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
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