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