6/28 - R - Session 1

2a, 60'. 14195m, 172 watt, 21 SR

12:00    3004    203    21
24:00    2869    177    21
36:00    2798    164    21
48:00    2771    160    21
60:00    2753    157    22

The juniors were erging right beside me, quite a distraction w/ their 20 ons 10 offs. Hard to stop the body responding from the adrenaline around you. Watts real high to start off. I'll have to do some jumping jacks to get my HR up before I warm up on the erg. It takes at least 4 minutes for my watts to go down and my HR to go up. 100 open 100 closed w/ the eyes. It helps pass the time.

6/27 - W - Session 1

3b, 70'in z1 w/ pwr 20 every 7'. 16314m, 164 watt, 21 SR

14:00    3374    181    21
28:00    3282    167    21
42:00    3225    158    21
56:00    3216    157    21
70:00    3217    157    22

It's nice to see those watts leveling off at the end. I've taken to closing my eyes for 20 strokes while counting down from a hundred. Checking HR and split when I open my eyes for a few strokes every minute. This works out to be a 5 minute interval. It helps keep my HR down where I want it and my body does the rest. My splits end up being better than they usually would be.

6/26 - T - Session 1

1a, 60'. 13817m, 158 watt, 19 SR

12:00    2868    177    20
24:00    2755    157    19
36:00    2744    155    20
48:00    2736    154    20
60:00    2715    150    20

Need flexibility. Rowing extremely short but still coming up to vertical w/ the shins. Hips, groin, shins, ankles. Stiff.

6/22 - F - Session 1

2a, 60'. 14187m, 171 watt, 20 SR

12:00    2949    192    21
24:00    2861    176    21
36:00    2817    168    20
48:00    2776    160    20
60:00    2783    162    21

6/21 - R - Session 1

3b, 70' in z1 w/ pwr 20 every 7' at race pace. 15912m, 152 watt, 21 SR.

14:00    3303    170    21
28:00    3246    162    21
42:00    3161    149    22
56:00    3111    142    21
70:00    3091    140    22

Long burn. Really wish I'd brought my nice, cozy butt pad that Doc made me. Freaking erg seat. z1 wattages low. Race pace wattages low. Ugly all around but still decent. My back is so tired. My lats and middle back, from holding my shoulders back and my spine flat.

6/20 - W - Session 1

1a, 60'. 13705, 154 watt, 20 SR.

12:00    2871    178    20
24:00    2754    157    20
36:00    2717    150    20
48:00    2689    146    20
60:00    2674    143    20

HR, 138-142. 140/139 solid. Still looking around at different rowing clubs. Elbows locked, shoulders held back. Get that reach from the hips not the shoulder blades. Flexibility.

6/19 - T - Session 1

2a, 60'. 13937, 162 ave, 19SR.

12:00    2909    185    20
24:00    2825    169    20
36:00    2750    156    19
48:00    2736    154    20
60:00    2718    151    20

Erg. HR 145-150, mostly around 149/150. Cold out and rainy this morning. I was an ignored person around the club until I was leaving. No one knew who I was but no one confronted me. Once I mentioned I was an exchange student who rowed back home and was looking for a club to train at, everyone's suspicious attitude was dispelled. They're all juniors at the club I was at this morning. I'll find my way to the NUIG club soon enough.

6/15 - F - Session 2

20' body circuit. Could've, should've been longer. I guess it's good not to do anything too strenuous. The same circuit as before. Jumps, crunches, squats, planks, MCs, push-ups, back exts, reverse crunches, scullers, lunges. Took a dip in the pool afterwards. I leave for Ireland in 45 minutes. Travel day tomorrow, specing a regatta on Sunday, work starts on Monday...I can only be so hopeful.

6/15 - F - Session 1

4f, 70' w/ 3 x 10' in SR 24-26. 16328m, 2:08.6. HR 158-162 for body, SR 22-23. Starting off, then going on every alternating 10'. Pieces @ 10', 30', 50'. Very good spacing. 2 full loops then up through the train bridge and back down. Focus on keeping the rhythm and just letting my body row. Arms locked and hanging through the drive. Wasting too much energy if breaking the arms, only tiring yourself out. This is no game. Limped back to the dock afterwards. Lots of pain. It's good to get a solid workout in and know your body couldn't have done too much more (or at least your butt couldn't have). Washed and derigged the Sykes. It's strapped to the rack awaiting my return in August. I hope it remains safe and sound there.

6/14 - R - Session 2

1c, 2 x 45'. First: 9882m 2:16.7. Second: 9714m, 2:19.2. A lot of work out on the water today. 160', gahh. z1 is good for technique. Make sure you're sitting up, knees together, catch before you drive. This afternoon felt better than this morning. Must continue shifting the focuse to legs. 10' rest in between pieces. I got out of the shell in order to give my back/butt a reprieve. Gripping the oars after you've removed your hands is terrible. Hands seem to be getting better though, the new grips must be wearing in. Changed the rigging. Rigged up higher, feels pretty good. Helps me to stay tall. Speed coach says I rowed 34445m today. Whether it's calibrated exactly or not, that's still crazy. Maybe it's not, but at least it's getting me stronger/faster.

6/14 - R - Session 1

3b, 70' in z1 w/ pwr 20 every 7'. 14,849m, 2:21.0. Obviously not as much press as usual. Keeping it easy in the z1 work. My glutes hurt before I'm even halfway into the w.o.. It's a shame because I get off the water not particularly tired yet I can't seem to row any further. Taking it way too much w/ the arms. Film helped me see this. To much power application at the finish making my boat bounce a lot. Trying to shift drive back to the front-end. I'm pulling w/ my arms when I should only be hanging. Very bad. Messes w/ course, set, and the clean finish which means my run is not as good as it should be either. Gonna drop a spacer from the top to the bottom on both oarlocks to see if I can get a higher finish for a more pronounced down-and-away. My hands stay horizontal thoughout the drive and the recovery. It's as if they follow the same line/path. They need to go down, then up. Since I missed Tuesday and will probably miss Saturday due to travel I've made today Friday's workouts and will do Saturday's z4 tomorrow and maybe have time to go to the gym. If not, maybe a body circuit.

6/13 - W - Session 2

1a, 60'. 12945m, 2:19.2 ave. Chop, chop, chop. Very rough water to row in, it's good to try and get used to. The long burn in my glutes has moved up to where my glutes and lower back connect. I can only hope it doesn't keep climbing and give me back problems. I am a slave to the timer. Although I had this bad pain there was no way I could go in before my time was up. I must follow the clock until the end or death.

6/13 - W - Session 1

Paddle row. Nothing serious. Back felt and feels fine. I'll go out this afternoon and do some z1 work. Took yesterday completely off. A person's back is nothing to be toyed w/. Rowed w/ Doc this morning, just like old times. We chatted about lots of different things while rowing casually. Got some film done as well. Back and forth at a 20, 24, 28, 32 and then some starts. Should be interesting to look at.

6/11 - M - Light Weights

10' medium bike
Squat: 3 x 40 @ 95 lb (up rep)
Bnch Press: 4 x 20 @ 80 lb
Bnch Pull: 3 x 45 @ 20 lb (up rep)
Core
10' light bike

6/11 - M - Session 1

3b, 70' in z1 w/ pwr 20 each 7'. Didn't quite make it today. On the 8th power 20 I pinched something in my back and took it back to the dock at 56' in. Felt good to be back on the Lehigh. It's small but cozy and ridiculously flat. I hope my back recovers, it doesn't feel like it's too bad at all but you never know.

6/10 - S - Session 2

20' body circuit. 50-55 seconds on, switch. Needs to change to 55-59 seconds on. Nice quick little workout to do.
01: Jumpies
02: Crunches
03: Squats
04: Squats-pulse
05: Squats-pulse-pulse
06: Plank
07: Side Plank
08: Side Plank
09: Mountain Climbers
10: Push-ups
11: Kneeling back ext.
12: Kneeling back ext.
13: Kneeling reverse crunches
14: Kneeling reverse crunches
15: Lunges
16: Lunges
17: Scullers
18: Standing back ext.
19: Standing back ext.
20: Jumpies
Good stretch afterwards. Rig tomorrow and weights in the afternoon.

6/10 - S - Session 1

2a, 60'. 13548m, 2:12.9. That was definitely something I could get used to. The lake is beautiful and the fact that the launch ramp is 50 feet away from 1) bed, 2) food, 3) shower makes this quite the wondeful place to row. Even wet docking was nice. The water was cool but refreshing. As I woke up and got ready a certain glee came over me. The water was perfect and I had miles to row in almost any direction I wanted. Wonderful. It was interesting which made me distracted. I usually turned every 10 minutes simply because I could. 10' north, 10' west, 10' east, 10' south, 10' west, 10' east. It was great to just go all over the place. HR 152 for the first 20-25'. 145-150 and a bit erratic for the the rest. Felt fat, like actually felt it. My stomach was very full from all the food I ate yesterday and I could feel it on my body swing. I'm going to have to do a calorie workout sometime. Can't gain too much weight or I won't fit in my boat.

6/08 - F - Session 2

1a, 60'. 15 min on the water. 30 min on the erg. Friday afternoon a disaster, I will try to never go out at that time again. Erging again was strange, especially on a model C. 6742m 147.1 ave watts. I'm writing this up well after the workout. It's Saturday night at the lakehouse. Absolutely beautiful. Strong wind storm the night we got in. Winds been high ever since...hardly a chance to go out. It's supposed to die tonight and be flat tomorrow. It will. Switched Saturday's workouts w/ Sunday, but replaced weights w/ a body circuit. Gym closed on the weekends.

6/08 - F - Session 1

3c, 70' in z1 w/ pwr 15 each 7' (body in SR 18-22; pwr in race pace). Today: body at 20, pwr at 28. SpeedCoach on the fritz. Display, SR, and timer all fine but I couldn't get splits and it didn't keep track of my distance. Not a major difficulty as long as I have my HR and time. Focus was on catches and leg compression into my chest. Keep knees together coming up the slide and drive the boat away. Catches are now a major focus so I can have good lock-in every stroke simply out of habit. I need to see some video of how I'm packing up and what my upper body does as I approach the catch. My fear is that my body opens as my legs come up to my chest. This might or might not be happening. I had the same problem on the erg this past winter so I'm well familar w/ it. I'm going to Union Springs, NY w/ a bunch of friends after second session. Tomorrow morning I'll be rowing on a finger lake, Cayuga Lake to be exact. I hope the lake will prove as good to me as it did to Paul Enquist and Brad Lewis.

6/07 - R - Session 1

2a, 60'. 13294m, 2:15.4 ave. My glutes and my hands seem to be my largest inhibitors at the moment. Towards the end of the session I do tire, but when it's painful to hold the oar and it's painful to just sit there it becomes very hard to continue at the same pace. Today was 2 full loops and then up to the end of the houses, river all to myself if you don't count the geese. 'Twas a beautiful monring. Catching uneven/unequally or finishing uneven/unequally. I kept pulling myself to port. I'd like to blame it on my hands and the fact that I'm not tough enough but there was definitely a distinctive difference in my blade work and control today. Must ensure total focus, must not be distracted by own thoughts. There is the need to switch from every day thought to rowing thought, as though switching from Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. Turn everything off and just think about the stroke. I continue to be amazed by the 3-second split drop when I get a proper catch in and focus on doing it. Thoughts of purchasing this shell swell in my mind. Coach Savell leaving our program and going to coach at Drexel. Where did this come from? My thoughts stray to the futre of our program. There is the chance for great good, but also for terrible evil.

6/06 - W - Light Weights

20' light bike
Squat: 3 x 40 @ 95lb - up rep (5)
Bench Press: 4 x 20 @ 75 lb - up weight (5)
Bench Pull: 3 x 40 @ 20 lb - up rep (5)
Core
20' light bike

6/06 - W - Session 1

4e, 70' with 2x10' in SR 26. 15955m, 2:11.6 ave. 10 minute's taken at 15' & 41' down river w/ stiff tailwind. First 10 at the 26 SR, sub 2:00 split for the most part. Second 10 much higher, very hard to keep low, 27-28-29 SR. Splits slower as well. Overall 2 full loops and then up to the train bridge and back. The last 10 minutes of the body were very difficult to control. For the body my rate was at 22-24, HR 160-164. For the 10's HR: first at 173, second closer to 168-170. Found myself up pretty high into the headwind and you just get pushed by the tailwind. Session was pretty good, by the end my glutes were in a lot of pain and my hands extremely tender as well. Focus on keeping knees together, not letting them bow out at the catch but keeping them straight and parallel to the shell. Bad habit developed of leaning through my legs at the catch while sweep rowing trying to get that extra length. Doc wanted to film but I was too spent. Have camera now, going to review previous film.

6/05 - T - Session 1

2a, 60'. 13175, 2:16.6 ave. Commandeered this SpeedCoach from Lehigh's boathouse, so now I carry a little bit of the Spirit of '74 w/ me. It's still calibrated to the 4-, but if I don't change it I'll be able to compare day to day just as well. 145-150 HR solid. This weekend I'll probably figure out where my HR is suppposed to be in each zone using the erg. Hands very sore making it hard to row well towards the end of the S.S.. Besides my hands and the long burn in my butt I'm sure my quads and back could easily have kept going. New grips on the new oars, I guess it's to be expected. I may need to drop my feet lower into the boat, my knees are pretty high. This afternoon is off, maybe I'll see what the spread on the Sykes is.

6/04 - M - Session 2

(1a, 60') This didn't happen. I went to rig the Sykes and found out that all the bolts are 10mm. Having done a fair amount while demoing the boat in Philly I decided not to make it an extremely long day by overexerting myself two days after 3 races. Tomorrow will be in the Sykes w/ my own blades. A first use of the blades and of the shell on the Lehigh. The boat is remarkably (to me) light and pretty stiff. It's in very good condition being only a year old.

6/04 - M - Equipment

HKC26 70kg Sykes Racing Shell. Demoed down in Philly, brought home to use my own sculls and get some longer training done in the boat. We'll see how it goes. Boat is white w/ blue & silver racing stripes

6/04 - M - Session 1

3b, 70' in z1 w/ pwr 20 each 7' (body in SR 18-22; pwr in race pace). First day back in the single. HR 142-144. HR came down to around 130 after power pieces. Hard to control HR after doing low volume high intensity work building up to IRAs. Long burn on my way back to the dock. Hurt real bad, it's been a long time since doing steady state. Light rain all throughout session. Getting on toward the end of the piece I started thunking my catches and really had to concentrate on that. 14348m, 2:26.5 ave, speed coach uncalibrated. Doc had to replace the battery so the stroke rating is back to normal.

6/2/07 - Saturday

Race Day: Pitiful, Pathetic, Disappointing. We did not rise to meet any challenge. The race might have been better than yesterday's but we were still 6th out of 6. I knew when we started our sprint why were in the position/place we were in. We lifted and the whole operation got smoother. I realized this was how the whole race was supposed to feel. I don't know what happened, we had been right there w/ Brown yesterday. Who knows? None of Lehigh's boats did well. The girls finished last like us & the four-w/ finished 3rd out of 7 in the E-final.
It didn't hit me until after we unloaded the trailer, disassembled the launches, and stored everything inside. Even then it was only when Phil and I had both sat down in his car and closed the doors that I knew it was over. My gut told me. There was a knot or a hole or a pit, whatever you want to call it, that had just developed. Even though I had considered my season over after Vails when I had started sculling, it wasn't really over. Now it is. It's final. It's over. There's something about IRAs that does this. It seals up your entire season, bringing it to an abrupt close. I hate it. I hate change. I would prefer to say in this season and just continue to row where I am forever. This season ending brings me closer to rowing in college being over. At the same time I know I can't live like that. The change is progress and growth. I may be happy now but it is nothing compared to what's in store for the future. I loved high school, my friends aand I were always having a good time, but if I had stayed there I would never have met certain people. I would never have found rowing and I would never have realized the capabilites of my body to train, recover, and grow. Stagnation is death. One can only hope and yearn and long for what's coming to be even more beautiful than what is being left behind.
The sun shines
And people forget.
The spray flies, as the speedboat glides
And people forget.
Forget they're hiding
...
Behind an eminence front.

6/1/07 - Friday

Race Day: 5th out of 5. We were back & forth w/ Brown in Lane 6, they were all the way across from us. One other boat tied their time & then we had the next fastest time. Us, Brown, BU, Temple, MIT, Michigan tomorrow in the 3rd level final. Today's race was a lot better than yesterday's but I still had few strokes actually locked in and connected. All boats way out on us by 30 strokes and then we started walking back. We took a 7 around the 700, after my 500 call. My calls were fine once again. Should've added another sit-up 10 in the third 500. The speed coach is a little off.
01: 44 1:37.1
02: 40 1:25.9
03: 34 1:31.3
04: 35 1:29.6
05: 35 1:29.6 1:30.8
06: 35 1:31.0
07: 35 1:30.2
08: 35 1:30.4
09: 35 1:29.1
10: 36 1:31.3 3:01.1
11: 35 1:34.6 3:20.1
12: 35 1:36.7
13: 35 1:35.5
14: 34 1:36.2
15: 35 1:34.3
16: 35 1:35.0
17: 35 1:32.7
18: 35 1:33.2
19: 35 1:34.2
20: 37 1:32.8
21: 37 1:32.8 6:28.9
22: 36 1:47.0 6:49.1
We better be seeing boats during our race tomorrow.

5/31/07 - Thursday

Race Day: 6th out of 6 in our heat. 2 seats to a length down on Georgetown the entire race until the last 400. We were in Lane 6. Course was all over the place and we weren't connected. Phil said we were at a 35, it did feel low. I felt like we should've been going faster and smoother. It was a "not good" race, but maybe that's only because I don't want to say it was bad. Calls were on, it was easy to see the buoys on the edge of the course. Should've called the sprint earlier but we wouldn't have moved anyway. Our splits got progressively slower as we went. Sam said, "1:33/1:34, second 1000 1:36/1:37, last 300 slower yet: 1:40/1:41. So bad. Coach said I was coming out like a second earlier than Sam. Terrible. Get long in the catch. Get long at the finish. Reps tomorrow at 10. 1st to Grands. 2nd/3rd petites. 4th/5th 3rd level