Guernsey Girl

Welcome to my blog! I am Erica Bodman from Guernsey, 25 years old. I started rowing in 2008, retired in 2013.

Life goes on. This is my story.

Wednesday 9 November 2011

Fullers Head of the River Fours

Last weekend I raced on the Tideway, Chiswick to Putney, for Fours Head.  I raced in elite quads, for Leander with (Stroke - Bow) Tina Stiller, Victoria Meyer-Laker, Polly Swann and myself.  I was steering, this was a first for me on the tideway and very nerveracking! The river is very wide and the stream is about 10m wide I've heard, and makes a big difference to your speed.  The instructions for getting the right 'line' are daunting to say the least, especially when you are taking 30+ strokes a minute and not facing the way you are heading!  All credit for my steering the fastest line goes to Rhiannon Jones, lovely housemate and fantastic cox, thank you for painstakingly teaching me the course.

Unfortunately we had to race for a time only, not a placing, because from the original entry I was the only consistent member of the crew due to illnesses and injuries in the original line up.  This meant a 75% crew change, when you are only allowed a 50% crew change.  However, this did not affect our starting position or the way we raced.  Despite a good racing line, it was not our best race and felt decidedly 'unracy' due in part to some injuries within the boat.  In addition, we had only had a few outings together, coming together on the Tuesday before racing on Saturday.  With this in mind we were very pleased with the results; our time put us second in the elite quads category behind another Leander boat stroked by Anna Watkins, the fastest female rower in the country and part of the gold medal winning GB double.  We beat on time a few other crews, including last years winner, Nottingham. 

We have a hard couple of weeks training now and then a 2k ergo test at the end of the month.  Outside of rowing I am looking forward to a visit from my parents and brother this weekend and am glad they will be able to watch me in concert with the Reading Symphony Orchestra!

Friday 14 October 2011

Europeans, rest, a new season and new boat!

Europeans

Racing in Bulgaria was tough.  International competition is always stiff, but as a GB development crew against some other countries' top senior boats we knew the gold standard was high!


The European Championships happened this year in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 16-18th of September.  We had six crews in our event, so we had a race for lanes on the Friday and the Final on the Sunday.  Our season as a crew had been very mixed, with the actual crew only coming together for the first time 10 days before we raced.  The race for lanes was therefore a great opportunity for us to race the full race distance together as a crew for the first time.  Crews all use the race for lanes for a different purpose.  Some go out to race as hard as they can, to try out their race plan.  Some race to a certain point and then settle onto a more relaxed pace.  Some hardly race it at all and want to save themselves for the final.  Some go out to win the race to ensure the best lane in the final.  The lake and conditions in Plovdiv were pretty fair so no advantage was found by having the 'better' lanes.  We used the race to cement the crew and run through our race plan.  It was a case of laying ourselves on the line and seeing what we could do, and then being able to make changes for the final.

The final was dictated by the Romanians who showed their dominance from the outset.  We fought hard to overturn the Russians who had beaten us in the race for lanes, but could do nothing to impact on the Ukranians and Belarussians.

It was a heartbreaking result, because we were aiming for the podium.  It had been a very long season with some dark times for the whole crew.  Large groups of women are never easy to manage, especially when they are physically and emotionally exhausted!  However, for me personally, it has been invaluable to get the opportunity to spend a whole season in a decent sweep boat, and this result gives us more drive and ambition to achieve greater things next year.


After this last race of the season we had a two week break.  As the only break in the year that we get from training, I tried to make the most of it!  I spent a few days after racing travelling in Bulgaria with my parents, then 5 days in Morocco with some rowing friends from the european team, a couple days at home in Guernsey and then a day or so back in Caversham before training started!

In Morocco we felt a million miles away from the pressure of training, it was an amazing holiday.  So relaxing and with such good company!

So at the beginning of October we started training for the new 2011-2012 season.  I have moved to Leander Club which is a really exciting new direction for me this season.  I am also completely over the moon about my new boat!!  I am extremely lucky to have been bought a brand new top of the range boat by J W Rihoy.  My old boat was 8 years old and really starting to show its age.  This new boat will take me through the next Olympiad and will give me the best possible chance in pursuing my Olympic dreams.





My start to the season has been disrupted by a cold, brought on by the sudden change in temperature I think.  It was the height of summer on the first day of training and mid winter by the third day!  I am still on a recovery programme and am trying to kick it so that I can put in a performance at GB October Trials next weekend.  Wish me luck!

Thursday 8 September 2011

European selection

I hope you managed to see some of the World Rowing Championships and World Athletics Championships on the BBC recently.  The quality of racing was, as always, incredibly high and both championships were completely and utterly enthralling.  I love the emotion that makes sport what it is.  When the stakes are high, when people have devoted their lives to the perfection of technique and attainment of ultimate physical fitness, you can see plainly the utter exhilaration or devastation on the faces of the athletes.  The emotion that is invested through years of training and personal sacrifices makes the winning and losing mean that much more.  I found myself caught in a whirlwind of emotions as I felt for every single athlete out there.  I was at times laughing, whooping and cheering, then in an instant I was gripping the arm of the chair I was sat in and, next, on the edge of tears, either in elation or feeling their crushing disappointment.

Watching a major championships helps to remind me why I’m doing this.  I feel it’s often easy to lose sight of the bigger picture; we get bogged down in individual sessions, training like an elite athlete, to become an elite athlete but forgetting why exactly we’re doing it. For me specifically, it’s not to get a personal best on my 2k, it’s not to be admired by slower people, it’s not for the piece of metal they give you on the podium.  This game is all about winning and the feeling of winning, and seeing the culmination of countless hours, days, months and years of training in one performance which overshadows all others.  Simply we do this for the emotion.
I’ve spent the summer pouring all my emotion into a new venture…making myself a sweep rower for the European women’s eight.  It has eventually paid off and I am feeling confident and powerful in the boat.  Yesterday we were entered into the European Rowing Championships and I was selected for the three seat in the boat.  The championships will be held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria on the 16-18th September.  We leave on Wednesday, race for lanes on the Friday and the final is on Sunday.  There are six boats entered in our event and it is a very strong field, including the unchanged Romanian senior women’s eight who competed at the World Championships in Bled, Slovenia, last weekend and in coming fourth narrowly missed out on the bronze medal as our GB senior women’s eight surged to an incredible finish.  (senior GB women's eight pictured in Bled below)

The European Championships can be followed on the world rowing website, and is usually covered by a local television station although I am not sure where/whether you will be able to see this.  I am very excited to have been selected for the European Rowing Championships and cannot wait to get out and race.
It has been a long season for us, as most athletes finished their season between two and six weeks ago and are now well into their winter season.  I have now been training for 53 consecutive weeks, and am looking forward to the break after racing.  A bit of travelling and a few much needed days at home should revive me for starting on a fresh season.  It really will be a fresh start too because I am changing clubs this year and will be starting at Leander club.  This is an exciting prospect and one which will bring new challenges, opportunities and complications I am sure!

Tuesday 16 August 2011

Training continues

Hi all!! It has been a very long time since my last post.  I've gotten a really solid bit of training done since then, and have also had a semi week off, at home in Guernsey.  The usual rowing season finishes in August, but I am hoping to do the European Championships, in mid September, so as our season is longer than most we get a week out of the boat, and it gives us the opportunity to go and train at home.  Out of the eight days I had at home I had three days off, and the other days training I spent all around the place; at the Fitness Factory, running the south coast cliffs, running along the east coast, kayaking and swimming in the sea.

It was so nice to be at home, spend time with friends and family and soak up the beauty of Guernsey. I must say, Reading does not in any way compare!


We spent a lovely day in Herm, with my parents and boyfriend; swimming, picnicing, kayaking and getting some embarrassingly patchy sunburn.  Later in the week one of my housemates came stay and I had great fun showing her the island.


We were around on the weekend of Rocquaine regatta, so we went down there to soak up the atmosphere a bit and judge the sandcastles for ourselves.  I should have known that we would be encouraged to participate in some way or another, and sure enough we soon find ourselves in with the Guernsey rower girls (fitting!) for a very sandy tug of war!!  A brilliant day, creating the sorts of memories that never get forgotten.





Before and after my week at home I have still been training in the European eight group.  We have been training at Caversham lake, the heart of GB rowing.  The seniors are all now away on training camps in preparation for the World Championships in Bled later this month.  Many friends are racing, so I'll be eagerly watching the championships.  Good luck to everyone!

I'll try not to leave it so long to my next post.  I hope to have some very exciting news to report in the next two or three weeks, so watch this space!


Thursday 30 June 2011

Amsterdam - HollandBeker Regatta

Quick race update!...Last weekend was the HollandBeker Regatta in Amsterdam.  I raced with yet another combination of the European eight on both Saturday and Sunday.  On Saturday we had a straight final, and on Sunday we had a heat and a final. 

Despite our last minute crew changes, due to illness and injury, we worked together quickly and in the few outings we had before racing we really managed to create a positive boat.  Our final on saturday was good, we came third behind the Dutch and the Canadian senior squad eights and for the most part we were really pleased with our row.  On Sunday we had a mediocre race in the heat, and although we qualified straight to the final we posted a much slower time than the GB U23 boat, in the opposing heat, so the pressure was on for the final.  Later that day in the final we had a showdown with the U23's and our overall strength managed to shine through, as we beat them by 6 seconds.  Again, the Dutch and the Canadian boats beat us and we finished in third place.

The racing was of international quality and great experience, and we got to see some of the star performers on the world stage. Notably in the single sculls, both the men and the women were hotly contested and great races to watch, with Synek and Karsten emerging triumphant.

Sadly I am not racing at Henley Regatta tomorrow, a few of the senior squad girls have dropped down into our European boat and without any solid testing results yet, I am one of the girls who has been moved out of the boat for this race.  I have been training in a four this week, preparing for our seat racing in fours which will be done the week after next.

x

Wednesday 22 June 2011

Henley Women's Regatta

Last weekend was Henley Women's Regatta, and I competed in Elite Eights, rowing for Reading University Boat Club in a composite 'European Eight' boat.  This eight I've been rowing in has been put together by GB Rowing, it includes a group of about twelve women and is aiming for selection for the European Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, 16-18th September.  Different combinations of women have rowed in the eight at the Met regatta, Henley Women's and are planned for the Holland-Bekker regatta in Amsterdam and Henley Royal Regatta.

We first raced on the Sunday morning of Henley Women's Regatta, drawn against the Princeton University Varsity crew.  They had been unbeaten this season and had posted times in racing that matched ours.  The University paid for the Princeton crews to come over to the UK and race, so they had a lot riding on their performances.  We were pretty psyched for our first race and thought that it could be anyone's call as to who won.  We got off to a poor start, and the Princeton Crew had maybe half a length on us by the end of Temple Island; about 200m into the race.  Shortly after this one of the girls in our crew caught a massive crab (Crab, or Catch a Crab
A rowing error where the rower is unable to timely remove or release the oar blade from the water and the oar blade acts as a brake on the boat until it is removed from the water. This results in slowing the boat down. A severe crab can even eject a rower out of the shell or make the boat capsize (unlikely except in small boats). Occasionally, in a severe crab, the oar handle will knock the rower flat and end up behind him/her, in which case it is referred to as an 'over-the-head crab.') 
and we almost saw the race run away from us.  I must admit, I thought that was it!  Yet we recovered as quickly as we could, the offending blade was finally extracted and we fought our way back into the race.  We found a great rhythm and somehow clawed back the distance between us and the Princeton crew.  Every stroke we got ourselves closer to them, but they also got themselves closer to the finish line!  At only 1500m long the Henley Women's course is shorter than the normal summer regatta length of 2km, and we were only too aware of how little time we had to make up the distance.  Our cox Zoe De Toledo was telling us we were moving on them, but I didn't believe it until I saw the stern of their boat in my peripheral vision.  Then it seemed as if we suddenly broke them, we had one seat, and then another, we were level and then we were trying to put as much distance between us before the finish line! The verdict at the finish was a win by 3/4 of a length.

In our final we raced the U23 GB eight, who we have raced a few times this season and have always beaten them.  Due to illness and injury though we had a couple of subs in our boat, and the U23 boat had strengthened their boat with a couple of girls who had been away at american universities.  We got a good race, both crews rowed strongly and we won by one and a third lengths.  This was my first win at Women's Henley and it was very exciting!




Next on the agenda is Amsterdam, the Holland Bekker Regatta.  I leave first thing tomorrow and will update this when I have a moment when I get back!

Sunday 12 June 2011

Metropolitan Regatta

Quick update!...Last weekend, 4-5th June, we raced at the Metropolitan Regatta, at Dorney Lake.  I raced an eight on both days, and a four on saturday.  We all had a brilliant weekend's racing, and I came away with two Gold's and a second place.  We won the Elite Eights event on both saturday and sunday, and my four came second on the saturday.  We divided the eight into two fours, and the other four from our eight won our event.  All our events were straight finals which was frustrating because it meant we didn't get to race for lanes.  If heats have to be run then they draw the semi/finals according to the heat results.  So the fastest crews have the best lanes, according to the weather conditions.  The conditions were pretty nasty for the higher numbered lanes due to a massive cross wind, and in our fours we had the north sea in lane 7 whilst the opposing four of our eight has lake placid in lane one!  Despite our upset at being beaten in such unfair conditions, we were very pleased that both fours came out top in the event, and it gives us much confidence for the eight as a whole.

 
 Elite eight winners Saturday. L-R Leonora Kennedy, Erica Bodman, Monica Relph, Vicky Meyer-Laker, Lucinda Gooderham, Georgie Hazell, Laura Wheeler, Zoe Lee and Zoe De Toledo (cox)


Me with Sat medal at Dorney lake

Elite eights winners Sunday. L-R: Zoe de Toledo (cox), Leonora Kennedy, Monica Relph, Erica Bodman, Vicky Meyer-Laker, Lucinda Gooderham, Georgie Hazell, Laura Wheeler, Zoe Lee

After last weekend's racing we had this weekend off racing, and were able to get some solid training done.  We are racing the next three weekends in different combinations of the eight.  I am very pleased to have been put into each variation of the crew.  Firstly, next weekend on the 18-19th June we have Henley Women's Regatta.  We have been given a bye in the first round, so will only be racing on the sunday in the semi final, and hopefully final!  Princeton have sent three crews over, so it looks like they will provide us with some pretty stiff competition.

The following weekend we are racing in Amsterdam at the Holland-Bekker Regatta.  The Canadian and Dutch senior teams have both entered their eights at Amsterdam so this is going to give us some top class international racing, which is very exciting.

The following weekend, we are racing at Henley Royal Regatta.  Many countries will send their top senior eight, including Great Britain.  The racing here is always very tough and it will be interesting to see how far we can get.

At home, Battlecat is growing by the day and remains curious, playful and completely mad!


Friday 27 May 2011

Battlecat arrives

Huge apologies for the long delay between my last post and this one. 

It has been a busy month with training, injuries and new additions to the house.  I started the month training in Wallingford with the group of women they are trialling for the European championships.  We were doing long 20+km outings, paddling with the senior women's eight.  Hence some very competitive paddling!  We did a good 2km speed order test at Dorney two weeks ago, which both the athletes and coaches were pleased with.  I then came unstuck, and had some problems with my neck which kept me out of the boat for ten days.  I managed to see Mike Chisholm, a genius physio, who sorted me out very quickly.  Funnily enough the problem is never where it appears...my neck was merely highlighting some imbalances in my pelvis and spine which when sorted out, allowed my neck to support my head happily again!

I also have some very exciting news, in that we have got a kitten in the house!  Everybody, meet Simba...
He is almost eight weeks old, and the most affectionate, inquisitive and playful cat I have ever known!   He is called Simba, but has also been nicknamed Battlecat which I think he has taken to heart a bit too much.  He is under the assumption that he rules the house and loves to run up our jeans to say hello, a habit which we are trying to break him of!

Rowing wise, I've got the Metropolitan Regatta at Dorney Lake next weekend.  This is always a top class event, and I am looking forward to racing an eight on the Saturday and the Sunday, and a four on the Saturday.  Having been ill for final trials last month it feels like it is so long since I raced properly, so I am raring to go!

Rhiannon Jones, one of my housemates deserves a mention as she is racing in Munich at the World Cup this weekend, coxing the B crew of the adaptive four.  They have the final tomorrow night, subject to any changes, so huge GOOD LUCK wishes to them!

Friday 29 April 2011

Changes to the plan

So testing didn't happen this week for the four I was in, none of us have done much rowing so it was decided that we should just start training in some sweep rowing boats and not worry about doing any testing at the moment.  So, I spent a couple days in a four at Caversham lake, and then a day in a pair at Reading Uni Boat Club.  The plan going forward now is a bit vague, we are doing as much sweep as possible and there is talk of running a women's senior development eight for some speed order testing in mid May.  Who will be in that eight though is completely unconfirmed! 

In other news, the Royal Wedding! Sadly we don't get any special time off for bank holidays etc so I will be training through the wedding this morning and watching the highlights later.  I'm only really bothered about seeing Kate's dress though!

As always, I will update when I have any news. Otherwise, life is one big training, eating, sleeping cycle :)

x

Monday 18 April 2011

Final Trials

Bad timing struck this weekend as I came down with a nasty cold on Thursday.  Despite not training on Friday to try and accelerate my recovery, I was pulled out of racing on saturday morning by the GB team doctors.  It has been very frustrating, but I am looking towards next week when we have some crew boat testing for possible European Championship boats.  I'm currently working hard on the rest and recovery, in order to get me back to training as soon as possible.  I am sleeping 12 hours a night and seem to be doing my best to keep Strepsils in business!

Congratulations to everyone who got to race at GB Trials or the London Marathon this weekend.  Marathon wise there were notable performances from Lee Merrien - first Briton (14th), Paolo Natali - (24th), Nikki Bartlett 3h03 - her first marathon!!


Lots of love to all my family, close and extended, out in Oregon... sorry I can't be with you.

Sunday 10 April 2011

Ergo and sunshine update

I realise I've not updated in awhile, everything has been hectic for me!  The week after our success at Eights Head we did our 2k ergo tests.  In my September and December 2k ergo tests I had just managed to dip under 7mins, with times of 6m59.6 and 6m59.4.  However, in January I made my ergo goal of the season to get a time of 6m56.0.  Ambitious, but I felt it was within me.  However, after missing a large chunk of training in Feb/Mar I was not feeling quite so confident. I did in the end have a very good test, going off relatively conservatively and then being able to really bring it down at the end in a new personal best time of 6m55.9!  I was very pleased with this, especially considering my disrupted preparation in the run up.

Since that ergo test we have been really getting ready for Final Trials, next weekend at Dorney Lake, the 2012 venue.  The weather has been amazing for the past week, wall to wall sunshine.  We have been on a home training camp at Caversham lake where they recently put blue dye in the water to kill/stunt the weeds, so the water looks gorgeous!


We've got three more days training at Caversham before we go to Dorney, a couple days before trials start.  I am excited to be invited to race my single at Final Trials, against some of the top scullers in the world, let alone this country!

Sunday 20 March 2011

RUBC smash it!

Huge congratulations to all the RUBC crews; A, B and C who raced at yesterday's Women's Head of the River Race on the tideway.  We raced from Chiswick to Putney (the reverse boat race course) which is about 7.5km. I was in the Reading University A crew:


L - R: Lottie Burgess, Rachel Willis, Nikki Bartlett, Georgie Hazell, Erica Bodman, Lucinda Gooderham, Helen Wood, Monica Relph, Rhiannon Jones


We started off as the second boat, of 300 crews.  The boat that went off first was Leander, a full current GB senior squad, so we knew they would pull away from us from the start.  The boats starting third and fourth we thought we would pull away from, and duly did so, leaving us in a bit of a vacuum.  With some incredible coxing from Rhiannon, we executed our race plan as intended, pushed hard throughout the race and had some great motivation within the boat the whole way down the course.

My personal favourite was a call for Nikki, to 'be the ironman'.  Nikki is an outstanding athlete and lightweight rower and she won't mind me saying that she is completely mad!  Alongside our intensive rowing training Nikki also finds the time to do ironman competitions, marathons and half marathons!  Yesterday we did the eights head, and today on our day off Nikki ran the Reading half marathon.  And not just jogged round the thirteen miles, she raced it to a finish time of 1hr24! This was Nikki's first official half marathon, and she finished 19th woman, 298th overall out of 18,000+,  YES eighteen thousand, entrants! Oh yes, and she runs about once a week! This girl is incredible and certainly one to watch out for.

So, back to the rowing race!  A little background information; the starting order is determined by last year's results.  We came third last year, with Anna Watkins, Helen Glover and Heather stanning in the boat.  These three girls would go on to win gold and two silver medals respectively at the World Rowing Championships in New Zealand in November 2010.  Composite boats typically start near the back of the list, in the 200's because they are classified as a new entry unless they have exactly the same clubs in the boat as the year before.  Therefore, the GB composite boat started 214th.  Then, boats enter a category depending on the number of 'points' they have in the boat.  If you win a regatta race, or represent your country internationally, you get a point/s on your rowing racing licence.  We entered the Intermediate 1 category (IM1), which is preceded by Elite and Senior, and followed by IM2, IM3 and Novice.  There are a few other categories for masters and juniors.

Head races must be the most frustrating things in the world.  We raced at 15.30, time trial style so we had no idea of how well, or badly, we had gotten on.  Finally at about 20.30 the provisional results are posted online.  We came third, out of 300 odd boats, and won our category, IM1, in a new course record time! We were beaten by the Leander crew, who won by a large margin, and in second place was the GB composite crew with current and ex GB senior squad members.  Both boats had brilliant coxes and athletes, including Olympians.  We were only 13 seconds behind the composite crew, a huge achievement for a club crew with three lightweight rowers and not a huge amount of sweep experience in the boat!  There were only three boats on the river that posted times under 19minutes, and we came through in 18m53.  To get a new record too was the icing on the cake.  A brilliant day's racing :)  Results HERE

I must also make mention of our coach, Eira Parry, as she gave our crew the most inspiring and electrifying pre race chat imagineable!  We are so glad to have done her proud!

The other Reading University crews were very successful too.  RUBC B were 24th, after finishing 48th last year and RUBC C were 66th as a new entry!

In other news: next Saturday is my 2k ergo test for April trials, and on the Sunday I am racing my single at Caversham lake over 2 x 1500m's.

That's all for now folks :)

Monday 14 March 2011

Training and Racing

I got the all clear from the heart specialists in London on Friday and have started training properly again! It is so good to be back in my boat, and I am back just in time to race the women's eights head in London on the Thames on saturday :)

We have an awesome Reading University BC crew.  Monica Relph, my idol, will be stroking the boat, backed up by a whole host of talented athletes.  I will be making my debut on strokeside, and am very excited about that.  Soon I will be bisweptical

If there are any keen spectators,  we would love the support! We will be going off as the 2nd boat, of 303 entries.  Racing starts at 3.30pm at Chiswick bridge and finishes at Putney just before the bridge.  We will be boating from Vesta rowing club I believe, and will be around after the race for autographs etc ;)

Thursday 24 February 2011

New bike and other stories

Bike!


Just as the weather is turning a bit nicer, I have had the good fortune of being bought a second hand road bike by the Guernsey Sports Commission for training.  I didn't have a bike before, and it is my first road bike so I am totally in love with it!

We do 2 hour cardio sessions on sundays, in our own time, and I am very keen to get out on my bike for these sessions.  I need to get used to the toe cover pedals, or just get some clip in ones and shoes, because this morning I had a little incident...  

I arrived at the lake, and slowed down to stop, forgetting I probably needed to take my feet out of the toe covers before I actually came to a stop.  I then waved hello to a friend and said, 'look at my lovely new bike!' or something like that, then in proper slow-mo style my feet tried to wriggle out of the toe covers, failed, and with a bit of a girly yelp I saw the ground rushing up at me.  I was on thick gravel so luckily only my pride was wounded!




In other news...

Training wise, the past week hasn't been great for me.  We have to be very aware of our bodies with the amount of training we put them through, and to keep on top of our health we do a fair bit of 'morning monitoring'.  This can be noting down all sorts of things from urine colour (hydration) to coping level.  The main ones I regularly note are resting and standing heart rates, weight and body temp.  These are all taken first thing in the morning so ensure consistency.  The morning monitoring helps us to pick up problems before they stop you training. Often, before you get sick your resting heart rate will increase as it tackles the bug, so if you spot this in your monitoring you can reign in the training slightly and let your body fight the infection more successfully, before it becomes an issue in full blown sickness.

We take resting and standing heart rates; resting is taken lying down in bed as soon as you wake up, and standing is when you stand up out of bed, stand still for a minute and then take it.  Resting heart rate generally tells you whether you are well or not, if your body is fighting something it will raise your resting heart rate.  Standing heart rate tells you how your body is reacting to 'work', a simple task like standing up.  If you are under recovered your body will find it harder to adjust to this simple task and so your standing heart rate will be higher than normal.

About a week ago my standing heart rate suddenly shot up, and backing off training has not seemed to have any effect on bringing it back down to a normal level.  Also, I know what heart rates are normal for me when exercising at different intensities and my HR has been going up much too fast at much too light an intensity when trying to train.  So, I've been on one light session a day which has been driving me a bit mad as I feel absolutely fine until I start to do anything like a real session.

As backing off training has not had the desired effect I am having to see doctors and specialists.  I've seen the GP, have an appointment with a GB rowing doctor next week and have heart scans and blood tests booked for next week.  I'm sure it will be fairly easy to sort out but is just very frustrating at the moment!  Rowing is an exhausting sport and as we only get the odd day off training once every three weeks or so it can feel like a huge effort to motivate yourself fully for every session.  Sometimes it's the last thing you feel like doing! Especially when the winter is intent on doing it's best to discourage you by being dark, rainy and freezing cold when you're meant to be getting up and going on the water. 

However, when you are not allowed to train for whatever reason, be it injury or illness, it is the most frustrating thing in the world.  All I want to do is to be able to go and train properly.  Training is constantly tough, exhausting and demanding but it is also invigorating, rewarding and satisfying. I miss it!

Pray for my speedy recovery please!

x

Tuesday 15 February 2011

Longer (more boring) Trials Report!

For some background information; Matt Lihou wrote a brilliant article, pre Trials, for the Guernsey Press which can be seen here if you are interested.  Very accurate, well written and researched!



Post Trials:  for all you boatie geeks out there, here is my version of my weekend at trials!

We arrived at the lake at 8am Saturday for our pre paddle, with briefing at 09.45.  At the briefing we were informed that due to bad weather forecasts for the Sunday, all racing would take place of the Saturday, instead of being spread over the two days. 
First thought: "do I have enough kit to race in!?"
Second thought: "Yes!! That means racing in a tail wind"  (it was forecast to be a pretty nasty cross head wind on Sunday)
Third thought: "so will the post trials dinner I've been invited to on Sunday night be moved to tonight?!" (food is never far from my mind!)

So, my aim in the 1900m time trial was to go out and hit it hard from the beginning.  I felt like I did this well, but consequently 'died' a bit and had no sort of a finish to my race.  However, I completely emptied the tank and I felt I executed my race plan exactly.  After seeing the results, it was clear that I did go out very hard! It shows rankings at each 500m mark, and at the first mark I was in 3rd place, after Anna Watkins and Katherine Grainger - the top two British women! Pleasing to know the speed is there anyway :) Looking at the rest of the times; I faded to 9th place by the 1k mark, 13th by 1500m and finally finished 16th (out of 63).  In doing so, I beat 4 of the GB senior women's heavyweight team, and a few more of their lightweights.

My time trial result put me into the C/D semi finals and I had a tough line up of Debbie Flood, Annie Vernon, Jo Cook, Laura Greenhalgh and Kathryn Twyman.  Annie and Debbie qualified for the C final comfortably.  I was not expecting to get through but after trailing Laura for the first km I started to move through her in the third 500m.  Despite a mad dash for the line, I managed to hold her off to secure third place and my spot in the C final. The conditions had worsened from the time trial, and rather than the tailwind we had enjoyed, this was more of a cross wind with slight tail.

Racing again hardly seemed viable in the state I was after two flat out races, but after my post race warm down I was able to sit down for literally five minutes before I had to go and get boated again for the C final.  I had Debbie and Annie again in my final, and also Heather Stanning, Lou Reeve and Liv Whitlam.  A full GB squad line up and me!  By this time in the day the sun was almost setting and the wind had completely died down so conditions on the lake were great.  I had a good race, but it was hardly side by side racing! I was in lane 6, Heather was in lane 1 and the other four girls were in the middle of us. I hardly got a glimpse of the four in the middle, but Heather and I were more closely matched yet as she was the other side of the lake it was hard to race her! However, we got a good sprint to the line and I finished a respectable half second behind.

It was an exhausting day, filled with exciting and cut throat races.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and relished the opportunity to race on the London 2012 course.  At April Trials, final assessment, we get the opportunity to race either our singles or in pairs, and I will be deciding in the next couple of weeks what I will do for that.

Also coming up soon in March is our 2k ergo test for April trials and women's Eights Head on the Thames in London.

I'll try and keep you updated!

x

Saturday 12 February 2011

February Trials done!!

A very quick note to say that the GB trials this weekend were condensed all into one day because of tomorrow's weather forecast.  So, I'm all done!  It was an incredibly hectic and physically ruinous day, with my time trial at midday, semi final at about 3pm and final at 5pm. It was a brilliant day of racing and I am pleased with my performances.  It does hurt to breathe right now though, I'm sticking to small short breaths!

I finished 18th overall, and got the opportunity to race Annie Vernon and Debbie Flood - World Champions in the quadruple scull last November- in my semi and final!

Longer analysis to follow :)

Erica

Wednesday 9 February 2011

Ergo and upcoming trials

Just a very quick note to say my ergo (rowing machine) test went well at the end of last month.  We don't do many 5k ergo tests and the two I have done previously didn't go as well as hoped, so I was just concerned about making the cut off time for this February Trials ergo test.  I had a bit of a radical race plan, rating 24 for the first 2km - very low for a free rate ergo test - but was almost 15 seconds inside the cut off time so it paid off :)

February Trials are at Dorney Lake, Windsor, this weekend. We will have a 1900m time trial on Saturday morning, semi finals on saturday afternoon and finals on Sunday afternoon.  This is where is gets a bit serious, with the Senior GB squad in attendance too.

Bring it on!

Tuesday 25 January 2011

Training Camps and Birthday Cake

Post Camp update...

I am alive! And most importantly, live and kicking and well! :) I was the only athlete to complete every session of our 18 day training camp at Caversham lake and I am here to tell the tale.  It was a tough camp where we did lots of mileage and were given a lot of information. 

Highlights:
  • learning how to do my 18k ergo's feet out of the straps and not feel or look like I'm going to fall off the back of the erg at the finish of each stroke
  • the 100min bike where my wattage was high and my blood lactates levels low
  • the Australian Institute of Sport cook book that Miles gave, and signed for, us! Good nutritional information and recipes
  • The pair with Vicki Mayer-Laker. In particular, those 20 strokes within a 12k outing where we connected at the same time, really felt how the boat could move and I didn't want to call 'down' on the burst
  • completing every session; 47 sessions in 18 days
Lowlights:
  • the four.  Inexplicably bad.  I think everyone cried at some point in the few outings we had!
  • feeling glycogen depleted in the last 40 mins of a two hour bike, which was at the end of a 5+hr day also including 100mins on the water and an 18k ergo

I was unbelievably tired throughout the camp, but mostly it was a good tiredness.  Pleasantly exhausted, I told myself.  Knowing it is from working hard and pushing yourself to your limits rather than from being ill or under recovered makes it manageable.  I still have a little moan when I reach the top of the stairs though, it really hits your legs about two steps after the top of the stairs!  The camp finished two days before my 23rd birthday and one week before our 5k ergo test, so I decided to have a quiet, food related, calorific party.




Lemon, plum polenta cupcakes and jam meringue cupcakes
 

How overboard do you think you can go when providing cake and pizza for 25 people? Even if you invite a whole house full of rowers it seems that you can always over do it!  I had a pizza and cake party for my birthday and subsequently my freezer is full of pizza, which I never eat, four litres of ice cream which I shouldn't eat and seven boxes of cake which had to be taken down to the (Reading Uni rowing) club to stop me eating all at once.  The photo below shows about a quarter of the food that we had!




I had the nicest evening with lots of my close friends, rowers and non rowers, with friends travelling in to Reading to spend the evening with me.  I opened some gifts from my housemates and friends and completely surprised myself by being totally overwhelmed.  I am usually a pretty level and even person, in temperament and nature.  I don't have massive highs and lows and don't react too emotionally to things.  However, I got a gorgeous photo calendar filled with photos of me, my friends and family.  Then a lovely hand-made card (I am a sucker for homemade things...) and the most thoughtful, gorgeous, 'me' present ever; it was a big wooden picture frame inlaid with cream card, and stuck on it was scrabble pieces that fit together like a scrabble game in words that all have a special meaning to me.  It was such a surprise and everything just got the better of me and I burst into tears in front of everyone!  That was definitely a first!



I had a lovely lovely birthday and was touched by all the thoughtful presents I received, all the people that took the effort and time to see me, and all the birthday messages I got.






I'm now stuck back into normal training at Reading Uni Boat Club and getting my diet back in order.  I think I have had enough cake for a long while. It's a blessing that my birthday is only once a year!  Rowing wise, I am doing a 5k ergo test for February Trials this Saturday 29th and the water side of February Trials is the second weekend of February, regatta style 2km racing on the lake at Dorney, Windsor.

Till next time!

Erica x

Sunday 2 January 2011

Happy New Year!

It seems that somehow, once again another year is past and 2011 is upon us.  With 2010 being such a successful year for me I can only hope for more of the same this coming year.  I am back in Caversham now, but had a lovely few days at home in Guernsey.  I made the most of the generosity of Colin Fallaize at the Fitness Factory gym by training hard, whilst still enjoying being at home, having my washing done and dinner cooked for me!

I recently found out that I have been nominated for the Sir John Loveridge trophy at the Guernsey Sports Commission awards later this month, which was a lovely suprise and honour.  Unfortunately I will still be on training camp on Caversham so my parents will have to represent me.  I am excited about my upcoming training camp though, it is at Caversham lake, the GB squad training centre and it is a select group of four girls; the top four women outside of the GB senior team.  AND Miles Forbes-Thomas, coach of the GB women's eight will be coaching us for the camp 4th - 22nd January.

Last but not least, we are very excited in our house at the moment because we are going to get a kitten!!

Photos to follow :)

Happy New Year everyone, and all the best for 2011

xx