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

Fall 2013

I realize it’s been a long time since my last post, so I will do my best to start where I left off.  To begin, post Korea involved a glamorous two weeks holed away on my parent’s farm.  The days that were not spent on my parents 180 odd acres were spent hiking, paddle boarding, and catching up with friends and family. My visit ended with a trip back to London, Ontario and a great start to the training season. October brought my first ever head of the Charles with teammate and friend Carling Zeeman. We placed second. For some fun pics check out: http://scullingfool.smugmug.com/Rowing/Head-of-the-Charles-2013/Championship-Doubles-Women/i-Jq5VjkL.  Navigating the course was like navigating rush hour in Toronto. Thank goodness I was in stroke seat! 

After Head of the Charles came the 2013 Canadian National Rowing Championships, where I placed third in the women’s heavyweight single event. Gale force winds resulted in many cancelled races and a time trial style final. A short wrap-up article can be found here http://rowingcanada.org/news/2013-national-rowing-championships-come-close-welland.

The fall training season was also marked by a number of erg tests and my first ever V02 max test. The erg tests consisted of two team 6k’s and a spur of the moment “on my own” 2k. All three were best times and my new “times to beat” are 6:48.9 on the 2k and 21:50.0 on the 6k. All in all a very exciting fall season for me. It is always so rewarding (and a huge confidence booster) to see those training hours pay off.

Christmas break consisted of a wonderful two weeks at home spent mostly on the x-country ski trails and on the computer, desperately finishing off the third of my four online courses. The weather was unusually warm for a Northern BC winter, and alternating rain and snow led to terrible road conditions. One day the roads were so terrible that I couldn’t make it into town (aka the gym and x-country ski trails) so I got creative and did my interval workouts on a pair of my dad’s snowshoes. Success! Feel free to check out my twitter page (@Antje_vs) for updates and winter break farm training photos! 

And suddenly 2013 was brought to a close. I spent new year’s eve on an airplane traveling back to the training center, and two short days after arriving, hopped on another plane to Florida for our first training camp of the season. It was great to be back on the water and we spent most of the rows trying out some different combinations with the quad. We had the luxury of working with two fantastic biomechanists and learned a lot! It was a grueling two weeks of hundreds of kilometers on the water and numerous core and strength workouts in the weight room…. obviously accompanied by copious amounts of food consumed in the Stetson University Cafeteria.

Ahhhh, and we’ve finally made it to the present time. Yesterday we arrived back in London and today and tomorrow are mostly off (aside from a short 90’ on your own cardio session today). Tomorrow I am hoping to check out the x-country ski trails at Circle-R Ranch (http://www.circlerranch.ca/) with a friend from the lightweight men’s team. Fingers crossed that they will have enough snow! If they do I will do my best to post some pictures on twitter!

A New Season

The 2013/2014 season has officially begun-with much enthusiasm and excitement on my part. I was a little nervous that I would be miles behind everyone as I only did the bare minimum amount of training during my break. This was a much needed break for me! Nevertheless, I was itching to get back on the water and couldn't sit still during our pre-launch meeting! The 15 minutes felt like an eternity.
Right.....World Champs. We ended up having a great race and coming a satisfying 2nd place  behind the Germans. It was extremely exciting to be a part of putting a Canadian heavyweight women's sculling boat on the podium for the first time in many years; a very proud moment. This year's goal is to slowly move my way up the ranks here at the LTC. This will require both fitness/strength and technique. I've learned a lot from watching our final race on the world rowing website and have a couple technique points I'd like to improve sooner rather than later.
Time to get back to work!

Heat recap

For results check out the results page on the world rowing website. We had a pretty exciting race, finishing first in our heat and moving straight through to the A-final on Saturday. Time to get some solid recovery in!

Heat tomorrow at 1:09pm Korea time (9:09pm BC time). We are in a five boat heat with Belarus, Australia, United States, and Poland. Check out worldrowing.com for results etc.

It's hard to believe that racing begins in two days! I can definitely feel the racing bug starting to set in; that little bit of nervous excitement every time we pull up to the race course. It feels like just last week that I was pushing out very lonely 2-3h bikes on the stationary bike up in the Spracklen room at 5:30am. As much as I miss Victoria, it is nice to finally belong to a team again. Pushing yourself on a day where you are mentally struggling is so much easier when you have team mates to push you! I believe that training alone for a year was both the toughest and most rewarding training period I have experienced. My decision to stop training with the varsity team at the University of Victoria mostly stemmed from the fact that I had national team aspirations and felt I had gotten as much out of the program as I could. I realize it sounds a little selfish..... but then again, name a successful athlete who has not been selfish at some point in his or her career. I was simply trying to find a way to squeeze the most speed and technical gains out of the little time I had outside of class at Uvic. This is why I approached Scott Feddery and asked if he would coach me a couple times a week. Scott was the lightweight women's coach at Uvic and had a very unique coaching style (because he didn't follow the typical Canadian coaching style of most other coaches). It was in this time working with Scott that I learned about rhythm and boat feel... and perhaps most importantly, to think for myself and always ask "why".  This is both a blessing and a curse because I have learned so much from asking these questions, but have also gotten myself in a bit of trouble with coaches who think I am questioning their authority or over complicating things.  Regardless, I am so thankful for the lessons I learned that year because they enable me take a little more control of my own development.
I originally meant to write about Korea and world Champs, but as you can see.... I got a little side tracked. Things here are going well. The four of us are settling into our brand new bow mounted Hudson 4x, and are still making small technical gains to improve our efficiency. Taper feels so good on the body! I have forgotten what it feels like to have extra energy.
Time to get some lunch!

Korea

Where to start? I am currently in South Korea, preparing for the 2013 World Rowing Championships. The crew now consists of (from bow to stern) Emily Cameron, Kate Goodfellow, Carling Zeeman, and myself. I believe the last post mentioned the race-off in singles- the results were exciting for me because I finished first out of the quad and moved up the ranks from the beginning of the summer (it was no secret that I was the last person to make the boat and the lowest ranked from the spring trials regatta). I still have a way to go, but it felt good to see some progress.

There are so many great things to say about Korea: It all started with the warm welcome from the hotel staff and a number of people who I believe were surrounding villagers. We were greeted by a small crowd of cheering people wearing Canada colours and waving the Canadian flag. Once we got off the bus we were shuttled into the lobby where we were given grapes ( a Korean tradition) and lined up for a photo shoot.

 The course and venue are also top notch ( in my opinion) and I will try to get some photos before going back to Canada. 

It is almost time for second practice so I will have to continue the update another day. The heat is taking its toll, but our bodies are slowly adapting. Rowing Canada brought a slushie machine to help with body temperature regulation, and I am counting down the hours until we get to use it. We have to wait three days in order to force our bodies to adapt to the climate better.

Let's hope this theory works!

Until next time...

Back to Training

Luzern ended in a 3rd place finish in the "B" final (9th overall). It was by no means what we had hoped for coming into the competition, but it goes to show just how much hard work and time goes into winning medals at the World Cup and World Championship level. I think we were all a little disappointed with the results, but it is so critical to walk away from the experience acknowledging those things that went well and then figuring out how to improve those that didn't. One thing I was excited to see was that our efficiency (speed/stroke) improved significantly going into the final. We still struggled a little to hold our rhythm, but it was a positive change from the rep and heat.

We are currently mixing things up back here at the London Training Centre, and all the scullers are in singles. We are doing a race-off in our 1x's this Wednesday/Thursday (weather permitting). It will be a time trial/semi/final format over a 1500m course. The reason for the 1500m course is that it provides a race length approximately equal to that of a 2000m race in a 4x. From this we will establish a ranking in the quad, and most likely the lowest ranked person will be swapped out. As with anything selection related...... nothing is set in stone, and you can't be certain you are in the boat until you rowing up to the start line before the race.

I am really enjoying the immediate feedback in the single and taking this time to work on accelerating the second half with a strong pry. It is exciting to see the splits on my stroke coach drop when I get it right (currently approximately one in every 20 strokes). The W2x is racing off for a spot as a spare (potentially a racing spare).
For those of you who have been keeping up with the London, Ontario weather report..... THANK GOODNESS THE HEATWAVE IS OVER!!!!!!

Finals

Unfortunately we did not make the A-final tomorrow, but will do our best to do some damage in the B final tomorrow at 9:15 am Switzerland time (12:15am BC time). I am not sure if there will be live video for any of the B-finals, but there will be live video for all the A-finals if you want to check out some intense racing!

on to the reps

Tomorrow we are racing at 5:33am BC time! Once again, info can be found at the world rowing website (see link in previous post).

World Cup 3

Check out the world rowing website for information on the event. We race tomorrow at 1:12pm (13:12) or 4:12am BC time. I promise I will not hold it against anyone if you get up at your normal time and check the results after 4:12am. In fact, I would be thrilled that you are following the racing. It will be a tough heat no doubt, but we are excited to race and see just how fast we can go. The first boat from each of the two heats goes straight to the A final and all other boats go to reps which will be raced on Saturday. From the reps, 1-2 will advance to the A final and 3-5 will go through to the B final. There are 12 entries in the women's heavyweight quadruple sculls.
Let the racing begin!

Corgeno

Corgeno training camp was a huge success! We had beautiful flat water nearly every day, amazing food, and more important- great rows. The first couple days after Amsterdam were a little shaky. John switched up Rosie and Alyssa so that our seating order (from bow to stern) is Kate, Alyssa, Rosie, and myself. I thought everyone did a fantastic job of stepping up to the challenge and we managed to post some best times on a number of practice pieces ranging from 500m-1500m. Lucerne (or Luzern) is a beautiful city with a picturesque rowing course! I will post some pictures soon, but first I will post some pictures from Corgeno, Italy.

Training site

A couple teammates with staff at the Restaurant where we had our meals

Lifting in Corgeno

Team photo shoot minus the heavyweight men

Whew! What a weekend! I am not sure where the time went, but the Holland Beker is already over. We had straight finals both days and also came third both days. We definitely made some improvements on the second race, and were able to hold a steadier race profile for the first 1500m. Unfortunately we got a little caught up in the tricky tailwind conditions and weren't able to come together for a strong finish, but this is all a part of the "learning how to race" experience. We now have a week in Corgeno, Italy, at a training camp where we will work on that last 500m. I am excited to see how much we can improve in the next two weeks before racing at the World Cup 3 in Lucerne. I really enjoy being in a boat with such strong and dedicated athletes!
One last thing, I have heard that the internet at the hotel where we are staying in Corgeno is not very good so this might be the last update until we arrive in Lucerne.
Until then....

Today's race is at 4:37 Amsterdam time, which is 7:37am BC time! Links for results/live feed are in the previous two posts.