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!