Wrapping Up

Written by: Kristin

It's Wednesday, and by now all 3 of us are back in the US.  We all had such a great trip to Germany and we all learned a lot about what it's like to race internationally.  At the same time, as Lisa said in her post, it was a bittersweet ending to the racing.  Although we got our goal, we were disadvantaged by the wind and realized how much better we would have been if we had just had more time in sculling boats and more time rowing together.  Still, it is such a cool feeling to be sitting at the starting line next to countries like Australia, Italy, and other places halfway across the world from where we usually train.  Not everyone gets to feel it and I am so lucky to have been able to.   

As Lisa explained, we ran into a slight food shortage after the racing ended - not the time you want to have all the stores closed!!  Also, when I finally stopped by the ice cream cart at the race course that I had been scoping out all week for a post-racing treat, they only had a couple of gross-looking flavors left, including one called "blue."  I'm not sure what kind that would be....but i didn't want to risk it so, sadly, i didn't end up getting any.  However, when I arrived back in the US, Margot had 5 different kinds of ice cream waiting for me in the freezer so I'm all set now.  

As we wrap up our blog, I want to thank everyone who has been reading this and following us here as well as those who have donated to our fundraising efforts.  When we asked for support this summer, we got more than we ever thought we would.  We really appreciate the emails, the cheering from home while we were racing abroad, and the generosity of everyone we have been in touch with this summer.  Have a great rest of the summer and stay in touch!

It's All Been Done

Four races, four weigh-ins, four days, and now its over. Today has been a crazy whirlwind, and despite fighting off extreme exhaustion right now, I thought I'd post something before bed. Yesterday was the semis, and we finished sixth in ours, qualifying for the B Final, which you probably already know. Times were ridiculously slow, due to the fact that it was the most brutal headwind you can possibly imagine. The water was incredibly rough too, white caps and all. We did our best in it, but it was extremely challenging. Today was a very similar situation. While conditions weren't as slow because the wind was more of a cross-head, it made the water even more difficult to row in. Hands down, this was the toughest race I've ever been in. Again, we finished sixth. Italy, Poland, and the Netherlands beat us, all of whom we thought we'd be able to beat since we've finished ahead of them already. We were at a distinct disadvantage in lane one, out in the middle of the ocean (it seemed like) while the other lanes were much more sheltered closer to shore. Across the board, no boat in lane one fared well today. But, what can you do about it.

Kristin and I learned a lot from the experience, and I think it was very similar to what she and Jill figured out after racing in tough conditions last year in Scotland. In tough conditions, it doesnt matter how strong you are, its all about experience. Experience in that particular boat and in rowing together. The United States won two medals here, both gold medals in the mens and womens eights. It was exciting for them, but it also goes to show that it pays to race in what you practice in...we college students row in eights year round, and that's what we're the strongest in. Switching to sculling and going into a small little boat and getting five weeks to practice together is absolutely no match for the Europeans, who train together in these boats year round. The American system stands in great need of improvement, especially where lightweights are concerned, and unfortunately it doesn't look like any will be made soon.

But not to sound like a downer, it has just been very eye opening being here. But we got our goal, and finishing twelfth in the world is awesome, especially when you think about how far we've come. Heck, two months ago I was miserable with a cracked rib thinking that I might not be able to row again for months.

This has been the most unbelievable experience. I still can't believe all this has happened. I have had the time of my life, and am so sad that our little Pocock family will be parting ways in mere hours. I'm so excited to go home in a few days (after briefly touring), because I do miss my family a lot and the comforts of home, but nothing will ever replace this amazing summer adventure. Seattle, Princeton, Virginia, Germany...what a time it has been. A HUGE thank you to all of you reading this because it is because of your help, support, and encouragement that made this all possible.

Cheers,
Lisa

PS In case you were interested to know, since we were all done with weigh-ins, Kristin and I wanted to get ice cream after the racing. But everything is closed on Sundays, sadly. However, we easily consumed several packages of M&Ms from Dani, Ghiradelli chocolates, multiple airheads, nutella, and basically everything else we could get a hold of. Be warned, though, when we return to the States there might be a mass ice cream shortage in Madison and Niskayuna :)

launching for the rep
the grandstand scene, check out those clouds
us with our new friend, i cant believe we are posting this online
the 3 of us

rep victory!!!

hello to everyone following our progress! it was a very exciting day for us! we raced the rep at 1230 this afternoon and won!! top 3 boats advanced to the AB semifinal and the bottom 3 advanced to the C final. it had been our goal all summer to make the AB semifinal and so we walked off the water feeling great.
we went into the rep feeling confident but also not knowing how the whole thing would play out. i was pretty nervous at the start, as anyone would be at the starting line of a world championship race. we had the worst start 5 we have ever had in our lineup, which did not make us feel very at ease going into the race. but luckily we got it back together in the high strokes. at the 500 meter mark, we were pretty much dead even with the italians, one lane to our starboard side. we took a move to walk away from them and started taking seats. by the 1000 meter mark, we were bow to stern or so. for the last 1000, we kept walking away from italy, poland, and the rest of the field to claim the top spot. after the race i remember saying to lisa, "we just won a race at worlds!!!" ok, ok, i know what you are all thinking. kristin, its the reps, its not like you just won a gold medal. and i know, but still, it was really exciting to know that the first beep at the finish line is for you. i was ecstatic.
we are heading into tomorrows AB semifinal with a fast group of boats, as to be expected. we are expecting switzerland and france to get out really fast and then as far as the 3rd spot goes, its anyones game. we are going to go after it with everything we have and hopefully when you check results tomorrow, we will have qualified ourselves for the A final, something i never thought possible.
ok, there are about 7 people in line for the computers staring at me saying "get off the effing computer you hog" so we gotta go to bed. thanks everyone for the emails and support, we love it!

Last, but certainly not least

Written by: Lisa

Well, if you havent already checked the results, we finished in fifth in our heat. Out of five. But place aside, we were pleased with our race...the conditions were extremely challenging, with a brutal head\cross-wind, much worse than anything we are used to, and we felt we handled them very well. We stayed ahead of Poland, last year's world champ, for the first half but they managed to get us in the second thousand. So we came in a bit disappointed with our place, but overall satisfied. Josh then went over to the results list and came back jubilant, turns out our heat was by far the fastest of the three; if we had been in either of the other two we would have easily placed third, automatically qualifying us for the A\B Semi. But we still have another shot to make the Semi, by racing in the "Repechage" or "second chance" race tomorrow. Top three from that will continue on to the Semi, while the last three go to the C Final. Our goal, that we set weeks ago, was to make it into the A/B Semi, which would mean top 12 in the world and would be a big step for U23 lightweight women, who typically have not fared well on the world scene due to lack of sculling experience together (because we only sweep in college)as compared to the Europeans, who have been doing this since like age 11. So yeah, that's our goal, and going into the Rep, we have the second fastest time from heats. So we feel getting top three is within our grasp and are EXTREMELY pumped to race tomorrow.

So Kristin has already experienced this Worlds racing scene before, but this was my first experience, and I was surprised at how calm I felt going into it. I've been reading the biography, "Bill Bowerman and the Men of Oregon" and there's a lot about Steve Prefontaine in there. This guy has really inspired me. Last night I was reading about how he would just embrace the pain he experienced in races and take his body to a whole new level of being, so I went into this race ready to embrace pain like never before. Last week when we were on the Occoquan Josh reminded us that yeah, the crews were were going to be up against were going to be fast - obviously. "But they're people too...you cut them, they bleed; you put them through a 2k and they hurt." We're all going through the same thing. Rowing up to the start I felt some degree of nervousness but thought of this statement, and of Pre as a model, and of how the first race I was ever in, at awful Head of the Conn back in 2001 just weeks after I started rowing for Nisky, I thought to myself, "Wow this rowing thing is more painful than I would have thought!" Yet the pain is nothing compared to everything else you can get out of this sport.

The calls that Kristin made during the race that we had scripted out in our race plan were awesome.Yesterday we were searching for something, that one call that would really inspire us, and came up with "Twelve months." Because for twelve months, we have been working for, thinking about, talking about, and planning for this. Every awful erg workout this winter, I thought, "Do it for Germany." Through trials and tribulations, we have worked for this, and finally, it has arrived. 12:30pm tomorrow is our chance to put it on the line again, and we are so ready. The fan support has been awesome - thank you so much! It's so inspiring having so many people cheering for us. We're sorry we havent had time to respond to each individual email, but please know that they all mean so much to us!!

a crammed bus and a crammed race course!

day four in germany and we are adjusting well to the time change, rowing on international waters, and changes in the weather. what ever happened to the hot and humid weather of virginia?! here it is much colder, windy, and rainy. we have been going to sleep between 730 and 830 pm and getting about 12 hours of sleep each night. this is the most sleep i can remember getting in a long, long time! lisa and i even lay down to "rest our eyes" yesterday, which quickly turned into a one hour nap!
practices have gotten increasingly hectic as we get closer to the start of racing. for those of you who have been to practices at club nationals, or who are there now, i would say its more boats than that, but only by a little. oh yeah, and a minor detail...none of them speak your language, making the phrase "excuse me, what lane are you going to?" absolutely useless. this morning we had an interesting time navigating down the course. first, a russian straight four came full speed at us from behind, only to stop when we yelled at them. apparently they had no idea their bow was only a foot off of our stern. then, at the finish line, i almost laughed at the mayhem when i saw about 10 boats trying to get into the designated singles, doubles, and pairs lane at the same time. but we made it out alive and we are looking forward to getting on the water tomorrow with slightly fewer boats as we warm up for our afternoon heat.
speaking of racing, we are exciting to see how we stack up against all of the other countries tomorrow. we really have no idea how we are going to do against them, so we are just going to put together an all out 2k and see where that takes us. from the heats, top 2 places advance directly to the a/b semifinal, and the rest of the boats go to the repechage on friday. the good thing about this race course is that they have bow holders at the starting line, so this means that we dont have to adjust our point at all before we start. we practiced getting into the bow holders and starting with the starting lights yesterday, so we should be good to go.
i have to get going because there are only two computers for the entire usa and german national teams, so there is always a line to use them and i think ive used up my allotted time. just one more thing about being here though. they pack the busses full!! we take a bus down to the course and then another one to get back to the hotel and i swear ive never seen this many people pack on to a metro bus before. lisa estimates that there are about 100 people on one of them, ill go with more like 75, but regardless, it is a very uncomfortable ride to and from the course!

We saw the sunrise at 11:30pm

Written by: Lisa

So...we are actually here, in Germany, except I keep typing ''Germanz'' because the keyboards are funky and the y and z are in each other's places (among other oddities).

Anyway I had wanted to post before we left Doug and Nalini's but we had so much going on those last few days that I just didn't get a chance. We had the most wonderful time there and seriously met the most wonderful people ever. Our final evening was spent with Bob and Carol, who scrimmaged against us in our 2k on Wednesday, on the veranda of the Potomac Boat Club overlooking the river. They packed a delightful picnic dinner and we had such a nice time. It was my first time to DC since my eighth grade class trip!

We had some good last practices on the Occoquan and had some fun times painting the oars in the USA colors. We then packaged them up in millions of layers of bubble wrap and ceran wrap. We bid a sad farewell (but really, just a goodbye for now) to Doug and Nalini and headed off to Newark airport yesterday morning. We left at 8am, drove for almost 5 hours, returned the rental car, and went to check our luggage. We were all decked out in our USA rowing gear that had arrived the day before and carrying our long set of bubble wrapped oars. We went up to the Northwest counter, hoping that the guy would let us check the oars for only a small fee (or free, would have been even more ideal!). However, to no avail. I knew as soon as the guy said my 50.5 lb suitcase was too much (the max is 50 lbs) he would not be lenient at all. Despite the fact that Josh's credit card nearly was lost forever behind the kiosk and gave us a minor panic attack, they managed to fish it out and STILL charged us the $450 extra fee for super long luggage. Vowing never again to travel on Northwest, we headed to the terminal and waited a couple hours for our 4:20 flight.

Nearly 20 hours after we had left Doug and Nalini's (after a brief layover in Amsterdam), we arrived in Berlin right as the sun was rising. My watch still read 11;30pm but it was 5:30am their time.

Anyway, Josh and Kristin want me to hurry this up so we can go eat dinner but besides the fact that we're exhausted and can't wait to go to bed, everything else went smoothly. We got a great Filippi 2x to row in, so our boat is taken care of, and we had a good practice this afternoon. More to come later!

Just a little older and fast times.

Coach's turn, again.

Yesterday, I turned 33 years old. The above picture is from the sushi restaurant where we celebrated. In the picture is the WLWT 2x, myself, and our Virginia family: Jill Clifton as well as Doug and Nalini Rhea. It was a wonderful evening of food and conversation.

While at dinner we were exchanging rowing stories: novice adventures, sculling victories, and masters' determination. In one story, I was relating some of my steep learning curve in coaching a Master's Women "E"8--E meaning the average age was 55+--at Station L Rowing Club in Portland, OR. E-level, masters rowers often want to train just as hard and focused as other rowers; but, in my experience, they do not wish to be placed under the same training duress as elite-level rowers.

Lisa, hearing the story, and thinking I was speaking of my first collegiate coaching job at SPU, mentioned, "But, Josh, weren't you just a little older than those women?" To which I responded, "Hmmmm . . . yes . . . just a little older." Much laughter ensued.

Long before dinner, in the early hours of the morning, the WLWT 2x faced off against an Occoquan Boat Club 2x and 1x for our final practice 2000 meter scrimmage. This outpouring of support from the OBC, even for training, has been typical of our time here. Bob Spousta and Carol Dinion picked us up at the 1500 meter mark and put in a blazing fast time (what's more, they don't even practice the 2x). And the 1x rowed the entire 2k and bested his recent time posted at the Independence Day regatta.

The U-23 2x did a little over steering, but they corrected well and turned in a time of 7:18.9. Now, it may be that the time from the Speed Coach XL we are using stopped a few strokes early. As a result, we are thinking we turned in an actual time of 7:20-7:22. This time puts us right about last year's US Rowing time standard. So, with the ensuing physiological taper, the women's lightweight Fillippi hull awaiting us in Brandenburg, and the renewed focus of the 2x to ratchet up their performance for international competition we are confident that we will race well in Germany and make the USA--all of you--proud.

OCB and "I wonder if he'll notice"

Written by: Kristin

Only four days until we leave for Germany!  Our time here is winding down very quickly, but we are improving with each practice.  In fact, the last few days of practice have been particularly good and the excitement/anticipation/nervousness for Worlds is building. 

Today, we went out for two steady state rows - a mini taper for our all out 2k tomorrow morning.  Janet, one of Lisa's friends who is training in DC for the summer, rode in the launch and took pictures this afternoon.  It was SO hot and muggy out this afternoon that Lisa and I snuck in a post-practice swim and proceeded to play the "I wonder if Josh will notice" game that we've played a couple of times before.  Until he reads this post, chances are he had no idea that we swam...

We've managed to rope in two awesome masters rowers from OBC (that's Occoquan Boat Club...not to be confused with a similar acronym, OCB) to pace us for tomorrow's 2k.  They'll pick us up at the 500 down and give us some good competition going down the course.  These plans were only made yesterday, but there has already been a fair amount of smack talking on the dock so we'll be sure to bring our A-game.  

Oh! The other news of the past few days is this - we got massages!  Two days ago, Josh got off the phone with Jill, our rowing mommy's doubles partner, and announced that she had booked us each 90 minute full body massage appointments.  How amazing is that?!  Time and time again we have been amazed by the generosity of the people that we encounter on our trips, and this was no exception.  So, after yesterday's tough morning workout, we each went in for them, and Josh and I even got M&M McFlurries on the way home, just to top it off.  

Speaking of ice cream, since I know you all want to know, we have reached a new high for consumption.  Between the 3 of us, we're up to 10 half gallons and 7 Ben and Jerry's pints in the 8 days that we've been here.  

Oh, and by the way, the pictures and video are from practice this afternoon!  

Not just wet . . . really wet!

So, it seem it is coach's turn to enter the blog-o-sphere. As I write to you all this evening, we are watching the Olympic trials for swimming and track-and-field. I think I can speak for all of us when I say we are sharing the joy of the US athletes' Olympic spirit.

Perhaps one thing the US Olympic athletes cannot share with us is our wet--really wet--afternoon row. The PM row started off innocuous enough: 82 degrees, humid, but clear. At the turn around point, the sky had darkened. And after another 2000 meters we were in a extreme down pour. Rain droplets must have been 1/4 inch around and soaked with each plop upon the skin. At some point I just started laughing, it was raining so hard I could hardly see.

But what I did see was some greatly improved rowing. The 2x is really coming into their own. They took great ownership of practice, from the first warm up strokes to the great body-mechanical changes they held through all the steady state. I was very proud. And we are entering this week of training in a very good place.

Happy Fourth of July!

Written by: Lisa

It's Independence Day, woohoo! This time last year we were all still in Seattle and the fireworks were so late we missed them because we were in bed, so hopefully this year we'll get to catch some. We had a nice long 16k row this morning and Josh is giving us the afternoon off so we can relax and have fun. Doug and Nalini are going to get the grill ready so we can bbq it up, which I'm psyched for. And I'll be baking cookies and we bought more ice cream so we should be all set!

Josh took a lot of nice photos of us rowing on the Occoquan yesterday so I will include them here. We've been getting there for our AM practice around 7:30 and going until about 10am, and then we head back to the house and shower/eat/nap until 3pm, when we leave for our PM practice. On Wednesday we put in 30-31 kilometers between the two practices and yesterday we did 26k. We're really working hard to nail the technique now and make sure our movements are completely together. Sculling (using two oars) is so different from the sweeping (one oar) that we do in college - the stroke is much smoother and more fluid, and you really need to fine-tune every tiny movement of the body, and make sure that each side is completely symmetrical. And rowing in a double is challenging because the two rowers need to be identical in all movements. So that's what we're really trying to work on right now!

But even with long practices and all the hard work, this is the life. This is totally what I love doing . . . having rowing be the number one priority followed closely by eating and sleeping. The weather is so great (a little toasty, but I live for the warmth!) and we're really just having a very enjoyable time. It would be so great if we could do this for a living...

The worldrowing.com website released the list of entries for U23s so you can check them out here: http://www.worldrowing.com/index.php?pageid=146 Our event is the "BLW2x" - the Senior B (Under 23) Lightweight Women's Double. We're one of sixteen crews competing. The first day of racing is two weeks from yesterday, which seems way too soon! But Josh keeps reminding us that we still have lots of time left, which, considering the little amount of time we've had already and how far we've come, is a good point.

Anyway, I should go get started on those cookies...chocolate chip and oatmeal butterscotch (the latter is my roommate Heidi's specialty!). Hope everyone enjoys the holiday!

We made it to Virginia!

Written by: Kristin

Welcome to our awesome but kind of weird blog!  We're sorta new to this, but hopefully through this we can keep our friends/family/donors/supporters updated on our progress for the next 3 weeks.  

First of all, we really appreciate everyone who has donated to our trip so far!  Every time we come home from practice or anywhere we all run to the computer to see if we have any new donations, so we can't thank you enough for the help you are giving!!  We are already up to $3,400 with online donations.  

So what have we been up to?  After racing some fast boats at elite nationals in New Jersey on Sunday, we were exhausted.  It was about 90 degrees during our two races and they were less than an hour apart.  We learned a lot from the racing and actually went 1.5 seconds faster in our second race after applying what we learned in our first one.  Once the trailer was loaded, we got some ice cream (of course), packed into the car with Josh, and headed down to  Woodbridge, Virginia.  

Upon arrival, Nalini, who calls herself the "rowing mommy," and Doug greeted us with 5 half gallons of ice cream - yess!!  We've only been here for 2 and a half days, but we've almost consumed all of that ice cream, in either milkshake form or right out of the carton.  But this should not come as a shock to those of you who know us.  We got a whole day and a half off of practice, in which Josh bought new shoes and then went for multiple runs (but is having a hard time adjusting to the heat) and Kristin and Lisa explored the local Target (yippee!) and found - surprise, surprise - that the ben and jerry's was on sale. 

Practice started up again yesterday afternoon and we are quickly adjusting to the new boat and river.  The Occoquan river is almost always glassy flat, which makes for amazing rowing water.  We've also been watching the US Swimming Olympic Trials every night on TV.  If you haven't been watching, you totally should!  It seems like new world records are set every night.  Definitely an inspiration, especially because many of the kids competing are years younger than us!  

Check back later from more updates!