Wellington

On my way home I am stopping here to visit/ meet some family. As it turns out a coach who was in Duneiden with the NZU men's heavy 8+ is from Wellington and is coaching here now. He was kind enough to open up his home boathouse to me so I could get some extra erg training in before the long flight back across the Pacific tomorrow. Training certainly never ends.

Final Row in Duneiden

Got canceled... It was quite windy this morning and as the 8 was stuck on land rowing a single was probably not the best idea. I went to my coach Malcolm to see what he would give me for my last workout under his guidance instead of rowing the single and he responded just as you would expect him to, with an absurdly difficult workout that he promptly followed by his iconic laugh. "20K, strait through."I had never rowed 20K strait through before, but why not do it at 6am on my last day, the day after my 2k. Who said training ever ended...

2 Kilometers

2 Kilometers. 2 tiny kilometers have brought me 12906 Kilometers to New Zealand, the other side of the globe. It has been just over 6 weeks since I arrived in this far flung corner of the planet to train at a higher intensity than ever before with the express intention of being able to cover 2 short kilometers just a little bit faster. Today was the day. My last day. The day of my 2K test. It all came down to this. My goal was to break 6 minutes and 30 seconds. This was my last shot to do it in New Zealand. I did my warm up, I had been practicing it all week. I set my monitor for 2 kilometers. "On the job. Attention. GO." 6 minutes and 28 seconds later I collapsed in the glorious agony that is success. Never before in my life had I covered this distance in so short a time, never before in my life had I felt quite like this.

BATMAN

Just another little perk of spending time in NZ this summer, Batman released here first!!!

Bungee Training

I got to do some bungee training in the single for the first time the other day. It was really strange to have absolutely no run in a boat where maintaining the run is so crucial. The work, 8x 3' on 3' off, was hard but it was a lot of fun too. It didn't hurt that it was strangely warm and perfectly flat on the harbor that day. Although navigating was quite unnerving as it was 6am, well pre dawn, and I had only been that far down the harbor once prior. The bungee training gave me new appreciation for the run that you get in the single. When the bungees came off the boat felt like the most graceful thing in the world. It was an incredible morning.

Queenstown

Queenstown is basically the adventure capital of New Zealand and we go to spend 5 days there while the NZU team was racing their Australian counterparts. The Kiwis did fairly well, the women's open weight 8+, women's light weight 4x, and mens heavy weight 8+ swept the three race series. After 2 races that were not close the kiwi's mens light weight 4- admitted defeat. The light men then joined forces and stuck it to the heavy men by racing an 8+ of their own, they did quite well and actually took second! We also go some great training in on the beautiful Lake Hayes, it was quite cold in Queenstown, we often found frost on our clothes and in our hair after training and such. We also took some time to enjoy ourselves. I finally go to ski outside of the US (this skiing wasn't quite as good). We all chipped in to go on a Heli snowshoeing trip to the Remarkables and took a cruise  through Doubtful Sound in Fiordland. It was great to have a bit of change thrown into all our time spent in Duneiden.


Oh and we jumped off a bridge...

Road Trip

After a quick extra 30min on the erg we hit the road, to where we did not know. After driving through the Catlins for about 2 hours we arrived at Nugget Point. In less that an hour we were in a rain forest looking at the Purakaunui Falls. Quite a variety of sights in a very short period of time! We then drove all the way to Invercargill on the very souther edge of the country. Just as we the sun was setting there we launched, all be it about an hour late, for our afternoon row in an 8+ with a few local guys. Rowing back in the darkness was well worth it to be on the water during sunset.

Early Mornings

In the shortened days of the NZ winter the crews don't waste anytime waiting on the sun to rise, so neither do we...

I could be on a warm sunny beach right now...

If I were at home I would be enjoying the warm sunny Florida summer by relaxing on the beach....
I would go everywhere in a bathing suit and flip-flops....
Cold would be something that only existed in my imagination...
But I'm not at home. I am in Dunedin, New Zealand during their winter. I am training harder, at a higher volume, at a higher level than ever before in my entire life. I am being broken down to my very core on a nearly daily basis. I am pushing myself farther than I ever thought I could. I have a new appreciation for warmth, even when it comes in the erg room.
I ride my bike through the cold and driving sleet to be beaten down by the Kiwis, on land and on the water, and I am loving it.

Soreness

It was a hard past 36 hours. Starting the day off with 2 race car pieces isn't the easiest thing in the world. The afternoon session was the Wonderful 100 circuit which left no muscle unused. The next morning our coach told us we were to be doing 5x 2K at full press with restricted rates and that we would not be able to see our monitors. We knew that we were in for a hard workout that morning the moment our coach stepped out of his office. He knew just what pain this would bring and giving us this workout was obviously burdensome to him. You could tell just by the look on his face that we were in for a world of hurt. You could tell before he uttered a single word. A new world of hurt is exactly what I got.

The Norm

Well today was fairly standard for the guys on the NZU team apparently. The water was too rough for a early morning row so they did a 5 5 5 workout. Thats a 5K run 5K erg 5K run back to back to back with your time taken for the whole thing. After that I just sat for a solid 20min, when I had finally gotten some food and water back into my system began to think about going back to my flat we were given our boatings for the second morning session. I rowed 10K in the single. Only after that row could we go back to our flats to shower, rest, and get lunch. We were back at the boat house by 2:30 for the afternoon session. Promptly after launching we were blown right off the water. On the ergs it was for a 60min piece. A lot of volume for just another day, time to settle in.

On Location

So hopefully this will let you guys see just where I am from the google maps perspective. If you play with the map you can see the harbor where we row. We row towards the ocean.

Training Hard

Well, started off the day with a 14K max pressure @ 20 row in a 4 that began and ended well before the sun was up where I had to row bow side(starboard) even though I usually row stroke side(port). After a short break for food we were back on the water in singles for some tech work. The weather turned on us and we were forced in to do some core training. After lunch it was back to the boathouse to analyze some video of our rowing and get on the ergs. 3x 12' @ 26 max pressure. A quick core circuit to finish off. With 15K on the erg from the warm up/down and the piece plus the on the water meters the grand total for the day was 35K. Fairly average workout for the Kiwis apparently.

Giving Back

Part of program here is to give back to the local community as much as we can and so monday and wednesday we will be helping special need and special Olympians with their workouts and training or just learning to row at the otago boathouse. Its really great to see all of these people who wouldn't be able to row on their own get the opportunity to and know that I played a small part in helping them get as much joy out of rowing as I do.

Trip to the beach

just some pictures from the local beach we visited after rowing 28k in the morning session...

... its kinda pretty here.

First Post!!!

Well I arrived awhile ago but I'm just getting around to set up my blog. look for improvements to come!
I've already rowed a 1x 2- and 4- here and erged almost 80k since since I arrived and started training Saturday. Way colder than back home in FL!!!