Nottingham Autumn Head

Today saw the first race of the season with all our squad racing in 1x for the first division.  Not only was it a good race run through for GB trials it is also used to select our NRC crews for the Fullers Fours Head of the River.

 I’d had a good week on the water leading up to the head and I wanted to go out and put it into racing.  I felt I achieved a lot in today’s race and it has given me a lot more confidence going into next weekend.  Unfortunately due to my opposition scratching from the race I was racing for time where the event was concerned so there was no shiny stuff to be won today.  There was alot of satisfaction to be taken from my result coming 3rd within our squad.  Hopefully this will be enough to see me earn a place in the top 4x for Fullers Fours Head but as yet the crew is still to be decided. 

Lactate Testing

Well yesterday was a slow start…  We arrived at the Training Centre early and took a slow paddle down to the lake where we were to have our lactates tested.  The purpose of this testing is to work out our UT2 training pace from our lactates.  GB Rowing state that to train in your UT2 band you need to keep to 2mm of lactate which is around 55-70% of your maximum heart rate.

Lactate is produced when our energy system lacks oxygen.  This is not only happening at high intensity sport but also in day to day living.  High levels of lactate would be detrimental to performance and one of the key reasons for UT2 training is to enable the body to perform at a greater pace with a minimal amount of lactate. This will develop the aerobic capacity by means of capillarisation (formation of more small blood vessels, thus enhancing oxygen transport to the muscles) and by creating greater efficiency in the heart and lungs. If the aerobic capacity is greater, it means there will be more oxygen available to the working muscles and this should delay the onset of lactic acid at a given work intensity.

When we arrived there was some discussion amongst the coaches involved as there were too many athletes to run the testing in one group.  This then meant we would have to wait for the first group to finish before we could start our testing.  We went up to stretch in the lobby at Holme Pierrepont but not until we had had our porridge fix.  We then got to stretch whilst watching the first half of the England vs Scotland World Cup match. 

Once the first group had finished we then went down to start the testing.  We started by having our resting lactates measured for a starting point as everyone’s lactate will vary from person to person.  We then boated and started at 2 minute intervals to allow time for Caroline to take the lactates.  After each 4km loop of the lake we came into the landing stage and had our lactates taken before setting of for our next loop.  We were to do 4 loops 16km in total for the test however I did mine over 3 loops 12k as I have been suffering with a bit of back trouble. 

Once the testing had been completed Dez and Caroline got together to talk over the results and work out our UT2 training paces.  For all athletes involved UT2 pace was achieved in the second loop and this now means we know what pace we need to paddle at to get the benefits of UT2 training.

In Search of Brilliance

I had my second coaching session with performance coach Terry Williamson of In Search of Brilliance this week.  We have been working on my target for the 2km ergo test at October trials.  On the 22^nd and 23^rd of October our squad will be racing in Boston for the 2012 season Great Britain trials.  It is made up of a 2km ergo test on the Saturday followed by a 5km race on the water.

I am a strong believer in the mental ability of athletes.  Pushing your body to the limit in races is painful and its how you subconsciously process that pain mentally that can really make the difference between winning and losing.  With Terry we worked on how my subconscious processes my 2km ergo race and did a lot of visualisation.  In the first session we looked at how I could alter my thought processes to achieve my target and I did a lot of work on this between sessions.  In this week’s session we looked at how certain I was in achieving my target and the conclusion is that I am very confident in achieving my target.

In the next session we will look at how I process my race on the water. 



Official Start to the 2012 Season

Yes I have been training for the last few weeks but we officially started the new season today.  We have moved to our new boat bay now based on the River just down from the main club.  Whilst the rest of the squad were on there break a few of us along with some other club members have been involved in getting the facility up and running for our return.  It is a great facility but there is still a lot to sort and organise.  

This season we will spend the winter training from our new bay on the river and will return to the lake for the summer.  For most of us the prospect of training on the river and our new facility's is an exciting one we are all sad to be leaving the lake after all these years, but till the summer its bye bye lake.

Its back to the grindstone for the next season and training started quite pleasant with a nice technical session.  Boom second session 30 minute ergo thanks Dez.  Well I suppose we may as well start as we mean to go on.  Train hard, Race hard!!!

Hitting it Hard

After easing nicely back into training I managed to injure my hip flexor last week.  After doing a lot of backstop drills on the Saturday and spinning on Monday night it got increasingly worse throughout Tuesday.  I went and had a sports massage on it on Thursday with Dan which seemed to do the trick.  He gave me some stretches to help loosen it off and now it’s no longer painful I can start to stretch it out.  It did mean a week out of training and although I found it highly annoying it was the best time for it to happen as we are currently on our summer break and I’m just glad it didn’t happen during the competition period. 

This week there has only been 3 of us training and we hit it pretty hard ready for the start of season.  We have had some really good training out on the water doing a little bit of competitive paddling with a few burst for good measure.  We also hit the weights hard this week and trust me I could tell I’ve not done weights for a while.  When we did them on Tuesday they seemed to take forever just to get round the circuit and I was defiantly struggling.  By the time we did them on Thursday I think my body had realised it was back in training mode and I found it much more pleasant.  I think it’s time we start upping the weight now ready for when the other return from there break. 

Don't rock the boat

After a 3 week break from training I went out in my 1x for the first time today.  Lets just say it was an interesting start.  For those of you that don't don't know the 1x is quite an unstable boat and mine certainly was this morning.  I decided to keep my blade on the water for a bit more stability until I got a feel for it again.  I had a rather nice paddle in the end and quite enjoyed it out there in the sunshine.

During my 3 week break from training I had the pleasure of working back my extra holiday after such a busy summer.  Not the best way to spend my break but the hours are done and I can now focus on training and getting ready for October trials.

We officially start back on Mon 5th September and that's when the real work will begin but for now we remain on a relatively light training programme just to keep us ticking over. 

Bring on the 2012 season!!!

Henley Women's Regatta

This weekend saw rowers from around the world flock to Henley-on-Thames for the prestigious Henley Women’s Regatta.  I raced alongside Reading University RC member Lucinda Gooderham in the Elite 2- for the Redgrave Trophy. 

Newcastle University RC was the first challenge on the Saturday to get through to the semi-final on the Sunday.  We managed to stamp our authority on the 2- from early on in the race and by the end of Temple Island we pulled away to clear water and comfortably lead the race managing to cruse down the course at 22 stokes per minute.  Also through to face us in the semi-final was Vesta B while on the other side of the draw Vetsa A would battle it out with Barnes Bridge Ladies for a spot in the final showdown of the Elite 2-. 

The first race down the track on Sunday morning was the semi-final between Vesta A and Barnes Bridge ladies.  This saw a tight battle between the 2 crews with Vesta A edging infront to a 1 length win.  We then followed down the course and again made light work of the opposition with again a comfortable lead from early on in the race.  We got to watch plenty of racing before our final at 15.05 although the weather wasn’t the kindest an was quite wet with intermittent blue skys.

The challenge was on could we go out for our 3^rd verdict of easily.  Sat on the start line Vesta A alongside we waited for the flag.  It had got a lot choppier than our earlier race and Vesta used to the tideway managed to hold on longer that we would have liked but we stayed with our plan and pulled away from them for yes you’ve guessed it our 3^rd easily verdict.

I just hope this bodes well for European selection later on in July.

Catch up time

Well it’s been a long time since I’ve but anything up it’s been rather busy of late.  I’ve been training as part of the development squad for team GB with the aim of going to the European Championships in September. 

The squad of 12 have been training for 8 seats at the European Championships and have had some good races so far.  The first races we did was some speed orders firstly against the women’s squad 8+ at Dorney Lake the Olympic rowing venue where we were placed just 9 seconds down on the squad boat.  We then went to Caversham the home of GB Rowing and did a speed order against the under 23 crew.  Despite being down at the start we showed our dominance and powered through the U23’s and finished with a comfortable lead.  This was after just a week of training in the 8+ with much more training and boat speed to come. 

Since then we have been training in the 8+ and also in two 4- which we raced at Metropolitan Amateur Regatta last weekend.  First up for the weekend was the 8+ and we aimed to dominate the race from early on.  As planned we got out of the blocks first closely followed by the U23 crew.  We knew we could totally overpower the other crews and by the 500m mark had a 3 second lead on the next crew to finish 12 seconds ahead of the U23 crew which came in second.

Then came time for the inter-crew battle between the 4-‘s with 6 of the 7 boats racing coming from international selection processes.  Leading the way down the course was our 2 4-‘s and in the first 500m we could see we were up although there was only 1 second in it.  We knew the other 4- wouldn’t take this race lying down and we would have to work to keep that lead.  We powered down to the halfway mark and managed to gain a further second on them.  We set to go again over the last 1000m and pulled away further to finish 5 seconds up on our other boat.  In 3^rd and 4^th with only 2 second dividing them was the U23 boats with the junior boat some way behind in 6^th and 7^th.

The Sunday 8+ race planned out much the same as the Saturday although we didn’t have such a good race we still dominated the field with a comfortable 8 second lead.  The NRC high performance squad also had wins for the IM1 2x and the Elite 4x.

For Henley Women’s Regatta I will be racing in both a 2- and the 8+.  In preparation for this we decided to enter the 2- at Reading Amateur Regatta since we have not raced in this boat.  The event for the Elite 2- was larger than we expected and we were set to meet most of our opposition for HWR.  We won all 3 of our races with a comfortable lead which looks good for HWR but a lot can happen in a week.

Fingers crossed