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.