Sorry for the delay in new posts but the day before a race was busier than I thought and my mom also got here so I was catching up with her. I hadn't seen her since elite nationals and Christmas before that. This whole training thing tends to get in the way of quality family time. Anyway, here is the blog for our eagerly anticipated race for lanes. Whoooo, hoooo
August 28
Race Day!
Finally, a chance to line up against someone. We’ve been gnawing at the bit to do this and I think that our excitement got the better of us. We had a great warm up and felt pretty good but off the line, we just didn’t execute our best start and were in a hole from the horn. It felt like we were chasing, not racing, so we never settled into our money rhythm that we all know we are capable of. Our opening 1000 wasn’t horrible, but it felt like we worked a bit too hard to get what we got and didn’t truly make impressions with our moves in the second half. Consequently, we went the slowest of the six boats in the third quarter and were left out and finished 5th. So, that is the bad news. The up side is that we did this in what is essentially a race designed to garner knowledge of your crew’s abilities and those of your opponents. We found out we can’t be down on the start (not a provocative revelation) but one that has now been cemented into our minds. We also found out that we can hit a pretty good rhythm on an off day, but when we’re on, I think our base will carry us to the podium. It is just up to us to decide the level of the podium. I know I am not out of the realm of reality thinking that, even with a fifth place finish today. I have a lot of confidence in all of us and know that we can do great things, we just cannot afford to be off and must ride the razor’s edge. If we do that, we’re golden. If not, we get to see an amazing opportunity slip through our hands.
This scenario is eerily similar to my senior year of college. I had joined the Rutgers lwts as a last ditch effort to make good on a college rowing career that had not turned out as I had hoped rowing as a hwt. Aside from a grand final in the freshman four, it had been a pretty mediocre career. So, I took the invite to join and made the varsity for Eastern Sprints. We went in ranked fourth, but knew, just knew, that we were better than a fourth seed and were going to get our medal. Well, we left ourselves too much to make up with a slow start and were only able to muster a fourth place finish, as the rankings predicted. I was so angry and sick with disappointment, I couldn’t sleep that night nor study for my organic chemistry exam the next day. Don’t worry, I passed orgo, but had the uneasy feeling of letting an opportunity pass me by. Luckily, we had the IRA’s still to come to redeem ourselves, which we did by finishing second to Harvard. I am looking at this regatta as I did that one. We’ve had our bad race and now it is time to step it up and make it happen when we race for the medals on Saturday. We’ve got one more shot and I may never be back to get another so I am gonna make the absolute best of it. I have nothing to save it for. I am excited about that one more chance and I really think we can do it. A 1% increase in our focus and speed and we’re right there. It is incremental, not monumental, and I believe this crew can do it.
Ok, that is all I have and I think I got too deep, but that is what a blog is for, right? Sorry for the sporadic entries, but I never thought I’d be able to do daily ones, as life here ain’t too exciting- hope that changes soon. Keep wishing us luck along with the other US crews. Later.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Sunday, August 26, 2007
the angry brit
Well, finally something kind of interesting happened. We’ve borrowed a Vespoli V1 and Concept2 oars for the bargain basement price of 1300 euros. Apparently, the chap in charge of collecting felt we were a liability in paying up. So with the help of one of the heavies he came over to us as we were waiting for the bus and asked for “the skinny Yanks.” As we were just that, we piped up and said you found us. In the most colorful of English, he asked where his effing money is? Well, we were a bit caught offguard and had no idea what he meant. He told us he was the man responsible for our boat and oars and that we owed him 1300 euros. Apparently, he felt that most normal people, especially those in dirty trou, tend to carry that kind of money with them at all times. Leigh stepped up and said he should find our coach who would gladly pay up.
“I’m not fu#%ing finding your coach! I want my fu#%in’ money!” was his reply as he slapped his palm. We still weren’t sure if this was an act or if we should really fear for our kneecaps. Up to his point, it had been somewhat comical. Now, though, he said if he didn’t see our coach over at his tent, he’d be forced to get rough and he put his hands around Leigh’s neck to drive home the point. We all kind of walked away a bit confused and not sure why he was so rude and such an ass, but I guess it takes all kinds. Anyway, Leigh has survived, @$$hole got his fu#%ing money and life is good.
The racing has finally started today, but not for us. We still don’t go until Tuesday when we race for lanes. I think we are leaning toward doing a full race piece just to get one under our belts, but we’ve still left that til later in the week. Whether full or not, I cannot wait to line up against someone. The boat feels great and you can feel the anticipation of wanting to race. We got to practice coming out of the blocks yesterday and the Croatian heavy eight was beside us. It was a good reminder of the insanity that is the start and its volume. It felt like the real thing and it has made that desire to line up and go that much stronger. We’ll see soon enough, I know, but it kind of sucks waiting around. We are doing a full race warm-up and 1k today so that should help get out some of the nervous energy.
Well, I think that is it for today. Sorry for the spotty updates but repeating the same thing daily has us in a Groundhog Day kind of mode and leaves little to report. Check out the results for the rest of the US at worldrowing.com and keep sending the support.
“I’m not fu#%ing finding your coach! I want my fu#%in’ money!” was his reply as he slapped his palm. We still weren’t sure if this was an act or if we should really fear for our kneecaps. Up to his point, it had been somewhat comical. Now, though, he said if he didn’t see our coach over at his tent, he’d be forced to get rough and he put his hands around Leigh’s neck to drive home the point. We all kind of walked away a bit confused and not sure why he was so rude and such an ass, but I guess it takes all kinds. Anyway, Leigh has survived, @$$hole got his fu#%ing money and life is good.
The racing has finally started today, but not for us. We still don’t go until Tuesday when we race for lanes. I think we are leaning toward doing a full race piece just to get one under our belts, but we’ve still left that til later in the week. Whether full or not, I cannot wait to line up against someone. The boat feels great and you can feel the anticipation of wanting to race. We got to practice coming out of the blocks yesterday and the Croatian heavy eight was beside us. It was a good reminder of the insanity that is the start and its volume. It felt like the real thing and it has made that desire to line up and go that much stronger. We’ll see soon enough, I know, but it kind of sucks waiting around. We are doing a full race warm-up and 1k today so that should help get out some of the nervous energy.
Well, I think that is it for today. Sorry for the spotty updates but repeating the same thing daily has us in a Groundhog Day kind of mode and leaves little to report. Check out the results for the rest of the US at worldrowing.com and keep sending the support.
Friday, August 24, 2007
update for 8/23 & 24
Here are the last two days of updates. Not much to do here aside from rowing (who knew?) but that's ok as it is what we came here to do. I consolidated both days into one post. Enjoy!
August 23, 2007
Ok, I agreed to write a blog so a couple of friends stateside could keep up with the goings-on of Germany and its hosting of the FISA world championships. The first one of these was posted thanks to Igor and gave an initial update. This one will give a bit of background as well as an update. Having never done a blog and my only real journal writing was in 7th and 8th grade as part of a literature class, I make no promises that this will be awe inspiring stuff. However, I’ll do my best to update it daily and let everyone know what is going on. So, here goes.
I will quickly wrap up how the boat came to be and its time spent between trials and our departure for worlds. Bruce Smith, our coach, went through a pretty thorough and lengthy process to select the eight guys for the boat. He did a lot of seat-racing in pairs and fours to sort us out and that took up a lot of time, from mid-May til the first week in July. We had the lineup finally set July 7, which is the day before my birthday, so it was kind of like an early gift. The lineup is (from stroke to bow) Will Daly, John Nichols, Andrew Diebold, me (Jeff Forrester), Greg Ruckman, Tyler Resch, Gavin Frase, and Tim Larson. Our coxswain is Leigh Heyman. We are a great mix of international experience and naïve excitement. For three of us, this is our first US team of any kind (Tyler, Leigh, and me); for two it is their first senior Worlds team (Gavin and Andrew). Will and John were in the boat last year for their first senior team. Greg (also in the eight last year) and Tim are the experienced guys, having each gone to nine and three world, respectively. So, this line up presents numerous possibilities and we are all excited about that.
Trials was a lot of nervous energy but a very good experience because we learned how to handle adversity and, we found out, how to handle the pressure associated with this kind of racing. We took three tries to hit our time standard and the final chance was also the absolute last day we had a chance to do so. With beautiful weather and an intense focus, we did it and have tried to carry that focus to every ensuing row.
Since trials, we worked hard on finding more speed via cleaner, sharper rowing. So, while we weren’t overworked physically, Bruce expected us to be engaged and focused more so mentally and it has paid off. We’ve definitely picked up speed and confidence and are looking forward to showcasing this. For the record, though, we did still do quite a bit of hard work to be fresh on the race pace.
Ok, enough background. Here is the up-to-date stuff.
Blade work has become a huge focal point., mostly focusing on the hand motions right at the catch and release. We did some drilling where all we did while rowing was watch our hands as we took the catch or finished the stroke, seeing that we kept the movement simple and direct. The simpler, the better and it, amazingly, felt immediately better. Often times changes take some rows to make but this movement become crisper all around just from that. Super simple but effective. This drilling was done Wed. night and
we carried that blade work focus to Thursday morning when we did a 250m, a 500m, a1000m, a 500m, and a 250m piece. The first two we rolled into and went at base, about a 38-39. The thousand and last two we did off the start with the lwt quad here. The thousand was very quick but a little shakier than we’d have liked. We focused a bit more on the 500 and 250 to keep stable hands and the boat moved even better. We were definitely pleased overall with the workout. The afternoon row was just two laps still working on blade control, thinking lighter, shallow catches because we’ve been going a bit deep at pressure. After two laps of this, the starts at the end of the row felt great.
On the whole, I think everyone is geared up and ready to race. Unfortunately, with only six entries, we don’t race until Tuesday and it is only for lane allocation. We’ll see how we’ll play this one out, as lanes may be important if the wind is wrong. I’ll leave that thinking to Bruce and Leigh. It will be nice to finally line up, though, and see where we stand to some degree. Our final isn’t until Sept. 1, so we still have some time to get faster and work on rowing better.
Now for the biggest news- Leigh and Bruce painted the blades during the day Wednesday so I finally got to proudly row with US colors. I didn’t think it would be so cool, but I did get a measure of pride I didn’t anticipate. That alone has re-energized me, not that I really needed it.
That is about it for today. I’ll update again tomorrow and try to offer a bit more. Thanks for the support and well-wishes; keep ‘em coming!
August 24, 2007
This morning was some super sharp, really fast rowing that left Leigh just saying “WOW!” That is as close to speechless as you’ll get a coxswain. We did a couple of laps of working on smoother roll-ups into the catch and equally smooth feathering out of the release at the finish. Mostly the same drill of just watching our hands but also adding in trying to bury only half the blade to create an easier, lighter motion into the water. After 8k of that, we did some 10s to warm up to rate and did three full starts. This entailed the start sequence, a high 20, a 10 at a mid-range rate (41-42) and then a 10 at base or a bit above (38-39). Bruce was timing us to the 250m of each start and was getting between 41-43 seconds. Time aside, they felt phenomenal. We are learning and achieving that feeling of not hitting the catch but placing the blade and then driving like hell once we are locked on. Being patient at a 46-47 off the line used to feel almost impossible but it has now started to become a reality. Leigh’s way of calling the start and transitions helps but thinking about the drive and catch as two distinct entities has helped me get that feeling and help make the boat faster. It is awesome to still be feeling like we’re improving and getting more out of the boat. My biggest fear is that we wouldn’t continue the search for improvements but this boat seems be have ever more hunger to get better. This has made this experience that much better.
We got off the water a bit early so John and I went to the finish area by the grandstands and just watched the parade of boats going up and down the course. Today was clear and warm- absolutely gorgeous for rowing. So, we sat there and got a chance to see some rather renowned rowers going by as well as the Italian light eight. We haven’t seen much of our competition aside from them. With the course open all day, it is quite conceivable that the other crews just go earlier or later than us. It seems busy all the time. However, it was nice to see them and get a sneak peek. They weren’t doing anything at pressure but you can still tell they’re fast. This doesn’t intimidate me but makes me want to get better so that we can be faster. As the defending world champs, I am sure they know that the target is squarely on them. I just hope we can hit the bull’s eye.
That is all for today. I’ll write again tomorrow.
August 23, 2007
Ok, I agreed to write a blog so a couple of friends stateside could keep up with the goings-on of Germany and its hosting of the FISA world championships. The first one of these was posted thanks to Igor and gave an initial update. This one will give a bit of background as well as an update. Having never done a blog and my only real journal writing was in 7th and 8th grade as part of a literature class, I make no promises that this will be awe inspiring stuff. However, I’ll do my best to update it daily and let everyone know what is going on. So, here goes.
I will quickly wrap up how the boat came to be and its time spent between trials and our departure for worlds. Bruce Smith, our coach, went through a pretty thorough and lengthy process to select the eight guys for the boat. He did a lot of seat-racing in pairs and fours to sort us out and that took up a lot of time, from mid-May til the first week in July. We had the lineup finally set July 7, which is the day before my birthday, so it was kind of like an early gift. The lineup is (from stroke to bow) Will Daly, John Nichols, Andrew Diebold, me (Jeff Forrester), Greg Ruckman, Tyler Resch, Gavin Frase, and Tim Larson. Our coxswain is Leigh Heyman. We are a great mix of international experience and naïve excitement. For three of us, this is our first US team of any kind (Tyler, Leigh, and me); for two it is their first senior Worlds team (Gavin and Andrew). Will and John were in the boat last year for their first senior team. Greg (also in the eight last year) and Tim are the experienced guys, having each gone to nine and three world, respectively. So, this line up presents numerous possibilities and we are all excited about that.
Trials was a lot of nervous energy but a very good experience because we learned how to handle adversity and, we found out, how to handle the pressure associated with this kind of racing. We took three tries to hit our time standard and the final chance was also the absolute last day we had a chance to do so. With beautiful weather and an intense focus, we did it and have tried to carry that focus to every ensuing row.
Since trials, we worked hard on finding more speed via cleaner, sharper rowing. So, while we weren’t overworked physically, Bruce expected us to be engaged and focused more so mentally and it has paid off. We’ve definitely picked up speed and confidence and are looking forward to showcasing this. For the record, though, we did still do quite a bit of hard work to be fresh on the race pace.
Ok, enough background. Here is the up-to-date stuff.
Blade work has become a huge focal point., mostly focusing on the hand motions right at the catch and release. We did some drilling where all we did while rowing was watch our hands as we took the catch or finished the stroke, seeing that we kept the movement simple and direct. The simpler, the better and it, amazingly, felt immediately better. Often times changes take some rows to make but this movement become crisper all around just from that. Super simple but effective. This drilling was done Wed. night and
we carried that blade work focus to Thursday morning when we did a 250m, a 500m, a1000m, a 500m, and a 250m piece. The first two we rolled into and went at base, about a 38-39. The thousand and last two we did off the start with the lwt quad here. The thousand was very quick but a little shakier than we’d have liked. We focused a bit more on the 500 and 250 to keep stable hands and the boat moved even better. We were definitely pleased overall with the workout. The afternoon row was just two laps still working on blade control, thinking lighter, shallow catches because we’ve been going a bit deep at pressure. After two laps of this, the starts at the end of the row felt great.
On the whole, I think everyone is geared up and ready to race. Unfortunately, with only six entries, we don’t race until Tuesday and it is only for lane allocation. We’ll see how we’ll play this one out, as lanes may be important if the wind is wrong. I’ll leave that thinking to Bruce and Leigh. It will be nice to finally line up, though, and see where we stand to some degree. Our final isn’t until Sept. 1, so we still have some time to get faster and work on rowing better.
Now for the biggest news- Leigh and Bruce painted the blades during the day Wednesday so I finally got to proudly row with US colors. I didn’t think it would be so cool, but I did get a measure of pride I didn’t anticipate. That alone has re-energized me, not that I really needed it.
That is about it for today. I’ll update again tomorrow and try to offer a bit more. Thanks for the support and well-wishes; keep ‘em coming!
August 24, 2007
This morning was some super sharp, really fast rowing that left Leigh just saying “WOW!” That is as close to speechless as you’ll get a coxswain. We did a couple of laps of working on smoother roll-ups into the catch and equally smooth feathering out of the release at the finish. Mostly the same drill of just watching our hands but also adding in trying to bury only half the blade to create an easier, lighter motion into the water. After 8k of that, we did some 10s to warm up to rate and did three full starts. This entailed the start sequence, a high 20, a 10 at a mid-range rate (41-42) and then a 10 at base or a bit above (38-39). Bruce was timing us to the 250m of each start and was getting between 41-43 seconds. Time aside, they felt phenomenal. We are learning and achieving that feeling of not hitting the catch but placing the blade and then driving like hell once we are locked on. Being patient at a 46-47 off the line used to feel almost impossible but it has now started to become a reality. Leigh’s way of calling the start and transitions helps but thinking about the drive and catch as two distinct entities has helped me get that feeling and help make the boat faster. It is awesome to still be feeling like we’re improving and getting more out of the boat. My biggest fear is that we wouldn’t continue the search for improvements but this boat seems be have ever more hunger to get better. This has made this experience that much better.
We got off the water a bit early so John and I went to the finish area by the grandstands and just watched the parade of boats going up and down the course. Today was clear and warm- absolutely gorgeous for rowing. So, we sat there and got a chance to see some rather renowned rowers going by as well as the Italian light eight. We haven’t seen much of our competition aside from them. With the course open all day, it is quite conceivable that the other crews just go earlier or later than us. It seems busy all the time. However, it was nice to see them and get a sneak peek. They weren’t doing anything at pressure but you can still tell they’re fast. This doesn’t intimidate me but makes me want to get better so that we can be faster. As the defending world champs, I am sure they know that the target is squarely on them. I just hope we can hit the bull’s eye.
That is all for today. I’ll write again tomorrow.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
(Posted by Igor, on behalf of Jeff Forrester)
We left out of Manchester Saturday evening and flew to Philly and then caught a direct flight to Munich overnight. Aside from sitting in Manchester a bit longer than necessary (I was convinced the flight was at 4:50 but was actually at 5:50), it was smooth and problem free. We got here and checked in with Elpi of USRowing and grabbed a bit to eat before heading down to the course to assemble our boat. And by assemble, I mean just that.
International racing requires that eights be sectional and, consequently, ours is. So, we had to connect the stern to the bow but we also had to assemble the riggers and oars as well as wash the boat. Vespoli arranged for us to get a boat and it was in pretty good shape but very dirty from being trailered and having sat in the rain for a few days.
Logistics done, we took the boat for its inaugural row and to work the kinks out. Find out that large shoes are indeed large and actually too roomy for my size 13s, which was kinda funny to find out. Over the course of Monday's row, we really got the shell suited to us and it has been fine since.
Our first couple of rows were shaky as we were dealing with jet lag and, at least for me, truly realizing that I was a US national team member and I was at the World Championships. Once I wrapped my head around this (you think the gear would have solidified this, right?), I have been able to relax and truly enjoy this event. The course is beautiful with crystal clear water and an amazing grandstands. The facilities are a bit old, as it was built for the 1972 Olympics, but they are still practical and more than serve their purpose.
Tuesday morning was our first longer row and we definitely worked hard and rowed well. We were doing 8k of hard ss and it was screaming along. The Italian eight was out and we got to get a feeling for what it might feel like to walk through them during the course of the workout. That felt sweet! As a result of this hard work- and cuz we were still pretty jetlagged- Bruce gave us the afternoon off and we headed into Munich and saw some sights.
It is a pretty city with a lot architectural attractions and, of course, beer gardens. We all had a bit (one glass) to help relax and then headed back to the hotel.
This morning's row was absolutely AWESOME!! We all got off the water pumped and ready to go. Too bad we have to wait another 10 days, but we're all jazzed. We were doing 20 on/30off, building the rate and were hitting splits we'd not seen yet at those ratings. Very good stuff and exciting as hell. This afternoon's row was a bit shaky at first but got going really well for the latter part. That was reassuring to see we can get it back if things are going so well.
The course is starting to get crowded as well as more crews have shown up. The Aussies and Canadians showed up today and that is gonna really clutter up things since they have pretty large squads.
I guess that is all for now and I'll try to get more next time as far as how things are feeling. I do know this, every one of us is excited as hell and think we have a good shot at something special. Can't wait to see if this pans out. Hope this finds you well and I'll talk to you soon.
We left out of Manchester Saturday evening and flew to Philly and then caught a direct flight to Munich overnight. Aside from sitting in Manchester a bit longer than necessary (I was convinced the flight was at 4:50 but was actually at 5:50), it was smooth and problem free. We got here and checked in with Elpi of USRowing and grabbed a bit to eat before heading down to the course to assemble our boat. And by assemble, I mean just that.
International racing requires that eights be sectional and, consequently, ours is. So, we had to connect the stern to the bow but we also had to assemble the riggers and oars as well as wash the boat. Vespoli arranged for us to get a boat and it was in pretty good shape but very dirty from being trailered and having sat in the rain for a few days.
Logistics done, we took the boat for its inaugural row and to work the kinks out. Find out that large shoes are indeed large and actually too roomy for my size 13s, which was kinda funny to find out. Over the course of Monday's row, we really got the shell suited to us and it has been fine since.
Our first couple of rows were shaky as we were dealing with jet lag and, at least for me, truly realizing that I was a US national team member and I was at the World Championships. Once I wrapped my head around this (you think the gear would have solidified this, right?), I have been able to relax and truly enjoy this event. The course is beautiful with crystal clear water and an amazing grandstands. The facilities are a bit old, as it was built for the 1972 Olympics, but they are still practical and more than serve their purpose.
Tuesday morning was our first longer row and we definitely worked hard and rowed well. We were doing 8k of hard ss and it was screaming along. The Italian eight was out and we got to get a feeling for what it might feel like to walk through them during the course of the workout. That felt sweet! As a result of this hard work- and cuz we were still pretty jetlagged- Bruce gave us the afternoon off and we headed into Munich and saw some sights.
It is a pretty city with a lot architectural attractions and, of course, beer gardens. We all had a bit (one glass) to help relax and then headed back to the hotel.
This morning's row was absolutely AWESOME!! We all got off the water pumped and ready to go. Too bad we have to wait another 10 days, but we're all jazzed. We were doing 20 on/30off, building the rate and were hitting splits we'd not seen yet at those ratings. Very good stuff and exciting as hell. This afternoon's row was a bit shaky at first but got going really well for the latter part. That was reassuring to see we can get it back if things are going so well.
The course is starting to get crowded as well as more crews have shown up. The Aussies and Canadians showed up today and that is gonna really clutter up things since they have pretty large squads.
I guess that is all for now and I'll try to get more next time as far as how things are feeling. I do know this, every one of us is excited as hell and think we have a good shot at something special. Can't wait to see if this pans out. Hope this finds you well and I'll talk to you soon.
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