NSR 1: Day 2

Post #44

Princeton, New Jersey - My alarm clock went off at 4:45 am today (I like to be up and moving around for a while before racing) so it has been a long day to say the least. Here's the recap.

This morning I raced the heat. I got out in the lead early but was pushed by the second place boat for much of the race. I ended up coming in first, therefore qualifying for the A final. I knew looking at the results that Julie (Nichols) hadn't been pushed quite as hard in her heat so the times weren't an accurate gauge of speed.

Photos of this morning's heat (thanks to Row2k!). This was at 500 meters to go.

Heading into the final (which happened this evening as a result of yesterday's shuffling), I knew it would be a tough race with Julie. Julie has been racing on the elite scene since 2001 and has been to multiple World Championships. She represented the US in the lightweight single in New Zealand last year and placed sixth. She and I trained together for four weeks in Feb/March when I was in Berkeley so we'd already had lots of race pieces against each other. I knew we were close in speed and I knew she'd race well. I led the race off the start, and held the lead until just before the halfway mark (1000 m). Then Julie inched in front of me and stuck there for a while. She ended up beating me by two seconds at the end. Even though I didn't win, it was a really great race. I had so much fun getting back out on the course.

The next race on my schedule is NSR 2 in mid-May in the lightweight double. It has been great to hear from you all throughout this week's racing. Thanks for staying tuned!

NSR 1: Day 1

Post #43

Princeton, New Jersey - Wow, what a day. Starting from the beginning:

I met all the other lightweights at 6:15 am for our weigh-in. Weigh-ins happen two hours before race time (at all US selection events and internationally), and everyone shows up on time so they can get right to hydrating and eating breakfast. At that point, the chop on the water looked manageable but not particularly fun. By the time we launched at around 7:45, the wind had picked up and it was white-capping. Not what you want to see when you're getting ready to race a single!

USRowing decided to continue running the time trials anyway, but it wasn't pretty. It was a 17 mph tailwind by the time I went down the course and waves were crashing behind my stern. Yuck. About six inches of water sat in the bottom of my boat at the end of the race.

Despite the craziness, I think everyone (in all events - about 110 single scullers) made it back to the dock in one piece. I put my boat down and saw my parents, who told me about the results. Turns out I posted the fastest time in the time trial, so I'll enter the heats with the top seed. It's difficult to read into a non-elimination time trial and even more difficult when the conditions are super crazy, so the heats will be much more telling.

Speaking of heats, we showed up this afternoon to race the heat only to learn that they were being postponed until tomorrow morning. Considering it was still white-capping, I think it was a good call! Here's the updated schedule (full version here):

Friday 4/22

7:48 am Heat 1 (this is the one I'll be racing in - lane 3)

7:56 am Heat 2

8:04 am Heat 3

The progression remains the same: top two in the heats go on to final A, next two to final B, and last two to final C. The finals will be tomorrow evening, probably around 5-6 pm. Stay tuned on this NSR 1 website to see results.

Tomorrow should be a fun (and long) day. Gotta rest up!

Update: NSR 1

Post #42

Princeton, New Jersey - More information came in today about how to follow online.

Results can be found here. They won't be posted instantaneously (as they usually are) because the normal timing company isn't operating. Tomorrow morning's time trial begins at 8:15 eastern. It's head race style, meaning that they will start us one by one about twenty seconds apart. It's an interesting type of race because you really have no idea how you are doing relative to your competitors during the race. So I'll know how I did as soon as you'll know!

Oh, and the press release for the event can be found here, if you're interested in who to look for in the other events. Several national team lightweights are racing in the heavyweight division for this race, including Ursula Grobler (who sat in front of me in the quad at Worlds last year) and Meghan Sarbanis (who has been to several World Championships, most recently in 2009).

Ann Cheng posted a question yesterday about the time trial distance. Last year, USRowing changed the distance for time trials from 2,000 meters (the normal sprint race distance) to 1,900 meters. They made this switch in order to align USRowing's rules with FISA's rules. I guess if FISA ever had to run a time trial at an international event, they would use 1,900 meters, so USRowing decided to do the same. This actually works pretty well at Lake Mercer (where I'm racing) because it allows you to build into the piece for those first 100 meters. Since the time trial is head race style, there's no need to it off the start. You can simply row on the paddle, build up to speed and then, like a head race, the starter tells you when you're on.

As always, thanks for the support and comments - here we go!

National Selection Regatta #1

Post #41

Princeton, New Jersey - Ok, here it is: the first of several posts about NSR 1. I've been traveling the country for the past few months and everyone (former teammates, host families, friends, aunts, uncles, third graders at Randall, etc.) has been asking how they can follow me when I race. In an effort to keep you more updated on what's happening, I'll be posting to this as I progress through this week's racing.

I'm racing at the first National Selection Regatta (NSR) of the 2011 season in the lightweight single. For us lightweights, it serves as a race to see where we stand. We've all been training in singles throughout the winter and early spring, so we reconvene at this race to see how we stack up against each other. This race is an interesting one in that it doesn't mean much but also does at the same time. It doesn't mean much because the single isn't our Olympic event, the double is. Winning this race doesn't qualify you for a World Cup trip. At the same time, it does mean something because it affects who you partner up with for the next NSR (NSR 2, May 12-14) in doubles. Winning NSR 2 does qualify you to race at a World Cup. The selection process extends well beyond NSR 2, so just think of NSR 1 as the first step in that process (qualification for Worlds is an incredibly confusing process, even for me).

Coming back to the dock after racing the heat at NSR 1 in 2010

There are sixteen entries in the lightweight single this year and the group hails from clubs around the country: Seattle, Oklahoma, Philly, Boston, California, etc. The racing schedule is as follows:

Thursday:

8:15 am: head race style time trial (this determines seeding for the heats)

5:40/5:47/5:54 pm: three heats (top 2 advance to A final, next 2 to B final, last 2 to C final)

Friday:

7:56 am: A final

8:20 am: B final

9:02 am: C final

Saturday: practice and scrimmage in doubles (more to come on this)

If you're looking at the full schedule and are unfamiliar with the codes we use in rowing, the lightweight single is listed as LW1x. I'm unsure where they'll be posting the results of the racing but will update this when I know.

Debriefing with Erik at the end of the NSR in 2010

I was able to get out on the course this afternoon for a swing row. It felt so good to get out of the car and move around a bit! As I went down the course, I felt ready to race. I haven't raced (or even been on a fully buoyed course) since Worlds in November, and I can't wait to get back out there. Tomorrow will be a final tune-up before it all starts. On to the races!

Another Couple Thousand Miles

Post #40

Madison, Wisconsin - Another couple thousand miles later and I'm back at home in Madison. I got to drive back from Cali with a friend, which was so much better than driving by myself. Plus we got to see some amazing things along the way. This first photo was taken in Utah. I had never seen red rocks like these before this road trip to and from CA, so I was soaking it all in while sitting up there.

It's great to be back in Madison. We rolled in the day the lake melted. Perfect timing! (Actually, in all honesty, there were still huge sheets of ice in the middle of the lake on our first day back, but there was enough open water to do short laps back and forth.) The lake is now entirely liquid and we've had a few really good days on the water. This morning, the men's team raced against Michigan in front of the boathouse so I went down to cheer them on. In true Wisconsin Rowing fashion, we had the three grills fired up by 7:30 am with brats and burgers ready to go for when the athletes got off the water.

Go Badgers

Another reason why it's great to be back here is that my coach for the past five years, Erik, and his wife welcomed their first baby last weekend. I was able to see the little one when she was less than 24 hours old and that was truly a special experience. She is so adorable and I am so happy for them.

Finally, I've spent many hours in Ms. Feingold's classroom at Randall since I got back last week. I always let Ms. Feingold know when I'm coming back to town, but she keeps it a secret from the kids so it's a huge surprise for them when I walk in the classroom unannounced. This time around, I was welcomed by one big hug with about fifteen third graders around me. It doesn't get much better than that! I've jumped right back into helping them with their reading, writing, math, and spelling.

Unfortunately, I'll be leaving town in another week and a half. I'm headed to my first race of the season in New Jersey. It's called the USRowing National Selection Regatta #1 (NSR 1 for short) and I'll be racing the lightweight single against the other elite lightweights in the country. More to come as I lead up to that!

Practice Video

Post #39

Berkeley, CA - Often times in rowing, we use video review to learn how to improve technically. It's one thing to feel how you're rowing, but it's an entirely different thing to see what you're doing from the coach's view. There have been so many times that I've thought, "wow, I really feel like I'm (sitting up, getting my catches in well, rowing smoothly, etc.)" but then after seeing the video, realize that I am totally not. For me, video is one of the most valuable ways to make technical improvements. Here's some recent video of practice.

Over the weekend, the Wisconsin Lightweights were in the SF area to race Stanford and Princeton in their first spring race against other lightweight teams. It was great to see the Badgers again and cheer them on. The races were all dual style (the lake isn't wide enough for anything other than two boats across) so it made it especially exciting. Spring is here and I can't wait to get out there and race down the course myself!

Youth Bike Program

Post #38

San Francisco, California - While living and training in Berkeley for the month, I've gotten involved in a few community events. My most recent activity was a YMCA Youth Bike Program called Community Hubs. It was an open event for families in the community to come and learn bike safety, repair, etc. I spent my Saturday teaching kids how to ride bikes. It was so much fun and super rewarding. One of the girls came in with training wheels on and by the end of the day, she was confidently riding in circles around us! Here are a few photos. Tomorrow morning I'll be working with kids an elementary school in the city. More to come later!

Jason teaching one of the kids

Scenes from the Road: CA Highway 1 Edition

Post #37

Berkeley, California - I've borrowed ITA Athlete Torin's idea for the title of this post. More photos from the Olympic Training Center and the trip up the coast are below.

My time training in Chula Vista wrapped up with some good workouts and a few chances to race the men's pairs. I was training alongside the men's heavyweight team while I was there. Imagine seeing about twenty six-foot-seven heavyweight dudes and one little five-foot-six lightweight girl. It made for some funny remarks when people saw me standing with them during the land warm-up or at the team meetings. The coaches were kind enough to time me for the race pieces we did on the water and the team cheered me on even when I came across the finish line a full two minutes behind them. The good news is that the coaches convert the times into "perecentage of Gold Medal Standard" for each boat class, so I could at least compete with them on those numbers.

I'll be training in Oakland, California out of the Cal Berkeley boathouse for the next few weeks. Julie, the woman I'm training with, went to Cal and the coaches have been nothing but welcoming to me so far. We even get to meet up with the Cal women's team for weekly core classes on campus. I've never spent more than a day or two in the San Fran area so I'm excited to see more of it. About six friends from my high school rowing club live out here now so it's great to reconnect with them. I'm hoping they'll show me all the great spots!

View of the track and lake at the OTC

The 2012 Olympic Venues Map is up at the Athlete Center!

Elephant Seals

Surfers

My 2011 Tour de California traveling rig

570 miles

Post #36

Berkeley, California - Today I continued my west coast training adventure by driving up the California coast to San Francisco. Since I had all day to do the drive, I decided to take the more scenic route (although it was three hours longer). I drove the famous Highway 1, which goes right along the coast. In many areas, there are cliffs that drop straight down into the ocean and the "highway" is just a little road carved into it. There was plenty of twisting and turning but I'm happy to report that everything (boat included) has arrived in one piece. I saw so many incredible things along the way, including downtown Santa Barbara, giant elephant seals lying on the beach in San Simeone, and tons of beautiful views up through Big Sur. I pulled off the road about fifteen times along the way to snap photos. It was just stunning.

Some of those photos are below; more to come in the next day or two as I sift through the 110 that I took today!

Santa Barbara

Elephant Seals

2,150 miles

Post #35

Chula Vista, California - Over the past three days, I have conquered 2,150 miles of solo driving. It was my first big road trip alone and I just rolled into Chula Vista this afternoon. I am thrilled to finally be here and get out of the car. I drove through some amazing places though (Colorado mountain passes, Utah deserts, Las Vegas, and along the Pacific Ocean in Cali) and got to see so many things I've never seen before.

I'll be training here at the ARCO Olympic Training Center for a little while. I packed up my stuff in Madison, threw my boat and oars on top of my car, and headed west. I think about five different people along the way asked me if the funny thing on top of my car was a hang glider!

Colorado

Utah

Utah

California