We are off to Beijing!

Well the day has come. Tomorrow we fly out to Beijing and there is a lot of excitement amongst the girls. Apart from the stress of making sure we speak to everyone before we head off and watching the final of Amazing Race on channel Seven, we are excited and looking forward to our big arrival in Beijing!
If you see any footage of news channels in Australia of us arriving, you must check out our lovely uniforms! They are very nautical?
Our final preparations have come together at just the right time. We have found some speed and enjoyed the race work that we have done over the past two weeks. We are fit, we are prepared and we are definitely looking forward to racing in Beijing.
In the next few days we are going to experience many new adventures, I am sure of it! Exploring the Olympic village, arriving at the rowing course, getting all our uniform and checking out the dining hall which is the size of two football fields is just the beginning.
There is wireless at both the village and our rowing course hub, so I will be sure to keep you all updated whilst I am over there!

Finding Speed

It is that time of the season. The time to find some speed. For most of us in the crew, I think I can safely say all of us, we are the athletes that love to race. The racers. So it is this time of the season that makes all those early mornings, long days and months living out of suitcases worthwhile.
At the moment, we are in the team camp, which is very exciting as all the crews are here and it allows us to be able to use other crews to race against. The mens heavyweight double is our crew of choice. They are meant to be seven seconds slower than us over 2000m, therefore they are a great pace boat to work against. They also love a good battle.
Today we did a series of 15 stroke starts which allows us to practice making every start consistently the same. This is vital to racing. It enables us to line up on the Olympic start line and know what to expect from the first stroke even with the external distractions that the Olympics will throw at us.
With only five days until we fly out, everyone is getting very excited about the next few weeks, however, we are trying to keep it under control. I will keep you updated on our progress, enjoy!

The end of one camp, the beginning of another

Last Friday we all successfully completed the final day of our hardest camp for the year. We have all managed to stay in one piece, I can't deny there are small niggles from our bodies, however they are under control and are expected with the amount of stress we have been putting them under for the last two weeks. I won't deny it, sleeping in on Saturday morning was one of the greatest feelings that I have felt for a while. Knowing that I didn't have an alarm set, and not having too much to do that day, I decided to lie in bed and watch TV. Something that I don't usually enjoy or do that often, but the timing was perfect. I caught up on my favourite TV shows including Amazing Race, Private Practice and Prison Break that I had missed for the past two weeks, and it was bliss. I rose from bed at 10:30am to enjoy toast (not cereal because that is what I have when training... dare to be different!) and then began the arduous task of sorting out clothing to put into storage in Canberra, take to Queensland, take to Beijing and take to Penrith.
Although some may disagree with my level of organisation, I think I am on top of it. However, it doesn't necessarily look like it at the moment as I have everything I own spread across the bedroom... I swear it is organised!
On Tuesday, we will set off for Penrith, not to return to Canberra again for a while. We will be joined by the entire Australian Rowing Olympic Team in Penrith to complete our final preparations before boarding the plane to Beijing on 1st August. It is very exciting times at the moment. We have been making the final decisions before departing including what to name the boat, who we will be rooming with and what to pack, of course! I will be rooming with Kate Hornsey, my pair partner of two years, which will be great as we have already been under very intense situations together and this will help during racing at the Olympics. The naming of the boat, however, is still being decided, although I do think that Amy Gillet may be a possibility. I will reveal more information on the name in a few days when it is confirmed.
For now, with the Olympics approaching very fast, excitement is growing daily. It is strange to be watching the television and seeing advertisements for the Olympic games or documentaries about the Olympic Games in Beijing and to think that I will actually be apart of that. Sometimes I have to pinch myself. Ten days until we board the plane, and I can't wait.
I will keep you updated throughout the preparation camp.

The End is Near

We are three days out of one of the biggest camps that we will go through in the season. Fortunately, I can report that the crew seems to be intact, except for a few niggles here and there. We have been trying to complete this camp for four years, however, any crew that I have been apart of over the years have not been able to finish the entire camp due to illness or injury. So there must be something special about this crew. It is definitely a good omen leading into our final preparation camp, starting on the 22nd July.
The crew is feeling a little tired at the moment, which is expected. However, all of us are trying to achieve perfection every single stroke. While sometimes the boat may not feel the best we have had it, we are always gaining the physical benefits from the sessions and learning more about the boat and each other. Fortunately, all members of the crew, including our two reserves, all help each other get through tougher moments of the camp. Our cohesion as a group is quite unique, which enables each member to offer a little something to the crew and support each other just that little bit better.
Finally, on a physical health status for the family. I am back in the boat, well and truly. I have completed all training sessions since the crash with not too much trouble at all. The bruising is still a little sore to touch, although that doesn't seem to be a problem in the actual rowing action. So, all in all, I am fine.

Back in the boat!

Well I managed to survive the day with two rows completed from the first stroke to the last. It was a great relief!
With eight days to go until the end of the camp, we are starting to get quite fatigued and taking each day as it comes. The eight is progressing well, sticking together as each session gets harder to get through. Just a short note to let you all know that I am okay.

The Crash

Well I am sure that most have heard by now that yesterday morning I was involved in a head on collision in the eight with a single sculler. Fortunately, both of us managed to escape with minor injuries. It happened on the Nepean River in Penrith, 5 kilometres up from where we boat at the Nepean Rowing Club. It is a familiar landmark for rowers, a place called 'The Narrows'. Basically, it is a 30 metre stretch of water about 10 metres wide, allowing only one boat through at a time. However, when approaching The Narrows there is low vision for both crews and unfortunately by the time that we had realised that we were in trouble, it was only split seconds before the collision happened; too late to do anything.
Being a sport where you sit down and go backwards, when you are rowing along in your own zone, focused on your own crew, to be hit in the back mid-stroke is one of the most frightening experiences. Trying to explain the sensation, I refer back to a few months ago when the media were talking about the damage that king hits can do on a victim. The reason being that the victim of the king hit is unable to prepare the body for the hit and therefore can't prepare for the hit. This was the same with the collision. Most of the damage that is done, due to the fact that the body doesn't have the time to prepare itself. Similar to falling over face first without putting your hands out to break the fall.
My injury is only minor. I have bruising across my lower rib cage, with some fluid surrounding the side of the rib cage on my right side. It has only been 24 hours since the collision and the swelling has gone down substantially. I will visit the physio again to get another check up as he may be able to start working closer to the area affected.
For the moment, I am out of the boat for another day, fortunately we have a scheduled day off for tomorrow and then I hope to be back on the water by Thursday morning. Until then!

The Last of Canberra.... for a while

We are all packed up again and ready to head to Penrith the home of the Australian Olympic Rowing course to endure one of our toughest rowing camps of the campaign. The camp involves 16 days of no sleep inss, training three times a day most days, many kilometres of rowing and creating a whole new definition of fatigue. But it is all part of 'the plan'.
The idea of the camp is lift to a new level of workload in order to stress our bodies so that the next time we taper, we will be at a level of fitness that we have never been before. Fortunately the next time we taper, will be the Olympic Games.
After 16 days, the other crews of the Australian Rowing Olympic Team will be joining us in Penrith for a team pre-olympic camp where we will race and train against other crews such as the mens double and the mens four in order to get faster and faster especially under racing conditions.
I will ensure that I will keep you all updated throughout the camp, where possible. I may be a little tired so please excuse poor grammar, spelling and any other punctuation problems.