Wintertime Cross Training

Will has gotten crazy about rock climbing this winter. This mania started with this picture, taken at Callaway Gardens in Georgia. The wall you see him on is about 40ft high, and he was quite pleased with himself afterwards. Since then, I've taken him out to a few different places, RockQuest in Cincinnati being his favorite. Below are a two shots of him climbing at their great indoor facility.






So, why talk about cross training while putting up pictures of my 5 year old climbing 45ft walls? Going to these various climbing gyms has given me an opportunity to observe the athletes that enjoy this sport up close, doing their own wintertime training. Climbing outdoors in freezing rain doesn't seem to be anything they would enjoy more than rowers enjoy racing in high winds on a 40 degree day.

So, how do high-end climbers train in the winter? It's their off-season, after all. There are some very specific skills they've built up over the years, or new abilities to work on. What do climbers do?

Guess what? They do the same thing swimmers do. They practice their sport in a simulated environment indoors. Does a wooden climbing wall exactly simulate the face of a granite cliff? Of course not. There's also no wind to deal with or footholds that fall out once your full weight pressed upon them. Just like rowers who deal with an erg that doesn't exactly mimic the feel of water or the the set of a boat.

Anybody guessing the point I'm making here? I'm all in favor of cross training. It makes a fun "different" activity to get into every other weekend or so. There is just too much evidence to suggest that cross training simply won't produce a faster boat. In a specialized sport such as rowing, there is no substitute to actually rowing to get faster.

Don't misunderstand my point, however, when the issue of weight training or flexibility is discussed. Both are worthy, focused tools used to increase power output and technique in the boat. Climbers lift weights fanatically, but they simply don't focus on the lower body strength like rowers must. Core muscle groups, upper shoulders and forearms are the favorites of climbers, where leg exercises and bench pulls are important to oarsmen.

So enjoy your cross training this winter. Once or twice a month. If, however, the fastest boat possible is your goal, keep rowing. That is, after all, the motion you're trying to perfect.

Beach Running

For Thanksgiving this year, my family is on the beach in Charleston, SC. There's miles of beach to walk and run, along with a heated pool for the kids. Plenty of fun for Will and his cousins and a big enough building to house all 25 of us.

I was thinking of hitting the beach tomorrow and talking with some of my family members of the running persuasion. Everyone knows that I can't run, and we brought an erg down to burn off some T-Day calories, but their conversation about running on the beach got me thinking about the running that happens in rowing.

In rowing, we encourage everyone to work in unison. In the boat, that's a requirement. On the ergs, workouts are structured so the weakest oarsmen many times are finishing at the same time as the strongest. Instead of working over a certain distance, we use elapsed time, such as 60 minutes of steady state or six 1-minute pieces.

However, when sent out on a run, a crew reverts to individuals. If I sent a team on a run down the beach, I would get multiple sets of footprints in the sand, and they would return to the start at different times. However, the military runs in formation and in step with each other. Why don't we encourage this in rowing? If anything, rowing is more dependent on such interdependence and unison, yet we let such an opportunity slip by. Perhaps this is something to think about in the future, when the team is sent out on a run.

Just a thought. Anyone have any comments?

When the coach rants

I'm going to add my two pennies into the Mike Gundy debate. For those that aren't familiar with what happened, read this column, that appeared last Saturday before the Oklahoma State Cowboys played. Then came coach Mike Gundy's post-game news conference:





Finally, here's the rebuttal column from the sportswriter.

When a coach goes on a rant like this, it's the product of a lot of frustration that boils over. Coaches deal with a lot on their plate on a daily basis, and the responsibility doesn't ever get easier. The highest duty is always to the athletes under your command, and good coaches get very possessive of "their" kids. We really become surrogate parents. Like parents, it's okay for us to discipline our kids, but look out if anyone out there says anything bad about our kids. Then papa bear comes out, and it makes for entertaining television. I really understand where Mike Gundy was coming from.

The national sports media had a wonderful few days with this. It made for great sound on sports stalk radio. ESPN radio had morning hosts that agreed with Gundy and supported his point of view and a midday host that called it insane and predicted Gundy's immanent departure from the college coaching ranks. Both points of view got passionate calls, which is what talk radio wants. I believe the media missed who was the target audience for that rant.

Gundy was going off for the consumption of his players. He had made a difficult move to switch starting quarterbacks, his defense had just been shredded in a shoot-out which the team did win, but controversy was swirling around the team, being fed by a columnist. She needs readers, so "stirring the pot" gets her attention. How does Gundy respond to this situation? Usual coach-speak might work, but won't take any attention away from a possible quarterback controversy or a week of questions about his defense.

So Gundy made it all about him, while making a very important point to his athletes: Coach has my back. It's us against everyone. We're a team, a family and coach will go to the mat for us. I'm sure the offensive players would love to exult about their great performance and the team's win, but I'm absolutely sure that Gundy's boys will follow him into hell after his rant on the media, because they know and they've seen that he cares deeply for them. Deeply enough to deal with a week or more of media insanity for them.

As a final side note, I think the columnist is disgusting. She claims "sources and facts," but actually claims not one. No quotes, interviews, nothing. She writes that her integrity has been attacked, but she doesn't understand what her function is. She's a columnist, someone hired to write an opinion. Columnists don't have to support their work with facts. They can make things up from whole cloth if they so choose. But somehow, she's offended that she got called out over and over again on national television. She doesn't like being told that her opinion stinks. Anyone can say that: it's free speech. Her problem is that it's getting far more airtime.

I like what Gundy said and did. I agree with him. He must be one heck of a coach.

The Hurt Locker

The Hurt Locker is the unfortunate byproduct of Swing. When the rhythm of the boat re-enforces the output of the oarsmen, they feel it as a sublime, unstoppable moment that can last for a few strokes or a few thousand meters. Swing encourages the crew to continue the output they are generating for as long as possible. Frankly, the crew might feel as if they could continue on that pace indefinitely.

The Hurt Locker opens up when the boat finally stops and the body, which had been fooling itself, suddenly realizes how much energy has been produced. Between two and three breaths, pain suddenly floods the various systems. Welcome to the Hurt Locker.

Once you've gone there, it is very difficult to get back to the swing the boat has just experienced. There's just too much pain. If you're lucky, you've timed your trip to the hurt locker with the last piece of the practice, or the final at the big regatta. If you're unfortunate, you've got to somehow muster up the physical courage to start rowing again in the next few minutes or hours to go all over again.

Jay and I took a trip into the Hurt Locker this morning. It was our best outing in the pair so far, with the boat set well and running straight. There were times as we swung downstream from the 62nd street bridge that I felt as if I were rowing an erg. It was Swing.

Of course, when that feeling comes over a boat, the rowers usually increase power to reenforce the good row they're having. And so on we went, steadily increasing the pressure and then the rating over the next 2.5 miles. I was breathing hard as we made the final turn under the wires toward the 40th street bridge.

Sweat broke out all over my arms we relentlessly pursued speed. I knew what was happening; I felt like I could continue this pace for a long, long time. There always seemed to be more energy, flowing from the boat, through me and into the water. I wondered why I wasn't hurting too much and why my hands had gone numb on the composite oar.

One last power twenty took us under the bridge. Even that didn't seem to tax me so much, it just required moving a little faster and drawing more power out and into the oar. Then we paddled and stopped. And the Hurt Locker opened like a yawning, stinking mouth of hell.

I had made some poor eating choices yesterday, and my guts were reminding me of them. Feeling returned to my aching hands, where fresh blisters from earlier in the week protested the continued abuse of this morning. My head pounded; I was dehydrated despite guzzling down a quart of water every workout.

It was very difficult to stand when we landed the boat. Jay's back was in agony. He had difficulity putting on his socks later in the locker room. I feel, now five hours later, as if I'd been up all night before going on the water. (No, I wasn't.) There's just no energy left in me, and my legs are aching now. No amount of caffiene has overcome the all-consuming desire to sit at my desk and sleep.

However, I now sit here with a smile on my face and content in my heart. It was a great row. I wonder if Jay's back will be ok for Monday?

The coach 2-

Well, after a very frustrating spring and summer with injuries and general insanity, the Central coaches' pair finally got out on the water this morning. It was the first time in a 2- for me in over seven years. I have always liked rowing the pair more than any other boat, so I've been looking forward to this for awhile.

And contrary to all the snide remarks I'm sure the guys are making, no we did NOT flip. Actually, we had a very good row, didn't hit anything and managed to go straight, thus proving that the old guys do still "have it." Next outing is tomorrow at 6am, and any challengers are welcome from the ranks of the oarsmen. Nobody will be allowed in the first boat that can't beat the coaches in the pair. I might be kidding, or I might not........

Off the erg some more

That is my broken toe, right foot, next to my big toe. Notice that it's just a little......bent.

I was planning on getting on the erg again this coming week, as my back has been really loose and easy. Not for awhile now, I'm on crutches. This sucks.

Next Christmas?

For those who haven't hit this link on row2k, I now call attention to the Streetrower. I'm not sure how well this would do for us here in Pittsburgh (the site says they can customize some gearing), as the hills here are steep and ever-present, but this looks like a lot of fun. Apparently it's even possible to build one of these for a bloke my size!

The only information I don't see on the site is how the legs get involved in the stroke and if it's possible to lay back a little more than I see in these shots. Everyone seems to be rowing a little short in the finish for this coach's eye. But hey, everybody's a critic. It looks like a great idea and I would love to take a Henley vacation sometime to try one out. Any readers out there who've been on one?

These would give an all-new way to look at erg tests, as there is a banked bike track here in Pittsburgh, just over the Highland Park bridge, and a bike path that follows our main training areas on the Allegheny and Monongahela. Why race against the clock when you can race for real, head to head? Those miserable flooded out March weeks might be a thing of the past.....

Thoughts for the novices the night before

Before you push off the dock on Saturday morning, I want you to know you're the most successful novice crew Central has ever had. A lot of people have offered congratulations to the coaching staff, but I believe you, the athletes, are the sole people who deserve the credit and congratulations.

Traditionally, novices are victimized by low expectations. The first year of rowing is supposed to be a learning year, with good fundamentals, awards for "participation," and a few races tacked on to the beginning of regattas as a "bone" to "keep the novices interested." Sometimes the best athletes from the novices are taken from their classmates early, to fill out a struggling 2V or 3V. The rest are politely expected to struggle on, hamstrung, and "race well" or "show good sportsmanship" or "represent the team." These are great characteristics to have, and we encourage them. But in other words, crews with low expectations didn't care if the novices lost.

This year, you 18 men accepted the challenge of higher expectations. In order to meet these, you have trained harder than any novice crew at Central, you have achieved faster erg scores that any novice crew at Central, and you have raced with determination never seen from a Central novice crew. No Central novice has ever pulled faster than seven minutes on at 2k erg, nor has any Central novice raced in the finals at the New Jersey championships, until this year.

When great accomplishments are expected from a person or group of people, many times it is seen as a disadvantage or an obstacle to be overcome. Barack Obama wrote eloquently of the struggles his father had being one of the first Kenyons to earn a college degree in America, football teams with "something to lose" are seen as disadvantaged against teams with "nothing to lose, playing with house money."

However, I disagree with the "conventional wisdom." The only disadvantage high expectations have is the perceived risk of disappointing those with those high standards. If a poor crew that has not trained well and does not expect to do well goes out and loses their race, then they have fulfilled their low expectations. If an excellent crew that has trained well launches and wins their race, they have fulfilled their high expectations, and *most importantly* have defied the risk of disappointment and defeat. That excellent crew would take not satisfaction in their win if there had been only one other very poor team in their race.

Given the choice, when pushing off the dock, I would rather be the team with high expectations than low expectations.

I've though at length this week about expectations, goals and definitions of success. I've become ashamed about what I said to the novices after the race on Sunday. I got too involved in one race and it's outcome; I forgot to recognize the long-term goals that have been accomplished this year. The Central novices are competitive. People talk about our races. The overall level of the team has been raised by the novices. Because these main goals have been accomplished far beyond my own expectations, I have to be proud of this group. Both boats could come in last this weekend, and I would still be proud.

Why? Because they have showed determination, courage and character. They already are the best group of Central novices ever, and are well on their way to being the best class of Central Catholic oarsmen ever.

So do not fear disappointment this weekend, gentlemen. Before you race, take a moment to calm your anxiety and focus on how far you've come. Concentrate within yourselves and within the gunnels. Focus on your blade and your coxswain. Row like you know how and accept the challenge of high expectations, because that is what you've done all year, and that is what will make every one of you exceptional Central oarsmen in the future.

Close Racing

I saw a close race today, between my Central freshmen and FC's novice crew. The final margin was CC by 3/4 of a length or so, and the boats were very close for quite a bit.

I always thought there was something very satisfying about a close race, even if I lost. Matching strength against an even opponent felt like a validation of all the work I had put in, and somehow honored the other guy as well. While there was always some joy in winning by a large margin, I felt some sadness as well. I know how hopeless it feels to get blown out after putting in long hours of practice (I've been there, and it really hits hard), and that is not a feeling I wish on any crew.

A close race validates all the time and energy both teams have put into the sport. Somehow, that hard-fought battle raises both boats up somehow. You want another crack at that team, to measure your progress. There's a measure of respect that a close race imparts between crews, and I would look forward to seeing a team that had barely beaten us again, somewhere, anywhere.

One of the proudest races I've ever been involved in was a race we lost, against St. Paul's school in 1995. Nobody had ever come as close to them as we did, and I took pride in knowing I'd lost to a better crew, but had pushed them to their limit.

We'll see FC again. If not in a race, then during a practice sometime during the coming weeks. My history with that program guarantees it and I welcome the challenge. Both crews will get faster from today's result.

Pain

Back pain. A lot of it. I couldn't move two nights ago.

I have no idea what brought this on. There wasn't a sharp flash of pain moment that told me "oops, I've done something really wrong." Just a gradual tightening that left me unable to walk. I've got some great drugs now to get me through the days, but this really isn't fun. I'm off the erg and working out for awhile, and that's got me in a really bad mood.

I'm working on some posts for this blog, but I'm also fuzzy most of the day with meds. Stay tuned, the editing process takes a little longer these days.

The Cheeseball Moment

Man, do I ever wish life was like the movies. In a sports movie, there is always the practice montage in the second act, and the team struggles through difficult training in terrible weather conditions. The coach gives some nasty little speech to the gathered team after a terrible day; mud is splattered on their faces, they are wet and downcast. The speech is usually some form of "Dagnabbit, you are better than that, you have the talent to be champions, you just have to drop the egos and trust each other." And so the movie continues on, with lovely little moments of the individual players staring out to the field (or river) or sitting alone in a darkened locker room. Then the act closes with the team having more positive practices until there is the moment. That wonderful moment when the sun is shining, the music swelling, the team working perfectly together, the coach smiling and the teammates slapping hands and shouting their readiness to take on the world.

Wouldn't life be nice if it was that easy? Add a cheesy soundtrack, grumpy coach and sullen players who suddenly pull together to win some huge, climatic championship. Pure Cheese. Too bad that's not how real championships are won.

True champions work hard, all the time. They usually get along. They trust each other and their coach. Champions have good practices and do the little details right. Winners do the extra work and take care of their personal lives so they are in the best position to be champions when the time comes in that climatic event.

Champions don't wait for the big Cheeseball Moment in practice. They create little, positive moments every practice. They work to extend those moments longer and longer as the practice season drags into competition, so that they can summon that positive moment at will.

Today, my novices had a good, positive moment in the second session. Boat swing was created. Suddenly, the boat skimmed over the top of the water rather than plowing through. It looked light and powerful. It was a great little moment. I need them to remember how the boat felt then, what they did to make that happen. Most importantly, practice this week will focus on creating more moments like that, so race day can be a Cheeseball, winning moment.

STILL off the water.....but not for long

Well, this year's flood has lasted longer than most, and doesn't look to be going down anytime soon. Well into next week, it looks like. So, we're moving.

The "other" river here in Pittsburgh, the Monongahela, comes up from the south and has a fraction of the flow of the Allegheny. Off we go on Friday for a weekend of "wet launching," mud, screams and (finally) rowing on the water.

I'm realizing now how fortunate I was rowing in Cincinnati all those years. While we did drive out to East Fork State Park every day, some guys in the car for an hour, we at least had good water 95% of the time. There was never a safety concern, even when the lake flooded, because there wasn't any current. Wind was our enemy, but there were always sheltered shores to get miles in.

Once we re-located to the Licking River in Covington, the drive was much shorter and the water polluted. We did get flooding that spring, like any mid-western city. But we rowed on it anyway. I can't imagine going out in that type of high water here in Pittsburgh, I'd get drawn, quartered, and shot. Back then, it was just an adventure to conquer. One and a half hours upstream, and 10 mins downstream. I'M NOT KIDDING! I've never gone that fast past the shore since in a rowing shell. Good times!

The problem now is sitting on shore, thinking about all the other teams that we will race in the spring who are rowing on lakes or other protected water right now. I've got a clock ticking in my mind, and it's counting down to our first race in less than two weeks.

The Yearly March Flood

Well, here it is. Every year, we get out on the water in early March or late February. I'll usually get about two weeks of good rowing in, and get excited about the progress I see my crews making. Then the heavens open up for two straight days and the river rises.

And here we go again.

Again.

Last night, just to emphasize the point, we had hail. It hasn't stopped raining since.

This just makes me crazier than I usually am. I can't stand it. After an entire winter spent feeling the air stirred by the ergs, back we go to the machine. I was doing my workout outside two days ago, and there will be snow flurries this weekend. No wonder I'm getting grey hair.

This is the third most challenging time of the season, after the early February blues and the first row blahs. Going back onto the erg after feeling the water is a nightmare scenario for any oarsman, but we deal with it every year here in Pittsburgh. I don't ever look forward to this, as morale usually slides quickly. Really, who wants to erg when you don't need a coat outside? I start warning the kids about this in January; perhaps a little expectation that it will happen will lessen the blow.

The emergence of other crews from their winter sleep only aggravates the situation, as we all end up bickering for erg time and tank space. I get snippy when asked how long we'll be on the machines by such people. I wonder "Where have you been all winter? Now you want to train? Too late for you, I'm not here to help you out!"

So I trot out some workouts I haven't used that much, just to keep the minds working a little more. I'll join the boys on the erg today and let the coxswains correct us all. I'll make a new playlist on my iPod so there isn't the usual music. And I'll fume. And brood. And stare off the deck at a river that has never cooperated with my plans. I'll tell stories of Todd and "the old days when a little flood didn't stop us" and sound like a nut case. And grit my teeth. Perhaps I'll also find some time to talk to the boats.

Quicky Post

I've got other stuff in the works, but haven't put anything up for awhile, so here's some thoughts.

We're on the water now, and it is a very good thing. The flow and weather have cooperated so far, despite a few REALLY cold days. Guys have made some technical progress, but I'm looking for more, as always.

But, as always, attendance has raised it's ugly face with the return to the water. One guy out sick throws the whole team into chaos. The last two days we've been missing three. The reasons are legitimate, but the results are not.

Next week will start seat racing and selection. I call attendance problems during seat racing "self-selection." But after the boats are selected, problems with practice attendance can still kill a promising season. Read this post. I learned the importance of letting a boat "gel" together a long time ago. Boats just won't win in the spring without consistant practice together. Let's get all these sicknesses out of the way now and get back to rowing.

The parent's equipment list for regatta attendance

Chair: There isn’t anywhere to sit at a regatta. Chairs are very important when the only alternative is sitting in a mud puddle.

Book: Races run late. There will be long periods of time with nothing to watch.

Warm clothes: It’s springtime in the Midwest. The weather will change. Dress in layers, warmer than you think you need.

Money for the kids (T shirts, etc): There aren’t ATMs at racecourses, and there are plenty of opportunities to spend money on regatta stuff.

Rain clothes: It’s springtime in the Midwest. It is going to rain. All day. It will be a very cold rain. Rain clothes include something to cover your pants, because you will be out in that rain all day.

Binoculars: Even coaches forget these.

Contact a parent coordinator and transport some food, equipment etc: The parents in charge of food and the traveling circus that a rowing team is need help. Transport some equipment, help set up the tent, help cook some food, because these heroes deserve it

Did I mention rain clothes and warm clothes? I love my survival suit for a reason.

Change of clothes: There is nothing nastier than finally getting in your car for the drive home, but your clothes are muddy and soaked through. Warm dry clothes after a nasty day are almost as good as a hot shower.

Sun screen: Eventually, the sun will come up, and regatta sites usually don’t have a lot of shade. Get some sweat-proof sun block, because your son is guaranteed to forget to bring some for himself.

Sun glasses: Sunlight reflected off a river or lake isn’t fun to squint into. Polarized sunglasses are the best.

All this stuff in a waterproof bag: Assume that the ground you will be on will consist of 4 inches of freezing mud. You have a lot of stuff, and you will need to carry some of it to the tent. Have a bag that can sit in the muck and still keep your cell phone dry.

Rain/mud proof boots: Rain clothes are worthless if your feet are soaked through. Who cares about the weather when you can slop through the mud with no worries?

Comfortable walking shoes: When the weather is decent, you will realize the regatta site has spread out over a large portion of the race course. Then the distance the kids have to race over suddenly doesn’t seem that short. Launch docks are rarely close to the boats, which are rarely close to the tents, which are never close to the parking area. Be prepared to walk about 5 miles on a regatta day.

Hitting the bottom

There's nothing more terrifying or disheartening that pulling an erg piece and finding no energy. Despite the greatest will and drive, there just isn't enough energy to pull the score an athlete knows he/she is capable of. Sometime this happens because of sickness, lack of sleep or the coach.

It is a hard place to be. It's also hard for the coach to know just how far to push. We have to get the athlete to that point of "nothing left" so the body system will recover stronger, with more reserves than before. If the coach over-estimates the athlete's reserves, most of the crew will fail. Nobody goes home feeling good in that situation. If the workout is too easy, the athletes will accomplish the work, but the benefit won't be as great as it could be.

When the crew has a few days off coming, coaches start to up the intensity of the work. The athletes will get a few days to recover energy reserves and rest sore muscles. So, that final day will be the culmination of previous workouts that were very hard to start with. It will hurt, and if the coach has been right, the first few pieces will be on target and the real struggle will come in the second half.

I think that we got it right today. The last of the 5x5min this morning saw a few guys unable to hit their goal splits. Rather than be frustrated, I'm happy with the result. They're at the bottom of the barrel, getting there right when we wanted. Overall result was a success; the vast majority went faster that they ever had. The long-term result, that coaches think about, was also what we wanted. The guys pushed all the way past the last of their reserves, so they will come back stronger next week. A good, hard week. They should feel some accomplishment, having survived the worst the coaches could dish out.

Slip n Slide

You know the weather has gone bad when both crazy Central coaches can't make morning practice. Just about everything in Pittsburgh is closed today, and I think the whole city is staying home. The ice/slush/rain/evil that fell from the sky last night ruined a wonderful snowfall. Now it's just a mess out there.

And now it's starting to snow again. Great. Snow, ice, then more snow. Great mix. My satellite dish is iced over and can't get a signal. It's on top of the house, and I have no idea how long that will take to thaw out. Emily and Will are not happy.

On a rowing note, I tried out a "max power" workout published in Rowing News' most recent issue. The listing described it as a very intense workout. Though the intensity of the strokes was really high, the fact the boys were able to speak afterward disappointed me. Remember, I'm in the pain business. Also, apparently I've got the most powerful novice crew ever assembled, as two boys put results into the "senior college" level. We'll see if I bring this workout back. I think I'm more interested in 8x500m.

Happy Valentine's day to everyone!

Movie Day

Well, they have earned it. I am pleased with the performance of the CC novices on Saturday's TRRA erg sprints. Results are in the link to the right to Three Rivers Rowing. I'm also pleased that the guys made their academic goals. We're starting the real "push" month of winter training, so it is a good time for movie day.

Sometimes I don't announce this event ahead of time. It's nice to have a surprise. But somehow I think the boys will be excited about a practice with no sweat tomorrow. It might be a better lunchtime conversation than "I wonder how many 5oos we're doing today...."

No matter how much they whine, I usually control the selection myself. There is usually a reason for the film offered. Any who have rowed with me before can predict tomorrow's movie.

However, there will be a special screening before the feature presentation. A rare film short, with yours truly having a role. Yes, there is film evidence that I actually did race. I'm easy to find in this film, as I've got bleached blond hair. Ask Emily, it took 3 treatments and 5 hours to get it that color. My eyebrows remained brown.

I've always made questionable decisions with my hair. Here I am with my Henley medal in 1996. I'll let the hair speak for itself.

Notional Weather Service

Let's see. Total predicted snow accumulation for the last three days: 2 to 5 inches. Total actual snowfall: perhaps an inch. I can still see grass in my front yard.

I know that weather predictions here in Pittsburgh come either from Accuweather or the National Weather Service. I know that the people working at these services are experts and try their best to give close forecasts. This terrible miss this morning just poured salt into a festering wound. Really, if weather man is calling for 2 to 4 inches and there isn't anything, what is a coach supposed to tell (understandably) nervous parents? Assume we're not practicing? Assume that we are? Wait until that morning and see how far off the guess was?

The problem has become the desire of local news jokers for higher ratings. One easy ratings boost is the threat of a storm, with school closings and possibly snow-covered roads. I simply can't believe the local news dizzies aren't pumping up these storms. After all, it's been a mild winter so far and they much be feeling a ratings pinch.

Non Sequitur

Couldn't resist. Just too funny.

What have you done today?

Novices:

It's exam week. If you have done as I requested, then you are prepared. If you haven't, then it's time to study hard and do the best you can. If you're walking into your exam in a panic, then remember that feeling for next exam time and get your work done so there isn't a mad scramble.

What have you done this week to build a championship team? Are your grades going to help push the team over the top, so there won't be extra 2ooom tests? Have you put in any workouts this week? There is a 5 x 5min this Saturday and your first 2ooom test on Monday. Are you going to be ready to do your best, or will the 5 x 50 jumpies and cross-countries be in your future?

I've been in the gym twice this week, and I'll be there again in 6 hours. And I'm fat, old and out of shape.

Championships are built months before they happen. It's the oldest cliche in sports. It's also true. Are you building a championship today?

Frustration

It's that time of the year. The mid-January blahs. The weather is miserable, schoolwork is interminable and indoor training is simply a grind. I know where everyone is.

Yeah right you say? It is true; I understand exactly where everyone is. In some form or fashion, this is a frustrating time of year. Improvements are painful to grasp, the work load is increasing and the coach is demanding more. How can I understand this? Simply look at this picture, and please ignore the terrible outside grip.


Now, that mean-looking devil in the stroke seat is long gone. He isn't coming back. The problem is that nobody who sees this picture thinks I'm the same guy. So I've started (gasp) working out again. Scary thought, huh?

No, the erg didn't break when I sat down on it. No, I don't even look at the monitor. No, it's not snowing in hell. Yes, I still fit in that unisuit. (Sort of.) My goal is to at least look like that guy in the picture and be able to get in a boat this summer.

So, anybody who is a little frustrated right now, I feel your pain. Really, I feel pain. I'm ten million meters from being that guy again, but the memory of what that guy could do is frustrating. So if you're not exactly where you think you should be, keep at it, because I need to keep at it as well.