NSR 1: Day 2

Post # 129

Princeton, New Jersey - With wins in the heat yesterday and the semifinal today, I'm off to the A final tomorrow here at the USRowing National Selection Regatta. USRowing recapped all of the events and is also providing live streaming for tomorrow's finals. My race is at 8:10 am, which is at (oof) 5:10 am in California. Here we go!

Big props to Row2k for these pictures.

NSR 1: Day 1

Post # 128

Princeton, New Jersey - Racing is underway here at NSR 1. We raced the time trial this morning and are now seeded into heats, which will be run this evening. My heat is at 6:50 pm. Here is the schedule and progression:

Today at 6:42, 6:50, and 6:58 pm: Heats (top 4 to Friday semifinals, rest to C final)

Friday at 7:48 and 7:56 am: Semifinals (top 3 to A final, rest to B final)
Friday at 8:28 am: C Final

Saturday at 7:52 am: B Final
Saturday at 8:10 am: A Final

More information, including results and how to watch the live streaming, can be found HERE.

Go CRC, go USA!

Wouldn't be a spring NSR without choppy water! Racing this morning in the time trial. (Photo: Row2k) 

Launching for practice yesterday afternoon. (Photo: CRC) 

National Selection Regatta #1

Post # 127

This year has been different in many ways. Coming off the Olympics last summer, I really had no idea how it would shape up. I didn't know if I'd want to row anymore and if I did, how often I'd want to be out there. I also wondered whether I'd find the same passion for it that I'd had before or just feel burned out on it all. For the first year in my 13-year rowing career, I've had a chance to step back, train less, and finally take a deep breath (not literally speaking, of course). I took things easier than normal (which is all relative) but I left my options open so that if I wanted to race. Slowly, over the course of the year, I realized that I can't not race. I love to have a goal and train hard for it. That's why in the fall, it wasn't hard to "convince" me to race at the Head of the Charles - it in fact took very little egging me on. And it's also how the National Selection Regatta (NSR) 1 entry list ended up having my name on it.

This first NSR of the spring starts on Thursday in Princeton, New Jersey and for the lightweight women, it serves to show us where we stand compared to each other. We all train in different locations - there are entries from southern CA, northern CA, Seattle, Oklahoma, Philly, Boston, and more - so we meet up at this first race to get an idea of our rank.

USRowing's preliminary schedule for the lightweight women is as follows:
Thursday morning: time trial (to seed the heats)
Thursday evening: heats
Friday morning: semifinals
Saturday morning: finals

One very exciting update from the past two weeks is that I got a new boat! It's made by Hudson Boat Works and it is gorgeous. Julie and I have trained and raced in a Hudson double for the past two years, so it's great for me to be able to rep them in the single as well. Unzipping the cover on a brand new boat isn't something you get to do a lot of times in your life, and you feel just like a kid on Christmas morning. I got to see it for the first time on a Monday morning, and it totally made my week.

As usual, I'll be keeping the blog updated throughout the racing. Until then, here are a few photos of training over the past week or so:

The Best Five Minutes You'll Spend All Day

Post # 126

This post is not like my usual blog posts, but this movie is not like your usual movie. A friend brought it to my attention earlier this week and it completely stuck with me - partly because I'm chasing a big dream that doesn't involve a big paycheck, but mostly because I think this guy is right on target with his approach to life.

 

"I try to collect moments. I step back and watch the movie that is my life for just a second, because it's easy to miss the good stuff. The magic, when it happens. I try really hard to realize when it's amazing, and even when it's not."

I've had a lot of amazing moments in my life so far, and I'm thankful for each one. I try to experience life in unique ways. I want to go to lots of different places and see lots of different things, and I try to make that happen. If I get it in my head that I want to see or do something, you can be sure I'll do it, even if it takes me a while to get there. I believe that there is so much out there to see and do, and most of the time, it doesn't take a lot of planning or extra time to do it. Some of the coolest things I've ever done were unplanned, where I was just winging it with friends or family and ended up having an awesome experience. Like when my friend Roger and I veered off our cross-country road trip path just a little to poke around Arches National Park and spent the next five hours in absolute wonder. Or when I chose to do a San Diego to San Fran road trip on Highway One the whole way and saw some phenomenal views. Or when Julie and I visited Venice after Worlds in 2011 and arrived after a day of five different modes of transportation (including a packed bus bumping Euro-techno for a few hours) because it was the cheapest. Or when we'd run out of our apartment in college when it started snowing so we could sled down the middle of the street on a huge hill before the plows got to it. A lot of times, it's just been a matter of saying "yes" to an opportunity, even if you have no idea what road it will lead you down. 

I said "yes" to the opportunity of trying out for the Senior National Team back in 2009 and ever since, it's taken me on a wild ride. I've gotten to meet amazing people and see incredible things. As elite athletes, it's easy for us to get caught up in the stress of what we do because we live in a world of unknowns. How will I perform at this race? How am I going to make weight? Who am I going to row with? Will I make the Team this year?  How am I going to afford this? Add to that the pressure we put on ourselves and the pressure we sometimes feel from others, and it can be a tough gig. In the middle of it all, I try to step back every so often, look at what I get to do every day, and realize how lucky I am. I try to appreciate the amazingness of my "job" as much as I can. And at the end of the day, I know with certainty that I absolutely, positively love this sport and wouldn't rather be doing anything else. I really believe that "inside, we are all capable of surprising ourselves," and I love seeing that happen. 

A few memorable experiences over the past couple years: 

Left: The Arches NP Day. Right: When the search for my first sand dollar was finally complete.

This is the life: launching off the docks on a flat water morning in Wisconsin

An unforgettable summer solstice hike up to 6,500 feet in Switzerland at 9:15 pm with friends we'd met in town

 Taking in New Zealand by going backpacking and by fulfilling my goal of swimming in the clear blue Pacific.

First Wins of the Season

Post # 125

What's so bad about being at the boathouse at 6:15 am on a Sunday? Not much, when you have flat water, a rising sun, and you're launching for a rowing race on your home water. Artemis had just that this morning for their second race of the season. The boys' quad, single, and four all logged their first wins of the season, and it was awesome! The girls won a whole bunch of events too. There is a real feeling of excitement and improvement building at this club, and today showed that. We're slowly coming together even more as a team and the tough practices are starting to pay off on race day.

Boys quad with a dominating lead

Boys four after their win

Girls quad

I couldn't be more proud of the entire team - boys and girls - on their performances today. They were really aggressive on the water and so supportive of each other and helpful off the water.

Go Artemis!

Racing Begins for Artemis

Post # 124

Last Saturday marked the first race of the season for Artemis Rowing, and our team did great. The guys raced in lots of different events and many of them raced twice. By the end of the day, everyone was exhausted and we had some awesome results: the 8th grade/frosh 8 notched a 3rd place finish in a field of 11 boats and the quad also got 3rd.

Love this shot of my 8th grade/frosh 8. Such characters!

The quad launching for their race

My favorite part of the day was watching each one of them come off the water after each race. They were ecstatic. Nothin' like the nerves and thrill of racing to make you feel alive.

The team is really starting to come into their own and we're bonding more and more as racing kicks into gear. We're working harder than ever at practice to prep for the rest of the spring season, which culminates in the regional championship in early May. It's so fun and rewarding for me to see these kids learn to love a sport that I also love so much.

Inspiring and Being Inspired

Post # 123

I'm all about inspiring others to reach higher and understand their sport better, whether that's in terms of training, racing, nutrition, or mental preparation. One new way for me to make that happen is through an online Athlete Network I'm now part of. It's a group of 20+ elite rowers from the US and Canada that are creating a virtual community to inspire the rest of the rowing/athletic world. Each of us is sharing information, best practices, and stories about the sport and life as a full-time athlete. We're also going to be doing workshops, where people get to talk to us and ask questions face-to-face on a Google Hangout. I'm really excited to learn from my teammates and see what we can all create individually and as a whole. To get access to all of it, just sign up to be an "insider" on the site.

The flip side to inspiring others is having others inspire me. Often times when I speak at events, like the one I went to yesterday at a Running for a Better Oakland, I am so impressed by young, up-and-coming athletes. RBO is a free, nonprofit club in Oakland that trains kids for 5ks, half marathons, and marathons. I'd heard a lot about the program from its director, who I've known for some time now, but I'd never seen the whole thing in action. The club draws over 300 kids in Oakland, regardless of background, motive, age, or socioeconomic status down to the lake on a Saturday mornings to run. I felt the excitement and positivity of the morning as kids got ready for their runs and saw the incredible support of the volunteers organizing and motivating the kids. But some of them didn't need motivation; I heard numerous first graders saying in the most normal and nonchalant way that they were about to run ten miles. Awesome!

I'm inspired by these girls for so many reasons - one of which is that they ran 10 miles yesterday! 

5k kids warming up with some leg swings 

Snow and Sun

Post # 122

My parents live in the Boston area so I've been getting daily updates on the damage that Nemo has wreaked on the area. Several feet of snow fell the other day so they've been out shoveling constantly and keeping the wood stove cranked. As much as I like living in CA right now, I do miss those huge New England snow storms. As a kid, it was the best to wake up, look out the window, and have everything blanketed in freshly fallen snow.

Out here in California, we've had some really nice weather over the past couple weeks. I've been training with the California Rowing Club a fair amount and they are a great group of people. It's been fun to do some racing with them here and there too. Even though we're span all categories in rowing (lightweight and heavyweight, men and women) we're able to compete against each other using percentages. Our race times get compared against the world record time in our event and then we get ranked by our percentage of that time. So even though I'm a little lightweight girl, I still have a way to compete against the guys who are much taller and stronger than me. The best part about all of it is that it's an easygoing, casual group of athletes who are still serious about training. It's a great combination, especially for where I'm at in my training right now. Working out with them is always a good time.

Head racing in Oakland 

The best way to spend a February morning

Presenting: Artemis Rowing

Post # 121

Artemis Rowing is Oakland Youth Rowing's new name. Though nothing else has changed about the program or its mission, we're welcoming the new name and making the transition to fully adopt it.

I'm still coaching the boys' team and practices have been going great. Winter is the season without regattas so things slow down a bit. That gives us time to work on technical changes and fitness that will prepare us for the spring season. Last week we had an incredible few days of flat water and gorgeous sunsets. The pictures below were taken on three separate nights, each of which was amazing.

As for my own training, I'm definitely getting back into it. My primary focus this post-Olympic year was always to earn back some money that I spent in the past four years for training, and I'm trying to follow through on that. I had to go into pretty significant debt to compete in the regattas I did and to reach my goal of competing at the Olympics, so now I'm tackling the task of recovering financially. It's still important to me to get on the water and keep my fitness up, so I'm at the boathouse most mornings. Last week, a couple U-23 lightweight girls were in town and we got together and did some work in a quad. I'm all for helping the next generation of lightweights develop, and plus it was fun for me to have some time in a big boat. (Though I will say it was strange for me to be the "old" person in the boat - I was always the youngest one around. since when did that happen?!)

Photo credit: California Rowing Club

I've got some exciting things on tap for early 2013 - stay tuned to hear more!

A Different Kind of Workout

Post # 120

Salt Lake City, Utah - I've been out in Utah for a few days visiting my family for the holidays. My brother lives out here now and is a champ downhill skier (he doesn't race, but he's got serious skills). We had planned to do a bunch of downhill skiing while we were here, but I rallied my parents to go cross-country skiing with me as well. The post-Olympic period is a better time than any to try out new activities and I had always wanted to try my hand at a sport I've heard so much about. I was excited when there was no parental resistance to my idea, and we headed up to a nearby ski track the next morning.

Things I didn't know before we strapped on our skis: 1. My parents were both certified nordic ski instructors back in the day (how was this left out of the original discussion?). 2. They both still have a knack for teaching beginners (read: me).

I learned pretty quickly that similar to my main sport, nordic skiing is very repetitive and requires a lot of strength, technique, and balance. The former, I'm pretty good with. The latter two, not so much. Actually, not at all. Cross-country skiing is a different kind of motion on a different kind of surface than I'm used to. I had no idea what I was doing, but I kind of picked it up as I logged some km's. Still, I couldn't help but spend the whole time thinking about the efficiency of the motion, trying to understand how the skis moved, and figuring out how this crazy motion is supposed to look (and then asking my parents how closely I compared - they were forgiving in their assessments). What can I say, my brain is wired for efficiency.

The only picture of me skiing, and it doesn't even look like I'm wearing skis.

By the end of the day, I had gotten a great workout in and had gained huge respect for my ITA teammates Brian, Torin, and Sylvan. Major props to them. Cross-country skiing requires a lot of skill and cardiovascular fitness - not that I ever doubted them, but now I know for sure. For you three, good luck at US Nationals next week. I'll be watching and cheering from afar.