Preparations

[ida]

So yesterday was the last day of the regatta and it resulted in one third place (dammit we almost had them on the finish line) with the four, and one second place with the eight (one of the girls caught a crab about 300 meters from the finish line, so the boat came to a complete stop, before she could get her oar out of the water and continue rowing. So we lost the fist place, but could finish second after a great spurt as the third boat went by us when we were struggling with the crab).

Overall Uppsala (would have) won the womens cup , but the last race in the eight our cox forgot to weigh in (we were soooooo late to this start, with only 15 minutes left we were still on land adjusting the riggers without having warmed up yet) so we got disqualified and got no points for that dramatic second place... ah, well what is it to get a golden cup really? It's probably boring, or stupid, or really, really wonderful...

From this weekends regatta I bring with me two things:

1) I now feel comfortable in racing 2000 meters (yay it only took me five years ), I still get indescribably tired and get "acid" all over the body and have a hard time talking or breathing in the end, but I know that I can make it if I mentally devide the race in different stages.

2) We won against the crew who stole the championship gold in the eight last year even though we caought a crab and had to restart, only a couple of hundred meters from the finish line We have never won against them earlier...

[ida]

Yesterday:

Attended a box class for the first time in ages. Phew, I suddenly feel like apologize to all the people who used to go to my classes, all the painful and sweaty exercises I made them do...

I was great fun though and a great exercise. I got reminded of many small muscles I had forgot existed in my body However, I am not looking forward to climbing all those stairs to work today... Hopefully I will have the time to attend a boxclass next week aswell it's 60 minutes of full speed exercise. And if I don't make the stairs I can always try to find an elevator

[ida]

Wednesday was a day full of pain, had planned to train after work but my legs and arms were extremely stiff since Tuesday's box, so I could barely walk. Stupid strength exercises.

Thursday:

Off from work (I really like these weird one day hollidays ) and went to Uppsala for some rowing. The weather was perfect and the rowing was pretty great. Long distance session with focus on loooooong strokes at low pace (I am so much shorter than everyone else in the crew, so I need to move my but as close to the feet as possible. This requires alot of flexiblity in the hamstrings which I don't have - yet ). 17 km of rowing in total divided into 3 minutes sessions of 18/20/22 pace. Great water out on lake Mälaren

Spending the night at the rowing club.

Friday:
Early, early morning session. If possible, even better water and weather. Not single wave on the river nor on the lake Mälaren. Another great session in the four, with long strokes and quick catches as main goals for the session. About 11 km of rowing in total. Got back into town and caught the 07.34 train to Stockholm. A great way to start my day

After some extra work I have finally got in touch with the rowing club that is located next to our place here in Stockholm, will go there tomorrow to join their open training session and talk about the possibillities for me to borrow a boat from them. Their coach wanted me to join their womens quad - ha ha

I got to the boathouse early yesterday so I had some time to take a picture of the perfect water.



the river Fyris at its very finest. (can you see the cows?)

[ida]

Got up really early this morning to get to the local rowing club to go training with them.

Running there took me 20 minutes. Waited at the rowing club for 15 without no-one showing up. So much for open training session with "everyone there". Ran back home, left some of the rowing gear and went for another 40 minutes run. So total running about 80 minutes.

When I got home I decided to do some dumbell exercises. I was still a bit irritated that no-one was at the rowing club today so I couldn't focus at all on the lifting. Only did 3x20x 12 kg standing row.

[ida]

long time, no log update.

Feels like I have been on the train between Stockholm and Uppsala every day now for the last couple of weeks... work has been a complete chaos. I hate being in charge of things.

Sunday 20th

Rowing in the four, about 11 km.

Wednesday 23rd

Another session in the four, about 9 km.

Thursday 24th

Early morning session in a pair with my new pair-partner. The riggers were to low so we struggled alot to find the balance. Our coach was out in the motorboat so he gave us some guidance.

Saturday 26th

Wonderful sunny weather and windy. Met up with my old "partner in crime" who has been in India for 6 months for her studies. We went out in a pair. This was such a boost for my self-confidence, when rowing with this girl it is purely magical! The balance, power and rythm is perfect and it is so exciting to row together. Unfortunately she doesn't want to compete in a pair, so I have to find other people to row with. Around 9 km of rowing.

We also dropped the stroke-coach in the water by mistake so there was some serious bathing in river Fyris going on Saturday afternoon in search of this very important and expensive device.

Monday 28th
Rowing in the pair with my new partner, alot better than last time, the riggers were better adjusted and we did some power intervals. Really strong wind and lots of big waves but we managed quite well I think. Around 8 km in total.

[ida]

Tuesday 29th

Some drastic change of training plans at the last minute, so running today instead of rowing. Felt pretty good, around 65 minutes of easy crosscountry running

[ida]

Lots of time has passed and lots of training have taken place since I last posted in my log. As I don't want to bore you nor myself by retelling all the training I been doing I give you a short resumé:

* have been practically living on the rowing club or on the train to/from Uppsala during the last couple of weeks. Great weather almost every day!

* Went to Gothenburg for one of the biggest regattas of the year last weekend. The result was not as good as I had hoped for, but perhaps better than what we deserved. Five starts resulted in two golds (both in the sprint distance), on second place, one third place and finally one forth place. The most disapointing one was the forth place we got in the pair, we hade rowed quite good during the last trainings and had hoped for a better position. (but 'evil shortlegs' as myself and my training partner should perhaps not do rowing at all ). The most pleasant one was the victory in the four, as I didn't think we would ever stand a chance against our competitors. In total 32 rowers from my club participated in 39 different crews during the two days of the regatta (that made us the largest club among the seniors, and second largets club of all in the regatta)

* Held a boxclass at a gym here in Stockholm for the first time since last years VFW. Felt pretty 'rusty' and had a hard time keeping the tempo throughout the session and the participants happy and motivated. Will see if I start giving classes there with more regularity during next semester. However, it was great fun teaching box again!

* The tryouts for the national championships has started and I feel kind of low (both in height and rowing confidence) after the regatta in Gothenburg, but I will still try to make the crew for the 8. Will see what will happen with my 4 since one of the rowers lives in Berlin during the summer.

Of course I have some pictures for you from Gothenburg :



My crew and I (looking away from the camera) on our way up to the start



The eight showing of it's worst technic during the warm-up (yes I know that I have my blade unsquared while almost everyone else already have feathered their blade... )



The eight celebrating our victory after the sprint-race (with me putting my gold medal in my rowing suit so that it wouldn't get lost during the rowing back to the landing)



Almost everyone from my club that participated in the regatta, on the same landing as above a couple of hours later.

I really, really like going to this regatta in Gothenburg. The weather is always (almost) great and there is always lots of people who go there to participate. It's great

[ida]

Have been quite busy the last months so not much of an update lately.

Got back from a great training camp last week, 10 days of rowing. During the stay we got a visit from a couple of world cup rowers who happend to be in the area for a training camp of their own. I was great to get some pointers from them about technic and how to plan ones training for better perfomance.

During the camp I rowed 190 km (I missed my target goal by only 10 k, was aiming for the 200 ) - we had some really rough waters the last four days so I am really pleased that we did some longer distances in the big waves. Also made the eight for the swedish championships (:D)

Have a really busy schedule for the nearest future, so I guess my updates in this log will be really inconsistent.

[ida]

Long time no update.

Lots of things going on since my last post.

- we won the Swedish sprint championship
- and then the annual University race
- after that we have mainly focused on building our new boat house (300 square meters, built by hand)
- last week I had a couple of limping days with crutches, however my leg is fine now

Due to the lack of regularity in my training I am now in a terrible shape. So I have started a base training period, to regain my strength and overall fitness.

Saturday 17th November

easy running to get out and see how my leg was feeling after the injury. sunny and 2 degrees above zero, perfect conditions for running.

Totalt 54 min run. Average pulse 165 max pulse 184, kcal 804 fat: 10 g

3 x 20 pushups
3 x 20 situps on pilatesball
3 x 20 back raises

Monday 19th November

Erg session

10 minuter warm up

3x15 min 22 spm, split 2.18/500 m

a nice and relaxed session. Put my plans of listening to an audio book while erging. It was quite pleasant and made the session less boring. As I am lacking real "rowing machine session-company" perhaps audio books might be my salvation during the erg training this winter

forgot my HRM at home so no readings.