I’m sitting here having just pounded a coffee to try and work up enough energy to write something, but for the past 45 minutes

White out conditions in the morning. Photo by Kevin light
I’ve got nothing. Most of the time has gone towards staring at my watch trying to figure out a way to put into words what this winters training has been like.
I just end up thinking about every kilometer we’ve rowed up and down Elk lake with a blank stare on my face. I’m sure I would be better at writing if I hadn’t been deep in the hurt locker only hours ago.
Hurt locker or not though it’s a pretty tough thing to put into words, but pretty amazing at the same time. In whatever weather the winter would throw at us, every day we were racing up and down the course in a pair or single, going toe to toe with the guys I’m hoping to win the World Championships with in the summer. Every run we everyone is trying to get their bow ahead so that come summer time we can do the same thing to the world.

Me and my blades. Blades by Duey. Photo by Kevin Light.
It’s all money in the bank though, and it’s really starting to pay off for me. On Monday we had a 6k test on the erg and I got a new personal best of 18:59.0, just barely cracking 19 minutes. I can remember six weeks ago sitting on the erg exhausted having just gone 19:04 thinking, “In six
weeks I’m going to break 19 minutes.” It was a very hard test though and the way I went after it I really had to earn sub 19 min. It went a little something like this…
(For all the non-rowers a 19-minute 6k is an average 500 meter split of 1:35.0)

Working out at the gym. Chains are for show.... Photo by Kevin Light
I had a pretty good sweat going and my body was feeling warm as Brian Price came around to tell me, “15 minutes till start”. For me that meant last trip to the bathroom, a couple sips of water to ward off dry mouth and time to get into some race pace pieces. I usually do about 30 seconds light paddle, 30 seconds at pace, 30 seconds light paddle, and repeat. At around 6 minutes to go I’ll do an over rate piece around 50 strokes per minute to make the 34 SPM I planned to my piece at seem easier. It did just that as I blasted one last piece off before the start. “2 minutes to go!”. Just enough time to set the monitor and get a last sip of water.
“Sitting up. Ready. GO!”

4x1000 under watchful eyes. Photo by Kevin Light
This is where the switch flips from any nervous feeling you might have had to nothing but pure focus on the task at hand, no more time for nerves. I was flying out of the gates and made the mistake of not getting on to my rhythm right away. Instead of taking about 12 – 15 stokes hard and settling down onto pace around 34 SPM I took those 12 – 15 strokes and came down to 35-36 SPM causing my split to go just a little bit faster for the first 2,500 meters. It was nice for a while looking at my monitor telling me that my projected finish was 18:45 but in the back of my head I think I knew that was too fast. I was a little afraid that if I tried to do another shift down to 34 SPM it would throw off my rhythm so I stuck with it thinking I could eventually settle, but before I knew it 3 kilometers was gone and I was into the third quarter of the piece.
I remember sweat starting to pour down my face because I could taste it just a bit. My legs were starting to
burn badly, and my rhythm fell off because my weight was starting to fall forwards at the catch. I could feel my head bobbing down because my core wasn’t quite as engaged when my legs wanted to kick. This was without a doubt because I had made the classic mistake of going out to hard. My 500 meter splits started to vary wildly in this part of the race as I struggled to keep up the pace and rhythm. I think at one point I saw a 1:38 flash on my screen, and that’s when I knew I was really in trouble. My projected time was now flashing 19:06, which was slower then I was six weeks ago! Things were really getting tough for me and the excuses started to flood into my head. All the things I could say to the guys if I didn’t do as well as I should have, anything to stop the pain I was feeling in the second half of the test.
“uhh yeah I just wasn’t feeling very good today”
“I totally blew up”
“My elbow started to bother me”
“I went out to hard so I couldn’t do it”
I hadn’t stopped on a workout yet this year so surly they wouldn’t think anything of it…. right?
Well I quickly had to silence those voices in my head telling me to stop and instead I channeled whatever I had left into damage control. I thought

Kevin taking advantage of a painful workout. Photo By Kevin Light
about all the workouts I did to get ready for this. A particular favorite was 4×1000 meters at 6k pace, and here I only had about 2,000 meters left. “I can do this,” I thought. I had recovered slightly after hitting that wall, and my projected time had come back down to 19:02. That projected time would stay there for 1,600 meters of the last 2k, but the light at the end of the tunnel started to get a bit brighter. Without fail on every other erg I have done, the last 250 meters has been a sprint no matter what I was doing. Pain or no pain those last 250 meters was my bread and butter. This 6k was no different, after all it was only 25 strokes from there, and anyone can do anything for 25 strokes. Even at 260 meters to go my projected split was still 19:02, which is a 1:35.2 and that wasn’t going to cut it. Those last strokes I would hit it as hard as I could. On the drive I would close my eyes as if to escape and then open them on the recovery to recheck that I was doing what I needed to do. After 5 of 25 the monitor was reading 19:00 flat projected. I told myself I wasn’t going out like that, not 1 second off, so I had to find more in the next 20 strokes. The legs went down harder and the rate went up. If thought my legs were hurting in the third quarter, I was wrong, now they hurt. All that lactic acid I had accumulated was now in full force making my legs feel heavy, sluggish and on fire. I was so close now though there was no way I couldn’t get my split. My stroke rate was up in the high forties now, eyes opening and closing up and down the slide, legs and lungs burning, head pounding, but it was only 20 seconds to go, I knew I had it as long as I didn’t pass out or something. 5 strokes 4, 3, 2, 1 over. Breathing out of control I looked up at the screen and I saw that I had it. Amidst my wild breathing there was a sigh of relief in there somewhere. People watching slapped me on the back and congratulated me on a hard fight to break 19 minutes.
It was a pretty big milestone for me and I feel like I can attack out on the water without consequence. Every stroke is harder then the last to move that bow ball ahead. The winter training is coming to a close, and that means the fun racing begins.
“Medals are awarded in the summer, but earned in the winter” – Probably a lot of medalists say that.
I wonder what everyone else has been doing all winter.

Some winter training moments. Photo by Kevin Light.