Worlds Racing

Post # 25

Hamilton, New Zealand - We have been in New Zealand for the World Rowing Championships for almost two weeks now, and the time has flown by! Unfortunately, the internet situation here isn't great so it has been tough to keep in touch with everyone. We have our two biggest races coming up tomorrow and the next day in the lightweight double and quad. For all the information, including a link to follow along with live video feed (plus if you want to check out what we've been up to for the past week or two) the quad has been updating the following blog: bellinghamquad.blogspot.com

We have our game faces on as we head into the finals and the season wraps up. Here's to some good racing ahead!!

And We're Off!

Post #24

Bellingham, Washington - Our bags are packed and we have one more training row tomorrow morning before our long trek to New Zealand for the World Championships. My bow seat, Victoria, and I calculated the door-to-door travel time tomorrow and I think we came up with 24.5 hours. Should be a looong trip but I'm really excited. I've been reflecting on the past year since the 2009 World Championships as we approach this culminating race of 2010. It has certainly been a long year, but a really great one. I've been so lucky to travel and train in many different places with many wonderful people. Of course, my time with Mrs. Feingold's class was one of my most cherished memories of the year, and I can't wait to hang out with them for a week in November when I get back to the states.

As far as results from the racing go, I'm going to try to update this while I'm in NZ. As of the current schedule, our racing starts on November 2 at 11:41 am. That's November 1 at 3:41 pm U.S. Pacific time. The final medals race is slated for November 6 at 2:18 pm, so that's November 5 at 6:18 pm on the west coast. The results can be found at World Rowing or Row2k.

On to the racing!

Preparations for NZ

Post #23

Bellingham, Washington - First and foremost, congrats to Zoila Gomez, a fellow ITA athlete, who raced in the Chicago Marathon today. Her time was 2 hours, 32 minutes, and 51 seconds which, if I have this correctly, is a new PR. Awesome! I just finished reading "Born to Run" and was thinking about it as Zoila and some of my friends from college raced in Chicago this morning.

My team (well, mini team of four!) has been back in Bellingham for a week now and we're right back into training and getting ready for New Zealand. We leave in less than two weeks. Since this is a long year (Worlds are usually in August), I feel like I have been waiting for Worlds for so long. It's slowly hitting me that it's right around the corner now. We're getting everything ready for when we leave, including the all-important oar painting so that our blades are official USA colors:

Today we had a hard workout on the rowing machine and afterwards I dragged my teammates to go swimming in the lake with me. We're lucky that the dock is right across the street! Not only did swimming help our muscles recover, it felt really good to swim (even if the water was pretty chilly).

2010 World Championship Team!

Post #22

On a Flight at 32,000 Feet, Somewhere Above the Midwest – We did it! Achieving two first-place finishes at U.S. Trials in New Jersey secured my three teammates and me the opportunity to represent the USA at this year’s World Championships.

Final #1. Credit: Row2k.com

Final #1. Credit: Row2k.com

We all feel honored to have this opportunity and, more than anything else, recognize the great challenge that lies ahead and the enormous responsibility we have to represent our country and perform.

Proudly carrying on the tradition of Wisconsin rowers competing on the world stage, I will be traveling to New Zealand with two former teammates from Wisco who are competing in the lightweight men’s four (LM4-) and lightweight men’s eight (LM8+). It is always great to have some fellow Badgers along on the trip.

The World Championships take place from October 31 until November 7. I’ll be updating this blog with links to results as the event nears. Stay tuned!

As an extra, here are some amazing shots from Joel Rogers, a professional rowing photographer who contacted us just before Trials to do a shoot during practice. It was on a day when we were doing some work in doubles. We often train in doubles because it helps develop better coordination and power for the quad. Enjoy!

Victoria and me rowing the double

Teammates Ursula and Abby

Victoria getting her blood lactate level tested by our coach during practice

Trials Week

Post #21

Princeton, New Jersey - I'm back in Princeton after not having raced for three months and I'm excited to get back on the course! I flew in with my teammates yesterday with big oar cases in hand since we brought all of our oars with us across the country. We loaded them all on the truck when our coach picked us up at the airport.

After rigging and going out for a spin on the water today, we have adjusted well to being here. I guess the fact that we brought the typical Northwest weather with us (rain...all day long!) helped.

Rigging the quad

Racing for our group starts tomorrow with Ursula in the single at 10:10 am. We'll team up to race the quad starting on Thursday. Race results can be found HERE. The quad is listed as "Women's Ltwt 4x." You'll notice that there are two finals listed for each boat class. That's because at trials, you have to win two out of three finals to qualify for the World Championships. We're ready to go and excited to race!

Countdown to U.S. Trials

Post #20

Bellingham, Washington - It's 9:30 am here on the west coast and my quad got off the water about an hour ago from a thirteen mile row. The weather in the Pacific Northwest is not what I'm used to. There are lots of foggy, rainy days which means that often times, we'll be on the water and find ourselves completely engulfed in fog. It can be a little scary until you find the land and get your bearings! Below are some photos from this morning's workout.

Training here has been going well. We are working very hard and putting in our miles on Lake Samish. Things are beginning to ramp up as as we head into racing. We leave for U.S. Trials in Princeton, New Jersey in eleven days and begin racing in fifteen. Trials is a best-two-out-of-three format, so the team that wins two of the three trials races qualifies to represent the USA at the World Championships.

This year's Worlds are particularly special because they are in the southern hemisphere meaning that the seasons are switched. It is currently late winter/early spring in New Zealand, so Worlds have been pushed back until November to ensure that it is warm enough to hold a World Championship regatta. This has significantly changed everyone's training because we are used to having Worlds in late August! The website for the regatta, which I've heard is supposed to be an amazing event, is HERE.

It has been a while since I last updated my ITA blog as I've been busy with my quad's blog. Now I'm back at it with this one, so check back on the usual two-week intervals and, for your super fans out there, I'll still be keeping up with the Bellingham Quad's blog HERE.

Bellingham Quad Blog

Post #19

Bellingham, Washington - My teammates, coach, and I have started a new blog chronicling our adventures leading up to U.S. Trials at the end of September and, if we win that, the World Championships in early November. Between the five of us, we are attempting to update it DAILY so I'm sending you over to that blog site for updates over the next couple of months.

You can find it HERE. (http://bellinghamquad.blogspot.com)

Hope you enjoy the overload of pictures/video/information!

Hiking in the Northwest

Post #18

Bellingham, Washington - Though the ITA athletes are taking a break from our normal two-week blog posts, I couldn't help but post these pictures. It has been a great couple of weeks and my team out here has hiked two mountains. Hiking is a really fun way to get away from the water and rowing machine and do some cross training. The views were amazing!

Hiking up Church Mountain

Church Mountain Summit! Mt. Baker in the background.

Hiking up Mt. Baker

All four of us with the Mt. Baker glacier in the background. It was so cloudy when we hiked...

...but beautiful when we got back down. Here's the view from the bottom.

On the Road Again...Again

Post #17

Bellingham, Washington - Yes, it really is the time of year when I travel a lot! I was at a training camp in Oklahoma City for ten days before going back home to Madison. I had two solid weeks of training in the single in Madison before I packed up my apartment, put it all in a U-Haul truck, and moved out. The next day (yesterday), I was flying over the snow-capped mountains of Washington before landing in Seattle. I'll be spending the next few months in Bellingham, a city about an hour and a half north of Seattle. It was sad to say goodbye to my cute apartment, great friends, and amazing community in Madison, but I am excited about being here. I am going to be training with two women who have already been named to the U.S. National team in the lightweight double for this year's World Championships in New Zealand. After trials in September, I'll know whether I'll be joining them on that trip. Bellingham is a gorgeous place to live and train and I feel really lucky to be here. Considering I grew up doing lots of hiking and romping in the mountains, it's great to be around them after being in the Midwest for such a long time! After settling in and getting over my jet lag, I look forward to starting an ITA project with the youth in the area.

On the Road Again

Post #16

Oklahoma City, OK - Well, as usual for this time of year, I have been doing lots of traveling. After racing at Elite Nationals, I took a mini-vacation in Rhode Island with my family. Without a doubt, Rhode Island tops my list of favorite places to be in the summer. Every time I come back (my family has been going there every summer for 18 years now!), everything slows down and I’m able to relax. I continued my workouts by going on some long runs, one of which I planned so that it ended at the beach and I could jump in the ocean!

After a couple days in Rhode Island, I said goodbye to my family (puppy included!) and went right back into training in Madison. I got to celebrate the fourth of July in Madison for the first time ever (goes to show how much I usually travel in July!) and had a great BBQ with friends. Just a week later, I packed my bags again and flew to Oklahoma City for a selection camp for the U.S. lightweight quad. Oklahoma City is beginning to build a U.S. Olympic Training site and we are some of the first athletes to train here.

I’m fortunate enough to stay with a host family here and they live in an apartment on the 22^nd floor of a downtown building. The views are cool, especially since the land is so flat here. Last night, there was a big storm that rolled through and I went out on the balcony to grab a quick video.