National Champs

I am back at home and because I realized that I neglected to write anything in the blog, I decided I will update how we did at Club Nationals. We took home nine medals in seven events. Basically, we kicked the crap out of the competition. (Alliteration, yay!)

I rowed in the Intermediate 8+, and the Intermediate 4x which as you can see below placed first and second. The results with times for the events I was in are linked. They were both very close races.

Senior 8+: Gold
Senior 4+: Gold; Bronze
Senior 2X: Gold
Intermediate 4X: Gold
Intermediate 2X: Gold; Bronze
Intermediate 8+: Silver
Senior 4-: Silver

The Intermediate 8+

Intermediate 4x

Eat, sleep, row

Wow it's been a while since I have written anything simply because I have been pretty busy. When I am not rowing, I'm eating or sleeping.

Camp has been good. Hard, and tiring, but good. We finished our first full week and I am finally here to talk about it. We have 3 workouts a day Monday-Friday and on Saturday we practice in the morning, and Sunday in the afternoon which gives us a good amount of time off. The workouts have been intense; a lot harder than what I am used to and we just jumped right into the intensity. It has been a long and tiring week to say the least. I am backtracking right now, so I'll give a brief overview of what we have done. We have two morning workouts with a good 20-30 minute break in between for a snack. In the mornings we've been doing longer rows focusing on technical work in quads and eights, swapping boats after the break. We just had another coxswain arrive though so we will be doing more side by side eight workouts.

On Mondays and Wednesdays though we have a 5k warm-up followed by intense weights sessions. The weights were hard but I think as time goes on they will get easier as our fitness improves. On the other afternoons we have been having water or erg practices.

I'm not gonna lie, there have been times in the past week when I thought to myself, "why am I here?". A lot of the girls here are really good. But I just have to remind myself that I was hand selected to come here and participate in the camp because they see that I have the potential in rowing. It is so different coming from being on the top end in our program to just blending in with these other girls. On top of this, I am not the tall one any more. Yes, there are girls here who are 6'4".

But I think come the end of the summer this will be a great thing to have done. And through the camp, I hope to improve and have fun doing it. I want to be able to go back to Louisville a better rower and have more to give, which I think I am very capable of. I am going to set some other goals too for this summer I decided. More to come as we go.

And as promised, here are some pictures.

This is the Vesper Boathouse

And here is the view of the river from the balcony of the boathouse.

Philadelphia

I am now here in Philadelphia. We moved in our new apartments that they gave us last night and spent the first nights sleep in it. It was pretty good actually. I also have a room mate and I think we are supposed to get another. She is from Wisconsin and she rows for Notre Dame, our rivals who we compete against in Big East and at Regionals.  :O

But she seems really cool and I am excited to meet everyone else! We have our first meeting today at 4pm to talk about things I guess and to go for a run. Which should be interesting. The only reason I say that is because rowers are often very competitive and since all of us are probably going to be silently judging each other on the inside, we might try to be the best of the best right off the bat. I, on the other hand, will not be besting anybody at running - just throwing that out there. I'm going to save the competitiveness for the water :)

So I may possibly post something tonight if I have the chance. Also, I will try to get some pictures of everything to add.

June

It is now June and I can't believe that the pre-elite camp is right around the corner. I will be leaving in just three days for Philadelphia! It's going to be really interesting and fun to row with the people that I compete against, especially on a whole new level. I might have mentioned before, but I still have no idea how it is going to turn out the first day I get there. Who will I meet? How good are they? Where do I stand next to all these other great rowers? These are just some of the first questions that come to my mind.

I will be posting after the first day most likely about how it went. As far as I know, the first day (Sunday, June 6th) we are just having a meeting and then going for a run. The real rowing won't start until Monday. Yay! I am looking forward to getting on the water again every day and rowing in more small boats. I am doubly looking forward to racing!! At the end of the email we just received about camp, it said "plan to train and train to race". Some words of wisdom right there. I am excited to do just that.


On the non-rowing side of things, I have been working my butt of trying to make money in the short two weeks that I was home. It's been pretty good though because today I got a raise and that will definitely help a lot with buying food and other necessities at camp, and next year at school. A lot of the people I work with are getting excited about this whole rowing thing. I told my boss that some day I want to try out for the Olympic team and they all thought that was pretty neat. So now that people know, I just have to do it to prove that I can!

Skills

Today I rowed in a quad with three other alumni from my class. It was so great to scull again! It's been a while since I last sculled because all we row in the spring are eights. I still need to get out in a single again because I need to regain my balance out there by myself. Especially since I plan to race the single at the Canadian Henley. Speaking of which, my plane tickets to Canada are booked! I am going up there on July 28th, borrowing a boat from my friend who lives in St. Catherine's and am also rowing a double with her. Then I am back home again on August 9th. Upon my return home I am getting my wisdom teeth removed. What a party! But that will basically conclude the exciting parts of my summer. Then off to school again somewhere around the 20th of August I believe.

But technically the summer has just begun so I am trying to not get too excited and wish the summer away when I still have so many exciting things ahead of me. I have no idea what to expect at the pre-elite camp. Eight days until I leave though. I have no idea what it is going to be like. Well I mean I know we are going to be rowing at least twice a day and doing other kinds of workouts but I have never lived in Pennsylvania before. Despite the fact that my aunt lives there, I haven't been in a while. Last time I was there was for the Stotesbury Regatta last May. Needless to say, it will be quite an experience.  In the mean time though, I am continuing to work in an attempt to earn back all the money I have spent these past few semesters.

On another note that has nothing to do with rowing, I have pretty much mastered the art of driving a standard. I guess you could say. I can successfully make it from point A to point B without stalling the engine, grinding any gears, or causing my passengers to have whiplash. And it only took one day to learn it! I guess you could compare this to rowing because of my competitive nature and drive to succeed, I was able to learn it quickly. Or maybe it's just that my dad is a good teacher.

Top 5 things you need in rowing to be successful

1. Determination
In order to get in the boat or on the erg day after day, you must be determined and focused on what you need to do to get the job done. Determination is key because you are going to have to go through the workouts day after day. It can become monotonous after a while but you need to find a way to mix it up a little and get excited to finish the workout.

Determination is something that you are born with I think. Some people naturally want to win and they are determined to do whatever it takes.


2. Mental Toughness
You have to be mentally tough to be able to be an athlete. Really any sport requires this because you are pushing your body when your brain is telling you to slow down. It takes a lot to push past physical pain and to keep going until you are done.

I think it is possible for people to develop mental toughness even though to some people, it probably comes more naturally. By finding what you love to do and competing to do your best in it, you can find that you are more willing to go the distance to succeed.


3. Experience
Boat experience and race experience can make the difference for some coaches in what boat you will be in. If you have rowed a variety of boats in a variety of races on a variety of bodies of water, you are golden! I have found that having small boat experience, rowing in basically any boat there is (including the octuple [8+ rigged for sculling], the single, pairs, quads) will help to get you farther in rowing. It opens doors for you as a rower which in turn open other doors that can propel your rowing career!

Obviously you cannot just wake up with rowing experience. You have to be open to all of your options and be willing to learn something new for example if you row eights all the time, try rowing a single. Experience is something that not everybody can just have and is valuable if you are a high school rower trying to be recruited to a college.


4. Strength
Clearly, rowing is a strenuous sport that requires a good aerobic base as well as stamina and strength. You need to have strong legs to be a rower! As well as the legs you need good core strength as well as back and arm strength. Unless you are a rower, you might assume that it is all in the arms, but this, you will find is false. Your legs are the powerhouse that propel the boat. Just look at the quads of any Olympic rower and you will see.

Strength can obviously be built by lifting weights and gaining fitness. Anybody can build strength. By joining rowing as a novice and practicing for a year you will begin to build the strength that you need to be a rower and by adding a lifting schedule that is geared towards rowing you can continue to build up your muscles.


5. Motivation
Self motivation is another thing that most athletes must have. When there is no one around to push you who is going to? Well the answer is you. It's your job to get yourself on the erg in the winter. And it is your job to be able to pull out those hard all out pieces even if you don't have a coxswain to keep you going.

Motivation as well as mental toughness is something you've just got to have. You can develop the motivation if you have something you are working for, which most rowers do. Always looking for the few seconds to PR by and wanting to place and beat the competition are usually motivators enough. But you gotta have your teammates to rely on when your battling it out with another crew in the last 300 meters of the race. You need to know that they are not giving up and they are motivated by you and everyone else to make it across the finish line.

CRCA All South

I just found out that I was named to the CRCA All South Region First Team as well as having been named to the Big East All Conference First Team about a month ago.

Louisville Article
CRCA

It's just another reason why this year has been so great.