Happy New Year 2012

Happy New Year all!

Rowing news is sparse at the moment and training continues to be gruelling, although I did have a lovely Christmas with a couple fewer sessions than normal.

Because normal people don't frequent the gym over the Christmas period the gyms typically shut for a few days. I am very fortunate to be able to use the Fitness Factory whilst I am at home, and they do wonderful things for me like allow me to take the ergo (rowing machine) outside where it is cooler. Therefore I did a couple good ergo sessions in the car park hoping that nobody would swing round the corner too quickly and take me out!  I was also able to borrow a weights bar from Christmas eve until the 27th, when the gym re opened. Here Suki is just checking out the space that I swept up on the pergola for my weights circuit!

Despite being unable to go out on the river whilst I am at home in Guernsey, I am able to go for some incredibly picturesque runs.  It's one of my favourite ways to see the island as you can see so much of it in a short space of time. Much more than if you were walking anyway.  On Boxing Day I did my usual run, a 10k loop taking 40mins along the cliffs and then back along the lanes.  City runners, you must be jealous of this!!...

Christmas was a lovely relaxed family affair this year.  We had the obligatory Christmas Day walk and when we arrived at the top of Petit Port I somehow managed to convince the family that it would be a good idea to walk down to the beach and back. For those who don't know, there are 294 steps (I counted) down to the beach from the cliff path :) shaky legs when we reached the bottom!

As usual I got lots of thoughtful Christmas presents, but probably most useful was the amazon kindle. I know, I know it is much nicer to hold a real book, sniff the pages and bend the cover but at the speed I read and the amount of clothes I pack when I go away I just don't have space for lots of books! The kindle will be most useful when away on training camps or holidays but I am enjoying getting through a few books on it already.

I spent my New Years and a couple days before and after in the Lake District.  I've never been to that part of England before and although it rained straight through for four days we had an amazing time. Lots of walking in the rain and board games by the fire. Perfect!

Since I have been back at training in Henley the wind has been abominable so we have been on the ergos quite a lot, which is actually good preparation for our 5km ergo trial at the end of the month.  I'd forgotten how mind numbingly boring long ergos are. 12km yesterday, 16km today and 18km tomorrow. Better update the music on my ipod!

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!

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!

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

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

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!

2k Ergo test

So, today was the day of reckoning...2km ergo tests all round. Lucky us!  We must submit a 2km ergo test to GB Rowing for the December trials so Reading University Boat Club hosted a BUCS ergo event at the University Sports Park.

Cut to the chase, my time came around and I got on the ergo and completed the 2km.  I didn't really feel settled, probably because I was a bit high on the rate (strokes per minute) but I suitably destroyed my legs and lungs to pull a personal best by 0.2 seconds, a time of 6m59.4s.  All going in the right direction!

Aside from ergo tests, it has been getting colder and colder recently.  It has been -3 degrees C some mornings, which makes it pretty chilly on the river. Lots of layers, hats, neck warmers, pogies make it slightly more bearable but I'm certainly not a fan of the cold. Does make for some pretty stunning scenes first thing in the morning though.  Looking forward to a solid three weeks of training now before the December trials in Boston, Lincs the week before Christmas.

Racing updates

So, Sunday 14th November was the annual Fuller's Head of the River Fours race, held between Chiswick bridge and Putney in London.  This was my first experience racing at Fours Head and I raced over the 7.5km course with a Reading University crew in a quad (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quad_scull).  We had a good race but the results didn't reflect as good a result as we were hoping.  We were the fourth fastest women's crew, out of 500+ total crews, including mens boats, and different classes of boats, including coxless and coxed fours.   It is notoriously difficult to steer the Thames and stay in the fastest section of the stream and during the race we did get warned by a marshall for being out of the stream, so this will have had some effect on our time.

On a more positive note, I raced at Caversham lake today at the GB Rowing Trials Sculling Assessment.  It is held like a regatta, with a 1900m time trial, semi finals and then finals over the course of one day.  This is all done in singles, and is invitation only depending on results from October Trials.

I came third in the time trial, (four seconds off Emily Taylor in first place, 0.35 seconds off Vicky Meyer-Laker in second and 7 seconds ahead of Lindsay Marshall in fourth) but I didn't race it particularly well, so tried to learn lessons from that to take into the semi-final. Always helpful! 

There were only 18 women racing and six lanes, so they would usually hold two A/B semi-finals, two C/D semi finals etc and that would have meant that there would be two A/B semis and a straight C final.  However, GB Rowing wanted to give everyone three races so they ran three semi finals where the top two went into the A final, middle two into the B final and bottom two into the C final.

The top three women were split over the three semi-finals and I won my semi easily.  The final was looking to turn out to be a three horse race, but after the time trial and semi final Emily Taylor, winner of October Trials and the time trial this morning, withdrew from racing.  I was pretty frustrated as I was really looking forward to some side by side 2km lake racing against her.  Still, I had narrowly been beaten by Vicky Meyer-Laker in the time trial and it was time to fight back.  I flew out of the blocks and found a really strong rhythm which I had lacked in the time trial.  By 500m gone I had a solid lead on Vicky and by 750m gone I had clear water.  My lead was maintained throughout the final 1250m of the race, increasing to about two boat lengths at one stage and dipping back to about a length and a half at the finish. 

Thrilled to win, and was very pleased with the way I raced it but wish we could have had the full competitive line-up of athletes.  Half a day off tomorrow, only 90mins to do so I will go for a run for 45 mins and then on the bike for 45mins.  Looking ahead, my next event is our 2k ergo's on sat the 27th of Nov. The FEAR has already set in!