Labor Day Weekend

Things I love about Portland. . .

That a few hundred people jumped in the Willamette River this morning for the Portland Triathlon-- one of the missions of the race is to promote the health of the river that we spend our time training on.

That Forest Park, one of the largest city parks in the country, is cut through by the Lief Erickson Trail, on which I had a fantastic bike ride today while my companion went for a fantastic run. We're big fans of this trail all times of year.

That the city is so vibrant and active on the last day of August. With light rain showers and cooler weather, fall is lurking around the corner. Still tons of people out and about this morning running, riding, walking, being outside.

Also, I really love grilled cheese after a muddy bike ride, but that's just me.

Fast Standing Still

Have you ever looked at a boat and thought, DANG, that thing looks fast standing still? Yeah, our new four is like that. Novice Woman's coach Meghann and I rigged it up this afternoon and it's almost predatory. . . just sitting there waiting to race someone. Unfortunately, I haven't yet been able to take a good picture of it in the boathouse, so you'll have to settle for some mediocre shots.
It doesn't quite come across, does it?

Anyway, busy couple of days. We had some very good talks with potential novice athletes on Thursday. They're excited to get started and so are we.

Friday I was in class all day and finished certified as a Schwinn Indoor Cycling Instructor. I can't say the spin word because, well, I might get sued. I'll be teaching a spin-something type course in the spring. . . I'm glad I don't have to start on Tuesday like some of the other coaches. The big upside of this is that we have ~20 odd indoor bikes of high quality that we can use to add some variety to our workouts, especially in early spring when the weather is not so nice.

Enjoy Labor Day weekend!

Arrival. . .

The freshman are here, and our recruiting posters are up in many places and being distributed to dorms as people stop by. I've enjoyed seeing a couple of our recruited freshman again and met several people interested in novice rowing.

I was walking back from Templeton and one of the NSO guides made the comment that crew was 'really on the recruiting thing'. We try. We try.

It's fantastic to have the campus alive and hopping again. A college campus is supposed to be a lively, energetic place-- it feels unnatural empty.

Finally, a quote for today from a book written about the British Track Cycling program (photo of the world-record setting Team Pursuit below), which if you don't know was fantastically successful in Beijing and looks to be unstoppable for London 2012. "We've got this saying, 'performance by the aggregation of marginal gains''.

I don't think I've ever heard anyone describe what develops athletic success better-- it's all about maximizing every little thing, not looking for the one secret that will give you the win. Remember that in practices-- an extra inch on every catch, a little more effort behind the oar, repeat many, many times.

NEW BOAT!

So the day started early, meeting most of the coaches and recent alumni David over at the boathouse to flip over our oldest launch for some hull work.

Then up to campus to work on various training stuff and more novice recruiting stuff along with compliance stuff. . . lots of stuff!

Took a break in the middle to help the athletic department hang our new 100-foot long banner in the football stadium. Rowing is centrally featured-- including at least one current coach.

Then the good part-- back down to the boathouse to meet Bob McLean of Pacific Rowing Club, who was driving the trailer with our BRAND SPANKING NEW Pocock Hypercarbon K4.

The boat looks great and I can't wait to get it rigged up and out on the water. . .

T minus one day to freshman arrival.

Inspiring Read

Short post (not the BIG EXCITING POST coming tomorrow) to link to this article-- a fantastic and inspiring read if you have a few minutes. Sheila Taormina is the only woman-- and as far as I know, the only athlete-- to compete in three different disciplines at the summer Olympic games. She competed in the swimming competition in the 1996 Atlanta Games, raced as a Triathlete in the 2000 and 2004 Games, and most recently competed in the archaic but fascinating discipline of Modern Pentathlon in the 2008 Games.

The story is particularly compelling to me because of the sheer determination required to not just compete at the highest level in a sport she was familiar with, which is certainly difficult enough, but to also start anew and develop world-class talent in new sports as she went on later into her athletic life.

It's never too late to learn a new skill and pursue your passions-- a message that goes out especially to all the novice we hope to recruit this week and next.

Remember to Experiment!

The rain cleared away successfully on Thursday & I was able to race. Fantastic! In the process I tried something new, deviated from the common wisdom, and as a result obtained better results then I previously have this year. The lesson here is that common wisdom is a very good starting point-- but you have to work on different permutations of that wisdom, try new things, and make sure that what you're doing is working well for you.

I think the evolution of our practice schedule has been much the same way; this will be the first year we do the exact same schedule we did the year before. Why? Because finally, after several years of slight tinkering (erg day HERE, water THIS time, etc) we finally found something that really seems to work better for most of our athletes.

With that said, it's also important to remember that common wisdom is such because it really does work well for most people!

Stand by for a VERY COOL UPDATE tomorrow.

Seriously?

So, Sunday was 94-- down from a recorded high of 99 the day before. Tuesday's high was 70 and brought with it high winds and RAIN in August. Rain? August? Come on.
This time of year in Oregon (July, August, September) is the paradise we who live here wait all year for. It's the payoff for all the gray days in fall and winter, and the chaotic weather of spring. But I suppose this is what happens when we whinge about it being too hot; someone is listening and brings home a big old storm to keep us honest.

I'm just bitter because I want to race at the track this evening, rain being a serious detriment to that. I've been working on Novice recruiting all day-- reserving rooms, making posters, answering e-mails. All of these preparations, while necessary, don't go anywhere near as far as the positive comments from current team members-- if you meet a freshman on campus and they look like a rower, tell them so!

This will be me this evening, sans the really cool wheels, and assuming the rain holds off. More importantly, soon I'll have ACTUAL ROWING THINGS to write about, because actual rowing starts two weeks from today with the first on-the-water day for the sculling class.

Pictures from down under.

Got an e-mail a couple days ago from Brodie, one of our rising novice, who visited the national maritime museum in Sydney, Australia, and sends the following pictures.



These are an oar, and the actual boat, rowed by the Australian "Oarsome Foursome" which won the straight fours competition in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Interestingly, one member of the crew (James Tompkins) has taken part in every games since, including most recently in Bejing. He also holds what I think is a unique honor-- to my knowledge he is the only male athlete to win gold at the world championships in every class of sweep boat-- straight four, coxed four, straight pair, coxed pair, and eight.

So there's your daily Australian rowing history lesson.

And just like that. . .

Up early again this morning, over to the boathouse and rigged up the York, our novice men's boat. What is it about spare parts and running out at the exact wrong time? I needed three of these today:

But we have only two. Lucky for me it's not time critical. Obviously, it's time to catalog our spares and order more before everything starts breaking in the fall.

Then back home, and onto the bike to ride up to work. I did two races over the hot, hot weekend, and took yesterday off. My legs felt positively creaky on the way up today, and in thinking about it I realized the road racing season is pretty much over-- I maybe have one more race I can ride. Just like that. . .

This made me think about how the rowing season is fast approaching, and how sometimes it seems to drag on, right up to racing-- and then, just like that, it's over. Lesson? Remember to enjoy the process as well as the outcome! Practices, hanging out with teammates, trips to races-- these in many ways are more important than what happens on the race course. Be in the moment every day and the journey will be rewarding.

As for me, I also spent the weekend building up a cyclocross bike, and I'm going to try that form of racing during the weekends this fall. It should look something like this:

Athletes Abound!

Fall sports are starting up-- suddenly Pamplin & Zhentbauer, which have been empty all summer, are buzzing as Volleyball, Cross Country, Football and Soccer are starting their fall camps. It's been fun seeing athletes I know, most especially the three rowing athletes who are doing fall sports.

Continuing work on the training document and also working on time standards and erg standards for the coming year and beyond. Going back through the NCAA results of my era (back to 2003, the 2nd year of DIII national competition) it's absolutely amazing to me how both the speed and depth of competition have improved during that time. If anyone ever tells you Division III is 'slow', you can straight up call them a liar. But do so in a friendly way, so they don't feel too bad about it.

If you haven't seen the Olympic eights finals, go back and watch-- fantastic rowing and racing, as always. The Canadian men set a new standard for HARD rowing-- their mid-drive is punishing and the power behind the blades is evident. The US women were fantastically smooth in their speed and exemplified everything we try to coach about suspension and economy of motion. To our current athletes: watch the video of the US Women every day, please. If we row like that, things will go very well indeed.

Hiding out & watching Semifinals

Hiding out in the A/C today, working on our training document. It's always been very important to me to have a clear system of progression going into each year, and to do my best to lay out the 'hows & whys' to the athletes. Having the knowledge out there puts the team and coach on the same page and helps us work together to achieve our goals.

If you haven't yet, watch the rewind video of the Olympic rowing semifinals. It's simply fantastic stuff. All the semifinal races are 3-to-advance, the rest to B-final. Watching every athletes' hopes & dreams come down to the last 20 strokes never fails to inspire. The US Men's 4- race on Wednesday was a barnburner.

Reminds me of the 2006 NCAA DIII Grand Final Qualifier-- six boats, 4 to grands, next 2 to petite. Picture taken in the last 100m below, L&C on the far side. We didn't make the cut, but did win the petite. So there.

HOT!

The picture you see here is what's on the NOAA site for the weather in Portland the next three days-- we'll have three days of weather tickling a 100 degrees. I'm loving the new air-conditioning in the office.

I rode the bike in to work fairly early today to beat the heat, got some stuff done at the office, and then met with one of our incoming athletes and his parents. They wanted to see the boathouse, so I gave them directions and jumped on the bike to ride down to meet them. By the time I got to Oaks fifteen minutes later my shirt was practically soaked through-- and this was from riding downhill.

It's hot. When it comes down to it I'm a northwest kid-- I function best between 50 and 70.

Busy Busy

You can tell Fall is fast approaching as we had our first athletic staff meeting of the year; we started the day introducing some of the new people on staff and telling stories about embarrassing moments as an icebreaker. Let me just say that some of the new coaches on staff have some FANTASTIC stories.

Also met with two prospective students today, one yesterday. Meeting with people and talking about what we do here is one of my favorite things to do. A highlight is getting to hear why everyone gets into this sport and what they get out of it. I've also been able to restate the basic goals of the program to several people-

--> Be very fit.
--> Row Perfectly.
--> Have an absolute blast.

Quote of the day comes from a Row2k report from Sunday's Olympic Heats: "The Danes look pretty darn good, I have to say, and they go damn hard, as always - even in their practice start before the race, they were just going bananas on the end of the oar."

Even at the very highest level, it's still pretty simple.

Teamwork

Interesting poll on Row2k-- would you rather win the eight or the single at the Olympics?

I'm fascinated by the fact that the eight is winning. It speaks strongly to the teamwork mentality of rowing; the majority of people polled would rather be part of the BEST TEAM then to be the ABSOLUTE BEST.

In many ways, this attitude is what makes rowing such a fantastic college sport, and one of the reasons why I love coaching the sport. Bringing teams to the point of full commitment and sacrifice to each other creates an experience like no other. I think this is what you see reflected in the Row2k Poll-- those who are involved in rowing understand the rich rewards of being part of a fully committed group.

Life in Portland & The Olympics

Had a great evening last night. Went with some friends to the Twilight Crit, a professional bike race held in the Pearl District of Portland. It was great fun; a big, enthusiastic crowd, lots of fast racing, and a great chance to test the new Flipcam. What do you think?



One of the best things about Lewis & Clark is Portland; the city is dynamic, young, and highly enthusiastic and events like the Twilight Crit show that off very well.

This morning I got out for a ride myself and then came home to watch the big O-- Olympics! Several of the rowing heats have been shown already. In addition to getting the opportunity to watch the best crews in the world compete it's always cool to see what NBC has come up with in terms of TV coverage-- the cable cam at the rowing course is simply incredible. In the last two hours I've seen completely new views of rowing.

Boats!

This morning I dragged myself out of bed early and rode the bike over to the boathouse. Some of the local masters helped me get our JV/Novice women's boat-- the Beyond Measure-- down from the rack and I spent a few hours fixing some hull damage and rigging the boat.

I made a resolution this year that I'd do this to all the boats this summer-- it's been some time since I personally went over them all with a fine tooth comb.

The boathouse was very, very quiet, except for my radio and the small yapping dog that lives next door. A big contrast to the organized chaos of our practices as we try to get boats on the water as quickly as possible.

These are before and after shots of the work today. One boat done, about twelve to go. In the background you can see our new pairs fleet, five high and topped with the local canoe/kayak clubs 4-man sprint boat-- known to us as the giant purple people eater.

Preparation

Sent an e-mail to the team today after finalizing our fall schedule. We're only rowing five weeks this fall but we look to have a total of 4 races on the schedule; it's going to be short but competitive.

As a result of the compressed schedule there's going to be a need for the team to take responsibility for a large part of their preparation. In order for us to have the fitness base to go fast in only five weeks the team must be training and preparing on their own in the late summer.

My own racing is also ramping up as the summer winds to a close. Having taken ten days off the bike a couple of weeks ago while I was on vacation I'm feeling the effects of lack of preparation now. Did an hour and forty minutes on my way into work today working towards rebuilding my base mileage. The State Time Trial Championships is this weekend-- hopefully the legs will come around.

The longer I coach and compete in endurance sports the more I realize that there is no secret to success and all speed is built on a foundation of work. Those who win are those who are willing to put in the preparation.

New Toys

Lots of new stuff coming in to Lewis & Clark in the past few days. Last week we took delivery of twelve pairs of sculling blades, and today a local coach dropped off our two 'new to us' pairs that will soon have double riggers as well. When I took over Lewis & Clark Crew three years ago there were no pairs. Today I stood in the boathouse with five pair/doubles.

There is nothing inherently magical about small boat rowing. You can certainly get the same workout or technical achievement in an eight or four. The small boats do, however, promote mindfulness-- a focus and attention to the task at hand that hopefully the athletes realize more benefit from a given workout.

It's also a tremendously FUN way to row. If I need to do 60 minutes of steady state, I'd rather do it in a double or pair than an eight any day.

The geekiest of the new toys is the new FlipVideo camera-- a small, quick, point-n-shoot video camera & underwater case. The goal is to make quick, easy clips from practice to provide immediate feedback just post or pre-row.

It's all very cool.