Bulldog Rowing Camp Day Three

This may have been the most pleasant day that we've had at Bulldog in quite a while. Low temperatures, blue skies, and a low UV index made it really comfortable on the water. Coach Shofner and I switched crews this morning and we were able to work on trying to feel the speed of the boat as a group - that moment when rowers in an eight take a great stroke and really propel the boat well and also KNOW that they've done it well is pretty amazing. In the afternoon row we went with mixed lineups and did some competitive work that gave the campers a taste of side-by-side aggression.

It's funny to say it but I miss the focus of the squad already - the attention to detail, focus on the task at hand, and drive to succeed can be pretty alluring and it has been good to hear from so many rowers already this season.

After so much bike riding in England and brutal gas prices I'm also looking into buying a touring/city bike for the first time since 2000 (haven't owned one since I crashed). The commute from my apartment to the office is only about 2.2 miles so that should be pretty darn quick on a bike. I've been pointed towards this bike by Felt. If anybody has any other suggestions for a bike that can also be used for reasonable weekend rides of a little over an hour please let me know.

On to Friday!

Bulldog Rowing Camp Day Two

A little hot, a little steamy, a little chicken Parmesan. Coached two sessions where we worked on applying some new ideas to take time to let the boat run between the strokes and that seemed like a huge breakthrough. In the afternoon we reintroduced the feather and also some drive mechanics. The difficulty in learning effective boat moving comes from so many factors not the least of which is having the requisite strength to repeat the motion over time. The secondary factor is probably that when rowing in eights you can't really tell if what you're doing is better than the last stroke. That makes things awfully tough to see what impact you actually have on the boat.

Trying to get back in the groove with regards to working out and did a drop down set of erging and lifting with a little bit of running to break up the monotony. A couple of sophomore lightweights joined, Direktor #1 and me for the work out and that livened things up a little bit. That 'slight' soreness from yesterday has now turned into a wicked case of DOMS - here is also another definition that might describe that.

Off to dinner and then a little bit of programmatic design and responding to recruit emails.

Bulldog Rowing Camp Day One

First day of Bulldog Rowing Camp is just about finished and the athletes are about to get some much needed rest in about 15 minutes or so...We began in the day with a few diagnostic stretches to see the level of flexibility and core stability and found that a lot of the younger athletes could still make huge improvements. The first group I worked with tried to focus on leverage while the second group after lunch worked on how we could improve our desire to really go after it with a little ergometer demonstration. I have a feeling they'll be more aggressive tomorrow.

Did a lunch time workout with one of the Direktors and am feeling a little bit of post-Henley soreness from the effort...that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

The new Trinity Rowing website is now online - it will continue to be updated and refined in the coming days but I'm sure everyone will appreciate the new format and ease of use.

Henley Royal Regatta Complete

I can't really believe the season is over for the Trinity rowing teams. The day started with the Graves brothers battling the US Olympic 2X and bowed out by a little over a length - a phenomenal achievement for two rowers who have so recently been involved in collegiate sweep rowing.

I had the privilege of riding in the Argonaut launch for the final of the Temple Challenge Cup and filming the event. In the lead up, as the boat was cleaned and the boys were finishing their warm up and pre-race talk I said to Coach Gluckman that I wish we could bottle up this feeling because it felt like Christmas morning...where there was such great expectation I can only imagine a few times where you can feel that alive.

Amidst strong rain, both crews went off aggressively and we had a pretty severe bobble that buried the starboard riggers and took the 1V out of the rhythm slightly but made a really strong effort from the Barrier to Fawley to make up the distance. UWO was able to make some pretty excellent responses to our pushes and eventually drew it out to a little over 2 lengths. Considering the youth of the men's varsity, where there were only 2 seniors in the crew I would expect a lot of continued improvement next season. Tremendous congratulations to the Western eight for rowing an incredible regatta - their bladework, fitness, and determination throughout the regatta was impressive.

Congratulations to Henry Palmer in the Leander Ladies' Plate crew who beat a very good Dutch crew rowing aggressively the whole way down the course. They took an early lead on the Dutch rowing 2-3 beats higher at 37-39 spm and defended a strong middle push by the Dutch before extending their lead in the last 50 strokes of the race. I thought it may have been the gutsiest row I've seen by a high level eights crew at the regatta.

Also, congrats to Andy Liverman who won the Prince of Wales Challenge Cup for intermediate 4Xs beating a very slick British lightweight quad. On the plane tomorrow at 10:55 AM with a 7:00 AM pickup from Henley...I'll have some pictures to post later on and hopefully some video of the racing.

Henley Royal Regatta Finals Day

It's 10:13 AM and we've just had our last full English breakfast with our wonderful host Ms. Valerie Nicholson and we have arrived at the final day of racing for the 2007-2008 season. The men's eight has reached the final of the Temple Challenge Cup by beating Southampton University, Oxford Brookes, Grand Valley State University USA, and Stanford University USA. In the finals the 1V will race against the University of Western Ontario crew who defeated Harvard University's freshmen in the semifinal. Judging from times to the Barrier and times between Fawley and the Barrier I think we have to expect that there will be some fluidity in the first 3:40 seconds of the race and that it will sort itself out after that.

Crews that are leading after the Barrier win 86% of the time while crews leading after Fawley win 90% of the time. However, that statistic might be misleading as many of the crews who have made the final have been in the 14% or 10% at least once during the regatta.

This is very much a familiar face regatta for me as Tom and Peter Graves are racing in the Double Sculls Challenge Cup final today against the US Olympic 2X of Elliot Hovey and Wes Piermarini and they go off at 12:00 PM.

My college teammate and good friend Andy Liverman races in the finals of the Prince of Wales Challenge Cup for 4X as the bowman of the California Rowing Club. A former lightweight he is somewhat dwarfed by Mike Holbrook who weighed in at 240 lbs or 17 stone 2 lbs.

Henry Palmer, Trinity '05, is racing in the five seat of the Leander Ladies' Challenge Plate entry and will face a really tough challenge from R.S.V.U. Okeanos & D.S.R. Laga, Holland. They look like they would have had a great shot at the Grand Challenge Cup.

Weather for today - about 15 degrees Celsius, windy, and pretty steady rain. English dreariness at its best. For full results of the racing please click here.

Oh yes, really heartfelt thanks to my crew for their wonderful gift last night...and fun conversation about the business of rowing. I had missed that in the days since we stopped rowing and it was good to be back together in the middle of England in a 15th century pub. Pretty memorable stuff...

Fourth of July in England

The third day of racing at the Henley Royal Regatta is almost complete and things are shaking out for the semifinals to be held tomorrow. American crews have had some notable successes and some pretty close defeats. In the Ladies Plate, IRA finalist Columbia went down to a really high quality Dutch crew by 2/3 of a length in a very fast time while Boston University lost in the Remenham Cup by 3/4 of a length. In the Princess Elizabeth Cup, St. Joe's Prep went down swinging to Eton College so the final four in perhaps the most hotly contested event is Scotch College of Australia, Shawnigan Lake of Canada, Eton College and Shrewsbury.

The quarterfinals of the Temple Challenge Cup were incredibly competitive and saw Trinity's 1V, Stanford's freshmen, Harvard's freshmen, and Western Ontario's 1V reach the final four. Cornell's lightweight varsity lost to Stanford by a length, Harvard took out Williams' 1V, while Trinity dispatched Grand Valley State's 1V.

The competitiveness of the big boats, namely fours, quads, and eights in these rounds contrasts with the parades in the small boat categories like the Diamonds, Silver Goblets, and other sculling events. Crews rowing over the course at 26-30 spm and winning easily doesn't make for great racing.

The team will be traveling back to the US on Monday morning and then I'll be working a week of Bulldog Rowing Camp at Yale. More to come later on...Happy Fourth of July everyone.

Henley Day Seventeen: What a Season!

From Hartford to East Hartford, to Vermont and Worcester, to Sacramento, and finally Henley-on-Thames the season for the Trinity Women's Rowing team has finally come to a close. While one of the rowers remarked that it was incredibly strange to finish a season with a practice I feel incredibly lucky to have seen them move the boat through a shared desire to make boats go fast, a feeling of competency, and the ability to apply their knowledge.

Monday, one of our seniors, and two-time All-American selection Loren Massimino hopped on the C2 ergometer in the boat tents and pulled a PR 7:02.5 and her teammates, Ali Schmidt and captain Carmel Zahran pulled 7:15 and 7:17.5 on Tuesday (Carmel later pulled a 7:14.0 on Wednesday in a great attempt at improving her score). I thought this was an absolutely stunning display of commitment to have the self-discipline and desire to pull a 2000m erg piece after being on the water for so long and to all record their personal bests! Maybe there is something to this training piece after all...

Monday afternoon we brushed University College Dublin for the final time and while they showed improved speed we were able to pull something together by the end of practice and we wish them all the best at their national championships in two weeks.

Tuesday, about half an hour after finishing their 2000m pieces, the Head of the Charles collegiate 8+ champions, New England Champions, NCAA Champions, and Henley Women's Regatta championship 8+ went for one final practice. I'd be lying if I said I didn't get emotional watching them perform the drills and demonstrate the skills that took them to such a great season...coaches on the toe path remarked again about how sharp they looked and how they were clearly still on task despite the equipment failure in the qualifier. We did a tip of the island piece in about 41 seconds and a barrier piece in a time of 2:16 into a really blowing head wind. I'll be interested to see how those times stack up against our Remenham Cup opposition.

Where do we go from here? Our captains and seniors from the Class of 2009 have to define what they want to accomplish next year while I have to decide upon what the physical standard of the team needs to be in order to meet those goals. I already have at least three criteria that I've identified as separating our successful rowers from those who are still looking for improvement. But perhaps most importantly, the women that are at Henley right now should enjoy this historical venue and festive atmosphere, enjoy each other's company, and treat this as a hard-earned and well-deserved vacation for the next five days. My guess is that it will be some time before these Trinity students will have the chance to hang out with so many of their College friends in the near future.

Observation #1: Henley desperately needs either an ice cream store, a crepe place, or a place specializing in desserts that does not rhyme with "tar shucks".

Observation #2: The BBC shows some INCREDIBLY graphic stuff...very uncomfortable

Observation #3: The enclosure and food areas lining the entire bank of the river are increasingly modern looking in stark contrast to the timelessness of the Steward's Enclosure.

Best of luck to all of the Trinity men's crews, St.Joseph's Prep and Newport Aquatic Center who I hope will meet on the weekend in the PE Cup, Leander and Columbia in the Ladies Plate, and the California Rowing Club quad with my good friend and former college teammate Andy Liverman on board.