others. The ability to mindfully let go of the fear, the unknown, the shitty stuff you can't control, and to keep putting your blade in as best you can and working hard on the drive (so to speak)...is perhaps one of the most important things in getting things to turn out all right in the end.

Etes vous prets?

Spring racing commences in just four days. We'll be lining up for our season-opener against Brown--always a solid competitor, and the way I've started off every spring season with Radcliffe. I feel that our boat's more prepared for 2Ks than in years past, which is exciting. It will be a good challenge to go out and see what we can do, discover this race and this season's strengths and weaknesses when we are actually barrelling down the racecourse, the outcome uncertain and every inch something you're willing to bleed for.

I am loving the Resolute so much more than the Vespoli hull (although nothing I've rowed in yet, 8-wise, compares to an Empacher), and that we switched back to Crokers. I love the wider-feeling platform of the Resolute, although it's much tippier, and gives very accurate feedback when someone decides to be lazy with handle height or to rush to the catch...perhaps a little too accurate for low backs' liking! And my feet can go as low as I like. Sit up at the catch, get great compression, more rotation, and all those good things. The Crokers I enjoy because you can feel, much better than the C2s we were using, what your blade is doing in the water. I am still working on getting out of the "digging" habit I picked up with the heavy C2s--I don't know the exact model we were using, only that I couldn't tell how much of the shaft was buried because it was always very, very heavy, even mid-race...and they are designed to effectively wash out at the finish, so I am also re-learning how to stay buried. Anyway. Enough hating and sounding like an infomercial. Mostly, I'm happy to be back in comfortable equipment and to feel like I know how to row again.

I also took out a single yesterday for the first time since Christmas break. Beautiful water that stayed beautiful even with my painful square-blade rowing attempts--better than two falls ago, when the crappy B Hudson was my home, but definitely not as good as I got during our last weeks in San Diego. I suppose I could have taken my feet out if I'd wanted to, but since the river isn't exactly Otay Lake-temperature yet, it seemed an unfavorable gamble. At least I have something (else) to work at getting better at.

Sometimes I wonder if I woke up tomorrow with retrograde amnesia, and someone told me I should take up rowing, what "habits" my body and technique would have. Of the technical things I do well and poorly, how many are ones I am consciously telling myself to do and executing these orders correctly (although what I'm telling myself might be the wrong things), and how many are ones that I don't think about at all, but which have simply become mechanically ingrained via good or bad habit? I read somewhere that it takes 800 strokes that execute an element properly to ingrain it as something you can claim to have mastered. It seems difficult to assess what is trying to be captured in that maxim, although I would say that if you could hop in a single and go do a steady state 8K with a perfect catch or finish or leg drive or handle height on the recovery or weight transfer on the seat or connection through the footboard on every stroke, you would probably be able to do pretty darn well with that element during a 2K race. I like rows where I can focus on just one thing the whole time: spending 4x5K on Lake Carnegie or a couple BU to Arsenal laps just thinking about where my weight is on the seat and footplate at the catch, just as I lift my hands up and feel the pressure of the water against the blade before driving the legs, is a very satisfying row when even a little headway can be made technique-wise.

It's been a while since I wrote on here. I started a couple of posts at various times between last June and now, and never felt like I could quite get my thoughts out right. But starting to race 2Ks again has gotten me past those "writer's blocks" and happy to log my thoughts about the new season.




...Partez!

Two weeks

...until the 2008 Olympic team is named. Sometime between now and then, the pair will be named, seatraces will be raced, and a 2K erg test will be rowed. And then...

"Training doesn't get easier, you just get faster." --Greg LeMond

One day, one practice, one piece, one stroke...at a time.

Here we go!

Loss and Rowing

"The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea."
-Isak Dinesen

Two weeks ago, I got a phone call in the middle of the night that felt like a punch in my solar plexus. A very dear friend who I'd spoken with only a day before had ended his life. As his brother told me the details of what had happened, I tried to make sense of it, as disbelief and an incredible sadness filled my heart. How could this charismatic and talented young man, who was so in love with life, have been in so much pain and felt so alone? And how could I not have known about these feelings?

I've never lost anyone I've loved before like this, without a chance to believe it was going to happen, without a chance to say goodbye. I didn't know all the things that come with it. The overpowering feelings: sadness, anger, grief, confusion, loneliness, love. That one day spent remembering that person and grieving can be more exhausting than a 50K training day. How one minute you are filled with happy memories of that person being very much alive, and the next, you are struck with the reality that you won't ever get to make more.

Coming back to training has been both challenging and easy. Part of my day is still spent trying to make sense of what happened, trying to come to terms with the fact that my friend is gone and I will never share a laugh or hug with him again, except in my heart and in my mind. The rowing part is somehow simpler now, though. I don't know if it heals or if it distracts, but I feel more focused and peaceful, and willing to be patient. At the same time, I feel stronger and faster than before, and I'm rowing better than I ever have in my life. A strange confluence of my feelings and my athleticism.

I saw "Into the Wild" yesterday, and some of the quotes Christopher McCandless's character references very much hit home.

"...the sea's only gifts are harsh blows and, occasionally, the chance to feel strong. Now, I don't know much about the sea, but I do know that that's the way it is here. And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong, to measure yourself at least once, to find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions, facing blind, deaf stone alone, with nothing to help you but your own hands and your own head..."
—Primo Levi

"Death's a fierce meadowlark: but to die having made
Something more equal to the centuries
Than muscle and bone, is mostly to shed weakness..."
—Robinson Jeffers

Checking in from San Diego

We've now been back and training in San Diego for a few days. Just as it always is, having a short break to go home and visit the family was a bit of a mixed blessing--it's wonderful to get to hang out with my brother (12) and sister (17) because I rarely get to see them, and to catch up with friends from high school who are now out leading amazing lives in the real world, but it's also challenging to go from a pretty structured and scheduled existence to a completely free-form one and try to keep up with all the training I want to do. I managed it pretty well, thanks in large part to tracking down some other kids training in the area over the break and logging some miles with them instead of just solo. If nothing else, it's definitely helpful to remind myself that I'm not the only one plugging away at this...and that when I'm thinking about slacking off, there's someone else who I might be up against who's instead powering through the doldrums. As Michelle Guerette puts it, "On a rest day, you aren't necessarily getting slower, but someone else will be using it to get faster."

It was a bit of a mind trip, too (in the best possible way!), to hang out with my high school friends. Because I was originally going to graduate at age 16, they're all a little older and now done with college and all just doing so well... it makes me so proud! A couple of engagements, one employee of the year, jobs everywhere from Newport to Boston to Jaipur, India to Lusaka, Zambia! It makes me wonder a bit what I would be up to if rowing was not my total focus...but the rowing thing is pretty cool, too, I suppose.

Today starts about 7 weeks of pretty intense training. Tom has it set up to be about 3 weeks of steadily increasing intensity, then a lighter week with "evaluation" (aka erg testing)--then rinse and repeat. My 30 minute scores have gotten better, my 2x6K scores are improving, I can do 4 pullups (up from one!) at a go, I've lost weight, so I'd like to think I'm getting fitter...of course, it's still what I need to focus on the most, because this is an incredibly fit group of women that I'm trying to keep up with! We'll be doing our first 2K soon, so I've started doing visualizations and other exercises that were helpful last year. It's also a goal not to get too stressed out about it--better to be able to be a bit flexible while setting an expectation that I'll perform to the best of my abilities than to make everything ride on hitting each goal exactly how and when I want to. The other thought I have on that is that sometimes telling yourself that there is an absolute goal you MUST accomplish--an erg split, a 3-rep max bench press, a mile test time--means that you limit yourself, because you could actually outperform what you had thought was your limit. I spent the end of the spring angry at myself because I psyched myself out with my goal split for a 2K...which actually was not a particularly ambitious split for how fit I was. I'm much more confident in the work I've done so far this year, which is a good sign in terms of being mentally ready for spring testing.

I'm updating our basic training program on the Google Spreadsheet I posted before, so if you're looking for a general 1-2 (or, I suppose, 7) week training plan, it will be up there. Happy rowing of the indoor and outdoor varieties!