Down to Two: Heading to the Super Bowl

Pretty darn excited right now to see the Steelers come out and play the Ravens extremely hard and come out on top. But even more excited that our student-athletes return to campus tomorrow to restart our drive towards boat speed in the spring.

I thought the Steelers played within themselves and didn't execute cleanly in all aspects of the game...(Limas Sweed's drop, Mitch Berger's shanked punt, silly penalties). I thought that the Steelers showed a lot of confidence in their defense and that allowed the offense to play well within themselves and not be forced to take risks against a pretty damn impressive Ravens defense.

How do you measure momentum in sports? Is there any way to harness that and make it work to your favor even when you're down?

So my prediction was a little off...Steelers 23 - Ravens 14 setting up a Super Bowl matchup in Tampa with the Arizona Cardinals. It's not a great matchup on paper and the only really interesting aspect of it is probably that Ken Whisenhunt and Russ Grimm (both former Steelers coaches under Bill Cowher) were both leading candidates for the Steelers head coaching position won by Mike Tomlin.

Here's a quick prayer to Willis McGahee and his family - he was taken off the field on a stretcher after an open-field hit.

Hartford Wolf Pack Hockey

Just got back from the Hartford Wolf Pack versus Providence Bruins hockey game at the XL Center - also enjoyed a great dinner at the Spris Restaurant in Constitution Plaza. It's funny that it takes some effort to get out to do things but that the entertainment options in Hartford are pretty fantastic.

I said that I would write about our women's basketball team that had gone undefeated up until their game versus Babson. It would have been easy for me to talk about their disappointment or change in intensity immediately following but I was waiting to see how their next game versus Conn College was...and they came out firing and earned their first NESCAC victory. Perhaps the lesson has to be that you can't identify what the lessons of a loss will be until you see your team apply what they've learned in the next competition.

Steelers tomorrow evening - prediction - Steelers 24 - Ravens 13

Starting from Scratch

Wow - a lot has happened in the past twelve days and we're less than a week away from our students returning to the College (finally!) Have done some traveling, followed the NFL playoffs closely, and have done very little physical training but a ton of reading.

Started training again yesterday - got back on the ergometer and the squash courts. To be honest it felt absolutely awful. I felt like I was working incredibly hard for very slow splits, maintaining reasonable posture but trying to stay relaxed was a real effort and even concentrating was challenging. Getting on the squash court I found I was much stiffer, had much poorer visual acuity, and got winded quickly. It was almost absurd how foreign erging and hitting squash shots had become in such a short time.

But you know what? It was damn fun.

Because today, I worked out again and could immediately feel a difference! I probably am not "fitter" from a chemical or biological standpoint but I sure felt better about it. The skill aspect of my squash game (limited as it is) is returning quickly and being a little less fit I'm able to think and be more patient with my shot making. Perhaps that's why some crews have a better second piece after burning off excess energy that isn't going into moving the boat but sure does make the individual rowers tired.

So I'm treating it as a one day at a time battle to work more consistently, eat healthier, and go to bed earlier. Simple right?

Topic for tomorrow: Trinity women's basketball versus Babson College and Tony Dungy's retirement

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all from Trinity Women's Rowing - there's much to strive for in 2009 and I'm looking forward to getting back to it when school starts again.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Flying Home

On my way back to Toronto this morning and am currently sitting in the Bradley International Airport after a pretty thorough security check...they swabbed my bag (must have found that exploded toothpaste), analyzed air from my clothing, triple-checked my passport and boarding pass and were generally pleasant. It was funny to see the passengers around me flustered by the demands of the agents and seemingly thrown off their "travel games" by an unanticipated request. I felt almost preternaturally calm (though the 5:30 AM departure could have something to do with that).

Does that seem like rowing for inexperienced athletes? The demands of training, every head race, and every 2000m race are very predictable...especially in terms of physiology and we can fully control our preparation for those demands each and every day. The unanticipated demands are those that are mental in nature - training during injury, academic stress, an incredibly close race, or a race that holds a lot of meaning. Dealing with these aspects of being a rowing athlete are also completely in your control if you are mentally prepared. I know we're looking hard at not getting thrown off our "game" by the demands of airport security or anything that the season can throw at us.

I hope everyone is having a healthy, safe, and happy time with their families and friends this holiday season.

Tuesday AM - Athlete Chats

Have had some awesome chats with athletes these past few days about what individually they need to work on during the holiday season. Their attention to detail has been impressive and we're examining things from a very holistic level...