Henley Day Four

All three crews rowed once this morning with our 2V brushing University College of Dublin, the 1V doing a full Henley time trial at 26 spm, and the 4+ did a lot of down low steady state looking for power and length. The 2V brush was fascinating (thanks to Tom Sullivan, their head coach) because it showed us a little bit of how we go to speed and what actually creates that. Trusting our power seems to be the most critical piece as we were very competitive at the lower ratings and at max speed but at cruising base speed found ourselves slightly wanting. What a great Henley tradition to be able to do pieces against crews we normally would never see.

The 1V was very much on their own as they went out to really harness the energy and strength they've developed over the year and absolutely smoked the 24-26-28 range over the Henley Royal Regatta course. The first and only time I've seen them harness their strength this year and I hope it's coming in time for them to apply it over the Henley Women's distance and the Henley Royal Regatta qualification course. Incidentally, when the Henley Royal Regatta says the entries close at 2:00 pm....they mean it. A breathless individual came up at 2:03 PM to try and enter and was firmly told that entries closed at 2:00 PM. Phew.

The afternoon was spent in various states of repose. The four plus spares traveled to Oxford for a bit of sightseeing, while others lounged in the main square and 'people-watched' while others explored the bookstores in town. The coaching staff was a little more mundane as I fixed a flat tire on my bike (with some excellent assistance from the 2V), bought Stewards Enclosure badges for some parents, read a little bit of a novel, and then stared at the inside of my eyelids for a good 90 minutes.

Dinner tonight was at Neal's Rowbarge Pub where we enjoyed Thai Green curry and spaghetti bolognaise...a really fantastic meal. A few of the rowers and Henry Palmer '05 who has been rowing out of Leander for the past two years enjoyed some time discussing the intricacices of rowing in England and the national system. It was really a great time catching up and being able to gather some further ideas about what's going on in various countries and seeing what we can bring back to Trinity.

Tomorrow we'll do an early AM row with some speed play and 26 work and then most likely an evening row to watch the sunset (or cloudy rain from the water). Glad to see that we're linked to www.row2k.com now - I hope we'll have more regular visitors!

All the best from across the pond...