2:38 am – Wake up, toss and turn while muttering to myself about the jet lag. Fall back to sleep

7:08 am – Wake up quietly so I don’t disturb Rob, my roommate who is still sleeping. Jet lag has had me wide-awake by now. Head down to breakfast.

7:20 am – Mow down some bread rolls with egg, cheese and a variety of nice Italian meats. It’s kind of like a really nice McDonalds Egg McMuffin. Chocolate croissant… mmmm… Then a Cappuccino and fresh Oj to wash it all down.

8:45 am – Relax in the room till go time. I like to watch something on the computer. Right now It is Rob and Big. Those guys crack me up.

10:00 am – Andrew Byrnes pulls the van around and everyone hops in.  Euro techno music from M Dou O radio is usually blasting as we take off for the course.

Shot of the lake from up high.

10:10 am – 11:50 am – Practice. I’ll try to paint a picture on this one. This place is a pretty amazing place to train. Aside from the one day where there was a huge storm with high winds and lightning, the lake we train on is unreal. Glassy water surrounded by the alps? Doesn’t get much better then that. There are many houses peppered along the sides of these smaller mountains that lead north into the alps, the direction we will be heading tomorrow in order to get to Lucerne.

Delish.

12:30 pm – Lunchtime. Gotta be really careful here not to eat too much food, don’t want to end up with a spare tire, as our coach Mike Spracklen has told us. This food is ridiculous though. There are so many good meats and cheeses. All you can eat.

1:30 – 3:50 pm – Relax around the hotel. Maybe catch some more rob and big or a movie. Just watched Adjustment Bureau and the movie Unknown. Both pretty solid. It’s no Forrest Gump or anything though.

4:00 – 6:00 pm -Practice. There is usually a harder practice in the afternoon consisting of some work at race pace. It’s a pretty hot time of day and I’m usually sweating buckets by the end of this one. Good thing we are all drinking about 2.5 – 3 litres while we are at practice.

7:00 pm – Dinner. This is the easiest and hardest part of the day. Not having to prepare a meal for yourself is great, but not being able to eat as much of it as you want is killer. I know I keep on saying it, but the food is just sooooo good. I would love to just sit there and eat until I wasn’t able to anymore, but we are in the midst of the taper, meaning the training volume isn’t as high, so I just don’t need a lot of calories. It’s a bit of a gift and a curse. I wish that we could have a couple meals like this mid winter; there would be no stopping me!

8:30 pm – Bed – Relax for the evening with some reading or a movie. Occasionally we’ll get some poker going, and after some of the luck I had last year at the World Champs, could be a good financial decision… we will see.

So that is a pretty standard day in the life at the training camp in Italy, it’s very relaxing, and I don’t think there is any better place to prepare for a big race. That’s just what we have on our hands.

As we ride the bus through the Alps north, thoughts of the racing slip into my head and I’ll start to feel a combination of excitement and nervousness. It’s time to see who has been working the hardest all winter long. This world cup is the last of three and most countries will be in attendance so you can really get a feel for your competition. Can’t wait to show them what we have been up to.

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.

I titled this blog that way because sometime this stuff can really be mindless and repetitive. In fact unless you are in the moment it’s hard to think

Destiny! This is the lake where I'm going to lay my life on the line for gold!

that you got on the water and rowed 600 strokes as hard as you could for 23 ish min, turned around, did it again, did it again, and then again. You do that kind of thing a couple times a day, six days a week, for 10-11 months out of the year, for four years, and then finally it all comes down to 250 strokes, over 5 – 6 minutes. There is no best of seven like the NHL, once the green light flashes you only have a couple minutes to prove to the world why you should get the gold. Its nerve racking to think about that, I mean I’m sitting here and now I have butterflies about something that’s going to happen 533 days from now.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and just looking at that picture of the course, about a million thoughts fly through my head. How fast is that start going to be, how much is that going to hurt at the finish, what’s the warmup going to be like, how many people are going to be cheering for Great Britain to beat us, what are we going to do to beat them? There are so many questions that are so small that could just go on forever to like, what music am I going to listen to on the bus, what time did I wake up, etc. The one that rings to me the most though is the, “what are we going to do to beat them.” I mean if someone told me that I had to take 800 strokes each run instead of 600 I’d do it for sure!

Walking my oar down to the dock in the afternoon. Cool picture.

I think that is what gives me the motivation on the water to take those thousands of hard strokes, trying to groove in perfect technique, but again you aren’t thinking about that every stroke, it’s really quite mindless. Well, that’s not entirely true, there is one thing that comes to mind, and that is beating the other eight on the water next to you. Each guy on our team is so competitive they would probably do anything for the W on that workout, and there isn’t even anything at stake at the end of that! Good thing we practice laying it on the line all the time. I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like on race day when I get my 5 minutes.

Here’s a quote for you,

“Medals are won in the summer, but earned in the winter.” -Probably everyone that has won the Olympics

Alright well I have to get to bed so I can go and get my strokes in tomorrow, till tomorrow.

Will

Well the title is pretty self explanatory. So I’ll sum this one up pretty quick.

Started out with a nice little sleep in, and a big breakfast. Then we went out rowing because even on our “days off” we still end up rowing 14km. Came back after that for a bit of lunch around 12:00 with some pool side lounging. After all it was prime time tan time. Then a couple of us took off to some outlet malls where  there was a bit of window shopping, but ended up stopping for first dinner at a Mexican restaurant (giant burrito). All that was followed by some Starbucks coffee and a movie. We saw 127 Hours, and I have to say, if you haven’t seen it already get out there and see it while it is still in theatres! It’s crazy! The end of the movie actually made me break out sweating for the guy!! After that, back to the hotel for a little more dinner and some rest. I managed to squeeze in a little cold water therapy in the pool to freshen up the legs before bed, so I should be roaring to go for tomorrow.

It should be a fun day of rowing, as we are putting out a top eight selected by the rowers. We’ll have to wait and see how that shapes up.

Until tomorrow!

Will

Here is the trailer for 127 hours!

Well we have finally taken a break from the cold weather on Vancouver Island and have headed south, and not a moment to soon either, as it

Overhead Shot of Lake Natoma. The boathouse is at the south end. More pice to come.

looks like the weather will be rain for the next three days. I was also starting to find the long winter months were starting to wear on me. Every day coming home feeling that same tired feeling, and having to make a huge dinner each night just to survive the next day. It’s not all bad though, as the training is really starting to pay off for me. My ergs are getting faster, and on the water I’m right around the top of the pack. Definitely in the hunt for 2011. Finding myself under the California sun for a week though, you won’t catch me complaining.

Every day we train seems tougher then the last and today was no exception. The morning consisted of 28km of racing eights, followed by an afternoon in fours battling up and down the 2k course over another 14km. Aside from the warm up, there are no light strokes, every single time you put the blade in the water you’re trying to get your bow ball ahead of the boat next to you, while they try to do the same to you. It becomes pretty aggressive, and our coxswains are no exception to that, as we had a couple of blade clashes out there today. Every guy in the boat is searching for any advantage they can get on the other crew and there are plenty of chances out there.

In the morning I was stroking one of the eights and we traded the lead over and over, but in the end took a couple W’s (wins) on the day, with one being particularly sweet. It was the outside of a bend and we finally hit a rhythm that allowed us to pull as hard as we could with no apparent effect to our bodies. We crawled back from three seats down, to two seats down, to one seat down, to even, and it was over from there. We walked all the way up their boat to the bow deck until either we stalled out, or they stopped us. Either way we ended up on top for that one.

It is always easier when you are out front, our coach, Spracklen, always tells us, and after the rows in the afternoon I can definitely attest to that. The afternoon was tough for our four. The only thing we lacked was the power off the line to compete with our teammates in the other boat. It certainly wasn’t experience, or medal count. My boat had two Olympic gold medalists, and one Olympic silver medalist. Each piece we would lose a couple of seats in the first 20 seconds, and then spend the rest of the piece trying to crawl back towards the other boat. There boat had three guys on our team whose peak power is much higher then the rest of the whole team. Rob Gibson alone can generate over 1200 watts in three strokes! With Doug Csima, and Gabe not to far behind they were pretty lethal from a stop. Psychologically, rowing from behind is a very tough and often ends up with a loss, that’s why we train the way we do. Get out hard and fast, and never stop. That’s what this camp is all about, and that’s what we will be doing for the next 7 days.

Well bed time here, but I’ll be keeping these updates coming daily now. I’ll keep you posted! I’ll put some pics up tomorrow too, forgot my camera today.

Here is a little video from the last time I was racing on this lake for the National Championships in 2009. A time where racing from behind did work. I’m stroking the near boat… GO HUSKIES! Pretty sweet.

Will

Big ups to Conlin for being so pumped at the end.