Good, Bad, & Ugly. . .

Bad first. . . the conditions today were downright terrible. We have several options as to where we can row and on our coaching staff we have about twenty five years of coaching experience just out of the Oaks Park boathouse. Somehow today we called it all wrong and went upstream instead of behind Ross Island. Stupid mistake; we dealt with logs, wind, chop, current, and tons of river traffic in the form of fishermen in hugely expensive boats going way too fast. To anyone on the team reading this I apologize again for putting you guys through that.

Thus the ugly-- it's pretty hard to row well when you've got a wake to go with wind and an eddy as well. The rowing was what I would call 'functional' today-- get the blade in and get pressure on it, because lord knows you're not going to have sublime set and run. Meghann & I had several wince moments today & I've edited audio out of the video as our running commentary was. . . colorful at times.

Good? Well, we don't always race on glass flat water. I was very impressed that we were able to get a solid workout done regardless of stupid coaches and funky water. This bodes well for those 'interesting' early spring races. The team dealt with the conditions and did as we asked; focus on the pressure, get the blade connected, and stand on that sucker for all it's worth. The best part for me was the short erg set post-row where we saw several people hitting some really good numbers, including a number of novice making big breakthroughs in what they're seeing on the screen. Very cool.

Video below and in HD on Vimeo. Not our prettiest rowing, but getting it done.

PS- watch through to the end. One of our men's pairs got REALLY excited about being on camera; so excited they almost ran into a fishing boat.

Practice 2.28 from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.

Breakfast & Metamorphosis

The Woman's team had a row planned this AM, but a forecast of freezing fog and sub-30 degree temperatures had me pretty reluctant to go out. We did an easy bike-erg workout plus some exercises off the fitdeck and I joined them for breakfast instead. Good fun, and nice to interact with the team outside of a practice environment.

By the way, here's a very cool description of freezing fog:
In some areas such as in the State of Oregon, the term "freezing fog" refers to fog where water vapor is super-cooled filling the air with small ice crystals similar to very light snow. It seems to make the fog "tangible", as if one could "grab a handful".

This afternoon I was down at the boathouse when the Men's team arrived for their practice. I helped out as we undertook the switching of four of our doubles into pairs; as we focus more towards racing fours and eights the pairs provide an excellent platform for skill development. We'll keep one double rigged for reasons covered in this post.

Here's some pictures:


Getting instructions before launching.



The guys on the dock, the river moving fast. Fishermen seem to belive a lot of the good fish are directly off the end of our dock.



We KNOW a lot of the good logs are right off the end of the dock. Lincoln snagged a big one today and repositioned it a little further away.



Should have some more HD video tomorrow; hopefully of some excellent racing. Stay tuned!

Inspiration close to home.

A few doors down from me is the swim team office; I wanted to give these guys a shout out because they had an incredible conference meet that embodied a lot of what I believe makes team sports great. There is nothing better to me then performing at a high level, accomplishing more then you thought was possible, and having a great time doing both.

Props to the swim team-- you guys rock. Read all about it here.

PS. . . does that guy have an enormous thumb, or is it just me?

Big Heavy Weights

I've always had a love-hate relationship with strength training for rowing programs. Especially given the seasonal constraints of Division III rowing taking the time to learn strength training to a point of getting a return on the time invested can be difficult. On the flip side most of the more successful athletes (both measured by speed and longevity in the sport) I've worked with have made time to lift in some capacity.

This spring I made myself a deal that we'd dedicate 20-25 minutes on two days a week to lifting. We've been using dumbbell exercises, mostly, and the first two weeks it was all I could do to avoid stopping the process early; it felt like time ill spent to me. Now, in week 5, I'm very glad we've stuck with it. The team is challenging themselves in the weight room and we've seen some very real strength and power gains.

It will be most interesting at the end of the year to look back on this process and think about how the lifting has helped us on the water and the erg, and what place it will play in the years to come. As of right now I'd say the prognosis is good. Something for recruits or other people to remember; when you go in the weight room make sure there's a point to the process, not just a mindless moving of weight. Since we're training for rowing, all of our lifts relate to rowing and help support the kinetic movement of the rowing stroke OR provide balancing strength to help prevent injuries. No wasted time, no sloppy lifting.

By the way, the picture at the top of this post is a dumbbell used by General George Custer to stay fit while stationed at Fort Hays, Kansas. Looks just about the same as the ones we use today.

Spring has Sprung

Which is to say, going back to the beginning of the last post, rain, wind, and etc. Sloppy wet day this morning as we pounded through some chop to get in a few five minute race pieces. Having completed our first cycle of training we're moving into the phase I'd call "preparation"-- the key at this point is getting ready for racing. Weather, wind, current, what have you are all part of the situation and if we're going to be ready to race in those conditions we'd better be prepared to practice racing in them.

Friday of last week was our first 2k test; performances across the board were solid. Having an extra week of training time this year has allowed for a more deliberate buildup; what we saw in the test pieces reflected the consistent and steady nature of the training. As I mentioned above our focus now is turning to RACE preparation; our erg practices are adjusting accordingly. Monday we focused on threshold pieces (12' @ 24), tomorrow is 1500m pieces at around 6k pace. None of these are easy.

I talked to the team today about a quote I'd seen from the Canadian national team men's 8 (Olympic Champions): "We don't train this hard to win on a good day, we train this hard to win on a day when things don't go our way" (paraphrased). Rowing is a very simple sport: line up, race 2k, first one across takes the cake. It's being prepared for the different things that pop up on the course that puts you across the line first.

Some Days. . .

Some days it rains, some days it snows, some days it's really windy and not so much fun.

And some days you get a morning like this one. Getting to go out in a launch, work with a great crew, and enjoy a fantastic sunrise. There's nowhere else I'd rather be.


Thursday Sunrise from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.

Adding up Minutes

Been struggling for a bit to come up with a topic for posting. Seems like we've fallen into the early spring groove; practices are going well (had a very nice row this morning), ergs are progressing, the team dynamic is good, and, well, nothing very dramatic is happening.

The thing is. . . THAT'S GOOD. Yes, sports are exciting at the end, in competition, in the heat of the race. But training is all about moderation. It's about getting solid work in without going to easy and being bored, but also without going too hard and getting worked up. Steady, progressive, solid work is the key.

We try to make it interesting, of course. Tomorrow's land workout has a little of everything; steady state on the erg, 2k pace work on the erg, steady state on the bike, weight lifting. Today was a moderate row in which we did some excellent work on connection; we're backing off a little after tomorrow as our first 2000m test is Friday. I'm excited to turn the group loose and see how they do.

Bring on the new.

The first part of this post is to say I failed. Which is to say, I promised video and pictures from the erg-a-thon and took none. My apologies; the event went off successfully but I was running around during and let that detail slip. We had great participation and enthusiasm from our team and raised nearly $200 from a decent crowd towards the Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland. The best part was seeing members of the different squads come together and work HARD towards getting a ton of meters on the board and a bunch of dollars in the donation box.

Today we encoutered another chilly saturday and once more got some snow during practice; this time it was a surprise-- unforecast flurries. The men took out their eight and did probably 20k+ in a long bit of steady state. The women had an eight and four out and once again did some racing pieces; the video we took turned out a little blurry but captures some of the intensity of these pieces.

One of my favorite parts of our team is how welcoming we are to newcomers. The coxswain of our four and three seat of our eight are 'spring novice'; each has very little in-boat experience and today was their first racing practice. Both did wonderfully and have been welcomed & supported by their boatmates. The ability to gain new members to our team and have them rapidly integrated into our tight-knit group is fantastic.

Happy Valentines Day!


Four vs. Eight from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.

First Event of the Year

There's been a short lag in posts; I've been nailed with a head cold. Saps the motivation by a bit. We've had a good row & a good erg since Tuesday and continue to make progress.

Tonight is our first 'event' of the year-- our annual erg-a-thon, held at the last home Basketball game at Lewis & Clark. We split the whole squad into two equal teams (orange vs. black), men and women mixed, and have them race a 'basketball game' (four twelve minute quarters, NBA Rules) for meters. At the same time other members of the teams are soliciting donations for the Boys & Girls clubs of Portland. Donations count at 1 cent per meter and each team adds meters to donations to get their final score. There is a prize. Last year we raised something like $500 for Breast Cancer research; I'm hoping to beat that number this year!

I'll endeavor to record the whole thing on the flipcam and post some highlights tomorrow after practice.

A Row in the Snow

I got no pictures or video this morning, which is a shame. The water was perfect and it was just cold enough that the moisture falling took the form of big, fat, wonderful snow; not enough to get you soaked, just enough to be really pretty. There's something quite sublime about rowing on flat water in the snow.

Good work done today on rhythm, flow, and continuing to emphasize focus points in the stroke: SEND on the finish and a continuous, powerful drive. We also saw the first of what I'm sure will be many competitive pieces between a women's 8 and a men's 4. Last year these pieces helped us find all sorts of speed that's hard to get without competition and I'm sure the same will be true in 2009.

Racing: It's ON.

Practice 2.7 from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.

It's not the prettiest rowing, it's not very good water, the rate is low, and so many other things, but it's RACING, it's from this morning, and it's in HD on Vimeo. Click through if you want to see the full version-- be aware it'll take bit to load.

Practice today was like a comedy of errors; for some reason we had a heck of a lot of problems getting things to work the way we wanted them to. The most important response is to stay calm, evaluate each problem, and work towards a solution. I think we managed to do that very well today. Good news was we got some excellent work done establishing a base rhythm and despite challenging conditions the athletes picked up on this by the end of practice. Second good thing was that although man, nature, and Dragonboat all tried to stop us we DID succeed in lining up some fours (and a double!) and get some racing pieces done on row number four.

Absolutely gorgeous in Portland today; currently 45 degrees and brilliant sunshine. I'm headed out for a 3-hour ride. It won't be fast, but it's going to feel fantastic.

Proof of Concept

About two years ago, an e-mail went out in the PE/Athletics department soliciting ideas for capital equipment purchases that would let the department expand its class offerings. I suggested the purchase of some sculling equipment and the addition of a sculling course to the fall semester. I sent the e-mail and didn't think much of it.

Late last spring we learned we'd received the money, and this summer we purchased enough equipment that we have five pair/doubles and sculling oars for all of them. As we brainstormed uses for these boats I realized one of the greatest values was our ability to have 'off' numbers (not perfectly dividable by 8 or 4) and still get people out on the water and get good rows in. My hope is that as we either recruited those with sculling experience or taught up current rowers via the sculling course we can develop a solid group of athletes who are able to keep up with big boats on steady state style rows in doubles. The extra speed and easier steering of a double vs a pair opens this option up to a far larger percentage of the team.

This morning was proof of concept; we had 14 rowers this AM; out went an eight and double, out went a four with some of our new novice. Both of the athletes in the double were in the sculling course this fall. The eight and double were able to work together the whole practice and even do a few short (15-20 stroke) pieces together at pressure. Certainly if the chips were down the eight would win, but it showed that the idea of two years ago is going to pay off in a big way this spring and in the years to come.

Getting into the Training

Another ergo session this morning. These aren't very exciting to write about. The men did 5x7' all on the erg, the women did 6x8' switching between ergs and spin bikes. Good effort, good solid work, and lots of fitness gains, but not photogenic or super-fun to watch. Spent some time after practice today planning Friday's session to include some interesting variations to keep things interesting.

The weather continues to be fantastic and I'm hoping for another glorious morning tomorrow. Personally I've had two just awesome rides in to work the last couple of days. I'm halfway through week four of my return to regular training; it's giving me a good perspective on what the rowers are going through at the moment. Between 'snowpocalypse', the holidays, and a vacation I lost my training rhythm until three weeks ago. It's just now-- after about 20 sessions-- that my legs are finally starting to feel like I think they should on the bike.

I know the team is going through a similar adaptation now; in about a week and a half it's going to start feeling really good. Right now we put in the time and prepare to push our limits in the weeks headed into races.

Glorious Tuesday

Practice 2-3 from Sam Taylor on Vimeo.

Absolutely wonderful water this morning for our first actual morning row. One of these excellent February days; near freezing, no wind, no current, perfectly flat, and a fantastic sunrise to top it off.

Sent out a brand-new novice on her first row in a novice boat with volunteer coach Jim (reports are that she's going to be a powerhouse) and I took an eight of returning athletes to work on front end, front end, front end. As referenced back in the fall everything about a good catch relates to preparation; of the body, the blade, the rhythm. If everything is ready the catch is easy. We focused on handle heights and blade preparation today; our erg work has done a lot for body preparation already.

Our current practice split (Monday, Wednesday, Friday on the ergs, bikes, and weights, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday on the water) is really nice for this time of year. We're making a lot of progress on fundamental fitness, and now that we're rowing we're adding the technical foundation to go along with that. In about three more weeks when we start transitioning to more frequent rowing our technique and fitness should be robust enough to start supporting a bunch of competitive pieces and we'll start making some very solid gains in our boatspeed.