Summary of National Development Trials (east)

Wow, what a week-end!  I first want to say that the best outcome from this week-end was my mom overcoming her first round of chemo side-effects.  I derive so much inspiration from this woman I am so blessed to call mom, thank you!!

And it is so fitting that she shared the following quote with me:

“Detach from all values that support the belief that success in life means achieving certain goals.  Instead, view a successful life as a process of achieving self-control and the capacity to work through the challenges life brings you.  Visualize success as an energy force rather than a physical one.”

-          Anatomy of the Spirit, Caroline Myss

This couldn’t be more true.  As you know, this past week-end I raced at the National Development Trials (East) and was fortunate to race alongside some really great athletes from all categories (Heavyweight, Lightweight, Under-23, and Juniors) – including those who have gone to previous World Championships, and are currently carded on the National Team.

I went into this race thinking that the outcome would define the success of my training over winter and spring, however, I know that the result from trials only shows one part of my journey and that there is much more to come.  Everyone has their challenges, so I am no different than anyone else - I feel that I am learning so much about myself every day that I am becoming better at working through these challenges, and I am hopeful that this will continue to help me ride this amazing “process of achieving self-control”.

I say this now, after the races are over, but over the week-end I displayed all types of emotions: J L :S...

As a lightweight, I had to weigh in each day (2 hours before racing).  Fortunately my weight was close to the international target, so this was helpful to see how I could perform under those conditions.  On Saturday we had the time trial where each athlete went down the course one person at a time.  The top 12 went on to the A/B Semi-Final, 13-24 to the C/D Semi-Final, etc.  Although I made it through to the A/B Semi-Final, I had a disappointing time trial result.  My coach had a really great talk with me to help prepare for the Semi-Final.  We removed my “stroke coach” (a device that is used in the boat to help athletes see their stroke rates) just to see what rate I would lengthen into during the semi-final….28!  Darn it Laura, you can’t race at a 28!!  This would have to change, and change quick if I wanted to get an invite to London Ontario for training at the London Training Center (where the National Women train).

Saturday night was exhausting!  Thank goodness I had a good sleep on Friday night.  As I experienced before, having espresso definitely shocks my body…for MANY hours, ha.  So Saturday night I was wired, however, I was resting so that’s the positive side of thisJ. 

Perhaps the lack of sleep affected my ability to fully function in the morning…I forgot my water bottle and food at the entrance of the house, I had an incident with my phone, etc.  What a GOOF!  Again, these were challenges, small ones, but still challenges.  I just had to let them go and move on with what I had.

After weigh in, eating, drinking and resting, my coach and I sat to have our pre-race chat, and I was then off to race in the A final.

I was so incredibly focused for this final, I knew what I had to do and so I just had to go out and do it…and yes, this required me to bump up my stroke rate to race pace.  I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, I work best under pressure and so this was my comfort zone.

I had an INCREIDBLE support team there to cheer me on, so I would like to give a big THANK YOU to them – my husband Andrew, his parents, my dad, our uncle and aunt, my amazing friends Lauren, Robyn, Vanesa and Chris, my mom and sis back home and so many more.  It’s not the norm to see such a big group of people go to a local regatta, but that’s just how we do things in my hood, ha!  Whenever I can, I also support my family and friends by going to their events, activities, etc.  I think we should hire this support team for the upcoming Olympics, what do you think?!:)

With my amazing support team, pre-race chat with my coach, and trust in my training, I went out to race and ended up finishing fourth overall (behind the top 3 heavyweights), and first for the lightweight women.

I now prepare to move to London Ontario next week!  The top 3 lightweights in Canada have already been selected to go to the Olympics, so Rowing Canada has selected 6 other lightweights across Canada to try out for 4 spots that will make up a Lightweight Women’s Quadruples Scull going to the World Championships in Bulgaria this August.

Let selection beginJ

My amazingly supportive husband Andrew and me

My amazing friends Robyn, Lauren, (me) and Vanesa

 I am so grateful for this woman, Stani, my coach!

Have a great night!

Hi there,

I'll post a full blog later (tomorrow), but in case you are checking here as I don't have my phone on me and can't respond, I had a great week-end and will be moving to London Ontario to train with the National Development Team:)

Bye for now,

Have a great Sunday!

Rollin with my homies...and the waves

This week there was all kinds of weather…sunny, rainy, 80km/h winds, flat water, -2 degrees and +18 degrees, and more…

And no matter what weather we had, my teammates and I were still there to train in the morning and evening.  Although I am training right now in the single, it is nice to be surrounded by several crews (from the junior, senior, and masters programs).  Everyone is there because at the core of it all, we just love to row.  And why not do what you enjoyJ.

This week I learned that it has been REALLY beneficial to train in rough waters.  You never know what kind of water you’ll get at a race, and so you have to be prepared to race in anything.  This was really evident at the 2010 World Championships in New Zealand where the Canadian Lightweight Women’s Double came out on top winning Gold with their incredible power and blade work (they were so skilled in rough water that it made little to no impact on their performance).

Last summer I fairly got beat in my semi at Henley (a big regatta in St. Catharines each summer).  It didn’t matter how strong I was, my confidence in rough water was low and I only applied 50% of power on each stroke I took.  In the fall I started to train in rough waters, and now I actually wish for rough waters some days, ha - Who thought you could surf in Toronto!

Now there's only one more week until the National Development Trials.  Still lots of work to get done, but as I get ready for this one step in my journey, many athletes continue to get ready in their big journeys to the Olympics.  Below is a link to the World Rowing website where they featured Canada's Patricia Obee.  She will be one of the 3 lightweights competing to be in Canada's Lightweight Women's Double racing in England this summer:

http://original.worldrowing.com/athletes/patricia-obee

Good Luck to all athletes training to realize their dreams!

Rower Tracy Cameron in the spotlight

I think the world of Tracy Cameron (Canadian Lightweight Rower, Bronze at the 2008 Olympics and Gold at the 2010 World Champs), so I thought I'd share this video from the Globe&Mail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/olympics/olympic-profile-tracy-cameron/article2398640/

Enjoy!

Wrapping up a busy week...where's my bed:)

There's no question, speed work has begun!  This week was a tough week and I'm excited for sleep ahead, ha!  I feel like I’m a child again going to bed so early each night – can’t stay up late to see my favourite show anymore, “Happy Endings”.  Isn’t life tough!

It's amazing to think that just a few weeks ago when I was doing the erg tests, I struggled to hold a high stroke rate. The body of my 2km was between a 26-28, and only 24 for my 6km!  But it was all for a purpose.  Today I comfortably held 32 for pieces while maintaining the power per stroke approach and technique I had worked so hard on all winter.  It's nice to see it come together now…and hopefully, just in time.  I am actually tempted to do another 2km erg just to see where I would be right now, but that’s crazy talk, I’m sure there’ll be plenty more of those ahead;) 

Speaking of the erg, all of the erg results were shared with athletes across Canada, and I must say I’m really excited by the fact that there are going to be some fast athletes racing at trials (and I’m proud of my friends who pulled awesome personal bests)!  Trials is going to be split up between East and West, so I don’t know who I’ll be racing in the East, but no matter what, there should be some good tight races in all categories!  I can only assume that after the Olympics, rowing will draw in even more athletes – especially since we’ll get so many medals at the GamesJ - GO CANADA!

Now, on top of speed work this week, I have been busy at work and with the family. 

At work we had our first department-wide video conference!  A group of us Managers worked to get this going and it was really exciting to see it come to reality.  One more will take place in May, and I expect that with each event we run, we will keep learning and making these conferences better.

And as for my mom, I went with my family to join her at her first Oncologist appointment, and now we know for certain that she will get chemo and radiation – she’ll start chemo on April 25^th for 5 months, and then after chemo she’ll get radiation.  Before this appointment, we were all in the dark, didn’t have answers, and were naturally scared and anxious...HOWEVER, we now see the light!  After we met with the Credit Valley team, we all smiledJ.  To know that the CV team is so compassionate, caring, have a great deal of patience (we asked a LOT of questions), educated, and focused on patient care, has really helped put us all ease.  All in all, she’s has great support from family, friends, colleagues, and now, the CV team!

I’ve actually taken on a new cross training with my mom.  It’s called Chi Kung.  We are making an effort to do it together (by skype or in person), and it is a form of meditation, visualization, and internal healing.  I seriously don’t think there’s anything this woman can’t teach meJ.

So yes, a busy week is now coming to a close.

This week-end I’ll be taking my boat to the manufacturer to get repaired (probably not in time for trials, but that’s okay).  I’ll continue to row in a boat that I’m borrowing from a true angel, Martha!  Why I’m so lucky to be surrounded by amazing people, I don’t know, but I’m not going to ask questions and I am going to stay thankful and grateful for each day I get to interact with these people while continuing to do the things I love.

Happy Training!

Good-bye to the best training partner an athlete could ask for:(

Another week passed and in summary, rowing on the water has been great!

I am back to waking up with the number "4" showing up on my alarm clock, and although I am tempted to curl back into bed, I get up because I know it’s worth it.  It’s crazy to be up so early when it’s dark, but it’s amazing to experience the city waking up each day - I get to see the sun rise and hear the sounds of the roads get busy.  Crazy to think that I’m up for 4 hours before heading off to work at the office!!  I feel like it should be lunch at 8:30am, ha!

The training itself has been great, and each day I am feeling more and more confident in my ability to row at my best at the end of this month.  Even with steady state workouts, I am fully committing to my stroke, and no longer just rowing for mileage.  Every workout has a purpose and I am not letting any opportunity for learning slip away from me.

Unfortunately I do have some bad news regarding one of my closest training partners….my boat.  On Friday, there was a collision on the water that ended with my boat getting damaged…and no longer rowable:(

 (OUCH!!!)

As I always say, I think things happen for a reason, so maybe this is an opportunity rather than a limitation.  We’ll see (I'm really searching HARD for this to be a positive thing).

For now, I am so fortunate to have a coach and know club athletes who are willing to help me with getting access to another boat to row in for training, we'll see what I do about racing.

As comfortable as I was in my boat, it's also good to change it up and learn to row in anything (really teaches me to quickly learn how to feel the water regardless of the equipment).

On a side note, I have given recipes before for making juices with several fruits and vegetables, and so I wanted to share something that I came up with that might make your juicing even more fun!

When you juice with fruit, you can use the leftovers (orange pulp, apple skin, etc), to make some Fruity Globs (that’s my official name for them;)).  Why get rid of the really nutritious parts of the fruit when you can still eat them.  Simply take the leftovers and mix them with about 2-3 eggs.  Then you can add some cinnamon, oatmeal, pumpkin seeds and other nuts, as well as raisins or dried cherries.  In the end, you’ll have some delicious Fruit Globs to snack on between training, working, or chillingJ.

Food is definitely becoming my best friend again as my training picks up.  So if anyone has some good recipes out there, please let me know!

Happy Easter & Happy Passover