Paddling to Poland

Party Time!

2009-08-31T15:34:00.010+10:00

To get past our disappointment of our final’s row we all did something different! Henry went with his parents back to the course to watch the Aussie Men’s Eight row in the B Final. Pete took the bus back to watch, but us women, well we went and did a bit of retail therapy!

First stop was the most amazing deli I have ever been into. They had the biggest and best chocolate section we had ever seen! I think Lisa and I thought we had died and gone to heaven! Next section was the wine…yes for me! I was able to buy a bottle of Jacob’s Creek Cab/Merlot (yes I know I should have gone for the Polish wine, but I wanted something I knew I would enjoy!), then it was the fresh fruit section where Lisa and Alex bought the most beautiful raspberries.

Then it was on to all the other shops in the mall, spending more money on clothing and shoes! Why is it that you always feel better after spending money on stuff that you probably don’t really need?

We headed back to our hotel room, cracked open the red and had ourselves a little happy hour!

We had all decided to meet at 6pm to go and have some dinner as we were trying to meet up with the Canadians and Irish Adaptive rowers in the town square at 7:30pm for drinks. We found a place and had a wonderful meal…no pork!

As you can see from the picture not much was left on the plates. We also had a few drinks to go with the food.

We were unable to find the other rowers so after walking around looking for them plopped ourselves down at a bar with Adrian the Kiwi coach and his rower Robyn. Then the Italians found us and another round of drinks were purchased! It wasn’t a very late night and we were back in the hotel around 11:30.

The last day of racing Australian had the women’s lightweight double and the men’s quad. The entire team headed to the course to watch the racing and do some trading of team gear! Both crews had huge tailwinds to deal with again during racing and against an incredibly strong field the women were 5th. Then it was time for the men…what an incredible race. Our men got away really well and were leading right up to the 1000m mark, then the fight was on. Poland has been world champions in this event for the last 5 years! I don’ think I have yelled so loud! Our men ended up second with Poland retaining the title. For us Aussie’s this was a great way to finish the regatta!

We had a reception to attend for the Australian athletes and supporters just behind the course and when I got there I couldn’t believe how many supporters had been in the stands. Heaps of parents, brothers, sisters, girlfriends, boyfriends! It was amazing. We had a few speeches from David Crawshay, Pat McNamara (president of Rowing Australia) and then Andrew Matheson to wrap up. One gesture which I was happy to see was that each of the coaches who had a crew win a medal was presented with the medal that is awarded to the federation. I thought this was fantastic as the coaches do as much work as the athlete (albeit in a different way).

The day ended with all of us (our crew) heading to the town square again for a bite to eat and along the way we picked up a number of the parents to join us at the restaurant. We had the best meal I have had here and I know that I said I wouldn’t touch pork again but ….yes I had pork, well a huge rack of ribs!

Henry’s mom and dad were also in the group of parents and Tim (Henry’s dad) decided that he was buying our drinks…then he got us started on Vodka shots! Not just any old Vodka off the shelf, but true original Polish Vodka. I must say it was nice and went down very smoothly, although I could feel it go down!

Oh that burns all the way down!!!

We were seeing rowers everywhere as there were a number of after parties. A lot of them were dressed up and definitely looking for a good party! I on the other hand had just about had enough and was looking to put my feet up. We walked around for a little while chatting with a number of different people we met along the way and eventually Lisa took off to one of the parties, then Henry went with a couple of the guys from the men’s eight, Pete, Alex and I decided to head home. I know we were probably party poopers but I was happy with my night and my body was screaming for some rest!

It is now very early on our last day in Poznan as I write this. Today we have a debrief day, which is going to take a while and then we are hoping to head out for a bit more sightseeing. This has been a wonderful experience! I have met so many new and wonderful people, seen some amazing parts of Europe and got to row with the world’s best…What more could I ask for!

I am now ready to head home, have a few days rest, relaxation and introduce myself to my husband Russ and dog Kimba! I have been away a bit this year and Russ has been a wonderful support in this campaign, so time to give back! Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all those people who have been there for all of us, we couldn’t have done it without you!

Look out World, the Australian LTA4+ crew is here to stay and we will only get stronger and faster! See you in New Zealand for the next World Rowing Championships in November 2010.

Race Day - A Final

2009-08-30T01:51:00.001+10:00

Well what can I say? I think our race was the worst that we have ever done. But saying that here is what happened.

We headed up to the start of the course and on the way up against a huge headwind we realised that it would be a massive tailwind for us on the course. We had just had two races against this huge headwind and were very used to it but hadn’t done anything in a tailwind like we were to expect. Come to think of it I don’t think I have ever rowed in a tailwind like this! I asked Alex and she had never either.

We had a really good warm up, it felt good, we had good run on the boat and we were ready. We were in lane one and it was good at the start as it was almost a direct tailwind so we didn’t have to keep the boat in line too much.

We had a pretty good start, going out fairly slowly (or at least we thought) at a stroke rate of 38. Now for those of you who are not rowers, for us 38 is really, really high. I don’t think that we have ever gone that fast! Our first 250 wasn’t too bad and leading into the second 250 we did a leg drive. Overall we had the fastest 500m that we have ever had by more than a few seconds! However just about 100m past the 500, it was getting a bit messy (this was due to the massive tailwind) and Pete in 3 seat crabbed. For those of you who don’t understand this is when the oar gets caught on a wave and pulled under. It was so big that it wrenched the oar right out of his hands, threw him backwards almost into my lap and stopped the boat completely! It took us about 20 seconds to actually get the boat back into the proper lane (it had thrown us into lane 2) and back up and rowing.

We were now in the last 250m and just wanted to finish on a good note and actually look like we knew what we were doing. After we stopped I was worried that Pete’s neck had been hurt during the crab, but he was okay. If I am honest I have to say that I was mad. I was so angry I couldn’t be upset. I know that Pete and Alex had a few tears while we headed to the cool down lake, but I couldn’t (this is unusual for me).

We had our cool down and all I could think of was looking good past the grandstand as there were a number of Aussie’s yelling congratulations at us. I couldn’t accept congratulations at that point…why…we had rowed badly!

We pulled into the pontoon and our coach Pedro was there. Not a lot was said at that point, we just got the boat out, racked the boat and then had a meeting. Pedro put everything into perspective. He said he was proud of us and what we had done. We had made the A final, when a lot of people wouldn’t have expected us to make it. We had done the best that we could. Things happen during races and we can’t change that fact. We had the fastest first 500m we had ever had, even if it was messy. Everyone else was messy and dealing with the same conditions. We had to keep in mind that we were now 6th fastest in the World!

In the end it was Great Britain (in a new world record), Italy, Germany, Canada, Ukraine and Australia.

So it is now a few hours after the race, we got back to the hotel. I went over to the shopping centre, bought some wine, did some retail therapy in the form of shoes and a top and we are getting ready to go out and have non hotel food! Then meeting with the Canadians and Irish for a night of drinks! Hopefully I will be able to write a blog tomorrow and tell you about our night.

Hey we are ranked 6th in the WORLD!!!

Eve of the A Final

2009-08-29T02:10:00.000+10:00

Well we have just had our last training row. All the hard work of the last 3 ½ months is about to come to a head! This is it…the A Final of the LTA4+ at the World Rowing Championships. I still get goose bumps when I say it because I still don’t think that most of us really believe that we are here!

There is nothing more that we can do to prepare for tomorrow except have a good night’s sleep. All the work has been done that can be done and we just have to go out there and give it everything we have. Actually more than everything we have.

We go in as the underdogs in this race. We are in Lane 1 and hopefully oblivious to every other crew in that race. We have to go into this race believing in ourselves and our abilities and I am pretty sure that every one of us in this crew do!

There is nothing to lose in this race. We know that it will hurt like hell, but it is only just over 3 minutes of pain…then it is all over!

We have had so many messages of support and you have no idea how much that has contributed to our belief. Whatever the outcome we will know that we have given it our all!

Two Days to the A Final!

2009-08-28T05:19:00.005+10:00

The last couple of days have been interesting. Right after our race in the Rep’s on Tuesday, as soon as we finished, Pete yelled out in pain. His trap muscle had gone into spasm to protect his neck which had been a bit sore. Needless to say we wanted to get off the water right away and get him to the doctor and physio.

I am happy to say that he has recovered pretty well and after not rowing on the water Wednesday, some good muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatory drugs, we were able to get out on the water today. That of course was after watching 3 of our crew’s row in their semi-finals.

So far the Australian team has done a bloody good job. Wednesday was probably the most disappointing day for some of our rowers. The men’s Eight was taking part in the Repechage and unfortunately did not qualify for the A Final. They are however in the B final. Not where they wanted to be but considering they have an average age of 21!, yes I said 21, they have done a bloody good job and if they stay together for the next 3 years…well look out world! It is sad because you never know what to say to anyone. Their goal was the A Final and they sadly didn’t reach it. What they have to do now is go out in the B Final and kick some butt. Prove that they should have been there. The other team going to a B Final is the light weight men’s 4. They have been plagued with injury and even as early as Varese had to replace one of the rowers with Tom Bertrand who had been on the under 23 team. So to get to where they did and how they finished yesterday was a huge achievement. But both boats are probably not feeling that way right now.

Thursday was a better day for the Aussie’s, with three boats qualifying for the A Finals. The Women’s double, the women’s pair and the men’s four. The double and pair both coming 2nd in their semi-finals and men absolutely blitzing the field in the four. It was really fantastic to be able to be in the stands and cheer for each of the crews.

On our down time we have (other than training) been able to have a little look around and I must say I think that my first impressions were way off! Poznan is a beautiful city with some amazing architecture. Most of the people are very friendly especially if you try to say hello or thank you in Polish. These I must say are the only two words that I actually know and can remember. It is definitely one of the most difficult languages I have ever tried!

The only bad thing that has happened in the last couple of days is that I have been robbed of money from my wallet! There had been a number of thefts from the rowing course, so we decided that we would leave our valuables in our hotel rooms. I even hid my stuff in my suitcase under clothes! (No safes in the rooms!) If I hadn’t gone into my wallet to grab some money for a coffee I would never have known. They got away with 90 Polish dollars (I am not even going to try and type the word for the money!), 5 EURO and 20 Australian. They kindly left me 5 EURO and 40 Australian! So I had to report it to the reception and they in turn called the police.

Well I must say that was an interesting experience! Me telling a reception girl in English everything, her trying to translate to the Police officer who didn’t speak a word of English! We finally got through it and I am hoping that the insurance will cover the cost. It works out to only about $70 Australian but it is the principle of the whole thing! At least they didn’t take my passport, phone or credit cards!

I got to spend some time with Alex and her parents, Kingsley and Kim. We walked around the Poznan Town Square and I am told that it is absolutely beautiful at night. So hopefully when we are finished racing we can go out for dinner.

In the picture is Alex with her parents.

Tomorrow is the B Final of our event, but we won’t be going to watch. It is supposed to be 31 degrees here tomorrow and as most people know the heat affects me. We will head down for a small training row so that we can be well rested for Saturday!

In closing I just want to add to this blog an email that Alex got from a friend of hers. What was written in it was something that a cox had once said to their crew before a huge final. To me it made me believe that something special can happen on Saturday. We may be the underdogs going it, but hey so was Steven Bradbury in the ice speed skating, and look what happened to him. So I will leave you with this and please excuse the language as I am putting it in, in its entirety:

“Three minutes to the biggest battle of our professional lives. All comes down to today, and either, we heal as a team, or we're gonna crumble. Inch by inch, play by play. Until we're finished. We're in hell right now, believe me. And, we can stay here, get the shit kicked out of us, or we can fight our way back into the light. We can climb outta hell... one inch at a time. ....

You find out life's this game of inches, so is rowing. Because in either game - life or rowing- the margin for error is so small. I mean, one half a step too late or too early and you don't quite make it. One half second too slow, too fast and you don't quite catch it. The inches we need are everywhere around us. They're in every break of the game, every minute, every second. On this team we fight for that inch. On this team we tear ourselves and everyone else around us to pieces for that inch. We claw with our fingernails for that inch. Because we know when add up all those inches, that's gonna make the fucking difference between winning and losing! Between living and dying! I'll tell you this, in any fight it's the guy whose willing to die whose gonna win that inch. And I know, if I'm gonna have any life anymore it's because I'm still willing to fight and die for that inch, because that's what living is, the six inches in front of your face. Now I can't make you do it. You've got to look at the guy next to you, look into his eyes. Now I think ya going to see a guy who will go that inch with you. Your gonna see a guy who will sacrifice himself for this team, because he knows when it comes down to it your gonna do the same for him. That's a team, women and either, we heal, now, as a team, or we will die as individuals. That's rowing guys, that's all it is. Now, what are you gonna do? “

Let The Games Begin by Henry Macphillamy

2009-08-27T19:20:00.001+10:00

Well, as a crew we have trained long and hard for this moment, and now we’re here, ready and revving to get down to the business end of things. I think that a good performance in the heat on Monday was crucial for us. We knew how well we can row together in training and in time trials. Racing at the world championships on the other hand, with all the pressure and excitement they entail is a whole new ball game entirely.

For me it was my first real race in the four. During every other time trial we have done it has just been us and the clock. A clock is a fixed inanimate object that you can neither touch hear or see. In the heat and repechage you could hear the incoherent screeches of the other Cox’s and the thud of powerful strokes in the lanes adjacent to you. You know that these crews are doing everything they possibly can to mow you down with every stroke they take. You can let their presence intimidate you, or you can use them to enhance your own performance.

For the best part of the last four months, the five of us have worked together as a crew. Our times got progressively faster and faster until we (and others) considered ourselves worthy of representing our country. It hasn’t been easy for any of us, and in not just in terms of training sessions! As we head in to the last few days and training rows before our final race here, I think back to all the work which we have done to get to this point.

Not only the work we have put in as a crew, but also those who have supported and encouraged us. If someone had told me that I would be in the a final at the rowing world championships this time last year, I probably would have laughed at them! There have been many times in my life that I haven’t backed myself where others have, and nowhere could this be truer than in rowing. I’ve been lucky in meeting coaches like Simon, Tony, Linda, Stuart and Sue who have given up their time and shared their experience and passion for the sport with me. I’ve got an awesome family who have done everything from giving me lifts to training (both in peak hour and stupidly early hours of the morning), travelling half way around the world to support me (and take in the sites), walk and feed my mongrel of a dog while I’m away, send me ‘harden the f**k up messages, and of course, get laughs out of the numerous Facebook photos I have found myself in throughout the adventure. Relatives, all my mates, and I could go on and on!

Now is the time to back ourselves and each other as a crew. We have put in the work, and we know that we are more than capable of racing a good race. Of course I want to win a medal here as I’m sure we all do. The most satisfying feeling however will come from finishing that race, and knowing that we could not have possibly put more in to it than we did. I can’t wait for Saturday to arrive, and I can’t wait to celebrate with a very cold beer (or ten).
Four out

Race Day – Repechage

2009-08-25T23:17:00.002+10:00

Well today was probably the most important row of all our short careers! We had to place 1st or 2nd in our Rep in order to race in the A Final. No one wanted to row in the B Final we wanted to be in that A Final no matter what!

Today we were racing against Canada, Poland, Russia and Ireland. We knew that we could beat Poland and Russia as we had done this yesterday. But you never know what a crew can have up their sleeve. Canada I knew was very strong. They had made the final at the Beijing Paralympics so we had our work cut out for us. Ireland we weren’t sure of. They hadn’t fared very well yesterday, but they were in a tough heat. The only thing we knew of them was the race they had earlier in the season in Munich at the first World Cup race and I knew that they had come 3rd. So they were also potentially a threat.

The day dawned very sunny but again with the wind! We got to the course and found that it was a headwind again with a slight crosswind added to it and even stronger than yesterday! Not really what we wanted but the only consolation was that every boat had to deal with the same wind!

At the start Alex and I had to continue rowing the boat, me taking a stroke and Alex backing it just to stay in line, I was almost exhausted before the race. Once the race was underway we were able to stay in touch with Canada until about the 300 mark and then they just seemed to pull away. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Russia on my right and Ireland on my left. We continued to gain on Russia, just like we had done yesterday, with Lisa calling exactly where we were in relation to their boat.

Yesterday we had let ourselves down in the 3rd 250m so our game plan was to start to do a push at the 450m mark. At this point Lisa told us to sit up take 3 breaths in time with each stroke of the oar and then she called the push. Driving as hard as we could with the legs for ten strokes, then concentrating on our finishes for 10, then making sure we were getting clean sharp catches. By this point we were into our last 250m and we knew that we just had to hold this. Lisa asked again for us to dig even deeper.

I think we surprised the Russians as we pushed so early but we got a good distance over them, but then the Irish pushed and made some water back up. We dug deeper in the last 150m and were able to pull away and cross the line in 2nd place.

I don’t think my body has ever hurt so much; the burn in the leg muscles was unbelievable. But “WE DID IT” we had made the A Final at the World Rowing Championships! All I could think of at this point was getting air into my lungs and water into my mouth!

We had a cool down and were able to watch our women’s four race for lanes. They did well coming 3rd. Just before our race our Arms/Shoulders male rower Ben Houlison raced in his repechage and won by a whopping 8 seconds. So all in all it was a brilliant day for Australian rowing.

We now don’t race until Saturday the 29th of August, so we will be doing training rows each day. We are so excited and happy to be here that making the A final is icing on the cake. Look out world Australian Adaptive rowing is here to stay!

Race Day - Heats

2009-08-24T22:17:00.001+10:00

We were up bright and early today, having breakfast and then heading down to the course on the 8 a.m. bus. Our heat was at 10:20 a.m. so we put hands on the boat at just after 9:30 a.m. In our heat was us, Italy, Poland, Russia, France and the USA. We were situated in lane 4 between Poland on our left and Russia on our right.

After our warm up we were called on to the course and due to the very strong head wind they moved all the boats over one spot so we were now in lane 5. The official started calling out the names of the countries, so we sat ready and were then told to sit easy as there was a technical fault. A few seconds later he started saying the country names again, we sat forward, the lights came on and the buzzer went. We were off.

It probably wasn’t the best start we had ever had, but it certainly wasn’t bad! The Italians just took off with the most amazing start. Now let me clarify that all this info has come to me from Lisa our Cox because I did the right thing and kept my “eyes in the boat”. No other crew mattered except what we were doing together in our boat.

We got a great jump on the Polish and Russian teams and at about 250m Lisa told us that she was even with 3 seat of the Russian boat, then every 10-20 strokes she told us how we were moving away from them. At 500m the Italians and our boat had pulled past all the other boats in the field. I felt that we let ourselves down in the third 250 as the power in the boat dropped. Unfortunately this has been a problem for us in the past. At the 750m mark, Lisa yelled to “drive with the legs” to “get the power on and stay long in the wind”. The USA and the Russians had made up some ground on us, so working together we picked the boat speed up and drove through the wind. We were able to pull away a bit more and before we knew it we had crossed the finish line.

To be honest I had no idea where we had placed as I didn’t see any of the other boats other than Poland who had dropped back significantly. Lisa had to tell us that we were second to Italy. Really not too bad considering it was the first “ever” race we have done and we had just come second to the Paralympic Gold Medallists!

We rowed down past the grandstand and then on to our cool down. We had a number of people tell us from the side that we had done well and yelling “well done Aussie’s”, so that was really a good feeling. After our cool down we were back at the landing and pulling the boat out of the water.

We now have to race tomorrow morning in the Repechage. This will mean that we must come 1st or 2nd in our race to proceed to the A Final on Saturday. We are all feeling very confident that this will be possible, due to our race today.

One Day to Race Day

2009-08-23T19:23:00.014+10:00

We have now had a few days to get used to being in Poland and I must say we are enjoying it! At least I know I am. It is so amazing to see the rowing course full of people and the racks full of boats. The different colours around are amazing and we are all trying to decide which team gear we would like to try and get hold of. We have been told that at the end of the week it is like a feeding frenzy with a couple of hundred people milling around and swapping gear. One of the men’s four rowers told us not to be intimidated just jump in and swap! So we are looking forward to that.

We have had some good sessions on the water and it has been great to be able to suss out the competition. We were basically on our own (with the Italians and Canadians) for a few days but everyone is here now and looking forward to racing.

We have received a really good draw for the heats with most of the heavy weights in the second heat. We are in the first heat against USA, Poland, Russia, Korea and Italy, so I feel very confident going into this heat. First place in the heat goes directly to the A final and doesn’t have to race again. The second heat has Great Britain (world record holders), Germany (a powerhouse in rowing) and Canada along with a few others so that will be a tough heat as my friend Tony (from Canada) has stated on Facebook!

I know that the nerves for me are starting to kick in as well as my roommate Alex’s! But we just need to get this first race over, it seems like it has been a long time coming and I am looking forward to it. We have one short paddle today concentrating on starts and then a good night’s sleep.
We have been able to have a look around the local area and get to the shopping centre across the street. It is an amazing place, housed in an old brewery; you definitely need some money to shop there! All top brand names Versace, Zara etc. and well out of my price range.

Amazing Shopping mall!

We also attended the opening ceremonies last night. Not sure I will ever do that again! They were having an all day dance party with one of the top DJ’s in the world Armin van Buuren and after serving alcohol to all the local Polish people all day they decided it would be good to stop it for an hour to have the official welcome by the Mayor of Poznan and the President of FISA.

They then unrolled every countries flag and when the German and Russian flags were unfurled the crowd booed very, very loudly! There were also a couple of mishaps with the FISA flag being raised backwards, the Brazilian flag getting stuck and not unrolling and the Swedish flag getting burn holes in it from the fireworks and a small hot air balloon catching fire and falling into the crowd!

But the music when we arrived was pumping and Henry, Matt, Alex and Lisa were all dancing away! I tried, but I am afraid that my dancing days to this kind of music are well and truly gone! So I just kind of bounced to the beat! Talk about high energy and loud music, it didn’t help that we were right at the front in front of the speakers!

Pete and I trying to fit in with the crowd!

The fireworks at the end were definitely spectacular and even the crowd turned and looked at them, but then Armin came back on the stage and the crowd was off again in a trance like state. Needless to say it was my time to exit, so Henry, Pete and I headed back to the buses and back to the hotel. But I could still hear the thumping in my head even as I put it on the pillow. I think my last thoughts were “Man this is what my parents must have thought of the music we listened to!” Last night I definitely felt old!!!

Just a quick footnote before I post this...today we had our last training session before tomorrow's heat. We were able to do a practice start with lights and buzzer and had the Russian team beside us. Now we are not the fastest out of the blocks and I don't want to be cocky...but within 20 strokes we had 3/4 of a boat length on the Russians. It wasn't our best start ever, so if we do this or better tomorrow, we should have a good race!

Two Days in Poland

2009-08-21T06:16:00.007+10:00

We arrived in Poznan, Poland yesterday around lunch time. It was a bit bizarre as we flew into Warsaw from Milan and then caught a connecting flight to Poznan with LOT airlines, the official airline of Poland. At no time did anyone ask for our passport or did we go through customs! Just think what we could have brought into the country! We were on very small planes, the first one with three seats in each row and only 17 rows. The second plane even had the engines on the wings!

We gathered our luggage in Poznan and walked through the “nothing to declare” aisle into a throng of reporters and photographers! We thought that maybe we were to be the stars of the day…little did we know that the German soccer team was arriving to play Poland that night! Oh well we were superstars for a moment (at least in our own brains!).

We were picked up by the organizing committee in a minivan and transported to our hotel.

My first impressions of Poland were that there is no middle class. You either have money or you don’t. I am not sure what I expected here, but the land is very flat, not even a hill anywhere in the city (so far). There are some amazing old buildings that have stood the test of time and war. But they have obviously built accommodation in a hurry to house a lot of people and it is in that 70’s style of square boxes, it almost looks like tenements. A lot of the apartment blocks look on the outside very dirty, some are painted lovely colours, but the grass around them is uncut, which makes it look even more untidy.

This is one of the nicer apartment complexes.

That is not to say that the city isn’t interesting! We have noticed a number of universities such as separate uni’s for Technology, Economics and Medicine. There are also some amazing shopping centres, one which just happens to be across from our hotel! This shopping centre I will write about more once I pay it a visit.

We headed to the rowing course in the afternoon that we arrived and to say I was impressed is an understatement. Although they are still doing some setting up, with landscaping, putting up tents and electronics throughout the course. The Adaptive rowers have their own area for our boats and even our own pontoons to launch from and return to. We were just about to go out for a paddle and the Canadian LTA4+ arrived. Now some of you may know that I have been a “pen pal” via the Internet with a fellow Canadian, a member of their LTA team, Tony, but we had never met. So we saw each other, had a hug and had to say good-bye as we had our respective rows to do! We will catch up more formally after the racing is over.

We had a pretty good steady paddle, just one lap up and down of the 2km course. It was good to get back out in the boat as we have had 2 days off. Seems like a hell of a lot more, but at least we got the feel back.

Today at the rowing course there was evidence of more and more countries arriving. It is amazing hearing all the different languages spoken by not only the coxes but also the coaches on the bank of the course. It is amazing to see so many tall people in one place! Some of the rowers are huge! The boat racks are starting to fill up as well and it is amazing to see some of the very expensive boats.

We had two more rows today, just a steady state row this morning and then this afternoon we had to do 2 x 1000m pieces, one held at a stroke rate of 20 and then one stepped with stroke rates each 250m of 24, 26, 28, 30. It was unbelievable; the wind was blowing a gale! A head/cross wind that swirled! It felt like the wind was a lot stronger on the second one! When we got the results it certainly showed that it was tough out there. The second 1000m was 0.6 sec slower than the first and that was with a faster rate!!! The prognostics were pretty low, but when compared to the able bodied we were probably in the top 10% of the crews. So not a bad effort! But battling that wind did cause me some discomfort with my hip and back…thank you MS! So the first thing I did when I got back to the hotel was see the physio…she is my angel, helping to put things back into place!

We have a sleep in tomorrow morning, so will have breakfast and then go as a group for a walk, taking my camera with me…hell may even get to that shopping mall!

Our Last Day in Italy – A Visit to Lake Como

2009-08-20T06:38:00.013+10:00

Early this morning the rest of the Senior team left Italy for Poland. We didn’t go with them as we were given the nod later than the rest of the crews to actually come here, they couldn’t get us on the flight. I don’t think that we were upset about this as it gave us a chance to go exploring.

Matt is almost back to old self and is able to drive again, although still battered, bruised and stitched. So we all jumped into a very large van and with Matt driving headed towards Lake Como. We were told that it would be hard to find, but we had seen signs in the past week…so how hard could it be? Well we found out how hard! It only took us about 1 ½ hours to get there and believe me it was well worth it!

What an unbelievable place, not only beautiful in scenery, but also beautiful in the old buildings around. We were able to park the van right near what we believe was the main square closest to the lake itself. By the time we arrived it was lunch so what better to do than head to one of the many outdoor cafés. A few of us had pasta and the others had pizza. Real Italian pasta and pizza! Don’t know if it was the fact that we were hungry or sitting outside in front of one of the most beautiful cathedrals I have ever seen!

After lunch we headed down to the Lake itself, crossed over to the water side of the road and went for a walk. The thing that struck me was the money obviously in this city! The number of boats moored was incredible. We kept walking until we came across a cable car that went up the side of the mountain and for €4.50 which is about $7.70 AUS we went up to the top. WOW is all that I can say!

We took a number of photos from every angle and then even gave the camera to Henry and believe it or not he took two fantastic pictures of the crew with Matt! We had to tell him which way to turn and to raise or lower his hands, but the photos turned out good! Who says blind people can’t become photographers!

Henry's Photo!

It was certainly getting hot so as we were walking back to the centre of the city Matt and Henry decided to become like the locals and took their shirts off. Alex did take a picture but I won’t put it on this blog as they certainly didn’t look like locals! They need a bit more colour on their skin to do that!

We then walked through the old part of the city (although it is hard to tell where old leaves off and new begins!) Como was a walled city in times gone by but as it has grown has spread past the original wall. The Italians in their wisdom have not done what a lot of the western world has done and ripped down old structures, but have incorporated the new with the old. I am glad because the old structures are magnificent!

We had walked so far that we were all feeling the effects of the sun so decided it was Gelato time! We found a small place, popped ourselves down and indulged. We walked further and it was time for dinner. So once again ordered some wonderful pasta and pizza! It was then time to get back in the van and hit the road as we had an early morning wake up to head to the airport and join the rest of the team in Poland. Funny enough the drive back only took us 45 minutes, we are getting better at finding our way around…now we have to leave!

Just a footnote to our trip to Como, we did hope to see George Clooney somewhere in town, but I guess he was hiding out in his mansion on the Lake!

So our Italian journey has come to an end and the pointy end of the journey is about to begin! So from Italy…Arrivederci!

Last Rowing Day in Italy

2009-08-18T15:52:00.004+10:00

I must digress and talk about yesterday a bit more before I get on to today!

During the week here a number of the support staff have been heading out on long bike rides. A number of them are very experienced at riding in packs and they have also been here to Italy a number of times with other teams. Our support member Matt or Bilko as he is referred to decided that he wanted to go with them and had done so each morning. The build up during the week was to get them all prepared for the “Big” ride on Sunday morning. Bilko even went and bought new riding shorts, (not that they were the most flattering of shorts! but he liked them!) as they would be doing over 2 hours and climbing one of the bigger hills here in the district. I think he was a bit hesitant and he took a lot of joking from everyone about him doing this ride. But at 10:30 a.m. we waved them off.

At 12:30 p.m. we all went to lunch and I mentioned to Alex that the riders should be back at the hotel soon. Then while sitting down to eat we got the news that Bilko had “stacked it”, in other words he had had a crash! No one could tell us the extent of his injuries, but he had gone to hospital in an ambulance! Luckily they had a support vehicle following them and our team doctor had been in the van.

Well when he arrived back at the hotel late in the afternoon he definitely looked a bit worse for wear! He had actually come off the bike (he says at 35km/hour and hit a concrete wall and metal railing. Unfortunately he hit the railing with his face and the wall with his shoulder. Luckily he had not broken a bone at all, but did end up with a severely bruised right arm and shoulder, with 3 stitches to his chin (which they stitched up without anaesthetic! His face is bruised and slightly swollen but he is alive and that is all that matters. Oh... and he didn’t even get to see the big hill he was to climb!

Now, on to our last day rowing here in Italy.

We had one row today and that was 2 x 1000m pieces. We were only getting timed on the first 250m and the last 250m. The 500m in the middle was to be extremely easy. We were all looking forward to this because each time we had gone out we had done better than the time before and we figured that today would be no different.

Our first 250m wasn’t too bad, but certainly didn’t feel as good as it had the last few days and after the last 250m of this piece, I think we all figured that we had forgotten how to row! It felt terrible and the only thing to do was head back up to the 1000m to do the next two. Unfortunately the next two felt even worse. We had lost our really good timing and it felt like we were missing water. There certainly wasn’t much said in the boat or even after the rowing. I think all of us were in our own thoughts for the rest of the day. Funny enough we didn’t get the results until the end of the day and to say I was shocked is an understatement! The times we had done were phenomenal, faster than we had ever gone and the highest prognostic percentages we had ever obtained, even hitting 101% on the 2nd 250m. I just keep thinking, how the hell was this possible? I then found out that we had a cross wind at the start of the pieces and a tail wind at the end, but hell that could happen in a race! I will take the times, but just think how fast we could have been if we had gotten our act together! This is something that we as a crew have to think about when we next row in Poland.

After the row it was time to pack things up and load the boat trailer. Not only is the Australian trailer taking all of our boats but also the Adaptive Italian teams boats. To be honest I have never see a trailer loaded so much and then to think that they will be taking it over the mountains. We worry about taking trailers through Australia with our wide open roads. I wasn’t even sure how they were going to get this trailer up the road from the rowing club and through the round-abouts!

The rest of the team heads to Poland tomorrow on two separate flights, but because we were late inclusions on the team we have an extra day here in Italy. We will be doing a pool session in the morning, but then off to the Italian countryside and venturing a bit farther than just locally. We have the entire day to explore and I think we are all looking forward to it!

Oh and Bilko is making an amazing recovery to the point where he got his sling off his arm, yes he is battered and bruised but he even started driving again today! So at least he will be staying with us and having a look around. I think he has used one of his nine lives!

2 days to go till Poland

2009-08-17T22:15:00.008+10:00

Since the last blog we have done some amazing pieces on the water, breaking all our personal bests! On Friday we had to do 2 x 1000m, with the first 250m flat out, the middle 500 capped at a 24 stroke rate and then the last 250m flat out. After the first one I was hurting…then we had to do a second one! I think that all of us wanted to throw up after the second one. But the times were amazing and the first 1000 was even close in overall time to our best ever. Not bad considering the rate was capped during the middle of the piece! This bodes well for racing in Poland! We had done so well that we were given the afternoon off from rowing and just had to do a pool session. So once that was done we were off to do some exploring of the local area.

I must say again that the buildings amaze me with how long they have lasted. It certainly shows me that the way things were built hundreds of years ago certainly were built better than anything now-a-days! We headed just down the road from our hotel to the local municipal buildings of Biandronno (which is the town our hotel is situated in). Here we found the Post Office and local town square fountain, so had a look around. We then walked down the road (sticking as close to the side buildings as possible, as there is no footpath) and stopped at a couple of buildings that had intrigued me every day that we passed by them. They looked like buildings that would have been used as housing a long time ago but were now used as out buildings as there were newer homes attached. But amazing structures!

We then had a look at the local church. As today was the Feast of the Assumption, I assumed that the church would be in use, but it wasn’t and the door was wide open, so we decided to have a look inside. It was absolutely beautiful with such an ornate ceiling with the most magnificent paintings. No one was around and the silence was deafening. A few minutes later we were asked to leave by a local woman who came in. We didn’t understand why but we assume it was because Lisa and I both had sleeveless shirts on, while Matt had open toed shoes. But we had our pictures and were quite willing to make a quick exit.

We then headed to the town of Gavirate which is the town the rowing club is located. Due to the fact that it was a public holiday, we were only able to find one café open, so stopped there to have a coffee. It was time to start heading back to the hotel, but Matt decided to take us on a tour of the area going through towns with names of Monate, Ispra and Brebbia. He was trying to find a building he had seen during his morning bike ride, but got us lost so we headed back to the hotel!

After dinner we were told that we could sleep in the following morning, do another pool session and we would row in the afternoon. It was nice not to have to get up and get going right away. We all met and had a leisurely breakfast. We met at the pool at 9:30 a.m., did our pool session and then I just sat in the sun reading a book. God it has been a long time since I just sat and read a book!

After lunch we headed to the course, where I must say it was extremely hot! It got up to 35 degrees, not one bit of wind and the water looked like glass. The humidity was so high that within 5 minutes we were all sweating so much we were soaked! We were told to just do a steady state row and we also did some drills, then got off the water. Tomorrow is another testing day with short race pieces.

We had a team dinner tonight where Ray Ebert (team manager), Andrew Matheson and Noel Donaldson all spoke to us about the upcoming days and then introduced our Olympic Gold Medallist David Crawshay to speak to us.

David is always awe-inspiring to listen to and this night was no different. He talked to all of us about having confidence in ourselves, our crew and coach, and to believe in our abilities. I know that I left that dinner believing in our crew more than I ever have!

Fantastic Day!

2009-08-15T06:59:00.019+10:00

I have so much to say today, what an amazing day! I am sure that I say this every time I write on this blog, but each day just keeps getting better.

We were hoping to race the Italians today, but Pedro was unable to get in touch with them, I like to think they were just too scared to race us!!! We did 3 x 500m race pieces today and I must say “we were flying”!

Our first start was absolutely amazing and even with one crew member crabbing (which means they caught their oar under the water) we were still able to manage a 2 second personal best (pb)! The second and third 500’s weren’t too shabby either, with both of them as fast as we have ever gone. Mind you by the end we were all stuffed as we should have been. Henry even just about chucked on Lisa! That means that he was working his butt off!

I know that I haven’t put too many pictures in of Lake Varese that is because I have always been in the boat and don’t have a camera with me, so I have borrowed some from “Bilko”, our support member and he has taken over 400 photos so far!

Every day we sit in our boat and look at the amazing scenery. I keep pinching myself to make sure I am really here and not dreaming. I don’t think that if I lived here I would ever get complacent about these mountains, they are magnificent.

We were very happy after that session to hear that we had the afternoon off. Time to explore!!! Mind you only after the physio appointments that a few of us had.

We decided that we would all travel into the city of Varese minus Alex as she was meeting up with her parents for dinner. So in two cars we headed towards the unknown! With Bilko driving one car and Pedro the other, we headed towards Varese Centro. After a couple of wrong turns and u-turns we made it to a car park, left the cars and continued on foot. Now this is what I think of when I think of Italy.

The building architecture is fascinating to me, such ornate structures with Juliette balconies and flowers hanging from them, each of the homes a different colour.

We all stopped at a café and I finally had my first Italian coffee. Now I am not much of a coffee drinker and most of my friends would know but oh my god the cappuccino that I had was the best I have ever had! A few of us had the cappuccinos, Lisa had what I would describe as melted chocolate and Henry had an ice coffee which was just a huge glass of iced espresso. Now Henry doesn’t sleep at the best of times and I am sure that this coffee is not going to help the situation. I think that we should consider giving him one of these before we race!

After our coffee stop we all split up because some of us wanted to do different things. So Pete and I headed off exploring the landscape/architecture. We came upon a beautiful clock tower that was attached to a church. We heard an amazing choir singing and headed towards the sound. I figured they were practicing for the weekend service. So we snuck in a side door to see if we could listen and didn’t I step foot into the front of the church where low and behold the whole congregation was standing looking at me! Pete had been behind me following and needless to say as I backed up I just about ran into him, whispering that there was a service happening! We certainly high-tailed it out of there. We were able to walk around to the main entrance of the church and just have a peak in, seems that I forgot that Catholics hold a Friday mass! It is a religious day tomorrow called the “Feast of Assumption”. But how was I to know that!

We continued on our journey through an archway across from the church and came upon a small piazza with quite a few café’s. When we stopped to take some pictures the whole place stopped, it must have been the walking stick and artificial leg!

We finally met up with the rest of the troupes and it was very funny because if you have ever been in Italy you will know that they have these pedestrian crossing’s painted on the roads but none of the cars stop for you. It is up to the pedestrian to make it across quickly before the next car comes. Well when you have one wheelchair, one prosthetic leg, one walking stick and one blind person using a stick, it is amazing how fast cars actually come to a halt! I think every other pedestrian was happy that we were around…safety crossing the road!

We decided that we had better head back to the hotel as it was almost time for dinner, but we first had to work out where the heck we were and how to get out of Varese Centro. Bilko just followed the traffic which seemed like around in circles but we eventually managed to make it back to the hotel.

One of the best parts of the day was when Pete and I walked into the dining area and were approached by one of the coaches of the women’s crew, Larissa. She said to us that she saw us row today and said that she was very impressed with what she saw! This was a fantastic complement!

We are all so pumped after how we rowed today that it makes looking forward to tomorrow’s row even better!

Capped Race Piece Day

2009-08-14T06:17:00.003+10:00

Just wanted to share a quick note with everyone at home.
We are starting to get acclimatised to the heat here, although the humidity is a different kettle of fish! We had to do 2 race pieces today but with capped ratings of 20 and 22. When we headed out on the course the heat was just about 30 degrees but with two water bottles, a wet hat and semi wet zootie I figured I would be alright!

Our first piece was AWESOME! It felt so good it was scary. Even rating only 20 the boat had a better run on it than it has ever had. The second piece wasn't as good, we tended to be a bit out of time with each other and the row was just a bit messy, especially compared to the first.

When we headed back up the course after the pieces just to warm down there was not a breath of wind on the lake and to be honest I don't think I have ever felt the air so hot!

We didn't know the results of the pieces until the afternoon while waiting to head back for our second session. Well we did have a blinder of a row during the first piece, which we knew. Our prognostic put us in 2nd place out of all the Australian crews! Ben our Arms/Shoulders rower placed 1st in both pieces. In the second piece although we weren't happy with it, we still managed 4th on the list. So all in all not a bad morning. Go the Adaptives!!!

This afternoon, I must say, was the most amazing piece of rowing we have ever done! We went out to practice a couple of starts as our starts this morning weren't the best. Well the first one was the best we have ever done with 20 strokes after it. It must have been pretty good because the Italian LTA4+ team, our competition and Paralympic Gold medallists, actually stopped rowing to watch! We were told afterwards that they had a shocked look on their faces! I think we were probably just as shocked at how fast we were! We did a few more starts, both running and stationary and all of them were fantastic. What a brilliant way to finish the sessions for today off!

Tonight we decided that we needed to treat ourselves to some Gelati! So it wasn't long after dinner that we headed down the road to make our choices and purchases!

Pedro is trying to set up some short race pieces against the Italians for tomorrow, which I personally think would be really good for us. We have never raced another four and we could certainly use the experience. Besides it will tell us where we really stand against the Paralympic champions!

Two Days into Staging Camp

2009-08-13T06:13:00.005+10:00

We have had two full days of training since arriving on Monday. It has been extremely hard to acclimatise to the weather. It has been very hot and humid which is something that my MS doesn’t really like. Thank god for ice vests, which has come in handy to try and cool my core body temperature!

I think the other thing is the jet lag. It just seems that we have no punch/strength in the legs. It is important to get our bodies right as this is what we need to drive the boat. The Sport Science member of our entourage is Tony Rice and he has been monitoring our recovery since arriving. This involves making sure that we are hydrated, checking our weight, making sure that we are sleeping at the right times and eating properly. With massage and physio available to us there is no way that we won’t be ready to race!

We had two sessions on Tuesday and with each row we seem to get a bit better. The boat is so different from what we are used to and this has caused us to be a bit unbalanced. But the more we row the better it gets.

It was very interesting on Tuesday as while we were on the water the Italian coach was in a speed boat and filming us. We are such an unknown entity and as we are training at the same facility as the Italian LTA4+ (our competition), they want to know everything they can about us. Actually it is quite flattering to think that they may be worried about us, so much so that they want to film us!

The other good thing we have available is the use of a tank. For those not into rowing a tank is used indoors to teach rowing strokes in either a scull or sweep boat. It is literally a tank full of water with a “pretend” boat down the centre with oars that have wire blades. This allows you to row with the coach nearby to physically change your position, something that would be impossible on the water. This has become very valuable as we have each been able to have one on one coaching with Pedro to fine tune our strokes.

After dinner on Tuesday we decided it was time to try out the local Gelato. Well I have never tasted anything so good! We sat outside at the shop and shared a few minutes with the men’s Quad. In this crew is David Crawshay, who was celebrating his 30th birthday, so we wished him well. The man who ran the shop had a good laugh at us as we tried to pronounce the names of the different flavours! But we managed to get what we had ordered!

Wednesday morning there was the most blood red sunrise I have ever seen. Unfortunately the picture does not do it justice, but it certainly told of a hot day to come. We had a session in the morning and by the end of the session we had the boat moving better than we ever had before. We had done a couple of different drills and I honestly believe that this is what got us moving. I also think that we are getting more used to the boat and also getting our body clocks back on track.

Our afternoon session was a pool recovery session. We did half an hour in the pool with some ice bath sessions after our swim. This was the most wonderful way to cool down! Ice baths tend to do that to you!

The drive back and forth to the sheds amazes me each time we do it. Each time I see something different. As I have said before the roads are very narrow and when passing cyclists (of which there are too many to count) you could almost reach out and pat their bottoms! Some of the roads have very old brick walls right up to the edge of the bitumen. As we drive along we pass a number of old churches and see numerous locals hanging around local “Taverna’s”, I know that I want to one day come back and stop to have a look at these beautiful and interesting places.

The other thing that was absolutely amazing yesterday was the Swiss Alps. It was clear as a bell and we were able to see the tops of the mountains which had snow still on the top of them. I just wish that I had a zoom lens on my camera to get a photo of them!

Tomorrow we have two race pieces that we have to do, similar to ones we did in Sydney before we left. So I know I am eager to see if we can surpass those times and prognostics now that we are only 11 days away from the start of the World Championships. I look forward to proving that we can go even faster!

The day has seemed really long, with the sad news from home about my cousin and the training sessions as well as a physio session, so my tired body is looking forward to the night hours. Talk to you all again soon.

A Croak from Italy by Henry Macphillamy

2009-08-13T04:53:00.001+10:00

If I had one word to describe where we are now, it would most definitely have to Be... well, sweet! My Italian vocabulary is limited in the extreme, and every time I make the attempt people just laugh at me so I’m not even going to try. It will take me much longer than a week to get the hang of the intonation unfortunately. Silly as it may sound, it is great to just sit back and take in the melodious sounds of such a beautiful and rich language.

The first thing that hit me when I walked out of the airport doors was the heat and humidity, and this at 6:30 in the morning! It just envelops you. I have to admit that while I knew it was going to be hot, nothing could have prepared me for the kinds of conditions we have to adjust to in such a short period of time. The single most important thing is to keep on drinking (water not Powerade), and take advantage of every opportunity to freshen up and get cool. We are very lucky in that there is a very inviting pool out the front of our hotel where we will probably do some light recovery sessions after long sizzling days out on the lake.

We arrived at about 6 on Monday, and we certainly weren’t mucking around. By 5 that afternoon we were hitting the water for our first session. Apart from the heat, we also need to adjust to the feel of a completely new boat. After three sessions we are slowly getting used to it, but it will take a little while yet. Its hull sits higher in the water than the boat we were previously training in, meaning it tips more easily and is much more responsive to our movements as a crew. If we make a mistake, we feel it in a more pronounced way. On the flipside however, if we balance the boat and get in to a good rhythm it feels wonderful, gliding over the water with a bubbling sound. I think that once we get in to the groove more it will serve us very well indeed, forcing us to become more precise and sharp in the way we row together. I’m also hoping that this leads to some gains in our speed in the time trials we’ll be doing over the next few days.

I thought I might take this opportunity to describe the atmosphere of the Aussie team as a whole. While we spend a fair bit of time together as a crew, we see the other girls and guys at breakfast, lunch and dinner in the dining room. Being the first time I have ever been involved with something like this, and also having taken up rowing relatively recently compared to these guys, I was really apprehensive about fitting in. Most have put their entire lives in to competing at the highest level, and here I am after only a year involved with the sport, rubbing shoulders with Olympians and muscle bound weapons. When I say that I’m glad I can’t see these people, I really am only half joking. If I was able to see them, it would add a whole new element of realising just how far I have to go in terms of my strength and fitness. Far from intimidating however, everyone is really down to earth and friendly. Some have really gone out of there way to have a chat, and make our crew feel as if it really does belong here. I can’t speak for the rest of the crew, but this is very important to me.

So much about rowing well is mental, the ability to be both positive in your overall outlook, and confident in your ability to pull together as a crew. If there is the slightest bit of negative energy floating around, the collective focus is the first thing to go. Fortunately for us, there is a lot of positive energy here, and everyone is in great spirits. He will probably be reading this at some stage so I won’t talk him up too much, but Matt’s doing a stellar job as a crew support. The only hitch was the driving for the first few days, but I think my offer to take over might have forced him to get it together out of sheer unadulterated terror.

I hope to write another update soon. So far heaps good!

Four out.

Sad Day

2009-08-12T23:04:00.005+10:00

Today I received a text message from my sister telling me that my beautiful cousin Marg-Rheta had passed away. She fought an amazing fight with cancer this year. Only being diagnosed in January this year she truly believed that she would get through this horrible, nasty disease.

I am writing about this on my blog because it makes you realise what is truly important in life. Yes we are here and giving it our all to win for our country, but then something like this happens and you realise that this really isn't important at all. This is not to say that I am not going to give it my all.

I visited Marg-Rheta in May this year after our selection trials, when my sister called to tell me that she was sick and not well at all. The one thing that Marg-Rheta and I had in common was our love of sport. She was a fantastic Triathlete and swimmer and was constantly trying to get her sisters to take part in a triathalon as a team with her. She was an amazing music teacher and beautiful singer, someone who will be missed by many.

I am so glad that I got to see her and spend some quality time with her in May. She was so excited that we were trying to qualify to come here to Europe and compete at the World Championships and wanted to know all about the crew. I was lucky enough to speak to her just before we left Sydney and even though she was in extreme pain was excited for us.

I will take her strength and perseverance with me. There will not be 5 of us in the boat, her strength will travel with me and we will have 6 in the boat.

Marg-Rheta you will forever live in my heart and I will miss you.

Staging Camp - Lake Varese, Italy

2009-08-11T21:58:00.017+10:00

Wow, it is to believe, but we are in Italy!

If you have ever wanted to be comfortable flying you must fly on an A380 Airbus. This is the plane we were lucky enough to get from Sydney to Singapore. What an amazing airraft, there is so much room it is unbelieveable. This eight hour flight was a "piece of cake", unfortunately we didn't have the A380 for the next 12 1/2 hour flight from Singapore to Milan. But all in all it wasn't too bad, we were all pretty lucky and got some sleep. Mind you some more than others! The only problem that I seem to have is the fact that sitting for so long seizes up my body. I was up a number of times to stretch but even that didn't help too much.

I must say that the airport in Singapore is the most amazing airport I have ever seen! Terminal 3 which we landed at had to be at least 5km long! The shops were amazing and we had to stop Alex from heading into the top of the line name brand places. It was a bit more difficult getting Matt not to look at the shoes shops. In fact there was one shoe shop named "Pedro". Needless to say we had to go in there. (For those that don't know Pedro is our coach)

Once we arrived in Milan, retrieved our luggage (at least most of us got our luggage - 10 pieces, oars, and other boat bits went to Barcelona!) we headed out into the fresh air and boarded a bus for Varese. I just assumed the trip would be via a highway, as that is what it started out as, but after 10 minutes we were on these narrow, twisting roads surrounded by thick forest. This led through small village type areas with some amazing old buildings, which had I been here travelling on my own I would have stopped at to explore. I was sitting beside Alex and unfortunatley this turning and twisting along the road was making her feel a bit queasy. I could understand why!

We arrived at our destination, the Continental Hotel, on the shores of Lake Varese, but it is also in the vicinity of two other lakes, Comabbio and Monate, and about 4km from the actual city of Varese. The hotel itself is comfortabel, with 2 of us each sharing a room. It certainly caters for sporting minded people with a large pool out the front, a football pitch and a covered tennis court at the side.

It was still fairly early in the morning (our flight had arrived at 6:30 a.m.), so we unpacked, then met in the dining room for some breakfast to discuss what the days plan would be. We decided that we needed to stretch the legs a bit more so as a group went for a short walk behind the hotel. There was a bike path that I am told goes around the entire lake, which would be well over 16km, but we walked for about 20 minutes and headed back so that we could go down to the boatshed.

The drive to the shed was interesting! Matt (our support staff member) was given the task of driving. This was his first time driving "on the wrong side of the road", on again, narrow, twisting roads and trying to follow Pedro (our coach), who being Swiss was used to driving on these roads! I sat beside Matt to remind him that the driver always stays in the middle of the road, just so he would remember which side to drive on. Matt was concentrating so hard I don't think he saw anything he drove past, which was amazing architecture, well over 100 years old and the views! The views were stunning, with the Swiss alps in the background! But we did make it to the rowing club in one piece.

The rowing club that we are situated at and who have kindly donated a boat for us to use is called Cannottieri Gravirate. We spent the next couple of hours setting the boat up, getting the rigging, foot stretchers and slides all in the right position for each of us. The weather was starting to get hot and humid, and by the time we decided to head back to the hotel for lunch it was 30 degrees.

After lunch, a bit of a swim and relax by the pool, we were once again back in the car and heading down to the shed. It was time to test the new boat. I was getting really tired as I am sure the rest of the crew was and thought it was going to be interesting to see how we actually rowed, but it wasn't too bad.

What was amazing was rowing and looking around at the mountainous area! I wanted to have a camera with me in the boat! Here we were supposed to be concentrating on rowing and all I wanted to do was look around me! What a beautiful area. The wind had picked up a bit during the afternoon so the lake wasn't the calm, pristine, water that we had seen in the morning, but that didn't really matter be ause it was so beautiful. We had to bring the boat back to the landing to again change a few things and then went back out to check that the changes had worked. Actually it was just another opportunity to look at the beauty surrounding us.

The boat is different than the one we have been training in for the last few months. We are using a Wintec boat here and the hull is a different shape, so the row was a bit rocky as we learn to get the balance in this boat, but it ran across the water really well. It feels much heavier to lift but lighter in the water and we are using the oars that the Junior women had at their championships and they are lighter than the ones we have trained with. They also won the World Junior Championships with these oars, so who knows...maybe they are an omen!

We also met some of our competition as well! The Italian team are training here as well, so it was interesting to have a look at how they row. The Italians did win Gold at the Beijing Paralympics in our class, but I am told that the crew has changed with 2 of their members retiring. Not sure if this is true or not, but we certainly didn't look any different than them rowing.

After we had washed our boat down and put it away, we headed back to the hotel for a shower and dinner. My body was so sore that I made a stop at Judi, the physio's room to see if she could fit me in; thank god she had no one there and was able to put my body back into working order. She said she was actually happy that I had stopped by as she was trying to stay awake, so it was good for both of us!

I have to say that the food here so far is fantastic! Served in a buffet style it is fresh, interesting and fulfilling. The staff here at the hotel have been really nice and eager to assist if you need anything. They have even put my ice vest in the ice cream/gelati freezer!

After dinner all I could think of was putting my head down on a pillow! We had been going for over 48 hours with a few hours of sleep on the plane and my body was certainly looking forward to sliding into lala land! I am looking forward to the rest of the week of training, with a few side trips around the area, to soak up the local culture, language and food!

Italy Bound

2009-08-08T23:03:00.007+10:00

Our staging camp finished today! We have had a very good week in regards to our racing and prognostics. It has also been a very funny week as well.

Friday morning on the way to our simulated heats race, Pete was in a bit of a hurry driving and was pulled over by Senior Constable "Penriff" for driving 70km/hr in a 50 km/hr zone! All he could think of was how much this ticket was going to cost him. He was asked for his licence at which time he told the officer that he had to get it from the back of the vehicle. When he stepped out of the car the officer say that he only had one leg, was wearing team gear with AUS all over it and when he opened the back of the Tarago saw all the backpacks with Australian Rowing Team on them. The officer took his licence went back to his car and a few minutes later came back telling Pete that as the local police were conducting industrial action he was not going to give him a ticket today! I personally think it was because of the artificial leg!!! Henry offered to take his eyes out if it would help the “pity” reaction, but luckily it wasn’t needed!

We have also come up with nicknames for the whole crew. Let me start from the stern:
· Lisa has now become “Little Sherpa” due to the fact that she runs around getting things for us
· Henry has become “Where’s Wally” due to his Mosman zootie looking like where’s Wally’s shirt
· Pete has become “Pirate Pete”, due to his “peg leg”
· I have become “Mum lady”, thanks to the Junior rowers who forgot my name and actually called me "that mum lady "
· And finally Alex is now known as BB, which stands for “Bow Bitch”. This is not meant in a derogatory way at all, she was named this by the Juniors too!

Now I guess I should get on to the important information and that would be about how we are rowing.

We had a fantastic heat race, on Friday and our prognostic ranked 4th out of the 10 Australian crews. This made us feel like we really did belong here once again. I think that at times we are all still amazed that we are part of such an incredible Australian Team!

I don’t think that any of us had ever worked so hard. To me it felt okay up until the last 250m, which I felt had let us down. But once we had looked at each split of the race, it was the best we had ever done. We held all splits fairly even and at one point we were running on just over 100% prognostic! It ended up being the fastest time we had ever done. We even had to contend with a nasty cross wind with a slight tail wind combined. It is hard to believe that we are the same crew that rowed at selection trials in April, the difference is astounding!

We have also been lucky enough to have an amazing medical team with us and I must say that Doc Krys, Physio’s Judi and Ollie and the massage therapist Heike have been amazing. I would love to have Judi and Heike living with me full time!

Friday night Henry wasn’t feeling the best and the doctor was worried that he may have contracted gastro, so he was quarantined for the night. This morning the doc suggested that we not race and to be honest I was quite happy about it. I was feeling very run down myself and the decision was made that it would be better if we just went out and had a paddle. So we sat at the finish line cheering the other crews on and then went out for our own paddle. We actually had a fantastic row and probably rowed better today as a crew than any other time.

It was time to de-rig the boat, wash it down and put it on the trailer back to Canberra, as we had borrowed it from ACTAS. It has been a great boat for us and many thanks to Gordon at ACTAS for letting us use it for the last couple of months.

The rest of the day has been spent buying those little thinks you always just about forget about, laundry, packing and then out for a crew dinner, along with Pedro and his wife Pam, Ray (one of our team managers) and Bilko our support person. It was a great night, albeit short.

I think I can speak for everyone when I say…”We are SO excited!!!” We leave tomorrow at 11:15 a.m. to head to the airport.
Next stop ITALY!!!

Photos courtesy of Jane Spring

Half Way through Staging Camp

2009-08-06T07:21:00.011+10:00

We are just over half way through our staging camp in Sydney and today is my birthday. We have been blessed with the most beautiful weather this week and were actually walking around yesterday in shorts! I love winter when it is like this.

It has been an interesting week with testing over a number of different distances and in a number of different ways. From capped stroke rates, stepped pieces and full on race pieces. And I must say that the LTA4+ crew has fared pretty well. Our prognostics have been right up there with the rest of the senior crew and it proves to us that we deserve to be here.

That is not to say that there haven’t been frustrations along the way. I think that sometimes we are so eager to go faster that we forget to relax and just enjoy the row. As soon as we do relax things come together even better. This of course comes with experience…something none of us have much of! But with each row we gain more.

We really look like a team as well and when I say that, we designed our own zooties. Now for those of you who are saying…”What the hell is a zootie?” …It is what we wear to row and that as a woman of 48 aren’t the most flattering outfits! But they work and by wearing them we look and feel like a team. We decided that we wanted to get crew hoodies to wear and when I called to order them from a local Victorian company called Designer Paintworks they offered them to us for free. They have the Southern Cross and AUS on the back, the Australian Rowing emblem and World Rowing Championships on the front. What was even nicer was that they sent them individually wrapped in a calico back printed with the same info and included a water bottle. So thanks to Gyles, Susie and Dave for doing this for us it is very much appreciated and we will be getting a picture done that I will post at a later date.

We had our team dinner last night and it was a good night with words from Andrew Matheson, Lyall McCarthy, Noel Donaldson and then the team captains Kim Crow and David Crawshay. Talk about attention-grabbing! The three men have so much experience to hand down to everyone, then listening to Kim who has been with the Senior team for the last 3 years talking about how everyone has gelled together as a team and that we are on the best team in the country. Then Crawsh got up to speak, he is truly inspirational. As a gold medallist from Beijing last year in the Double Scull he has experience beyond belief. He talked about, when it comes to race day, a lot of coaches have been known to say “You have done everything that you can to get you to this point and there in nothing more to learn, so go out there and do it”. But he said this is wrong because we can always learn from each training session, each race through the heats, the rep’s, semi-finals and even finals. Always be willing to learn, always take something away from the race.

The night ended with Matt (our support person) announcing to everyone that it was my birthday the next day and I got a big clap. He also asked me earlier if I was celebrating my 21st birthday for the 27th time! At the time I said yes, but on reflection I will take that back. I am proud to be 48; after all it is only a number!

We have only one training row today because we are simulating the racing over the next two days. We have heat racing tomorrow and finals on Saturday. After our racing over 750m yesterday and how well we did, I am looking forward to seeing what we can do over the whole 1000m distance. Bring it on!

Pedro running through technique with Henry

Staging camp accommodation at Nepean Shores

Final Thoughts on the Eve of Staging Camp

2009-08-02T20:14:00.003+10:00

For the past few days I have been running around like "a chook with its head cut off"! Trying to get things done before we head to Penrith for our staging camp. Now that I am sitting down to catch my breath it has really hit me...this is really happening! It has been months coming and it is really a bit surreal. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to realize that I am actually a member of the Australian Rowing Team!

Just over 11 years ago, April 23rd, 1998 to be exact, I had a neurologist tell me that my life as I knew it was over, to go home and get my affairs in order before I became incapacitated and that because I had Multiple Sclerosis I would never do any sport or exercise again. There are times when I just shake my head and think "If he could see me now", oh how wrong he was!

On that fateful day, never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that my life would take the direction it has. When I am talking to groups I always ask them "What would you attempt to do if you knew that you could not fail?" I have always headed into situations not really thinking about whether or not I would fail and with this challenge, at this point, we have more than surpassed my expectations. We can only get better from here on in and I have great hopes for this crew. What we have accomplished in the last couple of months is extraordinary!

After our last campaign, attempting to qualify for the Beijing Paralympics, I really didn't know if I would get another shot at representing my country. Lets face it, I am probably the oldest person to ever make the Australian team. At 47, well 48 next week, this was not what I envisaged for myself at this point in my life. But I have to say that my life has been ingrained with that great Aussie expression “she’ll be right mate”. This has shaped who I am.

I guess my greatest tool is my ability to believe in myself and my capabilities. I believe that you should live your life to the fullest, laugh, cry, scream, shout, whatever you want to do – just get out there and do it. If you don’t see yourself abseiling, caving or evening rowing for that matter – find that one thing you have never thought you could do and give it a try.

A friend of mine gave me one good piece of advice and that was "to live life without fear, confront all obstacles and know that you can overcome them. Nothing is impossible if we dare to face our fears and believe in ourselves." Thanks for inspiring me Warren.

So I go into this next phase of this adventure with no fear and expecting the best. I have no doubt that the rest of crew will be thinking the same!

Another Croak from the Stroke by Henry Macphillamy

2009-07-30T13:47:00.000+10:00

Well, here I am on a Sunday night, home after what has been a pretty intense six day camp out at the Riff. It’s cold, and it’s raining outside, so I think we were extremely lucky to have such fine weather over the last week. It got as warm as 25 or 6 on Tuesday, and had a real summery feel about it. Who knows what the weather gods have in store for us for when we head back for our final prep camp on the third of August.

To briefly summarise the camp as a whole, it was challenging in both a physical and mental sense. Despite the ups and downs, the niggling frustrations etc etc, we were probably consistently rowing as well as we ever have done by the end of it. When I tried to compare the way the boat ‘felt’ and sounded as it was running through the water today with selection trials back in April, well... I simply couldn’t! The differences are simply too stark.

As rowing is such a tactile sport, you can really ‘feel’ and hear how well the boat is moving through the water. Where before the boat was rocking all over the place, we have now learnt how to balance it up a lot better by playing around with the heights of our oars. Where before you could hear the harsh sounds of blades skimming and slapping across the water as we prepared a stroke, more often than not we now hear the smooth sounds of water sliding and bubbling its way beneath us. The way we have been ‘finishing the stroke’, together has also had a big improvement on the way the boat feels. When the crew takes a stroke and finishes at the same time and at the same place, there is a satisfying ‘thud’. This is followed immediately by a surge of speed as we ‘tap’ our blades off the water, follow our hands forward and prepare ourselves for another.

I think I can safely say that as a crew, we all found it tough in the windy conditions which we had to deal with earlier in the week. We will have to be prepared to race whatever the conditions however, so from the point of view of a practical learning experience it was a valuable one. If we can keep our focus no matter what is happening around us, the better our overall preparation is going to be.

Now we have just one week left at home which to do our individual training. If the rest of the team are anything like me, they’ll also be running around trying to do a million little things which need to be sorted out before we leave. It’s all moving along so quickly I can hardly believe it! Right now the focus is most definitely on just keeping the fitness ticking along and staying healthy.

This is going to be relatively easy, as my guide dog Billy has taken it upon himself to demand walking credits for all the time i have spent away from him. He also seems to have got it in to his head that since I don’t seem to be using my bed all that often these days, it may as well become his bed! Fortunately, when I put his harness on his guiding is as good as ever, and he has managed to keep me safe as we cruise the mean streets. I only hope he won’t need too much retraining after a five week holiday, or worse still, decide to go on strike pending better pay and conditions.

In the mean time, preparation continues as the time to leave draws closer and closer.
Four out!

Next Stop...Staging Camp

2009-07-27T11:10:00.003+10:00

Our last camp before we join the Senior A team for the staging camp finished yesterday. What a week it was!

After our rest on Friday afternoon we were all ready and looking forward to our 1000m race piece on Saturday morning. Or at least we thought we were! As a crew we had worked out what our top stroke rate should be for us and we were told to leave it at that and not try to rate faster. We had Ben, our Arms only rower in the lane beside us and he was sent off 95 seconds before us, we then had to chase him down. The row didn't feel too bad but I honestly don't think that any of us were completely spent at the end of it and we should have been! We did catch Ben and pass him but we realized after that row that we needed to do a hell of a lot more.

We headed back up the course to the start where we stopped and had a chat. Lisa had us do some pairs work on the way back down, trying to make the movements much smoother. Then once the pairs work was done we went into all four rowing. This was much better than the piece we had just done. We were to have two more sessions on Saturday, however Alex's hip was giving her some problems and rather than damaging her any more than need we cut that down to one session. It was more important to make sure that everyone in the crew was healthy as it is so close to the race that counts! We did row in the afternoon and took what we had done at the end of the morning session, into the afternoon. It actually felt the best we had rowed at steady state.

After a week of absolutely beautiful weather we awoke on Sunday morning to an overcast sky and rain. It was also very cold. We were to do two 500m pieces in the morning session and these were to be at race pace. We all had a chat about taking the good rowing we had done the day before and continuing that on but this time, unlike our 1000m, we had to give it our all and have nothing left at the end.

The first 500m, we had a fantastic start and the row felt amazing. We were all very happy with it and I can tell you that I certainly didn't have much left in the legs when it was over. Pedro wanted us to head back up the course, cross over at the 750m mark and then do the second 500m. Well this time the start wasn't great but the row itself felt awesome! When we were done, Pedro asked us how we thought it was, I did yell over to him that it felt awesome. It turns out that it was the fastest 500m we had ever done and the second 250m of it was our fastest ever split! Awesome!!! What a way to finish off a week long camp.

A couple of the Junior girls from the Quad came over to the sheds and gave us "high fives" saying that they had seen us row the last 500m and that it had looked fantastic! The fact that they took the time to come over and let us know, made me feel pretty damn good, as I am sure it did the others. They also told Henry that he had stroked it magnificently...this put a huge smile on his face!

We did have one more row before the camp ended but this was a short, steady state row just to finish off. Once the boat was washed and put away it was time to say goodbye to everyone, but only for 6 days.

It has been a tough week for everyone. By the end of the week, bodies were hurting, tempers were frayed but that was to be expected. The next 6 days will give us time to recover (whilst still training), put our lives in order and pack for the next part of the journey. The exciting part is about to begin!

Camp Continues

2009-07-24T22:35:00.002+10:00

Well today was the fourth day of our camp and we have all been getting a bit tired. We have had 3 sessions a day and the boat is definitely coming together. I think that every time we get part of it right, we then have to work on something else! It is certainly a never ending process!

We did a lot of work with race pace pieces this morning, getting the boat up to race pace fast. I think that we were all pretty happy with the outcome, we were finally able to pull the stroke rate up and we have now worked out what rate works best for us as a crew.

In between our sessions this morning we sat at the finish line and cheered on the Australian Junior crews who were simulating a heat race for their World Championship campaign which starts next week in France. We were quite impressed with how they looked and we will be there tomorrow cheering them on for their final race! It is amazing to see the up and coming new crop of rowers for Australia and I am sure that we will hear about some of them in the future. It has been a pleasure being included in the Juniors camp and being able to share dinner with them each night. We have been included in the daily wrap up of how training went every day and it is interesting to hear that some of the crews concentrate on the same things that we do. It proves we aren’t much different to Able Bodied crews.

We were given the afternoon off this afternoon and it gave us some time to recharge the batteries. A few of us went to the new Harry Potter movie, it was a nice change just to sit and watch! We also had a few laughs which I believe was certainly needed as we are all trying so hard to put this crew together that we needed to lighten the mood up. Lisa decided she would try and walk like Pete which was quite a funny spectacle, the two of them limping at the same time.

With only two days left of this camp it is hard to believe that in just over a week we will be back here for our staging camp before heading to Europe. With about three weeks of training left before the World Championships I am sure that we will prove to ourselves that we have the speed to mix it with the best. We will all be giving 110% in each training session, it’s the only way!

Day Two of Camp

2009-07-22T10:31:00.002+10:00

I decided that I would do a quick update today while we are having a rest between sessions. We have all been together now for two days and we have had some really good rows and some crap rows!

Yesterday morning we had a not too bad first row back together and we were able to get some good run on the boat, but by the afternoon I think we had all forgotten how to row! Mind you the wind had picked up and we rowed into a very strong headwind! We had to do some race pieces and setting up the boat into the head wind was good but when we turned around to do some other race pieces it all fell apart. We had to put that behind us and think about the next day.

This morning we were all a bit better, more relaxed and more focused. I think we were definitely able to put yesterday behind us. Our session this morning we did 6 one minute race pieces and they were good. We are slowly making those little steps to be able to row much faster.

On an exciting note, we all received our team gear the other day. So it makes it feel a bit more like we are really going! With the new zooties we will certainly stand out...they are very bright. But we will wear the gear with pride.

We are now out for our 2nd session today and hopefully we will be able to carry over the good row from early this morning.

Our Extra Camp

2009-07-21T06:19:00.012+10:00

We have come to Penrith for another camp after our successful campaign to gain selection to the Australian Rowing Team for the World Championships. Lisa and I flew up to Sydney from Melbourne yesterday and met up with Matt Bialkowski (our support person for Europe) for a lift to the regatta course. Alex and Henry were meeting us there and Pete is flying in this morning.

Also at SIRC this week is the Australian Junior team who have their staging camp before they head off to France for the Junior World Championships. So it is with interest that we can see the next wave of rowers to come through the ranks, watch their training and be able to be a part of their send off.

Matt had a little surprise for Lisa upon our arrival in the form of a new cox box. Now most of us would not be too excited about a cox box, but for Lisa it was like a little bit of Christmas. What is a cox box some of you none rowers are asking...well it connects to the boat so that Lisa can speak to us...maybe yell at us at times...and we can hear her. There are also other components that tell her our stroke rate and if the boat is fitted with proper wiring actually tell her how fast we are going. The exciting thing for Lisa was that it was in Aussie colours and had a kangaroo on either side of it, so this made her day!

This will be the longest camp that we have had, at 6 days and I am certainly looking forward to seeing how we can "come together" even more. It certainly will be a tough slog this week with 3 sessions a day but we are ready for the challenge.

I know that for all of us this campaign is really exciting and we all have some incredible people behind us for support. For me, well I wouldn't be able to do all this without the support of my husband Russ. We haven't been home too much in the last 3 months, with selections, camps and now the upcoming travel overseas but without our family support systems in place this wouldn't be possible. So to Pete's partner, the parents of Alex, Lisa and Henry and to my own husband...thank you for your love and support.

Bring on the week!

A Croak from the Stroke by Henry Macphillamy

2009-07-18T17:58:00.004+10:00

When the crew came together for its first camp, Carol did mention the fact that she was writing a blog, and I did say to her that I would contribute in some shape or other. I have said many things to her however, and up until this point, my focus was centred squarely on ‘d-day’, the day which would either kick start an unbelievable experience and challenge, or end an equally challenging yet not nearly as exciting one. As they say, better late than never, so here is my first entry.

It is impossible not to mention the feeling of closure and satisfaction I feel. Having said that, I know that the hard work has not even started yet. All that we have experienced thus far is just a taste of what is to come where it actually matters. We will be wearing the colours of our country which was our shared goal up until this point. The next step is nowhere nearly as clear-cut. We will train as hard as we can, and then we will compete at the highest level. It is the reality that is only now slowly sinking in, and then only because I have to think of words to describe the feeling! ... ... Wow!!!

Carol touched on the fact that the five of us, as a crew, are all different. In the material sense at least, we could not be more so. Our heights; our weights; our disabilities and attributes; our very different life experiences; our personalities and aspirations. Nowhere is this more apparent than when we travel together. As the elder statesmen of the group, Pete and Carol invariably sit in the front of the van, or in the case of the last camp, a very sexy wagon! The ‘three kids’, (Lisa, Alex and I) squash in to the back seat where we do all the things that you would expect siblings to do on a family road trip; squabble, laugh, play corners, blame unfortunate odours on each other etc etc.

When we step in to the boat however, all of these things become irrelevant. Rowing as a single entity is everything. Each of us knows what we have to work on and improve, and we know that the ability to work together will have a direct impact on our boat speed. The slightly dysfunctional family has to transform itself in to a crew intent on being as proficient as it can be every time we hit the water. The fact that we are slowly but surely improving our times is proof that we are at least on the right track in doing this. The fact that we were selected at all demonstrates how far we have come as a crew over the last few months.

While individual fitness is undoubtedly important, one thing I have taken away from this experience thus far is just how crucial it is to be in the right frame of mind. This is true for just about everything we do both as a crew and in our individual training. I cannot speak for the rest of the team, but personally, I have learnt so much in the lead up to this. When doing an erg session alone at home in my dingy garage, it seems so easy sometimes just to take a breather. As soon as negative thoughts start to enter my head it is like a weight sitting on my shoulders, or a big question mark over all the time and effort I have spent on my technique and fitness. Why does it hurt so much? Why am I doing this? Can I really handle it? Am I honestly capable of holding this split for another ten minutes?

As my coaches Simon and Tony so often tell me, when the question appears, you have to find a very good answer. The answer has nothing at all to do with physical strength or ability. It has everything to do with mental toughness. It is premature to say that I have all the answers, and I do not ever expect to. I am learning however, that there is a massive gap between what you think it is possible to do, and what it is actually possible to do given a strong head screwed on to your shoulders. I would like to think that, in relative terms at least, I am a lot stronger in this respect than I was, even from three months ago.

Racing in the boat is simply an amazing feeling. Initially I found it so hard to relax! The pressure’s on, and I have three people sitting behind me who depend on me keeping a rhythm which they can easily follow. The more time I spend with the crew however, the more comfortable I feel. You can feel everyone’s confidence growing during and after each decent session which we have together. I think the up-coming training camp out at circ will be absolutely crucial for this confidence. It will be the longest camp we have had to date, so I am really hoping we are able to use it to make some inroads in to that untapped potential which I know we possess.

This has been a pretty general post and overview of my perspective of how things are going for us so far. I am really looking forward to making further contributions to the blog, and giving you all an insight into our training and progress in the coming weeks. Four Out!

We Did It!

2009-07-13T07:00:00.007+10:00

We arrived at SIRC just before 7am for our warm up training session. Everyone was pretty keen to get on the water and have the second last row for the weekend. It was a beautiful morning, flat water, a bit chilly but the sunrise was fantastic. We were only doing one lap of the course, concentrating on really becoming one, every movement in time with one another. This may sound really easy but when you have four people, all different sizes and all with different disabilities, well it isn't that easy!

We had a good row and the timing wasn't too bad, we were finally getting some "send" on the boat. In other words we were finally letting the boat do the work for us. This was something that Pedro (who is coaching us since Tara had left) had been saying to us since day one, "Let the boat do the work, drive with the legs and really build the stroke to the chest, send the boat". It made perfect sense to us but getting us all to do it together and exactly together has been the tough part. But this morning that came together.

After our row, we headed back to the motel, to pack up, check out and then head back for our final time trial. We all knew we had to do better on this time trial than any of the previous ones. We had to show the selectors that we were improving and deserved to be part of the team heading to Poland. On the way back to the course in the car it was very quite. I think that everyone was really getting into their "zones", thinking about what they each needed to do individually to come together as "ONE".

We all did our own land warm up and at 10:30 a.m. it was "hands on". With the boat on the water and all of us in our seats we headed out for our warm up. We did a bit longer warm up than the day before and then headed out to the course. Once invited on to the course by the officials we took our position in lane 5 and Lisa had us do one practice start. Wow! what a start it was, the best we had ever done. We backed the boat into the finger and awaited the officials to start us off. Unfortunately we had a bad start! But we were able to correct quickly and we were off.

Lisa called the race brilliantly, she had us lengthen out once the boat was moving and from there had us work each stroke. Not think about the entire race but to concentrate on perfecting each individual stroke. The boat felt good, I know I felt good and the row felt strong and engaged with the water. Before I knew it Lisa was yelling that we had only 250 metres to go. It was incredible, I thought we were only about half way, but we were almost there. She wanted us to dig deeper than we had done before and with 100 metres to go asked for more. I didn't think I had anymore but incredibly I found some and before we knew it Lisa said to slow it down to steady state.

I don't think that anything has hurt more than that last 250 metres and I am sure the rest of the crew felt the same. We had finished and we had done the best that we could, now it was up to the selectors. As we rowed past the viewing stands, the crowd were clapping and at that point Lisa said to us "That's for us" and I must say it felt good. Now all we had to do was wait for the verdict.

When we got back to the landing, Pedro was there waiting for us and congratulated each one of us. We had a few supporters there, Henry's parents and guide dog Billy, Pam, Pedro's wife and Kathryn Ross another adaptive rower, who congratulated us and told us it was a good row...but to all of us was it good enough?

We sat around for a while hoping that one of the selectors would come and speak with us, but we were getting cold and decided to have showers and change. Once we were back at the shed we were told that we were to attend a meeting with the rest of the Senior team. I think we were all on pins and needles hoping that this was when we would be given the nod. But no the meeting was about how well everyone had done over the weekend and to wish the Under 23 representatives good luck, as they were leaving for Europe the next day. Then Andrew Mathieson said he wanted the LTA crew to stay so he could speak with us. Well I can tell you a few things went through my head! And most of them were negative!

When Andrew did finally come over to us, he stated that he was happy with how we had progressed over the weekend and that as far as he and other selectors we concerned they were going to put our names forward to the Rowing Australia board for inclusion on the Australian Team for the World Championships in Poland. Well I think everything else went off in my head! We were going! And to be honest the relief was overwhelming. I don't think there was much of a reaction from any of us right away and I am sure Andrew was a bit miffed about why we weren't jumping for joy. I think it had been such a tough slog and mentally tough that it took a while for it to sink in. I know that walking back to the shed it hit me and I actually became quite emotional. All the hard work had paid off.

When we did get back to the shed that is when the hugging and emotion all came out! But we definitely came back to earth as we realized that now the even harder work begins. We have another camp in a weeks time in Sydney, then a week home, then back to Sydney where the staging camp will be held before we head to Europe. But we know that we are going which puts our heads in a better place because we know what we can accomplish. In just three short camps we have really come together as a crew...We Can Row as ONE!

The Day Has Arrived

2009-07-12T05:40:00.004+10:00

Welcome to Sunday or "D" Day!

I am awake much earlier than Lisa and Alex so thought I would just quickly write a short note. This is probably the most important day of my short rowing career. We have to impress the selectors more than we have ever thought possible. It has been an interesting weekend. We have done two time trials so far,(to explain to non rowers reading this, the selectors look at our time and give it a percentage against the world best) and they haven't been too bad. On Friday we were ranked third highest amongst all the Senior A and B crews who are going to World Champs and Saturday we ranked 9th. So we are definitely in the mix.

We were disappointed with our row on Saturday as we all thought it felt a bit stronger but we weren't together enough. We did think that we had gone faster than Friday but the time was almost identical. I think that we are all putting so much into this that not only were we tired physically but mentally as well. So we had the afternoon off and I can tell you this old body certainly was happy about that!

So today is it...I am a bit nervous but I know that those nerves will serve me well when we are sitting on the start line. I am very ready to go out and give it my all as I know the rest of the crew is. So hopefully the next entry will be one that says, no that screams..."We are going to Poland"!

Last Chance Camp

2009-07-05T16:26:00.005+10:00

I am sitting here in Penrith after an amazing weekend at a 24 Hour Mega Swim at Homebush. The event was great, we more than doubled the teams from last year and more than doubled the money raised. So far it stands at $146, 569.10 and hopefully everyone will get their pledges in! So I decided that since our last camp starts on Wednesday I might as well stay in NSW instead of going back to Melbourne for a day and a half..

I have booked into the Chifley Penrith Panthers as we were supposed to be staying here for our camp. However they have changed hotels so on Wednesday I will have to move to the Log Cabin Motel where we stayed during the last camp.

This camp is the most important camp we have. We will be time trialling on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at which time we have to prove to the selectors that we are fast enough to head over to the World Championships. We all know we can do it, but I am sure that the nerves will be there. Which is good as our adrenaline will be flowing.

I am having tomorrow off, especially after this past weekend, but I will be training at SIRC on Tuesday and Wednesday in a single before the rest of the crew arrives on Wednesday afternoon. Hopefully the next time I write I will have good news that we are on our way!

Second Camp Done and Dusted

2009-06-23T13:56:00.013+10:00

Our second camp which was held in Sydney, after our imposed quarantine, started out on Thursday afternoon, once the rest of the crew had arrived. We headed out for a row to just get ourselves back into the swing of things. It wasn't too bad and we were able to blow out some of the cobwebs!

We were told on Thursday afternoon that we would be doing some racing over the coming days with a number of the Senior A and Under 23 crews that were heading overseas in the coming months for World Champs. These races were being held in conjunction with the 2nd World Cup which was being held in Munich on the same weekend. As Australia opted not to send any crews overseas this season it was going to be interesting to see how we compared to the crews racing in Munich.

The schedule that was set out for the camp was on each day...an early morning session to warm ourselves up, then a race around 10:40 a.m., a few hours off and then back for an afternoon session. So it was to be a pretty intense few days and I was really hoping that everyone stayed healthy and injury free.

Our first race didn't feel too bad and we were able to take about 3 seconds off our time from the selection trials, but in my books still not good enough. But with each row that we had, the boat was moving much better and we were really coming together as a crew and rowing as one.

Our second race on Saturday was slightly better, taking another second off. But again I think we were all getting a bit frustrated that the times weren't coming down a lot faster. Lisa was great in trying to get us to relax during our rows as the more we become frustrated the slower we row. Tara (who was coaching us) had us do some really hard and fast 250m which seemed to help us tremendously, so we were really happy with our row after that session. We realised that if we could put those 250m together then we could do a fantastic last row.

Sunday morning came around and I think that most of us had a few nerves. I know I did as I wanted the selectors to see that we meant business and really wanted to go to Poland. And even though we knew that this was not a race for selection, they would be watching to see if we had made any great improvements over the last month and a half.

We had a great warm up and headed to the start. We were racing with our Australian rep in the Mens Arms/Shoulders single scull and the Trunk and Arms Mixed double scull. The single sculler Ben went off go, the double with Kathryn and Greg went 35 seconds later and then we wnet 60 seconds after the double. This had basically been the same the last two days.

We had a pretty good start and during the race were making up some pretty good ground on the other boats. But to be honest, to me the row felt really messy and all over the place. The two previous days we had caught the double but this day we didn't, so I was very doubtful that we had a good race. We headed back to the landing and it was extremely quiet in the boat. I think that the others were thinking exactly like me, that it was a terrible row.

Upon getting to the landing Tara was waiting for us and when we had stopped told us it had been a PB (personal best). I remember looking at her and asking her if we had gone under 3:50. At that point she smiled and said "Way under!" We had just taken 8 seconds off the time from the day before and 14 seconds off our time during selection trials. There was a loud WooHoo from the whole crew! We had finally learnt how to race! Although the race had been a bit messy it was alot faster.

I can't even explain the feeling in the boat during the afternoon session. Doing that good row had completely changed the way the boat felt that afternoon. It had obviously made us all relax and realise that we do have the potential! Tara had us do a couple of 500m pieces during this session and we were able to equal our time from the morning...so it wasn't a fluke!

(Photo: Exiting the Sydney International Regatta Course)

Our last row on Monday morning had some good pieces in it and some bad. We were all extremely tired from the last 4 days and I know myself I had no strength left in my right arm and both legs. My old body was telling me that I needed a day off!

Over the last couple of camps we have become like a small family and we have shared many laughs and stories with each other. One of the phrases that has come out of our time together is a shared joke, one which I won't go into here as it would take too long to explain. But we have a catch cry for our crew of "It can't be good for the fish!". This is thanks to Henry! So during the week of my quarantine I found a shop who made up some shirts for me for the entire crew, which I presented to them on Saturday. Tara had also made all of us bracelets in green and gold to wear as a crew.

The camp was fantastic but also sad. Unfortunately we will not have Tara to coach us anymore. In a way it is bitter sweet. Tara has been identified as having Olympic potential in the sport of Kayaking and has been invited to live and train in Queensland. So it is fantastic for her but not so great for us. We decided that we wanted to make sure she still felt part of the team and at dinner on Sunday night gave her a lovely photo of all of us together. We were all wearing shirts that I had made up and hopefully she will remember how much she has done for us in our quest for selection. Of course we all wish her the best for her future in kayaking. Hopefully we will see her name "Tara Huntly" on the list of Australian athletes for London 2012! (Photo from left: Tara, Carol, Stoodley our mascot, Lisa, Henry, Alex and Pete)

We are now all back at our home bases and will come together again for one last training camp before our selection time trial on the 12th of July.

Exile is Over

2009-06-18T11:17:00.002+10:00

Today we are free! Well we have always been free but at least today we will see all our other crew members and be able to row at SIRC!
What a boring week this has been. But sitting at dinner the other night, Lisa and I figured out that we probably had more contact with people we didn't know in the last 4 days than we would have if we stayed at home. At least we are both still healthy, no sign of a sniffle or cough!

Pete is flying in from Queensland around 12:30 p.m. today and Alex and Henry will be driving over to Penrith from their inner suburbs of Sydney. Tara (who has been coaching us) will be driving up from Canberra. We are all staying at the same motel which is great for that team bonding feeling!

We aren't sure what kind of training will be happening but it looks like we may be doing some racing as well. I know that Rowing Australia wanted to run a type of regatta during the weekends of the World Cups and this weekend from the 18th-21st there is a World Cup in Munich, Germany. It will give us an idea of where we stand at this point since the selection trials. We have all had more training since our 4 days during the trials, so it will be very interesting.

So our second camp starts at 2pm today and one that I am itching to get to.

Quarantine begins!

2009-06-15T12:47:00.004+10:00

Lisa and I arrived in Sydney yesterday and made our way to Penrith to the Log Cabin Motel. It is a beautiful spot right on the Nepean River and the rooms that they gave us have beautiful views of the river.

Our first job was to buy some supplies for breakfasts and lunches, once this was done and as this was Sunday and a rest day from training, there really wasn't much to do but hang out in our rooms and wait for dinner!

We decided that we would try the bistro in the motel and bugger if it wasn't outside. Thank god for patio heaters! Dinner was a quick affair and then we both retired to our rooms. I decided that a cup of tea would go down well and as I tried to fill the kettle in my room with water the tap blew off the sink with water spraying everywhere! I couldn't get the tap turned off quick enough. Thank god there was no CC TV in the room filming this, I was absolutely soaked! The walls, floor, everything was wet. I had to use one of the bathroom towels to try and dry everything. I looked in the mirror and just started to laugh, what a sight. I was able to put the tap back in the hole and actually use the water by holding it down with one hand and filling the kettle with the other. I tell you that cup of tea was well earned!

I must say that I had an interesting night with my neighbours having an all out fight at about 3am. The male was calling the female unmentionables and the female screaming back then eventually just crying. Luckily this only lasted about 15 minutes then all was quiet.

I had checked with the reception staff about a pool as I was supposed to do a swim Monday morning. They gave me vague directions and at 6am this morning I attempted to find the pool they had been talking about. Needless to say after driving around in the dark, I gave up. I did remember a pool in the vicinity of the Penrith Panthers Stadium, so headed over in the general direction and low and behold I actually found it.

It reminded me a bit of the Fitzroy Pool at home as it was outside and through the fence I could see the steam coming off the water. So I headed in, stripped off (it was only about 7 degrees) and jumped in the water. Oh I should have tested the water first...it was freezing! Apparently the heater had died in the middle of the night and the water was only about 20 degrees! I couldn't believe the number of people who were actually swimming. So I decided that I would try and do a couple of kilometers. I lasted about 50 minutes and I just had to get out.

Back at the motel, I had the hottest shower I could stand!

Once I was warm and had some breakfast I geared myself up for going to the dentist. Yes the dentist! I broke a tooth on Saturday and was able to find a dentist here in Penrith who was able to fit me in. He even turned out to be a Canadian! He fixed me right up.

Lisa and I are now going to head to a gym down the street and try to get them to let us use the facilities. I have been known to be able to talk my way into and out of things, so hopefully it will work. This will end the second day of our imposed quarantine...only two left to go!

Heading to Sydney

2009-06-13T15:57:00.003+10:00

I have just finished off a tough week of training with probably the best row I have ever had!
I headed out on the Yarra River this morning at 6am with a huge number of other rowers from Mercantile RC. It was really good to see so many from the club out in force.

I love this time of the morning. The sky is pitch black at this time of the year and with all the Mercantile boats with their safety lights on, it looked like fireflies dancing along the water. It is the time of the day where you watch everything wake up, ducks, swans, traffic and the city itself. I was one of the first on the water and although there was a slight wind the water was fairly smooth and it feels like you are slicing through virgin water.

I had felt really tired but I was hoping to have a double session this morning, the first being in my single and then the second in an 8 from Melbourne RC. So as I headed out in my single I thought I would try to just relax, not overdo it so that I would have enough energy for the second session.

This must have helped because the boat felt so easy to move through the water and everything just seemed to click. I even heard bubbles under the boat which means that it is running quickly on top of the water! It was great to be part of a number of boats out together and before I knew it we had covered just over 10km. I felt so good and so relaxed it was great. When I got off the water I knew that I would be fine for another session.

Unfortunately for me the 8 didn't go out, so the second session for me was cancelled. So I met up with Stu my coach and we had breakfast to discuss the coming camp and beyond.

So as I sit here at home tonight writing this post, I am thinking about the upcoming camp and I look forward to seeing the rest of the crew. Lisa and I head to Sydney tomorrow to start our 4 days of quarantine, then our training with the crew starts on Thursday. We are all focused on our goal of racing in Poland and this is just the next step towards that goal.

Don't Oink Before you Sneeze

2009-06-11T19:48:00.000+10:00

Well Melbourne has become the "Swine Flu" capital of Australia! Due to the fact that there have been quite a few number of confirmed swine flu cases, even though they are milder than the normal flu, Victorians have become marked people. I can understand why people are worried, but it seems to me that the media have made this a lot worse than it need be.

Our LTA4+ crew are about to embark on our second camp in 6 days. The first thing we had to overcome was where it was going to be held. Lake Burley Griffith is still closed due to the algae so it was decided that we head up to Penrith, New South Wales to the Sydney International Regatta Centre, loving known to us as SIRC. It is a fantastic rowing centre and was purposely built for the 2000 Sydney Olympics. We couldn't ask for a better venue to train at.

Enter "Swine Flu".

All athletes from Victoria now have to be quarantined before any contact with other rowers and coaches from other states. This means that Lisa (our cox) and I have to head up to Sydney 4 days before the rest of the crew. This is not a problem for me as I am able to move a few things around but Lisa has exams for Uni and is desperately trying to get them re-scheduled. If she can't she will have to miss the camp and we will have to have one of the other AIS coxes come to help us out. I don't believe that this is the best thing, as I believe that we need stability at this point in time. But at least we will still be able to have the camp. Here's hoping that Lisa is able to re-schedule the exam, we will find out tomorrow.

The funny thing about all this is that since my diagnosis of MS in 1998 and starting on the Inter-feron drugs I have not had a cold or flu. That is 11 years of not catching anything, even when my husband Russ has been sick. I can't really understand how an immuno-suppressant can do this or if it is actually the cause but I am not about to complain!

So it will be an interesting 4 days, trying to work out how and where to train so as not to come into contact with other rowers. So once I am up in Sydney I will let you know how the quarantine period is spent!

The Training Starts - Our First Camp

2009-06-01T16:45:00.000+10:00

After the disappointment of not qualifying for the Beijing Paralympics, having a relapse of my MS and then a holiday back in Canada with my family, my hunger to once again represent Australia in rowing returned. So my training intensified starting in September of 2008.

The hard training paid off and in April 2009 after selection trials I was once again named in the Australian LTA4+ crew. The crew is slightly different from last year: Pete Siri from Queensland and Lisa Brown were named once again with me, with two new rowers Henry Macphillamy and Alex Green both from Sydney, joining us.

We did have some training time together after selection trials and did a time trial at the end of that week. We just weren't quite fast enough to be automatically selected to the National Team. We have been given 2 1/2 months to train, do another time trial and then hopefully be selected to head to Poznan, Poland in August with the rest of the Australian Team to compete at the World Championships. We all believe that this is possible and will be giving it our all to be there.

We have all been doing our own training in our respective states but recently met up at the Australian Institute of Sportl (AIS) in Canberra for our first training camp.

Our week long camp didn't start out to great. We all arrived at the airport at roughly the same time and headed to the ACTAS (ACT Academy of Sport) rowing shed. They kindly were lending us a boat to use for the week. Upon our arrival we were unable to actually row due to the fact that the police had found a body in the lake.

The week was a fairly tough one with 3 sessions scheduled per day. Unfortunatley Lake Burley Giffith has been hit hard by algae and by Thursday afternoon they had closed the entire lake. This led to a change in our camp with a lot of our training done on the ergos, stationery bike and the pool at the AIS. It actually came at a good time as Pete ended up with tendonitis at the back of his knee.

We did however have some very good rows...not bad for a new crew. The end of the week was a tough morning of ergo time trials with personal bests by all of us who did them. So not a bad way to end our camp.

We are now back in our home states for some more training with our respective clubs and we will meet again in 2 1/2 weeks for another camp.

I am hoping that the rest of the crew will also contribute to this blog so that you the reader can get their opinions, views and feelings about our journey.

I also look forward to hearing what they think!