We also took some pictures in the fields to keep ourselves entertained. This one we were trying to make look like a weird album cover, but @bowmanbergen didn’t get the serious face memo.

Other photos include, cheese selections at meal times, and hall Bocce Ball games that keep us busy when we aren’t eating, sleeping or rowing.

The look from the Dock. The lake is coated with white fluff off the trees.

The boys sunscreening up. BP trying to be a big man.

Malcolm trying to Sherlock his way into the boathouse. #lockedout

The destination. The "A" is our hotel and the lake is our training ground.

Right now I’m sitting on a plane leaving Germany bound for Italy, staring over the wing of the plane I’m trying to contemplate the last month of training, and how to put it into words. It has been an exhausting but rewarding chunk of training. We’ve buried our bodies with high intensity, high volume workouts, in order to get ourselves ready for the first test for our boat that awaits us in Lucerne. A highlight would be the 2k pieces on and off the water in pairs, singles and the erg. I performed well on all three of these tests within our group, and the eight as a whole brought a lot of intensity to the two-day trial, rising to the occasion as if it were an A-final. A pretty exciting time for us, being able to see all of our hard work through the winter pay off. That being said, there is plenty of work left.

With just under 80 days to go there are plenty more hours of training to take advantage of before the games. That is the way I see it anyway. In

A picture of the view across the lake. Erba, Italy.

recent days there have been a lot of people asking me what “80 days to go” feels like. My response always stays the same, I think countdowns are great, but the way we train only allows you to think one day at a time, stroke by stroke. With that said the strokes we’ve taken up to this point, have given us a lot of confidence our eight is ready for the first test in Lucerne. We will be going up against a very successful German crew, along with the Brits, Aussies, Dutch, USA etc. Everyone is going to be fast, its just going to come down to who wants it more. The Germans are going to want to defend their title from last year. The Brits are going to want to win because of all the pressure of an Olympics in their home country. The Australians are still seeking their first Gold in the men’s 8. The Dutch are a hungry boat with new and old members, and the US is looking for a late qualifying spot, so they will be racing for a trip to London. Our team comes in as reigning Olympic Champions looking to repeat.

As for now, we just need to focus on each day to make sure we get the most out of this training camp. We are going to be pushing pretty hard over the next couple of weeks to get our bodies into that hurt locker that we’ll be feeling mid race. We want to be familiar with the pain of a solid 2k performance, no surprises. I’ll keep the updates coming while we are here, and post some pictures this afternoon.

~Will

Awesome photo by Kevin Light. Check out more of this guys shots below!

123 days until the games means that a tough but eventful winter of training is winding down, and spring is in the air. The winter has been a real grind this year, but I feel like I have handled it better than I did last year. I think just being used to the volume and knowing what to expect from the

Our eight racing the Elk Lake Spring Regatta. Photo by Cam Sylverster. Watch for videos by this guy.

winter has made it easier mentally so that the physical element isn’t as daunting, despite the unwavering intensity. Along with that I have most definitely adapted to the training. Just like a callous on your hand from a repetitive movment, my body is always breaking down from the training, but has built back stronger in order to carry on. I can feel that my tolerance for training has greatly improved, which a pretty cool feeling when I compare my bodies ability to handle training this year to years past.

Right now we are down at our home away from home in California training on Lake Natoma. I say that because this is our third trip down to

Shot of the Lake from where we launch our boats.

Sacramento this year, and it has been a very productive environment each time we have come. We’ve spent almost a month and a half down here this winter, but recently I find myself putting a lot of my mental focus towards whats going to make the Eight move the best in 123 days. That being said, everyday I go out and get the very best training I can, but now that racing is closer it seems like I’m seeing more opportunities to improve the eight. Whether it is in my pair rowing, the single, four or even the erg back home. Every training tool I have feels like an opportunity or a moment I can seize, as opposed to going on the water and just trying to push my body to it’s limits mindlessly. It’s hard to say what has caused the change for me, but I’m finding if I can go out and be successful on the water while thinking about whats going to make my boat faster in the end, then it feels like I am chipping away at my goal. Chipping away at those Gold Medals they will hand out to someone. Why not me.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinlight/

Marshawn Lynch in Beastmode

“This ain’t something you can go home and say, I wanna get in Beastmode I wanna get in Beastmode. Naw, Beastmode is inside of you.”

-Marshawn Lynch

Most rowing teams and coaches know that any medals awarded in the summer are earned in the winter, and we are now in full swing. If you are

My teammates getting ready for a workout in the old two stick. The Single.

doing it right, with each day, you are breaking your body down only to build it up stronger then it was before. It’s as though you are building up a callus, making it stronger and stronger every day until you are able to hold a hot coal in your hand without flinching. When the work is done you feel like you can do anything. No obstacle is larger then what you have already overcome in training, allowing you to push through it. In the middle of winter however, it’s quite the opposite.

In the midst of the training that has to be done to achieve my goals, there are some days when I feel like a slight breeze could knock me over. My mind and body are as tired as ever, different parts of my body seem to be on the edge of breaking, time to recover is a precious commodity, and calories are consumed endlessly with the hopes of being able to muster up some more energy for the next workout. This is why I call this post “The Winter Training Machine”. To me the training programme feels like I am going through an assembly line, adding components to my body that will make me stronger and help me achieve my goal. A little more muscle mass here, and some aerobic capacity there, means at the end of the line I will be fully prepared with everything I need to get what I want, and that means gold in 2012.

Now, the quote about Beastmode is sitting there at the top because there are so many days in the winter where you wake up and you definitely feel like you didn’t get the sleep you needed, and a long list of excuses begins to rattle off in your brain as to why you shouldn’t head down to the lake that day. Here is a little clip my buddy Rob Gibson sent me that lists off just a few of the things that get in the way.

Don’t be a victim of these!

The true challenge is to force yourself into the other end of that spectrum where there are no excuses. This is what some of my teammates and I have come to know as Beastmode, a term coined by Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch. At this end there is no reason why you shouldn’t go out and try to win every piece, there is no reason why you can’t overcome whatever you are currently feeling that might be preventing you from performing your best. As running back Marshawn Lynch enters Beastmode he busts through human barriers the way of the end zone. We are trying to break down mental and physiological barriers daily so that it will help us shatter the ones that will be in the way of gold in 2012. It’s not quite as glamourous as the NFL stars version, but it gets the job done when you need it.

If you want to know a little more about Beastmode, check out this link below.

Alright well tomorrow is the first day of official practice in 2012, you can bet I will be in Beastmode.

Men's 8+ A final start list.

Can’t wait to get out there and light it up.

Entering the hurt locker.

The heats are done, and it went great. We were seeded against one of the top crews from Lucerne, the Dutch, and came out on top.

My day started off like most other days getting ready for the race, waking up just before 6:30am with enough time to throw on some rowing clothes and get to the lobby in time to leave for the course. Race day however has a different air about it. It’s like the senses are all heightened just a bit, as though you can hear the sound of everything around you. I could feel every air molecule move past my face as our eight hopped on the bike and descended from the hotel down onto Lake Bled. It’s the feeling I’ve been waiting for all year. There is nothing quite like it. After a quick loop on the course to wake the body up, it’s straight back up to the hotel for breakfast. A couple egg sandwiches and then back up to the room. A lot of people say not to sleep before the race, but I just lay in bed, and if my body wants to sleep, I don’t force it to stay awake. It’s all about being relaxed for me. Before the heats I turned on National Geographic channel and there was a pride of lions taking down a buffalo, so naturally I was glued to this while it was on, but then the eyes started to close. I opened them back up and felt totally ready, like I had just rebooted the system. I opened my computer, and threw on this song to get pumped up. Loving the dubstep music these days.

After that it’s back to the course where I go through the usual rituals. Sand the handle on my oar a bit to get the super grip going, make some Eload to drink for the row, and a recovery for after. Then it’s time for an activation from one of our physiotherapists on the team, then out on the water for the prerace warm up.

Finally in the blocks I looked around and on my right sat the Dutch who were silver medalists in Lucerne, and on my left were the French who I

Sitting in the gates, waiting for the light to turn green.

had not seen or heard about, but you can never count anyone out. On the other side of them was a U23 crew from the Czech Republic and further away still was Ukraine. I’m not going to give anything away right now about what happened in the race, but it was a awesome to get the first race out of the way. It has been a long time since Lucerne and it felt great to charge the body up and unleash that energy onto the blade.

We came out on top and posted the fastest time of the day, which was great to hear, but you can never really compare raw times like that. There are far to many variables to know what happened in other races. The conditions are always changing, and you never know who might be playing their cards close to their chest. So I’m not looking into it too much, but I don’t hate hearing that.

Now with two days to relax it’s time to get the body up for another race. The semifinal is tomorrow, and there is a lot at stake for every boat. Getting into the A-final means qualifying the boat for the Olympics next year. Today we saw some of our teammates miss their Olympic qualifying spots by tenths of a second. It was pretty hard see that knowing how much they have invested. Thats why we are doing everything we can to get up for the race tomorrow. I’m heading to a team meeting in eight minutes and I already know everything that will be said, but we meet to make sure everyone is on the same page, thinking the same things as we go to sleep, and as run through our prerace ritual for the second last time this year.

Tomorrows race is at 12:40 and we have the following race line up.

First Heat of the Semi Finals for the Mens 8+

For the people on the east coast the race will be at 6:40 am, and for the people on the west coast it will be 3:40 am. You can watch the race live at http://www.worldrowing.com/live-results. Thanks for all the support!

Pedal to the floor the whole way tomorrow. Never enough.

View from on high, from the hotel.

kilometres long, surround by mountains, and 500 meters in to the course, there is a huge castle on a ridge, high above the course. I could try to describe this place, but this picture taken by one of my teammates will do a much better job.

I’m getting a little ahead of myself though. Our training camp in Italy finished off strong. We did several longer pieces before leaving Erba, and laid down some fast times. Our coach along with all the guys are confident as we change to the mountain fed waters of Bled. The camp in Italy was great for our boat, and we have come a long way from Lucerne. In the early stage of the camp, when we had the lake to ourselves, we were able to get a lot done. It allowed us to have a really focused period of training while we were over there. Roughly halfway into the camp the rest of the team joined us, after some time trials of their own, to decided the final seats in the small boat group. It was awesome having them show up though. The large group gives you the feeling that we are showing up in full force ready to rumble.

A little after our arrival in Bled, we started doing some shorter pieces to get our bodies up for racing, and it is probably my favourite part of the taper. The shorter piece is great because you can get through it with no problem, and it allows you to put more intensity into the piece then you would a full 2k. It makes your body feel like you can handle anything. Kind of a bulletproof feeling, asthough nothing can touch you out there.

Today the Draw will come out and we will meet to discuss our competition, go over the race plan, and restate our approach to racing which we have practice all year long. The racing will commences on the 28th of at around 11:30 depending on what the draw says and which heat we are in. I will let you know.

Here are some great pictures of of our eight in Erba during the final days of the camp taken by Kevin Light who is racing the Cox Pair. Kev went school to study photography, and now takes some amazing photos. Check these out.

Mens 8+ Training. Practicing power strokes. Photo by Kevin Light.

Mens 8+ Training. The row home. Photo by Kevin Light.

Mens 8+ Training. "More Power " Mike Spracklen. Photo by Kevin Light.

Mens 8+ Training. Lens covered in spray. Photo by Kevin Light.

Mens 8+ Training. Me trying to stay horizontal. Photo by Kevin Light.

Mens 8+ Training. Back to the boathouse. Photo by Kevin Light.

This is Kevin. aka the Coyote.

You can think that is pretty funny/silly, or go out there any try to better yourself all the time. I think it’s pretty awesome.

That’s basically what the last four weeks since the Lucerne World Cup have been all about. We went home empty handed, and pissed off. So when we got back to Victoria we got back in our boats, and beat up on each other until it was time to pack our bags again. Without a doubt left everything out on the lake every day. Some of the hardest days of the year were in those past weeks.  Time to see how it all stacks up.

Along with some tough training, there have been a few changes to Canada’s eight. Malcolm Howard has returned to the eight, which will help us to bring the speed up to where it needs to be. The addition of Malcolm has reshuffled our line up to the following:

Gabe Bergen – Bow

Erba 2011, heading to the top of the course to start the workout.

Andrew Byrnes – 2

Jerry Brown – 3

Doug Csima – 4

Malcolm Howard – 5

Conlin McCabe – 6

Robert Gibson – 7

Will Crothers – Stroke

Brian Price – Cox

The change feels pretty good, but we won’t know until the gun goes off for the heats on the 28th at noon. The final change we’ve made is the boat we are rowing. We’re now going to be rowing in a brand new 2011 Empacher, which in the rowing world is like someone throwing me the keys to a brand new Ferrari.

Forgot to mention...First Class!! Used our upgrade points.

That is the just of the changes that we’ve made over the past weeks, and things couldn’t be better. Thanks to the support of Rowing Canada, we were able to steal away from Victoria a couple of days earlier then the rest of the team, and get some time to ourselves on a flat calm lake. Not having to deal with the powerboats on Elk Lake back home has been a relief to say the least. It’s had other benefits as well, like being able to adjust to the time change earlier. That will definitely help us, as the first couple days after traveling can be pretty hard, particularly when you are pushing your body hard at odd hours. Feels rough like a low octane burn in a cold engine. That being said we are firing on all cylinders now.

We’ve started doing pre rows, in order to get our bodies up for some race pieces in the middle of the day – the same time as our races in two weeks. For all the rowers following along it’s that feeling you start to get before races when it all starts to come together. Tightening of the Speed Screws. Nothing quite like it.

It has been interesting to look back at the year, and think about all of the training we did in the middle of the winter. Thinking of times when you are pushing as hard as you can, and you don’t quite understand why. Mid winter it is very easy to lose sight of what you are doing all that work for, but its days like today when you can feel all of those km’s adding up into something you can almost touch. It’s a mid workout feeling, leading up to the biggest race you’ve had to date, and you are busting through mental barriers like a freight train, only because you’ve done it all year long. Its thoughts like that that get me fired up for the next winter to go even harder.

It’s all about being in the moment right now though, one stroke at a time,  making sure all of our preparation is spot on. September 1st is the day of the Mens eight final, and we are going to be ready.

~Will~

Cool shot of the boats near the docks.

After the heats on Friday, I was more pissed off then anything. We set out on the water and the warm up was great, but as the light turned green to start the race, it was dull. We got out to about 4 seats up on the Dutch and Great Britain, and we got comfortable. The rates slowly came down and we were never able to get it back.

Start of the heats. We are the second boat in.

After that we sat down for our post race meeting to discuss the race and how it was going to be different tomorrow. Thinking about things like, if you do a 5:55 2k on the erg you are going to feel miserable after, but if you do a 6:03 you don’t think you are going to feel bad? Of course you are. So why not just go for the 5:55. We set our goals talked it over and today we executed exactly what we wanted to do. We nailed every call Brian hailed to us and kept attacking never letting up. We ended up with our bow in front of the US, Australia, New Zealand, and Russia, earning our eight a bid into the A final.

Tomorrow we face the current world champions, Germany, for the first time since New Zealand, and I can’t wait. These guys have been on top since 2009. That being said everyone is going to raise their game tomorrow in the final and we have to as well, we can’t count anyone out.

I want to start something tomorrow because the Olympics is right around the corner. This race is the most important race leading up to the World Championships, which is the Olympic qualifier.

On that note, here are some songs that are getting me amped up for racing!