The Racing Begins

FYI: Our race time has changed. We'll be going off the line at 10:58am Slovenian time, or 4:58am EST. Probably only my dad and Toby will be up to watch, but if you're interested, visit http://www.worldrowing.com for the Live Race Tracker. They may even be streaming the announcers play by play. He is a proper English fellow who does an excellent job.

Tomorrow's race is the first of either 3 or 4 for us. We call the first the Heats. There are 16 boats entered in our event and a maximum of 6 boats race in each heat. So tomorrow there will be three heats. The first has 6 boats and the rest 5 boats. We are in Heat 3 and will race Italy, Germany, Russia, and France. The top 2 in the heats qualify directly for the Semi-Finals. The 3-6 finishers will proceed to a second race called the Repechage - or second chance race - on Tuesday. In the Repechage the top 3 finishers in each of 2 races go on to semi-finals, while the 4 remaining crews will race in a C level final for the 13-16 place determination. Those who qualify for semi-finals race again on Saturday to determine the 6 boats racing in each of the A and B Finals. Top 3 in each semi go to the A final and race for medals and 1-6 designation, leaving Final B to determine 7-12. The Top 8 finishers in the overall event qualify their boats for the 2012 Paralympics.

We're excited to test our speed tomorrow. We've done a lot of hard pieces, but not many racing other crews. Germany finished second in the Munich World Cup stop, so it will be fun to have them right next to us. I'm also especially psyched to be in lane 3 - middle lane!

We had a fantastic row this afternoon. We're all feeling good and will bring the same cool confidence and length tomorrow. So ready.

Check www.row2k.com/results for a quick link to results. Don't forget - our event is the LTAMix4+.

Positive Thinking

A back tracking post. Let me take you back to August 5, 2011.

The schedule in OKC is pretty repetitive. Karen picks me up at 5:45am. We have become regulars at the Starbucks where we tease the baristas each morning. On the way to the highway we wave to the sole early morning walker - an older gentleman with his reflective vest on. Karen has deemed him my boyfriend and i have exaggerated the story to suggest that he is walking home from my apartment. We are standing by the boat ready for practice by 6:15 and sometimes have our fun like this: http://www.row2k.com/potd/index.cfm?id=1436

Morning practice is typically 12-16k meters, either in hard pieces or long and strong steady state. The boat works hard and after every workout i think to myself (and sometimes aloud) "more speed everyday".

After practice we load into Eric's car with Eleni in the front seat because she has the longest legs, Andrew behind her because there is more leg room there and I squeeze in behind Eric as any good coxswain would. With Jamaica and Briggs - the Service Dogs - in the way back, we head to Jimmy's Egg for breakfast. We are regulars here too and they know to bring us all coffee and water with oj for the boys. The omelette order changes daily, but Andrew always gets his sweet potato pancakes. Then it's back to the boathouse by 11am for an erg and weights, tanks, core or serious stretching. Afterward we head home and each go through our own afternoon relaxing routine.

Here is my favorite part of the day:

It is 4:30. Eric, Eleni, Andrew and I are headed to our afternoon session in Eric's big Yukon. Something magical happens to us on this 20 minute drive to the boathouse and laughter ensues. Everyday we find something new and fantastic to make us giggle. Pure happiness coats us as we head to afternoon session. It must be the anticipation.

We start at 5:15 with a reading from the book The Way of the Champion. Coach takes it slow and lets us savor each word. Admittedly, I have a dictionary ready for the words that the author appears to have made up but are always real (thank you google). We are all so enjoying discussions of mindfulness, commitment, and positive attitude. Sometimes we share personal examples of determination or overcoming a challenge. These sessions have proven powerful in building our trust in each other, and confidence as a boat. The positive nature of the discussions carries over through our afternoon practice as four rowers commit to 100% focus even in 105+ degree temperatures. The afternoon technical row is typically 8k and I'm learning so much from all our drills; cut the cake, the Gollum, and alternating half and full slide rowing are some of my favorites.

All in all, I'm feeling like a champion - enjoying the process and feeling the benefits everyday. You can see that our little team has become a family. The power of positive thinking, confidence and commitment in our group are HUGE!

Readiness

"Our early attempts at a tractor beam went through several preparations. Preparations A through G were a complete failure. But now, ladies and
gentlemen, we finally have a working tractor beam, which we shall call... Preparation H!!"

- Dr. Evil, Austin Powers in Goldmember

It's that time again. World Championships seem to sneak up on me every year. I'll wake up one day and realize that oh, there's a flight to Slovenia leaving in three days, and I'll be on it. I don't consciously do anything dramatic to prepare for racing. I train, I visualize, I take a cursory glance at the competition to see which countries to watch for. More interesting to me, however, are the subconscious habits I have recently noticed myself going through that I remember clearly from last year, and the year before. I'm not sure if these are subconscious superstitions, or just signs of how I react to high-octane environments and prepare for peak performance. Either way, I notice that before race day I:

- Get a hair cut. Every year, a week or two before I leave, I go to my local barber shop and get a short cut. Part of me likes feeling "aerodynamic". Part of me is just rtoo lazy to get to a barber shop in the months leading up to Worlds, so I have what my parents affectionately call a "mophead". Whatever the reason, I always have short hair when I go to Worlds.

- Become (more) introverted. I'm usually a pretty quiet guy, but as race day gets closer I retreat more and more into myself. Superman has the Fortress of Solitude, I have an iPod and a decent pair of headphones. I'm less interested in conversation and am very nearly antisocial as time goes by. It's one reason I'm a terrible blogger. When I'm not competing I think how easy it would be to describe competition--the moments of vivid emotion and tension that I love about my life. But those moments seem to be the hardest to pin down, and while I am living them I don't care nearly as much about sharing them as experiencing them.

- Rock the bass. The music that I'm into changes all the time, but I notice that my selections get more bass heavy towards competition time. Right now some of my listens are Nero, Joker, Metallica, and a bunch of random rap and dubstep. After racing is over I'll probably switch it up to jazz or prog or acoustic, but there's something about the bass that gets my red American blood pumping.

There are probably a lot of other habits I fall into, but I can't think of them right now. What do you do to get ready to race, conscious or unconscious? Are you jumpier, calmer, hungrier, sleepier, more careful? Do you do something other people might find ridiculous? I'd be really interested to know; race preparation is one of the most personal experiences an athlete has. People with eyes to see can probably divine some psychological something from people's differences, but I just like hearing the stories. I've yet to find two people who have exactly the same idea of how to prepare for competition. So if you've got something good, leave it in the comments.

The Entries Are Up

Countries around the world submitted their entries for the World Rowing Championships on Monday. Entries became public today; Our competition and overall entries to the competition. We will be racing in a 16 boat field. God bless the men's singles field of 34!!!

Now, I've caught myself looking at this list and slowly dissecting it. First I had to figure out what RSA stands for (South Africa). Then I begin the mind f*&# of stripping through results for the last few years of World Championships and World Cup stops to see margins, finish orders, splits, and more. I even used the fun feature that allows you to show the name of athletes to see how long crews have been rowing together.

All in all, I've come to only a few key conclusions:
1. Adaptive rowing is getting way faster! Winning times were in the mid 3:40s just a few years ago and this year's World Cup yielded high 3:20s for the top crews. (Yea yea, i know wind can influence times by that much, but I stand by my statement)
2. There are a lot of new players entered. There is no way to know what will come out of China, South Africa, or Korea based on recent years results. I wonder if there is a Dark Horse in the mix. (I love Dark Horse stories)
3. I don't have the attention span to really glean anything of true value to my crew. Instead I'm going to put my efforts into channeling my inner competitor and FIRING THEM UP! I'll leave the real thinking to Coach. She's good at that.

I find myself getting increasingly excited, but also slightly nervous. I can't wait to have the girls back and row our line up for a week on the actual race course in Bled. More focused strokes should do us good. I know we're fast and I'm looking forward to racing 6 boats across and pushing our limits.

The Boys take to the 2-

It's been a while since we've posted. We'll back track soon and update you on Oklahoma City, but for now I'm inspired to write to you about this morning's row.

We are back in Charlottesville, VA for the next week. It's Coach Karen, Eric, Andrew and myself. The boys will be training twice a day in the pair while we're away from the girls. I was incredibly amused this morning as they took to the pair for the first time. Eric was in bow seat (behind Andrew in the picture), which means that he controls the steering. The two had a great row - about 5 miles of hard work.

As they made their way down the course Eric stuck close to the buoys for the whole row. They effectively act as the double yellow line out on the water. As he steered close to them, the best course is a straight line with the buoys a few feet away from the oars at all time. The boys however had a funny way of getting very close to the buoys, so close that Karen and I would gasp when we thought an oar was about to hit, but time and time again - the oars would come gaspingly close to the buoys, and narrowly miss them - literally by centimeters. A couple of times we passed the bigger (8 inch high buoys) and Karen couldn't help but warn Andrew that one was coming - because the bigger buoys create more of a disruption and a little bit of discomfort when they sneak up on you. But after each warning, Andrew's blade would tuck in just behind the buoy, narrowly avoiding it.

Lots of productive work out there. The boys were pressing legs down together and there were moments when the blades were slipping into the water seamlessly. Very exciting to continue to make progress.

More Speed Every Day.