Lightweight Eats

Next week, the GMS athletes head back to Princeton for another round of racing. The first round of trials for the World Championships are happening this week, followed immediately by the US Rowing National Championships. The schedule and more information can be found here and here.

I will be racing the lightweight women's single at both events. At World Championship Trials, I will face 9 other athletes, including 2012 Olympian Kristin Hedstrom and 2013 Head of the Charles winner Kate Bertko. The event begins on Monday (6/23) with heats, where the top 2 will progress directly to the semi-final and the remainder will race the repechage in the afternoon. There are no consolation finals at this regatta, and only 4 athletes will progress to the Grand Final on Wednesday.

At the US Rowing National Championships (aka Elite Nationals), I face a slightly deeper field of 15 athletes, many of whom I will be racing for the first time. The group includes three Canadians. This event is also Grand Final only, with 6 athletes progressing through. Racing begins Wednesday evening (yes, the same Wednesday) with a time trial, where the top 12 athletes continue to Thursday's heats and repechages.

Yes, this is where we row. Tough life. dancopephoto.com

We've been busy in New Milford getting prepared to race. Two weeks ago, the GMS Under-23 camp started and we've managed to do a lot of head-to-head and time-trial racing on the water.


I've had some pretty solid results in the single, which has boosted my confidence for trials. I recently switched boats, moving from the Hudson S1.31 (size 160-190lbs) to the S1.21 (size 145-170lbs). In California, I was rowing the S1.11, the smallest size (115-145lbs). After trying all three, it feels like the S1.21 was made for me. Despite falling into the weight class for the S1.11, the S1.21 fits like a dream. I'm really happy I made the switch, and many thanks to Guenter and Hudson for making that possible.




This morning, I did 500m pieces against a gaggle of girls in singles. We had great representation—senior lightweight, senior openweight, U23 openweight and junior—and everybody had fast times. My fastest 500m time was 1:51.8 in a mild tailwind, which is 100.8% of the 2000m world record pace. (The fastest percentage for the day was 104% of 2k world record pace—our U23 women's 2x. Super impressive!)

From now until racing begins, we will just be biding our time and trying to maintain fitness and keep calm. As a generally active person who passes time in the garden and on her bicycle, I find it very difficult to properly execute a taper—I get really bored and want to do nothing more than haul logs, till dirt or bike around town. While that's great for weight management, it's less great for race day performance. Any suggestions for ways to entertain myself?

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So much has happened since the first National Selection Regatta! As I mentioned, Sarah and I went up to Boston to do some race pieces with the lightweights at Riverside. We got the crap kicked out of us, came home, trained hard, and went to NSR2... and came in fourth!

This is old news by now, but there was a MAJOR upset at NSR2. Last year's lightweight women's double, that many had called "untouchable", was taken down by Devery Karz and Michelle Sechser from Oklahoma City. Their duel for 1st place meant the LW2x was the fastest event at the regatta. Our 4th place finish was great...

... but not where I want to be.

The next step was deciding summer plans. In late June, the first round of World Championship Trials will be held in Princeton. The LW1x and LW4x will be decided at that regatta. After many discussions, Vesper Boat Club in Philadelphia became the prime destination for a camp to put together a lightweight women's quad.

I definitely considered attending. I've come a long way since last summer, and I think I could have clawed my way into a seat in the boat. I expect the boat that comes out of the United States this summer will be blazing fast.

Ultimately, though, attending the World Championships in the quad is not my goal. Looking at the bigger picture, spending the summer in selection and maintaining a super low body weight isn't going to get me where I want to be.

It was a difficult decision, but I'm going to be spending the summer training independently at GMS. I will race the single at the Worlds Trials later this month, with no illusion of winning. (That "untouchable double? They split into singles and will both be racing at Trials.) And I'm also going to push the boundaries of what I can do in a week.. every week. I've been crushing my weight lifting (I'm now doing pull-ups with an extra 5 pound weight), working on boat feel and putting in tons of extra volume.

These are my goals for the summer and fall seasons:
2k erg: 7:10
6k erg: 23:00 (and top 3 on the water at Fall Speed Order)
2k water: 8:00
4mmol lactate/L wattage: 215+

Those are super ambitious goals, especially the first one. (My current PR is a 7:22.1 at 57.5kg.) But the more ambitious my goals, the fewer excuses I have to joke around this summer. Now is the time to see how fast I can go!

What are your summer plans? Racing, training, both?

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