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