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.

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!