Officially Cut

Well it looks like my time with the U23 team is over.  I'll be finding out where I'm headed next, but I didn't make the top quad and so now camp is over.  However, I'll hopefully be headed to Philadelphia in the next few days to continue training for the summer.

Fro-yo, USA soccer, and 2k races.

Yesterday I raced in the double. We came in second at the U23 trials, with a nice close race, but losing by 8 seconds.  I'm very happy to have raced and given it a shot.  It's the only way I know that that wasn't my route to worlds.  So it's back to the quad to seat race and see who the fourth girl actually will be.  So yes my life plans are again up in the air.  Today we raced the quad, came in second.  We had never really practiced the line up and had some steering issues and stuff, but no big deal.  Our first boat beat us all by lots.

Now I'm sitting in a little frozen yogurt shop called Twist, using their wifi and watching the USA soccer game.  Currently it's 0-1 Ghana, not sure how I feel about this score.  But my frozen yogurt, that is actually more fruit than yogurt is delicious.  I'm a sucker for strawberries ;)  well I'll post more as I learn up for now it's USA, USA!

Much love,

Hilary

The Caspersen Boathouse

This is the boathouse we are rowing out of, unfortunately we don't get such great water, but a breeze keeps the heat down a little.  Racing tomorrow!  Hopefully we get a good practice in today!

No Racing today - Friday only

We don't actually have a race today, one of the boats dropped out and now we have a final only race on Friday at 2:30 ET. 

This is where you can check results: https://secure.powerhousetiming.com/powerhouse/webpages/raceResults.jsp?raceId=266  I'll be in the women's double (2x). 

I'll probably post on facebook just after I get off the water from the race, so if you haven't added me yet, feel free to search my name and add me!

And my race on Saturday has live viewing: http://www.usrowing.org/Events_Regattas/NationalChampionshipRegattas/natchamp.aspx   I'll be in the women's quad (4x). 

One Shot

Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted-One moment
Would you capture it or just let it slip?

(Lose Yourself - Eminem)

So I wouldn't normally quote Eminem, but these lyrics fit perfectly with my train of thought right now.  Basically it's come down to Vicky and I have one shot, U23 Trials, to make it on the U23 team.  So yeah we have one shot, this is our opportunity, so we're capturing it and going for it!

We did 2 x 750 with steady state in between today.  The first was a little lower and we didn't find rhythm until the last 250.  The second was sloppier but faster and we had rhythm.  Things are looking good.  We seem to be on the same page and headed in the right direction, we just don't know exactly what we are facing when it comes to competition.  We will take the heat race as a trial and then if we have to race two more times we will otherwise we will just race the final!  Which would be awesome!  But just had to share my thoughts on why Eminem was stuck in my head!

Yesterday we had to do 3 x 20 at 2:07, 2:06, 2:05, however the humidity and travelling got in the way and we were all pretty tired, so we ended up doing 2:07, 2:06, 2:06 and having super high heart rates.  It was slightly pathetic, but it was like 90 degrees outside and 99% humidity, ok maybe a slight exaggeration, but I'm not used to this!  Nor do I ever sweat this much!

Anyways, we finally get an afternoon on the water today!!!  Super excited to do race starts and sprints!  :)

blessed and in Princeton!

We arrived in Princeton on Friday evening.  We left the training center in San Diego at 5:30 am and arrived in our rooms around 7:30pm.  It was a very long day and a lot of waiting, which tests my patience to no end, but we managed! 
We began practicing on Saturday, we arrived at the boathouse around 9:30 am and didn't get on the water until 11 because we had very limited tools and had to prepare all the boats and oars.  We did a slow steady state, just getting the blades wet.

In the afternoon we had to erg because they open the lake up to just about anyone in small paddle boats, so we can't go out on the water and attempt to get some good work in without hitting them.  However we got some good lifting and erging in :) 

Today we had practice this morning, which consisted of steady state and bursts.  I'm feeling really tired and diminished today, so hopefully our afternoon erging session won't be too challenging. 

I feel so blessed to be here, in a fairly nice dorm and rowing out of the Casperson Boathouse on Mercer Lake.  We have a brand new fleet of boats (wintechs...) and get to use oars that are just fine.  So my double partner and I have been able to take the paper out of the shoes (literally) for our last two rows.  The steering was screwy with the first boat so they gave us another boat.  :)  I feel so special, they have US National Team logos and writing on them and it's ours!  So we now just have to race hard at trials to secure the boat for good! 

The weather here is awful, so hot and humid, I just want to hang out inside all day, but practice is a must and so I'll spend every other waking moment enjoying the shelter of my bedroom and not wearing much clothing while outside!  I've been drinking more water than imaginable, it's a struggle to stay hydrated. 

Well that's all for now!  Headed to practice and hoping for cooler weather!

Final Days of Seat Racing

A friend recently commented about the fact that she was going through a day of seat racing and I realize that we've basically seat raced for 2 weeks straight and are still going.  The final results?  I've been ranked 6 of 8 in the seat races although the places 4-8 are within seconds of each other. So while I still have a shot at racing in the quad at worlds, fellow sculler Vicky and I have decided that racing a double at U23 National Team Trials next week wouldn't be the end of the world.  So we have a few boats of competition and hopefully we can pull off some great racing!  I'm excited to just go after an opportunity to race and maybe we'll win and if we do, they we have made the U23 National Team.  If we don't, then we'll have a few days of seat racing and one of the 5 of us leftovers will be in the quad.  And the rest of us will go on our merry ways to each end of the US.  I have decided that if I don't go to worlds, I'm going to enjoy a little vacation and see some part of the US I haven't seen yet, maybe NY?  Hmm... I just don't know, it'll depend on money. 
In any case we'll need to get some quick practices and fast racing in to win, but that's what's new in my life!  I'm excited! 
Nothing much else is new.  We are headed to Princeton tomorrow morning early.  I'm sad I never got to see San Diego, but they had us on a short leash here and I was happy for the rest during the day.  I'll be sad to leave the compound and the wonderful weather and food of the OTC.  One of the best experiences of my life and I'm so glad I got to make it this far already!  And so happy I've had some great people to talk to online everyday, they've helped my every decision and pushed me through the tough rows and injuries.  :) 
A few things I've totally enjoyed about being here:  1) everyone wants to make friends, thus doing so is easy and I've met a lot of fun people.  2) doing your nails is like number one fun time activity, besides watching tv and movies, which can be done simultaneously. 3) NEON is in... 4) I miss my WU Crew girls (and boys) and my roommates a lot, they've made everything so easy!  But being a tentative member of Team USA has been great!

I'll send an update from Princeton! 

~Enjoy everyday!  Hilary

Pictures!

Walking to the cafeteria.

The Boathouse

On the way to the boathouse.

The damaged boats.

The lake.

Walking back from the boathouse, throwing arena.

oops! ~ The past week

  So, there hasn't been much to report and I've been lazy on my breaks and haven't wrote anything for a week!  Sorry all!

Let's see here, here's a rundown of the last week, every day gets a sentence or two.
Sunday: Morning off and max power testing in the PM.  Did well, PRed for the 10stroke test with max watts 630.  Just about what I've always hoped for!
Monday: 4 x 2k, 20-26.  Went really well.  Afternoon swing row.
Tuesday: 3 x 1500, not so well.  Afternoon weights and swing row.
Wednesday: Morning only technique row and 3 x 20' on the erg.
Thursday: 4 x 2k same as Monday, different partner.  But in the afternoon we rowed in the quad!
Friday: 3 x 1500, switched partners each row!  Afternoon in the quad again, yay!
Saturday: Which is today, I did 3 x 20' on the erg again.  My heart rate is dropping and I'm obviously responding well to the training plan!  Love it!

Let's see what's been exciting around here... I got to go to Target the other day!  Yay!  Didn't really get anything exciting but leaving the compound was great!

The world cup has officially started, watching soccer as much as possible, so much fun!  Can't wait for the USA - England game to start!  Never felt so patriotic, but when you're training for the US, that little bit of patriotism comes out.  Nothing like Denmark or Ecuador though, they're way patriotic!

And... the food is still good, the weather has been windy and crappy lately but we'll get over it.

6k test tomorrow afternoon, we'll see how it goes.  :)

I'll post pictures soon, when I'm not feeling quite so lazy!! 

It's Saturday and we get a day off!

Let's see it's been a couple days since I wrote and my hands hurt too much to write much.  And they still do but it's time for me to give a true update on how things are going because I haven't exactly done that yet. 
We've been going out in quads a lot, which I love.  The easy speed is so great!

So what should I talk about in this post?  I guess I'll give you all an outline of my day and then as I think of more things I'll jot them down.  I come up with great ideas for posts while I'm taking a nap or out doing steady state on the water. 

My day goes as such:
5:55 or 6:55 wake up. 
Eat a snack, usually a banana and a granola bar or two. 
6:30 or 8:15 run with the team for 20 min.  Usually a pretty fast paced run, but nothing I can't keep up with. 
6:50 or 8:35 stretch and get ready to row.
7 or 8:45 team meeting to discuss the plan for the row. 
Row, row, row for about 2 hours or so. 
Come in, wash the boats, and put everything away.  Stretch again. 
Eat breakfast.
Sleep
Eat lunch
Watch TV.  We've been watching a lot of FRIENDS lately, because my roommate brought a bunch of seasons of it and it's better than watching commercials.  Right now though we are watching House, which I've never seen before, but am enjoying already.
3pm practice.  This is a bit more relaxed practice, usually in bigger boats (quads for us scullers) and a lot, a lot of steady state.  Like 18k of steady state.  :)  But it's enjoyable.
Around 5 we are off the water and washing the shells and stretching.
Then either we shower and then head to dinner, or head to dinner and then come back and shower.
Then it's an evening of TV and computing.  I've been spending time catching up with old friends that I stopped having time to talk to as much while in school and rowing.  So it's been great to catch back up with them.
And then around 9 or 9:30 I head to bed, because well I'm tired from the long day and need to revitalize my body!  And mind too!


Since my last post, we have done a lot of practicing of course and eating and sleeping and tv watching as my schedule suggests.  But the practicing bit has gone really well and things are progressing.  As I learned or relearned this evening I have a bunch of things to work on, but they're manageable details and didn't put me in a rut.  So with the next few hours off, I will attempt to sleep a lot and get ready for our first round of testing and hope my hands get a little less swollen and heal quickly.  I visited the trainers today and they gave me this really cool stuff that basically goes on like glue and doesn't come off.  So it basically covers half my hand and feels really weird, but hasn't taken any of the pain away, so I'm still dealing with that, but I don't have wounds like before.   I have to put more on tomorrow before I row, but I have all night to sleep and all day tomorrow to ice. 

Let's see what else... The OTC (olympic training center) where I'm at is pretty great!  The food like I said before is awesome, to have fruit available all the time is great.  The boathouse is simple, nice and not too out done.  The lake has a reasonable 3k course and we follow it and do laps on it daily.  The trainers like I said are cool, they have a nice track here and there are so many throwing stations for track and field.  And there are a billion bunnies here and lizards and birds.  The weight lifting tent is really cool, but we haven't spent much time there.  I'll share a more about that later, when the post isn't a few pages long.

Finally a quad

In the last 3 days I have rowed a total of about 76 k!  It's been a lot but it's fun and that's what I'm here for, to row and have fun.  The food is still great.  And today we finally got to row in quads and go fast!

really that's all i have to report for now, off to watch so you think you can dance and then bed!  my hands are super blistery and so typing hurts!

more later!

I'm here!

Well I arrived yesterday, it was a long day because I left the house at 6:45 but didn't get into the training center until about 4.  I had to wait to 2 hours for the shuttle from the airport to the training center.  So I got there and got unpacked and watched tv until it was time to go to dinner.  The food here is AMAZING!  Anyways, today we had practice at 9. We did 6k on the erg super steady state and then about 8k on the water.  Just getting our bearings back for sculling and learning the new styles that the coaches want us to use.  Then we had lunch, yummy pasta!  After lunch I took a nap and used the computer, before heading to afternoon practice.  For afternoon practice, I started on the water and did 6k in the double and then we went on land and did another 6k on the erg and stretched for a long time.  Then it was off to dinner and shower. 

For food here they have carbs and all the right proteins.  And it's unlimited food and we can take it back to our rooms for pre-workout snacks haha.  Well that's all for now, not much to report.  We got sweet ID cards that are all olympic offical.  :)  This place is great!