Thoughts on winter fitness.

Just dropped a quick note to the team with just a couple days left till the new year; thinking out loud, as it were, on what matters when you're trying to get training done in the winter break.

". . .Remember that a huge part of what you're trying to do right now is not get super-fast, but rather to lay down the foundation to build our racing season on. The more fit you are coming in, the more you'll have to draw on when workouts are challenging in the season.

Workouts right now are all about steady, consistent, solid. No one day is important but the accumulation of consistent work builds up over time and makes a tremendous difference. Stroke rates on the erg are low, runs are sustainable, and you should never be gasping for air-- but at the same time you're getting back out there (or inside, as the case may be) day after day. . ."

The hardest thing about training to master, for me, is this consistency-- the ability to set up life, deal with challenges, and otherwise ensure that regardless of other things the training is always there. Maybe only a half hour, maybe not the best workout, maybe not exactly what you wanted-- but its there, and it gets done.

Regardless, Happy New Year from Pioneer Crew!

Spotted

On the ride into work today, saw two cool things that made me think of our time on the river.



The first was three deer swimming from Ross Island over to the east shore. They spotted me approaching and didn't much like the look of my yellow rain jacket; the trio made a quick 180 and headed back for the Island. I've seen deer on the Island before but never in the water; they move quicker then you might think.



Then got caught up in a bike traffic jam behind a lift of the Hawethorne Bridge for one of the gravel barges we deal with regularly on the river. Fun to stop on a not-so-cold, calm and dry morning and take in the view of the river from the bridge. Also interesting to contemplate how daily life in the city still regularly stops for river traffic.

Had a great conversation today with one of our athletes who's back from her fall abroad trip; at the same time hearing from lots of our athletes that they're getting ready to head home for break. Folks are excited to see family and have some down time; me as well. Probably won't post often again till' January-- have a wonderful holiday season and we'll see you on the other side.

Into Finals

Today is the penultimate day of classes up at Lewis & Clark; I had a fun breakfast with some of the women's team members this morning and was glad to see many of them were coming back from a workout. With reading period starting Thursday and finals starting on Saturday this is an academically stressful time of year. In my humble professional opinion there is no greater study aid then the quickie erg. I have memories of long days in the library during reading period; three and four hours reading or writing papers. At the end you feel fuzzy headed and mentally locked up.

I used to go straight from the library to the erg room, pull 2x20' or some such, just to open up the mind. I always found these workouts to be great thinking opportunities. Often when I found that a paper wasn't quite right stepping back and working out let me think through the premise or the information and go back to it with renewed focus. For whatever reason the erg was the perfect foil to studying for me; simple, uncomplicated, timeless.

Regardless, best of luck to all our student-athletes with their finals!

At the Subaru dealership, waiting for the oil change to be finished up before heading up to work. The USRowing convention last week was good; got to reconnect with lots of friends and rivals from around the country and got some good information and ideas. The central point of each presentation is usually a known fact-- there are very few game-changing ideas-- but the good thing is always to get to hear how other folks apply ideas and think about how that idea or concept could work for Lewis & Clark. I don't think any massive changes will be happening this spring but I'll be spending the next couple of weeks thinking about little tweaks we can make to squeeze out a better season.

Women's team breakfast tomorrow to send the team off into finals together and introduce some of the folks who will be rejoining us in spring to the rest of the group-- looking forward to it!

Thanksgiving Workout

I think ever since I started rowing in high school I've done a Turkey Day workout. Sometimes it was a gym workout, sometimes on the erg, sometimes a hike or a trail run. More recently its been on the bike; today was two hours in the soaking rain. Now that I've dried out and warmed up I'm reminded that one of the reasons I do these workouts is to enjoy the good fortune of being mobile and active. I'm so very thankful to have my health, my family, and the opportunity to work and live in such a great spot.

The workouts are also very good as an appetite stimulant. Looking forward to a grand feast tonight!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Great Quote

"it's about the process. It doesn't matter what you do tomorrow and it doesn't matter what you did yesterday. It's about today, and making today count. That's especially true in training, but it's the same mentality that I carry into racing. Focus on the task at hand, not on the finish line, or the next part of the race, but what it is that is right there in front of you in the moment."
- Jordan Rapp (professional triathlete)

Bay Area Trip

Getting back to work slowly this morning. I was in San Francisco last week visiting three distinct and different rowing clubs on a recruiting trip. It's always interesting to make these trips; it's a great opportunity to talk to prospective students for sure but equally fascinating is to look at each club and see how they've adapted to the space around them. How do they use their body of water, their facility, and their resources? Do the coaches work with the challenges they're presented with? Rowing is a sport where we often have to take what comes to us (weather, water, access, etc) and adapt in order to achieve the desired goals. It's always good for me to see how other folks do it and compare and contrast to our systems.

Regardless, I came back with some great conversations with some folks who I hope might be joining us next year as well as some ideas to mull over in the coming weeks as to how we might change a few things at Lewis & Clark for the better. The USRowing convention comes up next week and no doubt there will be more good ideas there.

Good Read

Came across a blog post by Shannon Rowbury, a 1500m runner who won a bronze medal at the world championships this last summer, much of it on keeping sport (even elite sport) in perspective. My favorite quote:

"In this way, I have come to realize that it's not about the medal at all. Instead, what matters most is the sense of pride in accomplishing a goal I had worked so long towards and the joy of sharing that success with the people that helped me to achieve it."

Regardless of the races you participate in the results mater very little if you don't work for them. A loss can be as rich as a win if it's accomplished through great hardship and you know you gave your all. Similarly, a win earned without struggle is hollow and quickly forgotten.

Check out the full article here.

PacNW Weekend

Sometimes I feel like I gush about the place I live. So be it. I love it here in Portland, and this weekend was yet another opportunity to talk about why. I started out with a Friday night home swim meet; I'm writing press releases for the swim team this winter and there was great energy in the pool as the Pioneers took home a men's and women's win against Pacific. It was great to watch and to write about, and it was great to see several rowers in the stands to cheer on the swimmers.

Saturday I was up early to join with my cycling team for a great ride; out to Oregon City along River Road (next to the Willamette), up the Clackamas river, and back through the Portland suburbs along some awesome back roads. Cool, crisp air and good company-- much the same as what we do for our Saturday practices in the fall. Back home by 11, yard work and errands, then off to dinner in the Pearl District of Portland with some good friends. The only thing I missed Saturday was seeing Pioneer Football closing their season with a win-- their first conference win since 2003.



Sunday dawned cool & gray, but my wife and I loaded up our car and headed out to the Columbia River Gorge. We did a great hike finishing at Multomah Falls (pictured above). While the falls are always a tourist zoo the hike was quiet and scenic with great views of the gorge through the mist. Forty minutes from our house in the middle of the city there are moments of absolute solitude to be found in the forest.



After the hike we jumped back into the car and drove another ten miles up the gorge to Eagle Creek where we got to watch one of the most amazing things in nature; salmon making their last desperate push to their spawning grounds. Hundreds of fish are in the creek, most in some state of decay, struggling up against the current.



The smell is awful but the sight is amazing. The fish struggle upstream then turn off into side eddies to rest. On the banks those that have already spawned-- or didn't quite make it-- are dead, half eaten. The life cycle of the salmon is at the very center of Pacific Northwest culture and some studies say it is the bodies of salmon that fertilize the dense lush forest that line the rivers and streams of the northwest.



Why write about all this? Because this could have just as easily been a day in the life of a Lewis & Clark student. All of these activities are accessible easily from Lewis & Clark; obviously the sporting events are on campus, the ride I did is one you could easily do from school (or you could substitute practice!), the Pearl can be reached on the Pioneer Express. Even the gorge is only a short drive if you have a friend with a car, or you could go along on one of many college outdoors trips that happen every weekend. I love Portland because all this is right out my door, and every weekend is an opportunity for a new adventure.

Gorgeous Fall Day

There's nothing like the Pacific Northwest sunbreak after a week or so of rain; it's wonderful outside right now with all the roads drying out and everyone walking around with their heads turned up towards the light. I spent the morning moving launches into their winter storage; very happy to be doing so in the daylight rather then in the rain!

Been having good conversations with recruits the last week or so. One of the main points I'm trying to get across to folks right now is the opportunities available at Lewis & Clark; athletic, academic, and exploration wise. When compared to other rowing programs I hope we offer a more complete educational environment that encourages excellence and experience in all facets of life. To me the point is not to participate in rowing so that it takes over your life, but rather to have it enrich and expand your world.

The goal is to graduate folks after four years with a great education, excellent experiences from around the world, and hopefully their most meaningful challenges and triumphs having taken place on the river in the presence of their best friends.

The Best Part. . .

. . . about regular training is clearly the ability to consume more then the average amount of cheese. Having gone for a nice long ride, I rewarded myself with one of my favorites.

Regardless. It's been good for me to start to get back into a good training rhythm, and I'm hearing that echoed from both the men's and women's teams. Sounds like we've got some solid groups forming right now and folks are taking their fitness into their own hands. I have lots of good memories of winters in the erg room during my college rowing career, and I think our athletes are building some of those memories as well.

Wet roads, good company

Solid fall weather up on Palatine Hill today; wet fog, misting rain, wet roads all the way up on the ride to work today. I debuted my new, longer ride-- my old route was 40-44 minutes, depending on traffic lights. I've been wanting a slightly longer workout, so I plotted a new route and tested it today- sixty minutes on the nose, with less time spent sitting at lights, and a nice stretch along the river to keep me in touch with the water as we close up shop for winter.

Before the ride I met with most of the women's team for a winter training breakfast and distributed our recommendations for a solid winter program. This is Division III-- we cannot require anyone to train outside of our playing & practice season. There are downsides to this, most notably the lack of contact between coaches and the team (sad!). But the upside is the great educational opportunity for our athletes to develop their own work ethic and knowledge of training over the course of the next three months. I've done my best to provide the team with all the tools they need; now it's up to them to run with it. I was very encouraged today by how many small training groups were forming within the team; we also had a report that the whole men's team was at it in the weight room this morning. Good company makes consistent training easy.

Next task: clean up and prepare the erg room for the winter season!

Portland Fall Classic

I had a great time at the Fall Classic on Sunday; Station L Rowing Club and Rose City Rowing Club ran a fantastic event. We provided three launches and ran the start marshal area; the best part was being able to stay on shore with the athletes for the duration of the event and ride my bike down the Springwater Corridor, following the races from the start to about halfway down. I took plenty of photos but they didn't really turn out, so I'll direct you instead to Row2k's excellent gallery.

Our crews rowed well, which was the primary goal for the event. The men's team choose to boat up a fast four as their priority boat and raced to within eleven seconds of Oregon State's top four freshman- a solid performance. Our women's team took on the open eight and faced up to some very quick competition, but we succeeded in our goal to stay composed, stay long (rate ~26 throughout), and maintain our technique. Maybe not the absolute fastest piece we could have rowed but we 100% succeeded in capitalizing on the learning we've done this fall and set ourselves up for a great start to spring season.

The athletic department write up is here.

And now fall's done, and I woke up this morning with a huge rainstorm to announce the start of winter. Time to spend some days in the office, clean up the erg room and fix up all our ergs, and meet with folks Thursday at breakfast to talk about winter training.

I'll be posting less frequently for the next month or two, but will try to keep the updates coming 1-2 days per week.

Pioneep Novice Women

Photos from novice practice today; one of our novice women's mothers was out and proved rather talented with the camera. We did some nice racing pieces vs the novice men's four, but somehow she only got pictures of the women's eight.

Keep Portland Weird

Offered without comment, from the northern end of Ross Island, photo taken around five today.

Time for Class

Having a cup of coffee at home, just back from the office and some productive recruiting e-mailing with prospects. With the November 1st early action deadline coming up it's time time of year when I like to make solid connections with folks and try to help them communicate their strengths to the school as best I can. If there are any of you out there we haven't talked to in a while please do drop us a line and let us know what's up in your world.

Next on my schedule is the sculling class this afternoon; the above picture is from Tuesday. We've had some interruptions in the class (wind, fall break, and illness) but are back on track this week and looking forward to some good rowing. I've enjoyed working with this group-- in particular teaching one of our men's team coxswains how to row. Sculling is a great vehicle for getting smaller folks into the sport; it's more balanced and much easier for them to match, and the overall load on the body is much less. All good things.

Portland Fall Classic coming up Sunday, and with it the end of our fall season. I'll do my best to be an excellent journalist for the event.

Scrimmaging

Looking forward to Saturday we were confronted with an epic forecast; some of the projections called for up to an inch of rain between 3 AM and 6 PM. We girded ourselves, packed extra rain gear, loaded the trailer and drove to Tacoma regardless. Sure enough, as soon as we arrived the skies opened and we rigged our boats in a torrential downpour.



Luckily, the rain did not last as long nor prove as bad as forecast. After about thirty minutes things largely cleared up and we proceeded with the day. Puget Sound hosted and we proceeded to race three flights of competitive pieces; roughly 2 x 1500 meters for each grouping. It was a very nice day out on the lake.



Some of our boats did very well, some were certainly challenged. Most importantly for the nature of the event, everyone learned a great deal about what we need to do to race well against those that are some of our chief competitors come spring season. Our novices had an excellent day and were very excited to get some solid racing done.

Back to work this week with the Portland Fall Classic on tap for Sunday. Just six rowing days left in the fall season!

Bonus Movie! Getting ready to head over to novice practice this afternoon; final "race" preparations for our fall DIII scrimmage up at Puget Sound tomorrow. Here's thirty seconds from this morning; the sunrise as we docked was unreal. Do I sound like a broken record? Maybe, but it's worth it-- wish I'd had my camera.

Sunrise 10-16 from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.

Why Sport?

Great short video of Simon Whitfield, a two-time olympic medalist triathlete, talking about why sport matters. One thing I tell folks a lot is that whatever your passion is in life, it's the pursuit of doing that thing very well that makes it worthwhile. For me it's coaching, for our athletes it's rowing. When everyone is ambitious it's very easy to get fired up and put a great deal of yourself into the process.

Off the Mic

Sorry for the time between posts-- I've (personally) been rather busy and while I keep thinking up good topics to blog about, by the time I get to the office or home from practice things pop up. A lame excuse, one I'd probably hassle our athletes about.

Good row with the novices this afternoon. We worked hard on exploring the limits of what "HARD" is-- tapping into the sense of how much a person can put into ten strokes. This was preceded by a lot of work on front end, posture, and connection. The risk of asking someone to go very, very hard is that they'll try to take the load without connecting on the feet-- if that happens back pain results. By focusing on the posture first and making sure they locked the catches in well, we ensured that the power transmitted through to the water instead and saw some great run in the boat as a result.

More to follow. Last two weeks of fall are upon us, and racing is near at hand.

Awesome Morning

Great water, great weather, great rowing and racing this morning. Rather then blather on about it I'll just let the pictures do the talking. Great way to go into three days off for Fall Break!

Fall Break Practice 10-8 from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.

Sunrise

First off, our varsity men got their picture up on Row2k as photo of the day-- very cool.

Second, a (somewhat shaky) shot from practice this morning:

I was talking with a novice rower who'd just swapped out of the eight above. She mentioned that in the last couple days she'd seen the sunrise more then she had in the last few years. The Willamette at dawn is incredible-- flat water, sky aglow, hills lit up in the background. It never ceases to amaze me.

Best of Breed

I'm writing from the Las Vegas Airport, not my favorite place in the world, on my way back from the annual WIRA coaches meeting. We had a very productive meeting today getting our diverse association set up to ensure the high quality of the regatta continues into future years.

More fun even then that was the Head of the Dog regatta held yesterday. As mentioned in a prior post, this event has two themes-- the racing, and the contest for the coveted Best of Breed trophy. While we wanted our athletes to put forth strong efforts on the racecourse we also challenged them to make the most of the opportunity to put their creativity to good use.



One of the women's doubles dressed up as Peruvian Banditos (I think I got that right).



Another dressed up as trees, and got an honorable mention at the awards ceremony. This picture really doesn't do justice to the amount of ivy on the boat.



The tour de force, however, came from our men's four entry. These guys showed up at six AM, after several days of preparation, and spent two hours doing construction on the beach. The theme was Apocalypse Now, and most specifically creating a Vietnam-era Huey helicopter on the water.



The creation was substantial and encompassed all senses-- aside from the visual, they also piped Ride of the Valkyries through the cox-box, and set off smoke with about 500 meters to go. It was a full-force effort and they were rewarded justly with the ever-epic Best of Breed.



Tradition has it that the winning boat takes the trophy home and has the responsibility to add to it some memory of their prize then return the next year to judge and award the prize. This one is going to look good in the trophy case.

True Oregon fall weather has arrived; cool, damp mornings clearing into dappled sunshine in the afternoon. The leaves have started to turn and our daylight is rapidly disappearing. There have been a number of rain showers blowing through and the river has risen a couple of feet with runoff; more room to practice along with more debris to avoid.

We've had some excellent workouts and some excellent rows the last few days both discovering and addressing challenges. A lot of this revolves around defining the limits of our current fitness and figuring out how far we can go without loosing the ability to accelerate and drive the boat. This pays big dividends as we turn to racing; understanding how deep you can reach within yourself is at the very essence of long-distance training and racing. I spoke to the women's team the last couple of mornings about the beautiful truths that accompany exhaustive efforts, and the great challenge when you reach that point of exhaustion before you reach the finish. A lesson best learned in practice and applied to better pacing over the course of the race.

Turning the Stake

Once upon a time the stake race was a staple of American rowing. Local professional rowers entered these races, there was extensive betting, and the sport was as shady and dirty as underground boxing is today. A stake race is started and finished from the same location. Crews race out to a turnaround (the Stake) and then back to where they started from. The turn is of paramount importance in executing a good race.

This weekend we've got several entries in the Head of the Dog (HotDog), a local stake race. There's two prizes at stake (pun entirely intended). First, we want our athletes to have a good head race piece and perform well against the mixed competition made up of masters, juniors, and open entries. To that end we practiced our turns this morning, working on the watermanship required to rapidly reverse direction around the stake. Skills like this increase confidence in boat handling and help crews develop cohesion in how they move together. I'm a great believer in athletes having a well-rounded set of skills and growing past just rowing fast in a straight line.

The second prize is "Best of Breed". Awarded each year by the previous year's winners, the best of breed prize goes to the crew (not individual!) with the best costume. I've been warning our athletes not to take this competition lightly; it's a major prize in the local rowing community and many take it very seriously. I'll have the camera out Saturday and expect some high-quality entertainment.

Wolf Pack vs. the Herd

I had a good conversation with a couple of parents who came to ride in the launch this morning and watch their daughter row; great to have an audience and it's always fun to show off what we're up to. They had just dropped their other daughter off at a large school where she's joining the crew as well; we talked about the differences between small and large programs and how the development of the team proceeds at each.

We're a small team. Truth. This will likely always be the case-- I can see a day when we have about three eights of women and two of men, but I don't anticipate seven or eight. This is neither good nor bad, it simply IS. The truth is you have to choose what you do and play to your strengths. For our program, we focus intensively on development of every athlete both physically and technically. Since we don't have the waiting sea of bodies, we need to get more out of those we have and ensure each and every athlete contributes fully to the speed of our team.

The men used the analogy of the wolf pack last year. A pack of wolves relies tightly on each other, and on their endless endurance, to wear down the herd of deer. Over a short sprint, they'll never win. But in the long run they'll wear their prey down. Rowing is an endurance race. We may not have raw power off the start, but with excellent fitness and perfect technique, we'll wear the opposition down and be there at the end of the race to put our bow in front.

Quote of the Day

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.
-Odysseus.

Tuesday Sculling

Sculling; AM Practice 9.22 from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.

10.4k in a quad & double this AM; wonderful flat water and we got waked exactly once; a great morning to be rowing in Portland. We're continuing to work on teaching some of our folks to scull and developing the skills of those who are already comfortable with that side of the sport. A lot of the confidence with sculling comes from finding connection on the smaller blades; once you do the feel is of a strong connection that hangs directly through the fingers. A very good skill to transfer back into the sweep boat.

Saturday Photo Blog

Our first Saturday practice of the 09-10 season is in the bag, and I thought I'd let the pictures tell the story. This was our first full-team practice, with novice, varsity, men and women all at the boathouse in one big group.



We started out with some hill running to get us going; we divided the group into four heats and ran an Olympic-style FISA progression; heats, repechage, semifinals, and finally A, B, C, and D finals. By the end we'd sorted out the group's speed very well and there was some good racing up the hill.



The eventual winner- looking over his shoulder after getting off to a false start and being called back.



Then out on the water. We had some recent alums join us for the row today and took out bunches of boats. Some of the folks in these boats have been rowing for six or seven years, others have been on the water just five or six days.



The two women's eights did some leapfrog to start out, then we did a couple of one minute racing pieces.



Every year I'm blown away by the ability of new people to pick up on good rowing quickly when surrounded by experienced athletes. It was great to see our experienced rowers teaching the novice and embracing the concept of a full varsity team.



Once racing was over we docked and put everything away. Except one boat; the Charlie Brown '85, the Pocock four we purchased last year, had never been christened in her first season. We were overdue. Three of Charlie's former friends and athletes local to the Portland area came out to help us out; they spoke eloquently about Charlie's legacy, his honor and integrity, and his ability to inspire any athlete to achieve great things. All values we hope to continue with in our program today.



Thanks to Peter Edwards, Morgan Beller, and Paul Vanderwal for joining us to honor their teammate, coach, and friend for his endless contributions to our program. And also thanks to Xan, Meghann, Max, Amanda, Dave, and Gabe for coming out and joining us for a row-- it was great to see some of the old crowd back down at the boathouse.

A great practice and a great day. Rain has returned to Portland and it's time to enjoy a cool, damp Saturday in the fall.

News from the Trenches

Getting into the swing of things now, establishing my rhythm alternating between practices. Mornings with the varsity, afternoons with the novice, morning with the varsity, afternoon with the sculling class, repeat. Waking up is easier, less coffee needed, and the rowing is coming along very nicely.

Today I took the experienced women out all in sculling boats; except for one athlete they all had prior experience. We were able to make some very good progress and soon we'll have them out in doubles frequently-- I foresee a couple mornings a week in doubles, working both sculling skills but more importantly the boat feel and direct drive application that sculling offers.

Yesterday the novice had a very fun day-- cooler, the river traffic was down, windy, so there was some excitement and challenge to stay organized, and more importantly progress; the rowing is getting to the point where we can try to row full boat for short periods of time and that always makes things more exciting. We had a four out that did a great job of teaching themselves how to row together; after a couple of failed attempts to find synchronization they stopped, talked among themselves, and figured out a rhythm. It was cool to back off and watch them teach each other.

Big team practice planned for Saturday-- stay tuned!

Eh?

Two days ago, when I logged in, my counter was at ~5500, about where I left it the day before.

Yesterday we hit 12,000 views.

Can anyone give me any explanation of that one? If you're a most welcome new viewer, from whence did you arrive?

Day One

First practice this morning, and I'd forgotten how much the coffee is needed to get through the transition week. Going from a 7:30 wakeup to a 5:15, and tomorrow to 4:40, has its challenges. I'm working on my 4th cup of the day to get ready for the sculling class this afternoon.

The women had a good first erg workout today, and it was great fun to introduce the novice and experienced athletes for the first time. I see some serious potential in the group and there's an undercurrent of both excitement and nervousness about what this sport holds for folks-- that's a good thing! Word has it that the men had an excellent row as well with awesome water to start the year.

Excellent talk after practice, highlighting how individual contributions create great team dynamics. I also spoke to the team about the importance of taking care of all the little things-- being on time, sharing the load, staying on top of academics and rest-- so we can have excellent focus when we have time together as a team.

Final point; I brought out one of my favorite quotes when talking to the women about goals and how to achieve them. Yoda said it best:

A friend of the program just moved into a riverside apartment on the 15th floor of one of the South Waterfront buildings. A perfect vantage point to get this shot of one of our beginning rowing eights and me in the new wakeless launch this afternoon. Way cool.

Boat Feel

On the eve of our first team practices (women will be on the ergs at 6 AM tomorrow, men headed for the water first thing) I remembered this video of the British lightweight double that won gold in Beijing. They've got great feel for the boat and I hope we can work to create something similar with our athletes. Looking forward to getting started tomorrow; most of all to introducing the novice and experienced athletes and creating this year's foundation for a strong rowing community here at Lewis & Clark.

Much Rowing

Wow, another week done and almost no media to show for it. Each day I go to the boathouse and mean to take pictures or video to show off what we're doing but each practice has been so busy, fun, and fast paced that the thought has completely cleared my mind. With the start of our official team practices next week I'll look to do better.

The beginning rowing class has been on the water both Wednesday and Friday now; good rows both days with lots of excitement. Especially today, as 90 degree plus weather and what was probably the last hot Friday of this fall made for some. . . well, let's just say bouncy river conditions. I think folks handled it well and despite the challenge we're seeing some great potential among the class. Many of these folks are pursuing the opportunity of joining our team and I'm looking forward to showing them the competitive side of the sport!

The sculling class went out Thursday for flip tests; I REALLY wanted to take video of this but promised I wouldn't. I can assure you all it was entertaining, but more importantly it's an great confidence building step on the way to being comfortable in small boats. By not being afraid of the eventuality of flipping, athletes are able to focus more completely on their rowing and achieve a greater level of skill.

Looking forward to a glorious September Portland weekend; some good bike rides and social events planned and then straight into our team practices and the true kickoff of the Pioneer Crew 2009-2010 season!

The first rowing of the 2009-10 school year; out in a quad getting to know our intermediate sculling class. Our beginning rowing group hits the water this afternoon; this is always an exciting, hectic, and a little bit wild day. As I've been telling people, we're going to push you off the dock, then spend about an hour teaching you to row well enough to get back on time. It's lots of fun every year!

Pio Fair to Rowing Day 1

Been a little while since the last post-- last week was spent pretty frantically, trying to stay ahead of everything that needed doing. I feel mostly caught up now but that's only after a very restful Labor Day weekend that came just at the right time.

Ending last week we participated in the full on Pio Fair, now in its 4th year at Lewis & Clark. All of the sports were asked to come up with a fun activity that everyone could participate in. So we figured, what's more fun then racing 100 meters all out on an erg?



Everyone was invited to come sit down next to a current rower and race the hundred all out. Beat a current rower, win a t-shirt, and maybe get talked to just a bit about the opportunities available in rowing.



I think most everyone had a good time.

Today is rowing day one-- the first day out on the water for the fall semester. The Beginning Rowing course is headed out today; we'll look to do some pretty easy rowing in the quad to start things off, just getting a feel for people's experience.