Dorney Lake, site for the rowing at the 2012 London Olympic Games, was abuzz this weekend with the invitation only GB Rowing Team's Senior Final Trials. The full race reports can be read here.
The original line up for the women's singles, which I was competing in, had 14 competitors. However, on the morning of the first race one of the girls, Ro Bradbury was pulled out due to injury, leaving 13 starting. The conditions were kind to us; earlier in the week with gusts of up to 44mph and the lake unrowable I think everyone had been praying for calmer conditions. A moderate tailwind on Saturday morning helped us down the course for the 1900m time trial. I was 9th in the time trial, but with one more athlete dropping out after the time trial there were the requisite 12 athletes for the A/B semi finals, no cuts needing to be made. The races were drawn and I was in the first of the two semi finals late Saturday afternoon.
Arguably, I was in the harder of the two semi finals, my semi having four current GB senior squad members, and the other semi only having two. Unsurprisingly the four highly experienced senior girls, three of them world champions, dropped me off the start and I felt like I was in another time trial. There was no side by side racing for me, having myself dropped the sixth athlete, Sanjana, off the start. Nevertheless it was another good opportunity to run a 2k race, working through my process goals and executing my race plan.
I finished fifth, putting me into the B final for the following morning. The finals always step up another level, and everybody raises their game. I knew it was going to be a tough race, all the way to the line.
For interested parties, here is the view of the women's singles B final as seen from my boat:
I got a good start, in third place by the 500m mark, but although just in touch, Vicky Thornley was a clear leader and Tina Stiller close behind. Next to me, Georgie Hazell got a good start and I was glad to have someone close to me to push off. I worked through my race plan, and could feel myself drawing Tina back in, the gap between second and third place was at the 1km mark, over two seconds, but by 500m there was less than a second between us. I pushed into 2nd place with 400m to go and kept fighting, to stave off the attack from Vicki Meyer-Laker who surged through to claim third place. Vicky Thornley was the well deserved winner of the B final, 8 seconds ahead of me.
I was met off the landing stage by some of my Guernsey supporters, Dave Warr of the Guernsey Sports Commission, Jeremy Rihoy who was meeting the boat he bought me for the first time, and my Dad! :)
A relaxed pub roast lunch, followed by a decadent eton mess finished off a brilliant morning. Now, two days off before it's back to the hard grind. Rowing has a habit of continually getting in the way of everything though...even ruining my lie in this morning. With no alarm set and a peaceful house I still woke at 06.15, bright as a button and ready for the day! Aching legs and chesty racing cough aside I am determined to enjoy the 48 hours respite. Once I've finished this blog that is! :)
Monday 12 March 2012
Trials Preparation camp
Last month, February, my rowing club, Leander Club, took their select group of lightweight men and heavyweight women GB triallists to Banyoles, in Spain, for a 12 day training camp.
My housemate Rhiannon had three days earlier returned from a training camp there, and coinciding with the cold snap in the UK, reported sub zero temperatures, gale like winds so strong that they were kept off the lake some days and general cold dreariness. In preparation for our camp there I packed lots of warm kit, woolly socks, winter coats and, in case of a swimming pool/hot tub/ice bath, a bikini!
Lucky I did pack that bikini for as soon as we arrived we realised that the weather was on our side. 18 degrees Celsius the first afternoon, and it continued to be cloudless, bright blue skies with very little wind the entire time. Notwithstanding my rowing kit, my most worn item of clothing was certainly my bikini. Any time we had off was spent on the upstairs roof, reading and basking in the sun. We were intent on boosting our vitamin D stores!
This camp was in preparation for all of our upcoming Olympic Trials, 10-11th March. The training was tough, as expected, but the great weather made it so much more enjoyable! We work on a three day cycle when we are on training camp. This means we have two consecutive days of three sessions a day, and the following day is a two session day with the afternoon off. That afternoon off is always a source of great excitement, and much looked forward to. We usually plan the afternoon around food and sunbathing. Telling ourselves that, after two heavy training days and a half day, we really need some help to recover in the form of a coffee shop crawl to try out all the different hot chocolates and pastries that the area has to offer!
Despite being out of the boat for a few days due to a recurrent neck injury, I returned from the camp much fitter than when I had gone out and ready to do the last stretch of preparations for the trials on home water.
My housemate Rhiannon had three days earlier returned from a training camp there, and coinciding with the cold snap in the UK, reported sub zero temperatures, gale like winds so strong that they were kept off the lake some days and general cold dreariness. In preparation for our camp there I packed lots of warm kit, woolly socks, winter coats and, in case of a swimming pool/hot tub/ice bath, a bikini!
Lucky I did pack that bikini for as soon as we arrived we realised that the weather was on our side. 18 degrees Celsius the first afternoon, and it continued to be cloudless, bright blue skies with very little wind the entire time. Notwithstanding my rowing kit, my most worn item of clothing was certainly my bikini. Any time we had off was spent on the upstairs roof, reading and basking in the sun. We were intent on boosting our vitamin D stores!
This camp was in preparation for all of our upcoming Olympic Trials, 10-11th March. The training was tough, as expected, but the great weather made it so much more enjoyable! We work on a three day cycle when we are on training camp. This means we have two consecutive days of three sessions a day, and the following day is a two session day with the afternoon off. That afternoon off is always a source of great excitement, and much looked forward to. We usually plan the afternoon around food and sunbathing. Telling ourselves that, after two heavy training days and a half day, we really need some help to recover in the form of a coffee shop crawl to try out all the different hot chocolates and pastries that the area has to offer!
Despite being out of the boat for a few days due to a recurrent neck injury, I returned from the camp much fitter than when I had gone out and ready to do the last stretch of preparations for the trials on home water.
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