January Water Time

Practice 1-31 from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.

Despite a bit of fog yet again we did get on the water this morning. It was cold but the water was excellent; we reviewed technical fundamentals and did a few low-rate pieces. Rowing was OK; I'd give it about a 6 out of 10, and that's not something I'm going to complain about in early January.

As I told the athletes, we don't have to be excellent in January. February, though, that's another mater.

*Note- the video turned out a little weird, and I think that's my fault in the export. Click through to see it in HD (sort of) at Vimeo.

Fantastic Rowing

Came across this YouTube clip of some fantastic rowing, I believe (not totally sure) that this is the GB lightweight double that competed in Beijing. Worth a couple of watches; there's also some audio with good technical tips:




Women did a nice workout on the ergs and bikes this morning, we made excellent progress on pacing and body posture. The men busted out the FitDeck.

Everyone is on the water tomorrow; I'm going to pick up the HD camera and see what kind of film we can get.

Dense Fog Advisory

No video, but nothing to see-- dense fog this morning and we couldn't row. Just getting the launches from our storage dock to the boathouse was a navigational challenge. Oh, well. Took some boats down, checked nuts & bolts, new batteries in lights, wiped down the tracks, and let the team go back to bed. We'll do a little bit more then I'd planned tomorrow and benefit from the extra rest with a higher quality workout.

Putting in the Time

Erg Workout 1.28 from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.

Another ergo workout today; 3x10'+7'. The team was challenged by this session and were hurting a bit at the end. That's okay-- it's day 3 and I could see the accumulated fatigue of three solid workouts starting to add up. The next step is to rest a bit, recover, and absorb the training to advance our fitness. Progress is being made both in the physical sense but also with good talks about teamwork and the kind of group we want to be.

Not a wildly exciting video today, but tomorrow we're on the water for the first row of the year.

1 Down

One practice down. . .

Had a nice land workout today. The women met up, reviewed the strength program, and then set up the ergs. Did a 6x500 set with partner rest. I think some were a little surprised by the intensity but it was good to see everyone getting on it in the first practice and got some excellent numbers. The men's team spun steady state in the erg room and are looking forward to their hard pieces tomorrow morning.

I was hoping to be on the water tomorrow but a forecast of ~27 degrees and possible snow & ice means steady state on the ergs and bikes. Bust out the iPods, turn up the music, and put in the minutes.

Last steps

First off, this iPhone thing is addictive. And very streamlined. It just amazes me how effective Apple is at coming up with intuitive, easy to use, and highly practical products. I'm totally hooked.

Novice Coach Meghann & I spent the afternoon putting new handles on all of our recently acquired ergs today, leaving them looking like this:



We now have a basket with 19 old handles, like this:



What are we supposed to do with these? Beat drums? Trophies or gifts (congrats, have an old sweaty handle)? Anyone got any good thoughts?

The erg room looks good, although we won't spend a lot of time there this year.



Tomorrow the launches go in. Monday is practice #1. . . we kick off at 4:30 PM. I'll post some pictures or video Monday evening.

Things that are Awesome

This morning I was late getting out of the house on the bike and promptly broke a pedal; I limped my way up to work on one leg and as a result have a very strangely sore left leg and an overall feeling of imbalance. The cool thing is, I still enjoyed riding my bike more then driving. Awesome.

Before that we had our team scheduling meeting. The cool thing is both Tuesday & Thursday we have practice at 6:15 AM instead of 5:30 AM this spring; the resulting daylight and extra sleep will be tremendous for coaches and athletes alike. Awesome.

The other cool thing arrives this afternoon, and takes my own level of dorkhood to new heights.



Awesome.

Mission and Core Values

Sometimes when I talk to non-athletes, non-rowers, those outside our sphere, they question what rowing is about and why college sports exist. It's good for us to revisit those questions from time to time, and I did so today, working on editing our mission statement and core values. There's a lot of touchy-feely that goes into something like this but I still think it's important.

The team will get a copy of this at our 7:15 AM scheduling meeting tomorrow, but here's the 20-cent blog preview for those who are reading from home.

Mission Statement

Lewis & Clark Crew is a fully supported varsity program for Men and Women. We believe in the continual development of a stable, high-quality team while ensuring the academic success of our student-athletes. We seek to excel in the student-athlete experience, the quality of our rowing and training, the character of our program, and the racing results the program achieves.

Our goal is to graduate four-year rowers who learned their best life lessons on our team, developed lasting friendships, achieved academic success, and competed at a national level.

Core Values
We will respect our opponents and prepare for competition with them seriously. We will respect our teammates and be to them as we would want them to be to us. We will respect ourselves; take pride in our successes, and work to improve on our shortcomings.

We will give our effort and commitment to each practice and leave the challenges of those practices behind once completed. We will look forward to the next practice with a sense of opportunity.

We will embrace leadership opportunities that present themselves and work to be a positive example for those around us. We understand that leadership comes through example and inspiration and we will seek each day to create it.

We will value each athlete’s goals and ambitions equally. The diversity of personalities that make up this program is a strength and opportunity.

We will be open and honest with each other. If our goals are not being met we will communicate as to why and work to resolve the issues.

We will have fun, enjoy each others company, take joy in the opportunity of rowing with each other and strive to better ourselves through this sport.

Inauguration Day

Very cool to watch the inauguration this morning; inspiring in many ways. Not the least of which is the fact that the country continues to pass peacefully from one leader to another; this is not something to take for granted. For interesting perspective watch the HBO series "John Adams".

Also taught my first "not spinning" indoor cycling class today. Should be a good time, and ensures at least two workouts a week for yours truly. I'm still commuting a fair amount but I have a feeling once we're out on the water I'm going to start suffering some motivational challenges.

Contacts are going in easier now; about two minutes total today. Now I'm starting to enjoy them.

Had a few good visits from people back on campus; looking forward to seeing the rest of the folks. Also getting the occasional e-mail from some who are choosing not to row this spring. This is an annual challenge, and is understandable. Rowing at the Collegiate level is not easy and some choose to pursue other things. We wish them well, but as coaches it's challenging because we know what they're missing. There's many good things to come this spring and we're looking forward to getting started.

Working for a living.

Coaching collegiate crew is a bit of a roller coaster work environment. Out of season things get slow, sometimes very slow. As we approach the start of spring things get busy. I've actually been enjoying the work; the spring is the siren song we wait for all year and rowing season is what gets me the most fired up.

I've had some tremendous conversations with prospective students the last few days and it's been excellent talking to some of the people who I hope will be the next generation of Pioneer rowers. They're excited, interested, and most of all very intellectually curious. One of the best things about a school like Lewis & Clark is the level of discourse we get to have with our athletes-- talking about world events, writing, and science with prospects is very cool.

On a personal note, I got fitted for contacts for the first time in my life. Very nice once you have them in, but I spent about thirty-five minutes getting the right one on this morning. Left, about two minutes. Frustrating. I'm told it gets better.

Coaches meeting in about two and a half hours-- it'll be good to see the whole staff back together again.

Getting out the Door

Challenging, 38 degree morning today. I was very warm and comfortable in bed and very warm and happy reading the paper with my cup of coffee this morning. The original ~hour ride was decreasing to a drive to work quickly in my head.

Step one-- pack the bike bags, think, OK, I'll do the short-short route to work (18 minutes).

Step two-- bundle up really a lot, cuz' it looks cold out there.

Step three-- actually get on the bike, get started, and realize it's not so bad. Did 47 minutes on the way into work and felt MUCH better for it.

Vacation put a dent in my own training; I had ten days total off the bike and getting started again this week has been challenging. It's very easy not to train, especially when it's chilly outside. But inevitably I feel great when each workout gets finished, and I'm always glad it got done. To those on the team struggling to get fired up for a workout-- remember step one . Get dressed, get out the door, and promise yourself you'll do fifteen minutes. It's much easier once you get started and you'll be glad you did it.

Work is going well and preparations are underway. Spent a couple hours yesterday working on oars and ordered a bunch of replacement parts today. Novice coach Meghann & I went through the weights workout about half an hour ago & things are starting to stiffen up a bit. Good workout, very time efficient. The coaches meeting is scheduled for Friday. I'm actually feeling on top of things for once.

T-minus twelve days.

Adaptations to Enviroments

Back from vacation, back from break, and getting ready to head up to the office to deal with the backlog of work. I was able to extend my vacation for a few extra days (thanks to the generosity of our athletic directors!) and used the extra time to visit with my parents in Mexico; a great trip and a chance to charge the batteries with sunlight. Coming back to Portland feels like coming home in an environmental sense; the cool, wet air feels just right.

We are all products of our environments. The picture above is of a Mexican Blue Heron. The same species is hugely common on the Willamette; we regularly row past a huge rookery on Ross Island. The Oregon Herons are larger, fatter, bluer. The Mexican Herons are skinny, scruffy, nervous. There's much more competition for food in their environment and they're adapted to thrive.

We are at T-minus 14 days to the start of the spring season. Over the next two weeks I need to adapt myself and our circumstances so that we're ready to thrive in our training and practice environment from the beginning of the season through the end. Vacation is over; it's time to get back to work.