Northampton

Northampton MA, is a special place "were the coffee is strong and so are the women". I'm not sure who I am supposed to attribute that quote to but they are certainly right. I love coming back to town and seeing the eclectic and cool mix of people wondering the streets and frequenting the Haymarket, especially all my friends that come back to town around the holidays.
While alot of my time back is spent trying to see friends and family the rest is taken up trying to coordinate my workouts with everything, or rather everything around my workouts! It can get messy getting each work out in, so far I have managed in some odd fashion or another. Making sure friends, family, food, dental appointments, optometrists, and work outs get into my day makes it all feel less like vacation and more like I will need a vacation when I get back to OKC!
I have been able to go skiing a few times over in Grafton Ponds, VT, since there is no snow anywhere else. They have a 1km man made loop which is in great shape in terms of the snow conditions. Spending time on the snow is wonderful, I didnt even miss a beat when I went skiing for the first time, it felt like I had never been off the snow. I actually think I am a faster skier now then I was before! Unfortunately my back still does not want to let me ski for long periods of time which is demoralizing, but it does make me appreciate kayaking all the more and helps me feel that I made the right choice in switching even though I love being on the snow.

Think Snow

The NORTH EAST better get ready because here I come! For the past week my skiing brain has emerged again and I have been incessantly checking the snow reports 6 ways til Sunday and nothing has emerged! We must get snow !!!!!!

Oklahoma City University Athletics - Join OCU's Champions Club in 2011-12

Oklahoma City University Athletics - Join OCU's Champions Club in 2011-12

KOKH FOX 25 :: Morning News - Kayak Training with the Pros

The other morning Maggie Hogan and myself showed a local reporter a little of our morning training. I also got a new question from a reporter. "So what are the Olympics?" yep folks I was really asked that!
KOKH FOX 25 :: Morning News - Kayak Training with the Pros

Putnam City Cancer Classic

The OCU kayak team raced the Putnam City Cancer classic 5km today. The race raised money for OMRF and cancer research.
The run took place on a day which reminded me of the kids movie Winnie the Pooh and a blustery day! The wind was seriously gusting to the point where you thought you may get blown away....or at least not be able to move forward.
It was fun to be in a road race again I think it has been almost 5yrs since the last one I ran, I planned on pacing this one really well but the boys decided to take off like bats out of hell and ruined my plan.....I tried to keep up thinking that I was just having trouble getting moving....nope they broke from their normal pace and tried to kill each other which mostly just killed me...ooops.
Overall it was a great event which raised money for a good cause.

Getting the base back

        Due to the fact our season went so long this year I feel as if I have missed a lot of prime base training time, this may be an illusion but mentally its very real! As a result  I decided to start base training immediately after Pan American games.  Currently my body is stuck, yes literally, the amount of weights and higher paddling volume have caused creaky joint syndrome which is generally co-morbid  with sorer then (please place appropriate adjective here).... However this is exactly what I wanted I think... I definitely feel that I am getting stronger and will be in good shape as a result....if I can move.

Pan American Games in one word.... Awesome....

Mexico

Team USA Canoe/kayak arrived in Mexico on Sat. It was an uneventful and quick trip from team processing in Houston, TX. We left the Airport and were escorted to the athlete village by the Mexican federal police, they literally were standing in trucks with machine guns and flanking our bus. We only got a quick glimpse of the athlete village before we were escorted to Guzman which is the city/town where all the paddle sport athletes are staying. Guzman is not a bad place, the athlete housing is nice and clean and its a cool little compound which is pretty much surrounded by federal police, local police and US body guards. The course is on a small lake. The lake is calm first thing in the morning and then the wind whips up real good throughout the rest of the day, so just like home!
Maggie and I have heats for the K2 500m on friday morning!

Oklavision

Maggie and I did a quick interview on Oklavision today check it out! Click on the link below then go to Boathouse district programing and you'll see us do the live broadcast. Watch here

Check out the Pan American Games website http://www.guadalajara2011.org.mx/ENG/01_inicio/ USACK will head out on the October 21st for processing in Houston.

K2 with a new crew

Started the day with a L2 K2 20km workout. This was the first extended work out which maggie and I have done together, considering paddling 20km in a K2 can be challenging for a crew which has trained together for a while. I was pleased with how it went for us. I think by the end we both stated to relax in the boat and work more comfortably together. The other positive thing is we didnt want to kill eachother after the paddle which in and of itself speaks volumn! I am looking forward to getting back to base training for a few weeks before we ramp up for Pan American games, for some weird twisted reason (which I hope some athletes can back me up on) I find base training a calming influence on my life. Granted scheduling time for school and work when you have a heavy training load can be rather challenging, but I think I have started to figure it out soo bring it on.

Pan American Games

I found out today that I won my seat race and will be going to Pan American Games at the end of October!

This fall has started off with a bang,  as usual I decided I wasn't doing enough already as a result I decided to go back to school full time train full time and work part time.....mmmmm its been a bit of a rough transition but I think I got the hang of it ish. My grades are the best I have ever had, hell my Professor wrote perfect on my lab and thanked me for it, plus gave me lots of little smiley faces. I had the fastest 2km times back to back this morning granted I was riding wash but....I'll take it.
Chech out the Pan America Games

K2 1000m A final Szeged 2011

The crowd in Szeged was like nothing I have ever experienced. It really cant be compared with anything I have ever seen at a competition. The fans are incredibly enthusiastic, loud, and full of character. Actually the whole thing looks more like a giant beach party then anything else. 

On day 2 of the World Championships Jen and I raced in the K2 1000m A final,  the conditions were great for us a stiff head wind and a late afternoon start (we have discovered that we prefer racing later in the day).  Going through boat control on the way to the water was a little nerve racking for me, mostly because I was in the situation where I was out of the boat and forced to look up and across at most of the girls.  When I am in the boat I tend not to notice the disparity in height and width between myself and the competition. Even though I know that its the strength to weight ratio which is important in kayaking, I definitely had a few moments of “how on earth can I compete against those girls”!

We went through our warm up and were in the starting gate before I knew it. Ready. Set. the gate goes down and we’re off. We had a typical start for us meaning we let everyone have a good head start before we start chasing them down (we are working on that), once we got up to speed the boat was moving well, we kept up the pace working through the wind,  leaving everything out on the course. At the 250m mark there was a deafening roar, the noise was completely overpowering and almost physically pushing you, it was the crowd. The roar lasted all the way through the finish. It was by far the coolest thing I have experienced in a competition. 

Our goal in the K2 this year was to make the A Final at the World Championships in the 1000m event, we accomplished what we set out to do this year and can build from there for next season.

Day 1 Worlds Championships 2011

Day 1 of the World Championships in szeged started off a bit rough. We felt flat in the K4 and were knocked out in the heats, it was a tough blow because we have raced and trained really well up until the event. The times we have been hitting regularly would have put us right up their. Unfortunately or fortunately thats racing, otherwise we would all just send in our top times and call it a day.
Next Jen and I had the k2 1000m heat it went well a few bobbles but a solid mid section. We went on to the semis later in the day where we qualified for the A final in that event! It was a super solid run and we felt like we had a "good start for us" however, according to others it was still nerve racking because of the methodical (I will call it methodical) way we start our races. It was definitly an improvement from the 1000m heat and we will improve on it again tomorrow in the final!

World Championships Start TOMORROW!

USA Canoe/kayak press release

Starting Thursday, the U.S. National Sprint Team will compete for World Championship medals and Olympic spots at the 2011 ICF Sprint World Championships in Szeged, Hungary, Aug. 17-21
Read press release

check out this article in the Oklahoma Gazette

Click here to read gazette article

Bellagio, Italy

We approached Bellagio from the scenic route or so I am told.....for those of us unfortunate enough to have motion sickness it was slightly less scenery and a lot more of.... huddle in the fetal position until we get to our destination. The little bits of the drive through the Italian country side I saw were breath taking. Small Villages on single lane roads (well supposedly 2 lane thats up for debate though) with the Dolomites rising up in the background and lots of woods all about, the best part was seeing Lake Como as we descended a narrow road toward Bellagio. 

It was one of those days that just fell into place perfectly without any planning at all. We drove into town looking for a parking space after a bit we gave up and were heading out of town to locate a spot further up the road when, a guy on a Harley starts honking at us and drives right up next to the van. It was Antonio Rossi a famous Italian kayaker, he informed us parking would not be a problem and invited us to his club in town. Club Lido turned out to be a swank little yacht club on lake Como right as you entered Bellagio. 

He spoke to the women at the entrance and we walked right on into the club. The Club had, there were cabanas offering shade to the occupants of white leather sofas which dotted an imported  white sandy beach.  Within a few minutes of seating ourselves on said sofas we were brought fruit kabobs and a giant bucket of spritz (some type of alcoholic concoction) with many colorful straws. We ended up spending a lovely afternoon lounging around and enjoying the finer aspects of Italy. 

Lecco, Italy

There is no bad scenery in Italy. Today we took a trip to Lecco,  the town is built around a lovely body of water and tucked into the dolomite mountains, so no good scenery a all ;)
On this trip I have seen more places and drank more cups of espresso then on any US Team trip todate its wonderful!

Lake Como

Imagine a perfect day, the water is like glass for your morning workout, the temperature is in the 70's and your in the mountains somewhere in Italy. That was my day!
We hit the morning session with alot of focus and made significant improvements from the previous day, which I feel did alot to boost our confidence. In the afternoon we took a bus to Como, a small city about 30min from where we are staying. The city is beautiful, its situated in the middle of the mountains and around a large lake. I am hoping to do some more exploring their this weekend when we have a full day off.

Italy

The OKC contingente of the USA National team made it to Italy without a problem. Okay there were a few close calls in leaving people behind in Frankfurt and then Milan, but when all was said and done we arrived at our destination with all 5 of us.
The first day at a new venue over seas is a bit tough no matter how beautiful the area is. The lack of sleep and  the need to stay awake til the local bed time makes it particularly difficult to be cognisant of whats happening around you.
However the girls K4 is going to try and break that pattern by going on a small hike this afternoon up to a church on a hill.

Spint Canoe/Kayak Nationals

Its been a grueling 2days of racing so far in the georgia heat and humidity. The 1000m races took place on Thursday, Jen and I placed 1st in the K2 and I was 3rd in the K1 but was disqualified because my boat was underweight! I was so mad but it was my own fault I took the weights out of my boat and used them in the K2 and forgot to put them back in my boat before the final, once you make one mistake like that you dont make it again!
Today was the 500m, the day started off early with a bang I won my heat in the K1 then, the National team K4 which I am a part of had a personal best, winning the event in 1:38 however one of the coaches clocked it as 1.37. The K2 was a tight race between Jen & I and the other K2 national team crew, they ended up edging us out in the final 150m of the race. Our K4 then competed in an exhibition  race against the mens national team C4 after that it was back to the K1 which was another tight race for 1st-3rd, I ended up in second. Tomorrow is the 200m. All events are streaming live on  www.lckc.org.

water aggression

Super productive session in the K4 this morning. We needed to work on power application and thats what we did. Aasim (who is coaching us until Shaun gets back) told us to be more aggressive as our blades hit the water, I am not sure if it was how he said it or the explanation around it. Sure enough on our next piece we were a lot more aggressive at the catch and could feel the boat surge which is a crucial part of making a team boat fast.

Heat Wave

An intense heat wave has hit Oklahoma City with the lows in the upper 90s at night and the highs during the day in the triple digits. I have been assured multiple times that this is unheard of in OKC in July..... meaning come August we will all be fried! The extreme weather is making it hard to train in the afternoons, we went out at 2pm the other day for an L2 workout and I was nauseous after 30min, even with lots of water and putting ice wrapped in my shirt around my neck to stay cool! For this week I am planning on staying inside as much as possible and only training early in the Am and after 5:30pm, otherwise its just ridiculous.

Teamwork

The USA women's K4 had our first practice together yesterday morning. We set up the old best, now named the titanic by Emily V. and launched her for the first time as a team. It was a shaky start, the boat itself is several sizes to large for us making it extra tippy because we don't have enough body weight to hold her down but we are determined to prevail and we are! There was a major transformation in our paddling and the way we felt in the boat from the beginning of practice to the end, and we found even more improvement today.
We have a positive attitude in the boat and our focusing positive changes we can implement to make the boat go faster vs focusing on the negative issues and a good policy of open communication.
My various K4 experiences stood me in good stead this afternoon when I was put on the spot to talk about  team building to a group of 44 teenagers. The 4 major points I was told to discuss were, communication, conflict resolution/management, teamwork and character. The K4 provided me with a perfect examples for all these points! It was interesting to put into words what we do everyday and how it related to each of the key points which help build a good team!

K4

Next week we start training the K4 for the World Championships. The K4 consists of Emily Vincent, Jen Burke, Nicole Mallory, and myself. We will nail down the line up in the first week of training the boat before our coach heads out of town so its going to be a busy week of training!
Time for a mac & cheese, BBQ chicken and salad dinner to kick off the weekend.

LPI

K1 200m gold, got what I was looking for!

Heading to Worlds

There was a lot of close racing at the lake placid international regatta today.  I had a decent day but didn't have the finishing speed I was looking for however, it was enough though for 3rd in the K1 500m which qualified my for worlds. The first 300m was great but I had a rough patch in the last 200m where I lost my technique and my speed but I am starting to put the pieces together for a good 500 race. Tomorrow we have the 200m which will be a fun day!

LPI

I'm really really ready to just head out and race! Luckily I get the chance on Sat, only a few days away!

Elbow

 I had a partial subluxation of my elbow yesterday during practice which was rather uncomfortable, I didn't know what was wrong at the time, I knew I had tweaked it but that was it. Jen and I finished the K2 session which ended on a great note,  I went iced my elbow took some painkillers and called it a day.
 Training today however was pretty painful, the standing starts were definitely not what I wanted to be doing but it was a short workout so I figured modifying it was rather pointless! Mac (one of the junior coaches) made an appointment for me with one of the OTC trainers (Karen) for after practice. I went in and she fixed me up really quick, she knew exactly what was wrong within a minute and put it all back into place, a bit of NSAIDs and ice should take care of the residual soreness and I'll be good to go for the weekend!

Tapper... maybe

It seems like we have started the tapper for the LPI regatta, its nice to focus on a few high quality pieces per day verses the volume we had in the weeks previous.  This afternoon we have a short K2 session, time to keep working on our starts and max speed!
For my afternoon break I am cheering on the US women's soccer team!!!!!

Resting

For once a rest day was completely pleasant and a welcome experience.

Olympic day and the importance of a State vegetable

    I am trying to write this post while watching/listening to the daily show, this is a very difficult task hence the mention of the debate over a NY state vegetable. In case your curious it was voted on and is corn..... 

    Olympic day is a world wide event which promotes fitness,  healthy living  and the ideals of the olympic games (usoc). Oklahoma City and Lake Placid held great events today, lots of families and kids came through the training centers observing and participating in different olympic sports. Our junior athletes were out introducing canoe/kayak to the public. 

    Prior to the events of the day all the kayakers and canoeists were out on mirror lake bright and early to  paddle 16km in the rain and cold. We were broken up into groups of 3, consisting of a Junior women's K2, a junior boy, and a senior girl.  The arrangement was kinda of fun however the whole 16km felt like I was dragging a heavy weight through the water, I am not sure if it was all the lifting or the intensity over the past few day but uuuggggghhh. The girls and Tanner did a great job and kept a good pace throughout the workout.

Running

Running in the woods is one of my favorite things. Running in the woods with lots of mud and a warm rain is even better, I can't pinpoint exactly what makes it so much fun, its one of those things which just is, I left the woods with a massive grin on my face and I cant wait to go out their for another run!

Rockin the water in the rain!

Jen and I had a super stellar day in our K1's, we hit some great speeds over the 8x100m's and the 6x250m's . Shaun was happy with our work out which means we were both happy about it. Its a well known scientific principle: if the coach is happy then the athletes are happy.
We moved out of the loft we were crashing in for a few days and are heading over to my friends parents place this evening. Frank & Lethe were incredibly generous for letting us stay with them even though they never met us before!!! Its awesome people like that which allow poor athletes like us to fulfill our dreams.

K2 Workout

15km goes by super quick when your wash riding with another K2. I actually thought we had another 5km to go when we finished.
When we are not training there really isn't that much to do, its been nice to have a few days off but I already miss being busy during the day!
To fill the time I am writing on my blog at the training center with the most god awful  Movie called little black book on in the back ground because a bunch of other girls are watching it in the common room ick what a bad movie!

Lake Placid Summer 2011

    I am pretty sure my northern genetics are falling down on the job, it was 60 degrees out and I had a long sleeve craft shirt on sweat pants and I was cold!  Granted Lake Placid is 45 degrees cooler then Oklahoma city but still what happened to my ability to handle sub zero temperatures with out a problem.
   The drive out here wasn't to bad, Shaun did most of the driving and I did a significant amount of snoozing. My back only required about 800mg of ibuprofen to knock out the discomfort of the sustained seated position so all in all a good trip to Lake Placid!
   Trainings going okay I have a few things I really want to focus on in the next 1.5 wks before the regatta which should improve my speed dramatically once I put the changes into my neuromuscular memory.