Camp, Birthday, Goldfish and Feb Trials

A lot has happened since my last blog post! I had an awesome water camp with Leander in Banyoles.  Great water, great training, great company.

We had a lovely afternoon off which a few of us spent in nearby Girona...



Katherine enjoying the hot chocolate :)

View from the top of the old part of Girona

The gym in Banyoles is basic and generally has everything you need but the leg press machine was broken on this occasion, so we had to improvise. And with competitive athletes it always leads to something more. Cue the boys creating all sorts of body weight group contortions and exercises!

The super leg press.
Three girls, one moustache.

The combined press up

Ultra heavy press up

Later on in the camp it was my birthday, I was thoroughly spoiled with presents, cake, a gorgeous day and a dip in the lake.  The junior boys really treated me too, I got lots of funny presents from them, including two goldfish! So, we are in Spain, three days to go until we leave and I have a plastic bag with two live goldfish inside. Hmm.

The options were:
1. return them to the petshop (not really feeling that. Ungrateful!)
2. Row out into the middle of the lake and set them free.  However, they would undoutably either get eaten or die from temperature shock within the first five minutes of freedom.
3. Seal them into an old empty cinnamon sticks jar, wrap them in a towel and hide them in the back of the trailer underneath riggers, blades and trestles. Cross your fingers for the 1000mile journey home through freezing conditions.

In the end, after much debate, I went with option three. I was completely expecting to find two floating goldfish when I unwrapped the jar after the trailer had arrived home but unbelievably
THEY SURVIVED! Incredible, but they must be hardy souls. They did hide at the bottom of their new tank for 10 days after arriving back so there was a severe element of shock there I think, and I would not recommend buying your fish in a different country but by jove they are alive!

Happier days

When I got home we had a birthday tea party with lots of friends and my wonderful boyfriend Graham made me the most incredible cake. It had a test run and everything. It puts me to shame!

A few days later I was moving house, so life has been stressful.  Having a million things on your mind 24/7 and being on the go all day every day for a couple weeks is not good for an athlete.  Despite having a great training camp in Spain, I was very disappointed with my performance at the recent February trials.  I can only put my underperformance down to the stress of moving. I rarely underperform, and never by so much, so it was very disappointing but the encouraging part is that even with a poor performance I was the next athlete after the GB squad girls. Rumour has it that teh top 14 finishers from Feb trials are going to Sydney for the first World Cup.  I came 15th.  Such is life, but I can now get a really solid couple of months training done in my single and look forward to Final Trials in April.

It's been great training at Leander this month because we've had a new champion in our midst. Friend and Olympic Gold Medallist in the women's 1x this summer in London, Mirka Knapkova has come to Leander to train with us for three weeks. She has done the same thing for the past couple years now so it has been lovely to watch her progress and see how she does things!

such an inspiration!

2013

Happy New Year all!!

A while since my last post and in that time the river has receded, been filled back up with the constant rain and continued to impede our water training time.  We have been land training for the past month, lots of time on the ergo, bike and weights. It is welcome when we have very cold periods, like that cold snap we had for a week in December, but when it is as warm as it is right now I just want to be on the water!

Happily, now that the GB squads are away on training camps we have got a few days on the lake at Caversham.  Yesterday saw my first session in a boat in a month. Soft soft hands! My hands never get ripped raw like some people's do, but they are feeling very tender after only two sessions on the water.  However, with a 12 day water camp coming up in Spain next week our hands need to toughen up fast!  I'm looking forward to a good training camp to get some mileage on the water and prep for GB's (5k time trial singles) February Trials in Boston, Lincs.

I had a good 4 days at home in Guernsey over the Christmas period, far too short but great to spend some time with friends and family.  I gratefully borrowed an ergo from Colin Fallaize at the Fitness Factory and was able to spend a little time at the weight lifting training facilities at Footes Lane.  Training at home is made a lot easier when you've got access to all the right equipment!

For now, it is head down for the next month. Trials on 9th Feb.

November GB Trials

Well I think you're familiar with the weather we have been having recently? Very wet and windy! Henley should be renamed 'Henley in Thames'



A house near the river in Henley has gained a lake

Due to the adverse weather conditions the water aspect of GB's November trials was cancelled, but the ergo still went ahead. Details here

However, we still had to make the 7hr round trip from Henley to Boston, Lincs, to do the ergo as per normal.  I will try not to complain BUT...this is ridiculous! Sometimes we have 'assessed ergos' where the athletes/coaches have to submit the scores so it was not inconceivable for GB Rowing to suggest athletes do the ergo at their home clubs. A long drive is never good preparation for an ergo test but when we have to go up to Boston to do a water trial, it makes sense that we do them together. However, with no water trial and many perfectly good ergos at home, I rather resent the hour I spent in the car for each minute that I raced on the ergo! On top of that, the cost of driving, the hotel the night before, dinner out in Boston and the £10 trials fee...costs that many struggling athletes could do without.

Despite the rant, once you have been given some information like this there is nothing left but to get on with it.  I won't change the minds of the decision makers so there was nothing to do but try and relax, and enjoy as much of the experience as possible! I carpooled with friends so the journey was as good as can be, and we had dinner at a lovely Italian restaurant.  I had felt more prepared for the water trial than the ergo, but once I heard the news I had to switch into full ergo mode.  I wasn't feeling very confident after our ergo prep, but I put myself on the line and suprised myself, and my coaches I think(!) by just sneaking under the 7min mark.

I was really pleased with my result, and though I was 4 seconds away from my personal best, that is pretty normal for this time in the season.  I also beat a few of the GB squad girls, so it's a step in the right direction.  Now, back to some solid land training whilst we wait for the water to recede!

ALSO VOTE

KATHERINE GRAINGER FOR SPOTY

on Dec 16th we vote by phone

 

Ana Watkins has been heading up the #katherineforspoty campaign on twitter and some of her tweets have made me get emotional already...

 

Anna Watkins‏@watkinsteamgb

KG facts: The nicest thing she's ever done for me is promise she would wait for me to recover when I hurt my back #katherineforspoty

 

and in awe...

 

Anna Watkins‏@watkinsteamgb

KG has won a world championship medal in EVERY OLYMPIC BOAT CLASS that's 5 different events, scull and sweep #katherineforspoty

 

 

 

Fours Head winners 2012!

Well, Leander had a cracking weekend at the Fullers Head of the River Fours race.

Out of near 500 boats racing, Leander had four boats in the top five and five boats in the top ten overall.  We had ten boats racing, with sometimes two or three Leander boats in the same category and so out of a possible six category wins, Leander won five! I think chief coach Mark Banks was pretty happy with that.

Our quad raced in the Elite women's category and we had a solid race.  We were started behind the men's elite coxed fours, so we gave them as big a gap as we could.  It was a good job we did because you don't want to have to start steering around crews straight off the start and we caught up with the crew ahead of us relatively quickly. In fact, our finish time was over a minute quicker than the men's coxed four who started directly ahead of us, and in the end we overtook three men's coxed fours during the race which was a great mid race morale boost! We were the fastest women's boat on the river, winners of Elite W4x pennant and placed 60th overall.

Elite W4x mid race, courtesy of Leander's press officer Robert Treharne Jones
From stroke to bow (left to right) Victoria Thornley, Katie Greves, Erica Bodman, Ro Bradbury

We were pleased to put a good distance between us and the next female crew down the river, who were 27 seconds slower, the winners of the IM1 pennant, Molesey Boat Club. Incidentally they had a brilliant race I think, beating the second place Elite women's 4x, Imperial Boat Club.

I personally had a great time training and racing with this crew. Such a wealth of experience in the boat, they are great girls to learn from.

Now the mild panic sets in as it is less than two weeks till GB Trials in Boston where we do a 2k ergo test on the Saturday (24th) and 5k water time trial on the Sunday (25th). I don't feel ready yet!

Fullers Head of the River Fours

So, it is that time of year again for Fours Head, a brilliant head race in London.  Race day is Sat 10th November, start time of the event: 12.15pm. 

The race starts at Chiswick and finish at Putney (reverse Boat Race course). All boats have four rowers in, so we have quadruple sculls, coxless fours and coxed fours. There are 480 boats due to race so the river will be very busy! Best viewing spots are on Hammersmith Bridge and Putney embankment.  My boat is going off number 43.

I am racing women's elite quads for Leander with (from stroke to bow) Victoria Thornley, Katie Greves, myself and Ro Bradbury.  All these girls have experience racing the quad for Great Britain, at senior World Cup or World Championship level, so I am in the best possible company and looking forward to a great race on Saturday!

Crews rowing up to marshall at a past Fours Head

Diamond Jubilee Rowing Championships 2012

It was certainly a baptism of fire experience this weekend.

Racing 2k at this time of year, are you crazy?! Apparently the Diamond Jubilee Rowing Championships organisers thought not, but my body only three weeks into the new 2012-2013 season had a bit of a shock!

I raced for my club, Leander, on Sunday 21st October in a women's quadruple scull.  I was joined by Olympian Katie Greves (2008,2012), and Monica Relph and Victoria Meyer-Laker.  Conditions on Sunday morning for the time trials were beautiful; flat and almost completely still.  The calm conditions from Saturday night had clearly stuck around for awhile...

Saturday evening 20.10.12 looking over Dorney Lake
copyright Rich Stock @richstockrowing

As a boat, having only just come back to training from our end of season break and the other girls having other work/boat commitments, we only managed 4 or 5 outings before racing. Katie hadn't raced since her Olympic Final and this was going to be a very different experience for her at Dorney!  We put in a slightly safe but solid performance in the time trial, and I was surprised to later see that we had won the time trial by so much, putting six seconds between us and the second placed crew.

What seemed like a very short time later, we were back on the water for the semi final.  We made a good start on the race and put ourselves into a comfortable lead by 500m.  Just before the halfway mark Katie our stroke girl gave a call to take it down on the rate, so we gave the boat a bit more time to run, concentrated on our technique and rowed as light as we could to stay a length ahead of the next crew.  We crossed the line comfortable with our win and safely into the A final.

Again, a short break and then out onto the lake for the A final of the women's quadruple sculls.  Legs heavy, we didn't have the best start and found ourselves adrift of our two biggest threats, the Wallingford Lightweight quad and the Isle of Ely composite lightweight quad. Lightweights are typically fast starters, having less weight to get moving so we found confidence in our mid race pace and set a rhythm that would carry us through. By the 500m mark we were just ahead of the field and we continued to slowly draw away.  We knew that we would have to fight for the win, and we did, finally coming home with a hint of clear water, 2 seconds in front of Wallingford RC.

Semi-Final and Finals results can be found here

Winners of Women's 4x at the Diamond Jubilee Rowing Championships 2012

L-R Katie Greves, Monica Relph, Erica Bodman, Victoria Meyer-Laker

Now I look forward to the Fullers Head of the River Fours race in just under three weeks time.  I will be racing a quad, line up to be confirmed.

Down time and Racing

For my end of season break this year I spent two weeks in Italy and two weeks at home in Guernsey.
Our holiday in Italy was a lot of fun and we mixed downtime with activities, including climbing a mountain and being joined for a little while by a few mountain goats!

It is rare that I get to spend such a long time at home and although not completely relaxing because I had to train whilst I was there, it was such a worthwhile visit.

I am always struck by how professional, helpful and genuinely concerned everybody from the Guernsey Sports Commission and Rising Stars set-up is with me.  It is such a pleasure to come home to Guernsey and have such an interest taken in my career.  I am constantly asked if there is anything else that can be done to help me; any other support or expertise that I require.  The nature of our island community comes through in the concern and guidance that is shown to me.

This visit to Guernsey was most productive because it allowed me to become inducted at the new Spearpoint High Performance centre down at Footes Lane.  This is an brilliant new facility for Guernsey which I saw being used by lots of young athletes with a fantastic support network of coaches.  I was also introduced to Tim Newenham and Denis Mulkerrin by GSC's performance director Jeremy Frith.  Jeremy is always looking for the best way to support and enhance performance, and I was so grateful for these introductions because I felt that this was one of  the most productive meetings ever.  Tim and Denis are both hugely respected and experienced in a range of sports and helped me with my weightlifting technique and things as basic but vital as posture, down at the Spearpoint facility.

In addition to working with the Guernsey Sports Commission, Tim has an extensive CV including current Performance Director for British Shooting and National Coach mentor for Javelin.  An incredibly inspiring and motivating individual, aside from his practical suggestions I felt I gained a great deal emotionally and motivationally from meeting him.  Denis was also very helpful and as a former British Weightlifting coach he was especially insightful when it came to my lifting techniques!

Now, back in the UK we have a rather different start to our typical rowing season. Usually winter is time for long head races (think 5km on a cold and bleak river), but this year British Rowing are changing the format somewhat.  For a range of reasons this year we have the 'Jubilee Regatta' at Dorney this weekend.  The racing is regatta style (2km on the lake) and  done in doubles and fours (Saturday) and quads and eights (Sunday).  This is a first step towards a new format for the Senior British Rowing Championships, but it will slightly differ from traditional multi-lane regattas, with heats consisting of time trials over 1900m.  The idea is to make the National Championships more of a National Championships! Up until now, the Nat Champs are scheduled in the summer racing season and they do not fit into the National Squad's racing programme. This new format means that some of the Olympic team will be racing this weekend, and they will be racing in their home club colours.  This is an exciting prospect for up and coming rowers because it means they will get the opportunity to race with and/or against some of our Olympians!

I am racing a quad on Sunday with Katie Greves (British Olympic 8+ 2008,2012) Vicki Meyer-Laker and Monica Relph (both Medallists at 2012 European Championships).  This is a very good line up and I am looking forward to the racing!



Post Jubilee Regatta I will be racing at The Fours Head of the River three weeks later in London, and then two weeks after that we have GB Trials up in Boston, Lincolnshire.