And I'm out...

Long story short, I'm no longer rowing. I'm searching for the next big thing in my life but in the meantime I'm still happily living in DC, working at the same physical therapy clinic and in love with a beautiful person.

Wish me luck and let me know if you have any great career ideas.

God Bless, Much Love, Peace Out.

So here's the deal with the Four.

So here's the deal. There are 7 open weight women and 4 seats in the boat that will be on it's way to the World Championship Trials in Princeton, NJ on August 1st - 5th.

Three of us came from Washington, DC to compete for a spot in this Four (without a coxswain) at the Oklahoma City Olympic Training Center . The Training Center has been kind enough to put us up in a fully furnished apartment complex where the majority of the rowers, canoer's and kayaker's live. It makes for a fun dynamic and it's very motivating to see athletes from other sports training so hard every morning and afternoon side by side with us rowers.

The training center itself is AMAZING! Check out the link. It's fully equipped with every possible type of erg/ rowing machine that has been designed. The center also features the world’s first dynamic rowing tank and offers an hypoxic (high altitude) room for training up to 12,000 ft, an indoor propulsion swim pool, a wide variety of cross training apparatus, and state-of-the-art strength and conditioning equipment.

To top it off, it has a kitchen stocked with snacks for us to have between our first and second morning practices, flat screen TV's everywhere but best of all....a fully buoyed 2k course.

Seat Racing: We just seat raced the last four mornings. Each morning the workout was 3 x 1000m at a stroke race of 34. Race down the course for your best time, row back to the dock, one person gets out, a new person gets in and the Four goes to race again.

With only seven bodies we can only race one Four at a time and it makes seat racing a bit complicated. Our coach Jeremy wants us all to tire at the same rate so regardless of whether you're in the Four or not you have to in some way get in three 1k's each morning. Sometimes you do the 1k's in the Four, sometimes in a Pair, sometimes in the Single and sometimes on the erg.

Like most seat racing, it never seems quite fair, there are always complaints, always tension, always suggestions on how it can be run in a more accurate way.

We have the next few days just to row and train...and then we pick up with more seat racing on Tuesday morning.

Side note: One of the girls from the National Team, "Moose", is here to train for the week which gives us a full Eight. The past two afternoons we've been able to take out an Eight for technique and Steady State. I haven't been in an Eight this much since college in 2004...it's fun :-)

US Nationals, July 1 2011 - Rowing Images - Rowing and Sculling for Rowers and Scullers - row2k.com

US Nationals, July 1 2011 - Rowing Images - Rowing and Sculling for Rowers and Scullers - row2k.com

My first experience in a Pair....

My first experience in a Pair was in Seattle, WA.

National Team Pairs camp run by Jan Harville (UW Head Women's Coach at the time)

I had been rowing for 9 months at that point, at no point had I rowed in a Pair.

My current coach, Reilly Dampeer, was also at that same Pairs camp.

She was the experienced senior from Santa Clara, I was the newbie novice from Gonzaga.

My first row with a senior rower from University of Washington.

She was terrified of rowing with me, afraid that we would flip.

Throughout the camp, I was often paired with a good friend of mine from Gonzaga.

She used to get so nervous before our weekly racing, she'd pee in the boat.

It made us better friends, it made us row faster, to this day I make fun of her for it.

That summer, I never flipped.

I saved my first pair flipping experience for the following fall.

30 Degrees

We were run off the race course by a WSU pair.

We hit the finish line bouy.

My feet come flying out of the shoes 5 times to big for me.

I fall back in my Pair partners lap aaaand....

In we go.

In between shocking, freezing gasps for air we are laughing.

Or at least attempting to.

My mother is on the shore watching.

Eventually a coaches launch comes along and has to pull my pair partner out of the water she's gone so numb.

We high five each other, we still won.

Pair rowing, fun times.

I've rowed with 3 out of the 4 starboards here so far...no flipping just yet.

Grandma goes to Sweep Camp in Oklahoma

It's July of 2011, one week ago I was invited to go train in Oklahoma City to attempte to put together a fast Straight Four (four without coxswain) for the World Championship Trails in the beginning of August in Princeton, NJ. So I packed up, booked a flight and flew into OKC Friday night.

My hands are already torn to pieces.

My legs have nearly recovered from the 30 minutes of Exorcist stairs I ran last Tuesday in DC.

Every morning row the temperature is around 85 degrees, every afternoon row around 100.

The Oklahoma Training Center reminds me of an Apple store....full of ergs, boats, weights.

Out of the 7 of us competing for the 4-, I'm the oldest...hence the "Grandma". I kind of like being the older experienced one of the group.

The officiall selection process starts tomorrow.

My Pair partner Malyka and I after our race at Elite Nationals.

TThe PBC team.
Hilary, Steve, Coach: Reilly, Me, Katie, Allix, Margot, Taylor, Willy, Kevin, Malyka

NSR 2's ....Yes, I AM still racing.

It's been a while...a LONG while and I'm being bugged and bribed to update my blog. So here it goes, bad vocab and all.

I'm currently back in Princeton, NJ relaxing at our hotel having just raced the 2011 National Selection Regatta II Women's 2x Time Trial with my doubles partner Malyka Ianni. Even though she had some sort of stomach bug that stripped her body of every possible nutrient in a matter of 24 hours on Tuesday we are staying positive and moving along with race plans. I can't get upset at her as....well...I probably gave her the bug. I was sick for a good 4 days last week. I lost nearly 8lbs over those 4 days....she lost about 6 over 1 day. If we were lightweights, this might be a nifty trick. But we're not and we've been packing our stomachs full of good food quickly gaining back every lovely pound.

She and I have only rowed together at most about two weeks and are learning a lot from each other each time out on the water and each race. Our next race will be the Heats tonight at 6:25 pm. We're in Lane 1 against some tough competitors. Let's be honest....we're at NSR2's....everyone is tough but we're up for the fight.

This past Spring the Potamac River has been well, how can I best describe it....a bit of a disaster. From super strong current, to debris from the rain, to phantom wakes, wakes from coaching launches, massive gusts of winds and weird swirly swirly water we've had everything BUT flat racing water. Fortunately we were able to get out on the Occoquan River (lake?) where George Mason University practices and get some decent water out there at least once a week. That said, we also have not had a day off since Easter so as I'm sitting here in my PJ's 12:30 in the afternoon, lights off, drapes drawn, Malyka sleeping and a table full of food beside me.....I'm enjoying every minute of rest. I feel my body is ready to go and she and I are gradually figuring out how we best race together.

Of the two of us, I'm considered the "sane" one of the pair. I joke that she's on crazy pills half the time but she gets to put up with me and my West Coast pace (we were a bit late to the start line this morning) as well as my lil talks with myself as we're out and about walking around. "Make it light, stay loose, fast, fast, fast." I figure if I say it enough my body will finally catch on.

Malyka came to row with us (PBC) from Riverside Boat Club up in Boston last October. Her laid back personality, love for Disney movies, overly open conversation about herself and completely random and bizarre noises immediately fit into our group. I'd say at least one practice a day she'll say something that will have at least one person nearly in tears laughing. When you're training nearly 2-3 times a day 7 days a week....you need to laugh. She's a happy addition to our group.

We will be here racing until Saturday and then right back to training at Potomac. Stay tuned, I'll hopefully have some good race results as well as funny stories to post next.

Results for the races can be found here.

We are: Open Women's 2x - M. Ianni

"Fast is loose and on the edge of out of control..."

Complete Cheater Blog....

Complete Cheater Blog: Stef took the photo's and Katie wrote this update for PBC's www.potomacstar.com team update. But it's been a long time and I needed something!

Despite this nasty water, two days later we were on the water for our first day back in singles this Spring. It was glorious! I can start singing and talking to myself again, hoorah.

Open Sculling Program Update
It’s official: spring is here and winter training is over! This past weekend the openscullers had a VO2 max test to see just how well their winter training efforts paid off inJanuary and February. Between two 6k tests, Mid-Atlantic Erg sprints, an erg marathon(42km), a 2 week training trip to Augusta, a 2.2 mile run test, 30 minute test, 1 minutetest, and countless other workouts, it looks like winter training was a success! Wecertainly missed being on the water, but worked on our technique and fitness on the ergwith the help of the new RowPerfect. (Which, we’d like to point out to some high schoolrowers at the club, is not the new “Concept3” erg.)
While we waited for the river to thaw, we travelled to Augusta, GA for 2 weeks inFebruary to get a jump-start on the rowing season. Somehow between 3 cars we wereable to transport 4 doubles, 8 pairs of sculls, riggers, and all of our gear. We survivedReilly’s training plan, which included 3-a-day sessions, a dam row (34km) and 3x2kworkouts, and more impressively, survived all living under one roof for the 2 weeks.With 8 hungry athletes and coach, the kitchen was a little crazy at times, but we made itwork- turns out there are some pretty good chefs within the group!
We’re looking forward to rowing this week (as soon as the current slows a bit) as we startto prepare for our first race of the season, National Selection Regatta I. We’re also gettingready for our March 26 Fundraising Dinner and Silent Auction, and hope that you all canattend! Till then, happy rowing!

REevaluate

Have you ever set about something with a goal in mind?

Sometimes it's an easy goal.

Attainable.

Other times it's a lofty goal.

Challenging.

We have now been back in DC for 2 weeks.

The majority of our squad is strong and healthy and with the exception of Stef who has been in Boston for the past two weeks we're like giddy lil kids happy to have our full group training together again.

Guys: Taylor, Willy, Kevin, Joe, Mike, Sean, Matt

Gals: Maria, Morgan, Katie, Malyka, Lissa and soon Stef. Allix is a a bit injured.

With the exception of a few we've been keeping up with 3 practices a day about 4 days a week.

This past Friday morning we had another 6k Test.

6000 meters, on the erg, as fast as you can go.

Set a goal.

Go.

It's been a tough couple of weeks.

We're all a bit beat up.

It's awesome.

I love testing how much my body can handle.

I was actually a bit excited going into this 6k.

Excited to see how much the body could handle.

I set a lofty goal.

Aim high.

Why would you do otherwise.

Always push your limits.

I got 1000 meters into the test....

"reevaluated my goal"

2000 meters in.....

"reevaluate again"

3500 meters....

"very well.....reevaluate..."

2000 meters to go.....

"just keep fighting...."

1500 meters....

"The faster you go, the faster it's over, fight..."

1000 meters...

"Wow, this is NOT going as planned....count 10 up, 10 down, 10 up, 10 down..."

Last 600 meters

"Hold on..."

Last 300 meters...

"Dear God...just GO!"

Ugh gross.

Being able to reevaluate.

It's a part of life.

It's tough to do mid-goal sometimes.

But you have to keep fighting.

As deep in the pain cave you are.

No matter how far into the hole you've fallen.

No matter how many things get in your way,

Or how many things knock you down.

Keep fighting.

I expect perfection.

Bit of a lofty goal.

I can't help it.

Aim high.

Keep fighting.

Even if you have to reevaluate.

Day....uhhh...I dunno: Back in DC

After two great weeks of training we arrived back in DC at 2 AM this morning.

We have today off, tomorrow we have a cardio workout on our own and then we're back with the team picking up the usual 2 or 3 a day workouts Tuesday morning.

Final morning in Augusta:

12k Steady State followed by 3 x 2k into a stiff headwind.

At least the sun finally came out.

We will miss you ARC.

Goodbye to our home of two weeks. Stef enjoying the sunshine for one last moment.

A quick food stop on the 10 hour drive home.

A visit to the south wouldn't be complete without eating at a Waffle House at least once.
2 eggs, 4 pieces of bacon, 2 pieces of toast, grits and a waffle: $6.95.
Me not being able to understand what the locals were saying and Stef dying laughing at me as I make up my own conversation with them: Priceless.

Back to "real life" this week.

AM 1: Row

AM 2: Row, Run or Bike

10:30 am - 3:30 am: Work

4:00 pm : Lift, Row, Run or Bike

Row, Rest, Repeat.