Week 3 in Craftsbury

The summer is progressing here in Craftsbury, as we could tell by some of the hot weather we had earlier this week. The lake is also more crowded now that the whole group is here. We have the lightweight women’s double from the Czech Republic training with us, two heavyweight women’s doubles, a heavyweight women’s single, a lightweight men’s pair, two heavyweight men’s scullers, and a heavyweight men’s double.

This week has been geared towards establishing technique at lower ratings, and starting to build some speed into our plan as we hit the three week mark until trials. Some of the workouts we have been doing are 5 x 1500m at mid ratings, 2 x 5 (1’ on 1’ off) @ 30, and a time trial down the whole length of Big Hosmer Pond. One change to the US World Championship U23 Trials' format this summer is the addition of a time trial. The time trial will replace any heats and reps, and only the top 4 crews from the time trial will get to race in the finals. So, getting comfortable in the time trial format will be pretty key to success at Trials.

We began this morning with a short warm up run, and then a 40 minute circuit. The circuit is a variety of lightly weighted exercises that are all geared towards improving some part of the rowing stroke. Some stations are directed towards timing, and some are more directed towards quickness or flexibility. After the workout we had a short warm up on the water, followed by six two minute pieces with six minutes of rest. The pieces are broken up to mimic a race, the first two are the first two minutes of a race, the next two are the middle two minutes of a race, and the last two pieces simulate the finish of the race. The rest is so long to make sure the pieces remain high quality throughout. After a cool down row, we completed two groups of jumpies, where each group was seven sets of 20 jumpies on 30 second centers. The jumpies are to work the fast twitch muscle fibers, and to improve quickness off of the front end of the stroke. After long weeks and lots of miles, its always nice to relax a little over the weekend, but we know all of our hard work is paying off.