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 - 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 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 - 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 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

5/30 - W - IRAs 19

The final practice. Race day warm-up. Visual Heat down. Pause drills back up. Visual Grand Final down. Start and middle 20 move in the heat. Start, 500 10, and 1500 sit-up 10 in the grand. Today was a personal bad day. I thought our practice didn't go very well but the other guys were talking about our start being perfect. That lead me to believe it was just me. We derigged and put our boat on low slings. We're waiting on the little trailer to load. Phil and I might go out and clean the boat/help w/ trailer loading. Spending tonight at Phil's parents' house and getting to the course tomorrow at 9 to rig, et cetera. Race at 11:48. Heat sheet up for Thursday morning. Courtesy of row2k.

5/29 - T - IRAs 18

3 2-part 2ks. Only from below train bridge to flagpole(buoys). 1st part always the start, second part 400-600 meters representing some part of a 2k race. Everything else on the paddle. All in all it was a semi-visual day. Race day warm-up, slightly sharpened focus throughout. Starts felt okay, a little wobbly on the high 10s. Last start was really good. Smooth quick connected. No wobble, no extra, wasted, or unnecessary movements. Crisp. Last 500m good as well. Really lifting w/ the legs and driving them down together. Holding shoulders forward at the catch. This makes the last "2k" the best one. My legs were tired when I got out of bed this morning and I definitely felt tired during our second piece, which was the worst. It was start and then the rest of the first 500 w/ our move coming right at the end of it. First piece was start & middle 500. Felt alright. Bumped a spacer from the bottom of my oarlock to the top - feels great. I had been rigged up the same as Sam. He's only about half a foot taller than I am.... Coach said to try and be the first in and last out. Set issues when not on pressure. I'm sure it's catch & finish timing. Tomorrow at 5 again. Smeglin has work just like today. A smidgeon of tension in the boat today. Got to keep that under control. Squash it out. In bed all day today; hopefully a nap and a whole lot of reading. Calling Gord at Fluidesign today, possibly placing the order for my boat. Don't forget, row like sasquatch.

5/28 - M - IRAs 17

Set technique and no pressure longer than 30 strokes. Did not go past the train bridge. Buoys are now out. Lots of pauses at body over: every other and every five. Pauses at the finish still squared. Square blade rowing. Rates at a 33-34 or higher for the 10s, 20s, and 30s. Length needed for Smeglin and I while retaining the same attack at the catch. Bear claw at the catch. Coach wants us to sit up over our catch, have our hand have a wicked hook around the handle, and dominate the catch. Loose outside hand at the catch results in pulling w/ your inside hand. I'm now pulling into my nipple at the finish, or at least trying to. It's going to take a while to get used to. My down & away and the path of my stroke is erratic. Hopefully it will come together as Thursday rapidly approaches. Overstroking tomorrow, starts et cetera. Visual 2k likely Wednesday. Keep off your feet and out of the heat.
Row like sasquatch.

5/27 - Su - IRAs16

Long work and then starts. Really working on rowing together. Starts: 48-49 SR settle to 37 on the first. Following settles to a 35 and then gradually coming up to a 37. Bresnahan really is the Commander of Stroke Ratings. Starts were choppy and were not always together (they weren't bad) but we'd always get it together instead of just slumping. I have the large responsibility of making calls. Start 5. 13 strokes high. Yell "2", take a stroke and then settle on the next. That's the easy part. Remembering the moves through the race and calling them at the right time is going to be hard. The longer stuff didn't feel very good. Low and w/out any specific pressure. Working on length w/ me, letting the water feather the blade at the finish, and having our handles all doing the same thing. We've still got a lot of speed to get. Unsure whether we're staying in Camden Wednesday night or not. Race on Thursday. Time is short now.