Vote for America Rows to help them win a $12,000 grant

Vote for America Rows, the diversity and inclusion program within USRowing, to help them win a $12,000 grant from the United States Olympic Committee.

All you need to do is vote on Facebook by clicking on the link below. First, "Like" the USOlympic Team site and then vote in the USA Grants tab for America Rows. It's simple.

http://usoc.kickapps.net/_USRowing39s-America-Rows-Program-USRowing/video/1625274/193981.html

Right now, USRowing is in second place. We need your votes to ensure we win the grant.
Voting goes through midnight Sunday, September 18 and you can vote once a day.

The full message link here: >>

Lucerne Entry

Following the first two World Rowing Cup in Germany, the best rowers in the world move on to World Cup III in Lucerne, Switzerland, from 8 to 10 July. Fifty nations have sent a huge contingent of 901 athletes to compete on the Rotsee known as the mecca of rowing in Switzerland. This impressive turnout is partly due to Lucerne being the last time many of these countries will get to race each other before the all-important Olympic Qualification Regatta that is part of the World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia, at the end of August.

We are in the LW2x. This means in the Lightweight Women Double Scull.
The entries include Australia and New Zealand. Canada and Great Britain. Germany and Greece, Netherlands and Italy.... and many more!

USA2
BROUGHTON Abelyn
GROBLER Ursula

The World Cup event finals will be video-streamed live on Sunday 10 July and can be accessed through the video section of the website.

We will keep you posted with the results!

Racing at the 2011 Holland Beker!

If you ever happen to be in Amsterdam around mid-June and feel like experiencing a really great regatta, definitely come check out the Holland Beker!  We just finished a weekend of racing in the W2x, both on Saturday and Sunday, and overall the racing ended up successful!  We got faster throughout the weekend, and learned a lot, which was the goal of this weekend--to get race experience that will set us up well for the upcoming World Cup in Lucerne!

Because of the recent E.coli outbreak in Germany, several international crews opted to skip out on World Cup #2 in Hamburg (which took place two weekends ago), and come to the Holland Beker instead!  So, lucky for us, we got to race against some of the fastest LW2x crews in the world:  Great Britain (World Cup #1 winners), Canada (last year's world champs), and the Dutch crew.  

After several races where we just couldn't get our bow out in front in the first 500m, Sunday's final put an end to that pattern as we led the race through the halfway point.  Great Britain fought back, and overtook us in the second 1000m for the win.  We held on for 2nd, and were pleased with the result, knowing that we have more gears to develop for when we face them again in two weeks!

It was fun to represent Lake Union Crew, and be right up there amidst GB, Canada, and the Netherlands!

Click for Sunday's results

Abby and Ursula at the Bosbaan in Amsterdam

Next stop...Lucerne World Cup!!

Holland Beker Racing!

Racing at the 2011 Holland Beker starts tomorrow!  
We are racing as "LUC" in the W2x.  
Two separate races, one Saturday, and one Sunday.
Heats tomorrow morning, then final in the afternoon.  
Then on Sunday, an early heat, midday semis, then an afternoon final!  
We are excited to race and have many times to zoom down the course--Five 2k's over three days if all goes well!!  :) 


Click Here to find results!


(results links are on the right side of the webpage)

2011 - WOW the year is already halfway through!!

By Abby

So, where have we been??  I'll try to make this long story not-so-long!  :)

Well, as Ursula continued her training after New Zealand, moving from one place to another as she sought a different training environment, I came to the hard realization that I think many elite athletes come to at some point in their career--I needed to set my oars down for a while, pause, and let myself take a much-needed mental and physical rest.  So, from January through March, I was mostly at my home in southeastern Idaho, playing in the Teton Mountains and spending time with my boyfriend and family.  I tried out some new sports, including biathlon, orienteering, ski-orienteering, and adventure racing.  Amidst all the fun was plenty of inner turmoil surrounding my "comeback" to rowing.  I knew deep inside that I wasn't done with my rowing pursuit, but when would I be really ready to jump back into the boat?  At what point would I feel refreshed, re-motivated, and ready to dive back in whole-heartedly after the long 2010 season?  

Not a bad view from my living-room erg!

Around mid-April, I decided to go check out the scene at Oklahoma City for a week, just to see the training facility there and test the waters, so to speak!  It was great to once again be training alongside Ursula, and to be back on the water and enjoying it once again!  I went back to Idaho, gathered up my things, and drove to OKC to train again.  Now, the question was, would I be ready to race at the upcoming National Selection Regatta #2???

Yes….

But the timing was incredibly tight and by the time Ursula and I sat on that starting line again in the LW2x, we had been back together in a boat for a week and a half, and I had only a couple days of pieces under my belt since racing in New Zealand over 6 months prior.  We had a good start to the regatta, but fell short of winning by two seconds!  My cross-trained aerobic base could only get us so far, and we needed more time to make some technical changes and get into a new rhythm.

Fast forward through another series of moves and re-configuration, and we found ourselves back in Seattle, my rowing home base, training at Lake Union Crew with our new coach, John Parker.  After two weeks training in Seattle and sleeping in my own bed (ahhh so nice!), the three of us have headed to Europe to train and do some international racing!  We are currently in Amsterdam, preparing to race in the Holland Beker race next weekend.  It should be a really fun race…some fast crews will be showing up including the Canadian and GB lwts!

Where we're staying...THANKS Frans and Ineka!

Amsterdam!  SO many bikes!

After the Holland Beker, we're off to Lucerne, Switzerland, where we will race as "USA-2" in the 3rd World Cup.  This will be a big event…basically the equivalent of World Champs but compressed into just three days!  We are excited to see where our continuing momentum has taken us since NSR2.

Although by losing at NSR2 we lost our opportunity to be the 2011 USA LW2x, we remain patient and confident that we are still on track for a successful Olympic year.  We are working very hard everyday, and are keeping our spirits up--staying as present as possible as we also keep the big picture in mind!

April of next year will be the next round of National Selection, which will begin the process of determining the crew that gets to represent at the 2012 Olympics.  It's still a long road ahead, but for now, we go onward with the second half of 2011, one stroke at a time !

So, hopefully following the results from our upcoming races will be simpler than following that long update!  Look for links to our results on our blog within the next few day! 

Now that we're settled in Holland and have found our new rhythm, we will be more diligent at keeping our blog and website updated!

Much thanks to all our dedicated supporters…couldn't do this with out you!!!!!!!

Equation

LUC Welcoming and Presentation

Last night, Rome threw us a welcoming party at Lake Union Crew.
"So many of our dream at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable. And then when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable".... That's how I started our presentation. I talked about how I started rowing with a learn to row class at Greenlake. From there rowed as a master for Lake Stevens, and raced Master's Nationals as a 26 year old (which was too young for the AA category and so was 'disqualified' after winning my heat in the single). So I raced the outside lane in the final and won, and was still awarded the single victory. Since then, a AAA category has been included. Abby spoke about how she rowed for Lewis and Clark in Portland and after college decided to take the risk to make the USRowing team. She moved to Seattle to do just that and medaled in the lw quad in the following years, in various World Champs.
We then moved on to talk about our coming together and the Bled experience of winning a gold medal. After Bled, training for the New Zealand World Champs. After NZ, Abby took time off, and I went to San Diego Training Center and then to Oklahoma City Training Center. John rounded off the presentation with talking about the training and goals and explaining the nature of a trials boat, which our event falls under, meaning there is no system or training center for us. But rather groups that establish to train together, and then bases or camps to do so.
The presentation ended with some great questions.
It was a greatly appreciated, interactive and sincere evening for the team.

Thank you to LUC for hosting us.

Video links that we showed at the presentation:
Main Presentation Video
Video of Bled World Cup last year
And then there's this one from NZ ...since all rowers can co-miserate with racing in the wind...

Making Donations

Thank you so much to all the people who have donated to our journey and helping us be able to train and remove a little bit of the stress factor in funding. Know that by doing this, you really help us go faster! By removing stress from training life means better recovery and a better ability to focus and absorb the technical changes. It helps boat feel, it elevates encouragement to come to practice day after day, and gives the ability to give your maximum because your muscles and mind are not in tension! There are other things like listening the alpha-music which is music at certain brain-frequencies to promote calmness that we also use. So this is just an indication of how much important removing stress from training life!

Once again, Thank you for your belief and support! Its HUGE!

Donations can also be made to the NRF here>