Monday, May 9, 2016

Getting Out of Town - Training Camp

Small boat season is over with and now it’s time to hop in the 8+. Back at JU, I wasn’t often worried about my spot in the top boat, but here things are a little different. Ever since I switched to starboard, I have been a lot more focused on my stroke than before, which is good and bad at the same time. I don’t trust my automatic reaction to irregularities as much as on port.

Out of 10 men, the coaches had to pick the top 8 rowers for this boat. Some spots were already assigned due to qualifying performances at small boat nationals. For the remaining four spots in boat, we had to race 4 x 750m all out sprints in different crew combinations. That weekend went well for me as I won 3 out of 4 races with the smallest losing time gap.

With the end of classes nearing and inter-team racing, I felt a lot more relieved. Since then, we’ve done a lot of rowing and a ton of heavy lifting due to the fact that we are now racing a 500m sprint. It feels so good lifting and working on my max weight. We’ve been extremely lucky to be given a new-ish Filippi 8+ and be put in the best equipment. In the past month, there has been some work in the 8+, but also in the 4- since some work late or were out of town on vacation. I was able to leave for a little over a week to head back to Jacksonville and watch Emily and my friends graduate as well as work on my papers for finals week.

Once I landed back at Charles de Gaulle airport, I had just under 24h to get situated at school, work, and practice before leaving that next morning for training camp. It gets old rowing in the same place all the time especially when the weather doesn’t agree with you. So we packed for a long weekend, thanks to a national holiday, for Brive la Gaillarde near the South West of France. 























We got to work on just rowing the 8+, put a lot of miles in, and focus on working together all while adjusting our own little issues. I am sitting 7 seat right behind the stroke, who couldn’t come and was replaced by our top rower Romain DELACHAUME. Last year, he finished 6th at the World Championships in the 2+.

We did a little bit of racing, but this upcoming weekend is our first race (Thomas will be missing from the lineup) to see where we stand amongst our region. We have about a month before Nationals. I have one week of finals starting today, training goes on, and no jetlag. I'm a happy guy!



Until then, here is a little video of our coxswain killing it at 5 seat for our first session while filling in for Thomas.


Much love.

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