Girls on the Run

Post #65

Oakland, California - Since the World Championships, I spent a little time relaxing and traveling but now I'm back in California and back to training. On my drive out here, I went through the salt flats in Utah, which are just west of Salt Lake City. The salt flats are like a massive desert, but with hard packed salt underfoot instead of sand. When I was there, it was a perfect day: 4:30 pm, 85 degrees, and gorgeous. It looked like the land went on forever.

Once I made it out to California, I jumped right in with Girls on the Run. I'm new to the program, but I already love it. I'm one of three coaches for the Lake Merritt Healthy Hearts team. The girls are great and we are quickly getting to know each other and settling into the season.

Holding up our Girls on the Run cord

Warming up for the workout

On the rowing side of things, I am leaving in less than three weeks for Head of the Charles. The Charles is one of my favorite races since it's in my hometown. Plus it's a giant reunion of high school, college, and national team friends from over the years. What's not to love?! I'll be racing in the lightweight single on October 23. More to come later on that!

World Championships: 4th Place

Post #64

Bled, Slovenia - We are leaving Bled and the 2011 World Championships with a fourth place finish. The racing in the final was tight all the way to the finish line, and we ended up getting nabbed by the British double by 0.6 seconds to put us in 4th.

Like I said in my interview with USRowing afterwards, coming so close to the medals (but not actually getting one) is never an easy place to be in. Julie and I have had a great season though, and we accomplished a lot this past week. We had the highest finish in the US lightweight double since 2005 and we qualified the US for a spot in this event at the Olympics. So no matter how frustrated we want to be about not getting a medal, those are two really great achievements.

Now that the season is over, it's time to take a mini-rest, visit family, and get ready for next year. With London less than eleven months away, it's going to be a big year!

Last minute of the race (thanks row2k!)

Exhausted at the finish line

World Championships: Through the Semis, Onto the Final

Post #63

Bled, Slovenia - In semifinal #2 this morning, Julie and I placed third, which was enough to qualify us for tomorrow's A final. The race was the tightest through the 1500 meters that I've been in for a while, but that's part of why I love racing. There were five boats even across at that point and everyone was gunning it to get in that top three and advance. We are excited to have qualified the US in this event for the Olympics and to be the first US lightweight women's double crew since 2005 to make the A final.

Tomorrow's final will undoubtedly have more tight racing. We will face New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain, Canada, and Greece. We're racing at 12:52 pm local time - that's 6:52 am on the east coast and (eek) 3:52 am on the west coast. Live video feed will be available, as well as live results. Thanks for staying tuned, and go USA!

Sitting at the starting line of today's semi

World Championships: Heat Win!

Post #62

Bled, Slovenia - Julie and I came away with a win in the heat on Monday, meaning that we qualified directly through to the semifinals. Based on the new (and potential Olympic) race schedule, the semis are on Saturday and the finals are on Sunday. Top 3 boats from the semi will qualify for the A final and everyone else will head to the B final.

Go USA!

Packed practice lanes

Off the start in Monday's heat (thanks to row2k!)

Finish line and grandstands from above (thanks to row2k!)

World Championships: Arrival in Slovenia

Post #61

Bled, Slovenia - We arrived here on Saturday morning after three flights and a bus ride from the airport. The nine hour time change from California has taken a few days to adjust to, but we're feeling better by the day. The venue here is great; it definitely ranks as one of the most gorgeous places I've ever rowed. There is a castle at the 500 meter mark and an island with a church at the 1500 meter mark. The pictures do a better job of describing the scene here:

With 26 entries in our event, we will be racing many times over the course of the eight day regatta. This year's Worlds are extra important for everyone: they mark the first step in the process to qualify for the Olympics. Every Olympic event has their own qualifying standards. For ours (LW2x), the top eight countries qualify...that's countries, not the specific athletes in the boats. The athlete qualification happens next year.

As mentioned before, I am one of several athletes writing for the row2k Worlds blog. Between all of us, there's probably more info than you'd need about how the US and Canadian teams are doing over here!

That's all for now - more to come later as we approach racing.

Pre-Worlds Stuff and Website Launch

Post #60

Oakland, California - My pre-Worlds training here is wrapping up and we're getting ready to head out to Slovenia. Margot and Paul (with puppy Samuel) have been letting me stay with them in California. Margs and I go way back: we rowed together in high school and became best friends. We both went to Wisconsin and rowed for the lightweight team there, often sitting next to each other in the 8. We also lived together for most of college, which means that I also basically lived with Paul once they started dating junior year. They are great people and are like family to me.

Row2k has asked me to be one of their National Team bloggers while at Worlds. I'll be contributing to their Worlds blog section throughout racing - keep an eye out! I'm honored to be one of the athletes contributing to this and I'm excited to see what all of us can put together. Also, since row2k is so awesome, they try to post a gallery of pre-Worlds training photos for each boat that will be competing. The galleries are posting this week, and ours was just put up the other day. The photos below were taken on Saturday morning.

Last but not least, I have (hesitantly) launched a website. I have never wanted to be an athlete who flaunts my rowing career, but I have wanted to keep friends/supporters in the loop. Hence, the website: kristinhedstrom.com. It was created as a result of two things: people wanting an easier way to stay in the loop (and find this blog's URL - it's easier to remember my name than this long blog address!) and people wanting a simpler way to help support me financially. For those of you who have donated: my sincerest thanks. The fact that you understand the financial burden that following a dream like this comes along with and are willing to help out means so much to me.

Thank You, Marin!

Post #59

Oakland, California - This morning Julie and I took a field trip to the Marin Rowing Association. They hosted us for a practice and let us do some pieces against their boats. There were plenty of playful challenges ("I'm gonna crush you!"), breaking the rules (starting the race before the coaches said "go"), and just generally having a good time. There were lots of laughs between the pieces...and sometimes during them. It was fun to get out there and have a stress-free, fun time to break up our training cycle. After the pieces, we grabbed some coffee with the team and spent time getting to know them better. They are a great group: really interested in what we're doing, really positive about their own rowing and upcoming National Championships, and ready to root us on from afar at the end of August. It means so much to have their support as we prepare for Worlds.

Reenacting our Lucerne podium photo with one of the Marin rowers!

When we're not doing pieces in Marin, we've been hard at work preparing for Worlds, which starts three weeks from today. It feels like time is flying. We thought it would feel like we were back in the U.S. for a long time between the last World Cup and when we leave for the World Champs, but our time here is almost over already. Practices have been going well though, and we're making changes to ensure we're as fast as possible in Slovenia.

After trials ended last week, the entire US roster for Worlds was set. We'll know our competitors for Worlds in about a week. More to come later!

Cali

Post #58

Berkeley, California - Two weeks have already flown by since the last World Cup of the 2011 season. Although I'm all adjusted to US living now, it was a bit of a culture shock during the first few days. The biggest thing for me was being able to understand what everyone here is saying and easily communicate with them. No more games of charades to try to get them to understand what you are talking about! Beyond that, Julie and I joked about how grocery shopping takes about a third of the time here as it did in Europe. We know where everything in the store is and can read all the labels, so it's a cinch.

So we are training in California again. It's a little strange to be back. Last time we were here (in March), things were different. We were in singles, training alongside each other and racing each other every day in preparation for the first NSR. Now it's a whole different story. With a good handful of domestic and international racing under our belts, we're now focused 100% on Worlds. It's still five weeks away, which is actually kind of nice. The World Cups were so close together: by the time we recovered from one, we essentially only had a week and a half of solid work before we started our race prep for the next. Now we've got time to get in good training and be ready to go for the big one in August.

Sunset from the plane. Time to go back to the USA.

Wrapping it up in Lucerne

Post #57

Lucerne, Switzerland - Julie and I raced to a third place finish in yesterday's A final behind the reigning World Champion Canadians and the British crew that beat us back at World Cup I. It was a close race all the way down the course, with us and Great Britain constantly trying to inch ahead of each other. Despite the fact that they nicked us in the final strokes, we were happy to earn ourselves a bronze medal.

Even more exciting, though, is the fact that this bronze, along with our medals from the other World Cups, made us the overall points winners for the 2011 World Cup season. We are the first U.S. crew to ever win a points trophy, and we couldn't be happier about it.

Video of the race (under "Video Archive" and then LW2x)

USRowing press release

We've got a long few days of travel ahead of us as we finally head back to the US. It has been over seven weeks of training and racing in Europe and as much as I love it here, I'm ready to get back to the good ole US of A!

Yellow Jerseys and Points Trophy!

Great Britain, Canada, and USA

World Cup III

Post #56

Lucerne, Switzerland - Yup, it's back to racing again, and this time we're at the last stage of the 2011 World Cup series. Ask any international rower and what their favorite racecourse is and chances are they'll say Lucerne. When I was in college, I remember hearing Erik and other former national team rowers talk about this place like it was a magical. When I came here for the first time in 2009, I finally understood why. The course is on the Rotsee, a body of water framed by green hillsides high enough to keep the wind from churning up the water. It's also just wide enough and long enough for a standard course, so the water stays flat almost all the time. This makes for fair and fast racing. Every so often, you'll see a train go by along the water or hear cowbells clanging on the hillsides, so you really feel like you're having a classic Swiss rowing experience. Even though I've raced here before, it's just as amazing the second time around.

This morning on the Rotsee. Getting ready for early practice!

As if the rowing venue wasn't perfect enough, the Rotsee is just up the hill from Lucerne, which is an incredible place. It has cobblestone streets, old buildings, castles on the hillsides, gorgeous Lake Lucerne (with plenty of swimmers, paddle boaters, and swans) and a canal winding through the city.

Lake Lucerne in the background and the canal through the city.

Canal

Ok, on to the rowing stuff. This event is huge. There are over 900 athletes racing this weekend from fifty nations so you can imagine how packed the boatyard and course (during practice times) are. We've been out for a few practices in the last few days and since I'm sitting in the bow seat, I'm responsible for steering our double. In normal training (i.e. places with not much boat traffic at 6 am), you can turn around to see where you're going every couple minutes. Here, it's often every couple strokes. There's a posted traffic pattern but different countries have different interpretations of it so I have to be ready for anything and everything. Add in the fact that everyone speaks different languages and you get some "interesting" situations. It's a challenge, but always fun to get out there.

Entries are in for our event and this looks to be the most competitive of the World Cups so far, with several notable additions: Canada (reigning World Champs), Australia, and New Zealand, among others. Based on the 24 boats entered, we will have this schedule and progression:

Friday AM: Heats. Winner (out of 6 boats) advances to the semifinal. All other boats to the repechage.

Friday PM: Repechages. Top 2 boats (out of 5) advance to the A/B semifinal, bottom 3 to the C/D semifinal.

Saturday: Semifinals. In the A/B semi, top 3 boats (out of 6) advance to the A final, bottom 3 boats to the B final. Same goes for the C/D semi.

Sunday: Finals.

As with the other World Cups, it's a pretty compressed schedule, but that gives us lots of times down the course. We've gotten so much great international experience this summer and this will be our last test before Worlds in August. Results will be posted here, and there will likely be live video feed on Sunday (link will be posted there).

Go USA!