Let the racing begin!

Tomorrow is the first day of racing! Preparation has been going well and we are all pumped and ready to light the course on fire!

Our time trial race is at 1:05pm local time (7:05am EST; 4:05am PST). Because this race is a time trial, there is no live feed of the race online, results will be posted on the website though.
You can find them here: http://www.worldrowing.com/events/2014-worldcup-2/schedule-results
 (my event is listed as W8+)

Rowing Canada has published a great article in preparation for this weekend listing all the crews racing including the men. I am very honoured to be a part of this great team and representing my country!
Go Canada!
You can find it here: http://rowingcanada.org/news-events/news/canadian-crews-set-go-battle-france

Lake d'Aiguebelette

We are now in Chambery France.  Chambery is five and half hours south east of Paris, close to the Italian and Switzerland border. It is a beautiful town with lots of mountains in the area. Lake d'Aiguebelette, were we race, is about 15 minutes from our hotel. I have not been to this venue before so I am looking forward to exploring a new area. Racing begins on Friday with a time trial (one boat after another in set time intervals, so you're basically racing the clock) to determine who gets which lane for the final which will be raced on Sunday. I will be racing in the women's eight for World Cup II where there are currently 4 other countries entered. China, Germany, Great Britain, and the USA. Should be some great racing! I am really excited to put all the winter training to the test.


photo courtesy of the internet

Our first day on the lake was wonderful. The first row had fantastic flat water conditions with the sun shinning! We took the opportunity to take in the sites of the course and then get to work and focus on preparing for racing. The afternoons row was adventurous as a storm rolled through while we were on the water. The wind picked up so quickly the water started coming in and swamping our boat as waves were crashing over the side. There was a stroke where I got a face full of water from the wave crashing into my rigger. We stayed in good spirits though and were having fun surfing the waves. We also had some laughs with a Chinese men's pair as they were struggling just as much as we were. It was so crazy that we were all just laughing. I was glad I wasn't in a single though, trying to stay upright in that water was a challenge.

Just want to thank everyone for your continued support in my rowing journey! I wouldn't be here if I didn't have all your support and cheers.

First trip of the year!

Hello friends and family,

Summer has arrived which means racing season is here! We left Canada yesterday, June 14th, to go test our speed against the world in France and Switzerland! We are currently in Italy for a couple days to acclimatize and then we go to Lake Aiguebelette, France to race World Cup II. 

We are training in a little town called Corgeno, which is close to Milan. I was here last summer, so it's nice to come back to something familiar. There is not much to do in Corgeno so there are very few distractions which allows us to stay focused on our training. Don't worry though, we can get local gelato! Delicious! We eat our meals at a local restaurant and it was great to see the owners again and use my Italian. The one word I know, Ciao!

Here are a couple pictures of Corgeno and the lake we train on.

Winter Indoor Training.

As you all may be aware of, there is a lot of snow in Ontario this winter. Unfortunately or fortunately, (still determining the answer to that question) the ergometer, or erg for short, is the main source of our training right now. There is an event called the Canadian Indoor Rowing Championships (CIRC) which takes place every February. This year it happened to fall on my birthday. Woohoo! Lucky me! Pulling a 2km on my birthday! Not as much fun as you may think.

Let me paint you a picture. We are in the Hershey Arena in Toronto, with ergs lining the perimeter of the rink. Half of the ergs are used for racing, the others are used for warm up and cool down. The racing ergs are all linked to the big screen where all the spectators can watch your progress. We are broken up in age categories, so many races are happening during the day. When your race time comes, we are assigned an erg and then we are called to ATTENTION, GET READY, ROW! And everyone starts their 2km. It can be very intimidating and overwhelming if you let it get to you. That is part of the mental game.

Photo courtesy of Rowing Canada Aviron

Photo courtesy of Rowing Canada Aviron

The picture above is just about everyone that I train with (a few people had injuries and did not race). The picture on the left is the screen upon which the spectators can track everyone's progress.





This year at CIRCs, I did OK. It wasn't my best performance but it wasn't a total blow up, which can occur. You may have recalled that on this day it also was my birthday. You forgot! Don't worry, I also forgot that it was my birthday too. The 2km race stress takes total control of your thoughts till its done. After completing the 2km and I was going to start my cool down, I was feeling a bit nauseous. This isn't the first time I have completed an erg and puked. As I was bent over the garbage can, a teammate yelled out "Happy Birthday Rosie!", what a great way to spend my birthday! Haha! All in good fun! Don't feel too bad, upon returning back to London I had some friends over and we had a little birthday party! With treats and cake (don't tell my nutritionist)! It was a great way to finish my birthday!

When we aren't erging we spend a fair number of hours at the gym cross training on the bike, elliptical, stair climber, anything that will get your heart rate up. Thankfully this month the Sochi Winter Olympic games were happening which gave me extra motivation to keep pushing through the long hours knowing that one day my Olympic dreams may come true!

Thank you to everyone for your continued support and encouragement as I continue on this journey!
God Bless!

Florida Training Camp

Deland, Florida is where I have been training for past two weeks! It was cool and rainy the first week but the sun has come out along with some wind. We've had a few practices with white capped waves but we persevered and went rowing anyway. The frozen tundra in Ontario has inspired us to row as much as possible. 



We have been rowing in pairs and the 8+ avoiding boats and launch swells but have put in some great kilometers! A number of my teammates have suffered from blisters and small infections but I kept all my callouses and my hands did not blister! Bonus! I have seen a manatee on the river but no alligators...thankfully. I would prefer to stay away from them.
 

One of our afternoons off, we went to a cute drive through bakery! The baked good were delicious and the decor added to the flavour as well! I highly recommend a trip to Buttercup Bakery if you are in Deland, Florida.

Long overdue update

My last post was back in August, prior to World Championships in Korea, and a lot has happened since then. Positive personal and mental building has and still is occurring, which stemmed from a challenging experience I had while on the team last summer.

As you know, I was named a member of the 8+ prior to leaving Canada. We arrived in Korea and began acclimatizing and training. The heat and humidity were unbelievable but somehow we all managed! A few days into training our coach decided to make a switch of athletes which left me out of the boat. It wasn't an easy decision for him but ultimately we needed the 8+ to be fastest and the other athlete was better suited for that position.

It was a hard pill for me to swallow and I struggled emotionally as any athlete would when their dreams get changed unexpectedly. I made sure I was strong for the other girls on the team to ensure that they performed their best and didn't have to worry about me. Not being a member of the 8+ left me in the role of being the spare. I trained with the girls and did the same workouts just in case there was a possible injury and I needed to fill a seat.

Our team performed very well at the World Championships! Our country left with a silver medal in the women's quad and four as well as a bronze in the eight! I also left with some new sculling skills learned from watching other countries, experience being at the world stage, and a knowledge of needing to work on my mental and technical skills as an athlete.

Life lessons are learned from experiences and this past summer and season made me realize how important mental strength is for rowing and any sport or pressures you come across. I thought my mental toughness was pretty good and so I didn't put much effort into improving it. I learned from my 2013 season that mental toughness is more important than physical strength. You can be the strongest person, but if you aren't mentally tough that physical strength is useless.

 2014 brings a new season for rowing as well as my improved outlook on rowing and new personal goals! As I mentioned earlier, last summer was a tough one, but I walked away learning more about myself and that I can continue to push myself to new limits!

World Championships Korea

The season continues! World Championships, the biggest race of the year! We did some more selection when we came back to Canada after World Cup III and I am now sweeping and have a seat in the eight! We are leaving in 5 days to take on the World! 

Here is the official document of the men and women's teams. 

http://rowingcanada.org/news/2013-world-rowing-championships-team