Last Training Day

Well I have to admit, I thought we had the best row ever yesterday but we surpassed that today! During this mornings session we had to do a start and full out race piece for 250m. We had a fantastic start and were holding a stroke rate of 36 within the first two strokes. Wow...I have never felt a boat run the way this one did. It was one of those rows that you didn’t want to end. If we can do that tomorrow we will be all very happy!

Adam had been standing watching us and the coach of the Japanese team came over to talk to him. When Adam asked him how things were going for his team he stated that he thought they were going really well...until he saw us! That made me feel good.

Tomorrow is just the heats and we are racing for lanes. I have been advised though that this course is pretty fair and no matter what lane you get you will have pretty good water. I always think of Kieran Perkins at the Olympics swimming in the 1500 he just got into lane 8 but took everyone by surprise to win the event. So no matter what lane we get we can do it.

Lunch today was at the course and it was fantastic to see the other countries that are taking part in the World Cup. There were a huge number of wheelchair athletes and it is really good to see that athletes with a disability are included in events like this with able bodied athletes.

This afternoon our session was comprised of a warm up and then we worked on starts. Some of them weren’t great, but others were pretty good. Then we were off the water. We were training during a time when only the Adaptive boats were allowed on the water. So we got to see some of our competition. We have watched the Chinese, Japanese, South Africans and Danes. No one looks to bad but it is hard to tell not being under race pressure. The only team we haven’t seen so far is the Ukrainian one.

I am really looking forward to tomorrow, the nerves are starting to build but we just have to remember to hold it together and not rush the stroke. As long as we all stay relaxed and focused we should sail through it with no problem at all.