Canadian National Rowing Championships

I'm not going to sugar coat it- it's been a pretty tough fall season! I did some evaluation of my training/racing over the summer and came to the conclusion that some technical changes are definitely in order if I want to do my part to bring the Canadian sculling program back on the international podium. As a result,  I have been spending many a practice at the back of the pack slaving away at that sequencing/catches/clean finishes/you name it.......  I still have a long way to go, but I'm finally starting to feel some positive changes and it is oh so rewarding! So if anyone out there is working on some tough technical changes, hang in there!! Taking that step back and going through the phase where your stroke feels inefficient and/or weird is 100% worth the speed gain you will get once you make that technical change.
Next Tuesday we all fly out to Victoria for the National Rowing Championships (NRC's). Racing will be on Elk Lake from November 9-11.

The moment we've all been training for

One more sleep and then it's off to the races for Rowing Canada at the 2014 World Championships in Amsterdam. I am proud to once again be a part of this amazing group of athletes and excited to see what the first day of racing brings. It's been a rainy and windy  week so  far, but that is nothing that we Canadians aren't used to! The only update  is that we are scheduled to race our heat at 4:09pm Amsterdam time (10:09am in Ontario, and 7:09am in BC), and that there is a high likelihood we will be running time trials due to strong cross winds and unfair conditions across lanes. I will do my best to keep you posted, but as always, the world rowing website is a great place to keep up to date with the latest rowing news.
http://www.worldrowing.com

WC3 recap

Coming into a full week of training is going to be a bit of a shock after the taper we just had! The two hour bike ride that I just finished is probably the longest workout that I've done in nearly two weeks..... It's going to be a tough week, but I am eager to feel that dull all-over body ache that accompanies high volume training.
World Cup 3 in Lucerne was definitely a high note for the quad! We came first in our heat and went straight through to the A-final on Sunday. The final was a tough race, and we ended up coming second to Germany. It was satisfying to see the video of our race and note how much sharper and cleaner our rowing looks.
Now it's back to work for Rowing Canada so we can solidify our progress and shave a couple more seconds off our 2k race before we head off to the World Championships in Amsterdam.

Just a quick post, but let me say that coming fourth sure is a hard pill to swallow! That being said, today was our best race of the weekend and we are walking away from this weekend with confidence that we are headed in the right direction and motivation to make every stroke count so that we can move on up come Lucerne and the 2014 World Champs. For those of you who didn't have a chance to watch the race or look up the results, we came 4th to New Zealand by less than half a second.
Tomorrow it's back to Corgeno, Italy for a busy two weeks of training and prepping for World Cup three in Lucerne.

Here are some links to photos:
http://www.row2k.com/gallery/gallery.cfm?action=gallery&dir=2014Summer%2FWC2%2F0620HeatsBigBoats&offset=60&label=World+Cup+II+-+Heats+-+Fours%2C+Quads%2C+Eights&hi=yes#.U6Wy0ij5FlA

http://www.row2k.com/gallery/pf_gal.cfm?dir=2014Summer%2FWC2%2F0620HeatsBigBoats&start=66&label=World+Cup+II+-+Heats+-+Fours%2C+Quads%2C+Eights&hi=yes#.U6ZubSsIVwY.facebook

Also, check out the official site of world rowing for results/videos/up to date info on everything rowing! http://www.worldrowing.com/

World Cup 2

Well, here we are... the 2014 Rowing World Cup II on  lac d'Aiguebelette in France. After some successful months of training and trialling back in Canada, we have once again formed the crew of Goodfellow, Cameron, Zeeman, and myself in the women's quadruple sculls event (W4x). I am both excited and nervous for our first race today at 12:25pm France time (3:25am BC time, 6:25am in Ontario). There are eleven boats in our event, and the progression is: time trial, heats, reps, and finals. There will be two heats and the first boat in each heat will skip the reps and go straight to the finals.Time for the fun to start!!!

World Cup 1 (Australia)

Well, I've once again managed to finish packing in the nick of time......with a couple minutes to spare to update my blog. My teammates and I are departing for Sydney, Australia for the first world cup of the 2014 season. I will be rowing in a 2x with my teammate and friend, Carling Zeeman. The other four girls are rowing in two pairs. Only a very small team is going, and the rest of the girls (along with the lightweight men) are holding down the fort in London and training for the upcoming Spring Trials regatta. We will definitely miss them when we are gone.

It is 1:13 and in two minutes most of our teammates and our coach, John, will probably arrive at the airport for our 3:55pm flight. Carling and I had a bit of a "last minute" call for rides so we will be arriving a little later. My mom would probably have a heart attack if she found out exactly how much later. In case you are reading this mom, don't worry.... unless something goes horribly wrong we will still make our flight.

until next time.....

....or as they say in Australia (according to Wikitravel) .....


"Take it easy Mate"

Canadian Indoor Rowing Championships 2014

Along with a bundle of nerves and a major case of the pre-race jitters, last Sunday brought along with it the annual Canadian Indoor Rowing Championships. I was very excited to come third with a time of 6:48.0. For more results please see www.cdnindoorrowing.org/results2014.html. Now it's time to finish up another week of high intensity training before going back to volume. We have a second "opportunity" to do a 2k this Saturday as some of the girls missed the test on Sunday. Maybe I will give it a go and see if I can shave another second off my time and check that long term goal of breaking 6:48 off my list.

Photo courtesy of Austin J. Cameron