Celebration

What a week. Its been such a great time here....obviously. Winning that race was such a relief and what seemed to be a great weight off the shoulders, particularly with the preparation we had with Drews back. In the 8 days of the regatta, apart from the heat, semi and final...we got to have one row of 4km. As I stated in my last post, a little unorthodox but who says you have to be in the boat everyday??

We knew Canada were going to go out quick and we knew if we were with them at the 1000m mark, we'd go well. For those that didn't see the race, that's exactly what happened. We both went out quick and had good margin on the rest of the field. Then at the 1000m mark (half way) we made a move and got the margin we wanted on Canada and the rest is history.

Crossing that line was one of the best moments of my life. Even better was having my wife Belinda and my parents and bro and sis there to share it all with. It was absolutely fantastic having them all there. I must say that its too hard to my emotions into words.....relief, ecstatic, very proud and over the moon. As you can tell, I'm not really talented when it comes to describing my emotions. The next few hours....or days... after that, I was on a high....actually I still am.

Haven't had a heap of sleep, as everyone else, as you can imagine and we've had a ball since. Its was great to have Belinda and Mel, Drews wife, here. We did much celebrating, some great dinners, watched a few other events, made the most of some hospitality venues, did the Great Wall, and I have to admit the markets and generally soaking up the Olympic atmosphere. As the week goes on, more athletes finish competing and join the party!

It was also great to see James carry the flag and watch the double scull come in also for gold and the four with the sliver, it was a great day for rowing.

Thanks to all those that emailed, sent or sms'd words of support and congratulations. I had sooo many its hard to reply to them all. Looking forward to catching up with everone when I get home.....

Unorthodox

Well, our whole time together rowing the pair in the last 3 years with Drew living 1700km away in Melbourne and me on the Gold Coast has been quite unorthodox.....some things never change.

We had our semi today which saw a good outcome with a good win. I guess what we did different this time was that in our three days off after our heat on Saturday, we got to row 4km together on one occasion. The rest of our training was done on an ergo for me and a stationary bike for Drew. This wasn't by choice. For those of you that keep tabs of Drews Blog, you'll know that he has had some back trouble which creates quite an amount of discomfort for him to sit down, let alone row. With all possible thoughts going though both our minds, he soldiered on and was able to get though the 2km race today. What an effort!!

Although traditionally not an ideal preparation, but it goes to show that you can achieve the same result by doing things a little differently, outside the square, somewhat unorthodox! It actually gets you thinking what else in rowing or other areas in your life can you do things out of the ordinary or unheard of that will get you to the same place or even somewhere better??

Anyway, we had a good row today and looking forward to stepping up for the final, along the way praying that Drew back eases up for him!!!

Its great to have family over here aswell. Mum, Dad, Marcus and Anita have been here for a few days and my lovely wife Belinda arrived last night and it was great to see her today.

Team Function/Flag Bearer Announcement

View from our room at the Olympic Village

Clear view of the rowing course!

Cobber, Drew and myself arrived at Beijing Airport

Heat in the heat and humidity

Well, its always good to get the first row of the regatta out of the way, get the cob webs out of the system, size up the opposition, and puff and breath a bit. Today we did that in our heat and it was probably the most humid day so far since we've been in Beijing. Now that we've been here about 8 days we are now pretty much adapted so it wasn't too bad. Still the most uncomfortable conditions I've rowed in though!!

We've done alot of solid training in the past couple of months that has paid off and we're travelling pretty well. In our heat today we had South Africa with us for most of the first 1000m but we then moved away for a comfortable win in the second half. The other heat winners were the Kiwis and the French. We next race in the semi finals on Wednesday at about 4:00pm - 4:30pm again (6-6:30 Australian time).

The team function two nights ago was pretty awesome where James Tomkins got named to carry the flag. Having the whole team in one place like that was a buzz along with the viewing footage of great olympic moments - very inspirational. I'm sure everyone walked away on a high.

Unfortunately we didn't walk in the opening ceremony due to the late night required to do so (after 1am bedtime) as we were racing the next day. I'm sure you'll all agree when I say it looked pretty amazing on TV though.

Now the focus is on the semi final on Wednesday so the next 3 days will be about getting in some more good training as we lead up to the final next Saturday.

The time is getting nearer

Starting to get into a routine now that things have settled down. We are now, on most days, waking up and having breakfast in the largest ever dining room I’ve ever seen, then hanging out in the village for a bit sometimes getting a massage then having brunch at about 10:30am. We then leave the village shortly after brunch for a 45-50min trip to the rowing course for a row. After that row we then have a 5 min bus trip to our recovery centre where we can relax and recover for our next session. Prior to leaving we have a pre-cooling session which lowers our core body temperature in preparation for the next session. We do this by laying in an ice bath for 10mins while having a powerade slurpee. We are nearly bordering on hyperthermia after that. From there we travel back to the rowing course for another session at about 5pm, have a row and get back to the village by about 8pm for dinner, then kick back for a bit before going to bed. It’s actually not a bad little routine.

Here’s a brief diary of activities since we’ve been here…

Friday 1st Aug
Arrive in Beijing at about 9pm. Travel to village, have a late dinner and off to bed about midnight.

Saturday 2nd Aug
Off to rowing course to rig our boat and have a row. Find its pretty warm and heart rates are pretty high…..Then back to village for lunch and then at 2:30pm we leave to collect our team clothing. Big day….we get back at about 9:30pm. In amongst that while waiting around we managed to get some gym and stationary bike in. Once back, another late dinner and off to bed.

Sunday 3rd Aug
Press conference at about 9am then off to training. Had only one session then went back to village for some lunch and we did about an hour of ergo and stationary bike before a couple of hours of formal AOC welcome/information session. Then dinner and bed.

Monday 4th Aug
B/fast then down to course for a session, then to recovery centre for a bit. Then a second row and back to village for some gym before dinner.

Tuesday 5th Aug
7:30am Breakfast, hang out. 10:30 brunch. Travel to rowing for a session, then recovery centre for 2-3 hours with another row about 5pm then travel back to village for dinner.

Wednesday 6th Aug
Pretty much the same as yesterday.

Adapting to the heat and humidity after travel seemed a little stressful in the first few days. The heart rates were significantly higher than normal while rowing by about 20 beats and breathing quite a lot. It wasn’t really a question of are we going to adapt but when?? Well, yesterday was a step in the right direction and today nearly seems normal. Heart rates are close to normal now which is good. Still have to watch hydration….we learnt pretty quick that there is a lot of fluid loss in a session, in fact I lost 3kg in one short session while consuming 1 litre of water. So I actually lost about 4kg of sweat. Great weight loss strategy!!! Still breathing quite a bit when training, sometimes feeling as if you cant get enough oxygen in the lungs. I’m also slowly adapting to that.

The time is getting nearer!

I’ll get some photos up soon…….Ciao.

Beijing.....The heat is on!!

Its been a long and enjoyable road and we’re finally here, we arrived in Beijing on Friday night. Its been 4 years in the planning and the making and the next couple of weeks is the final chapter….the grand finale.

Well, it is pretty warm over here and the pollution is not an issue. We have had blue skys and its been great. We’ve managed to get a few sessions in so far amongst team processing, receiving our thousands of items of clothing and ‘stuff’ and a media conference. Now that’s all over we can get into our routine of some great training over the next week leading into the regatta.

Training has been going well over the past couple of months. Since the World Cup in Lucern, I must say we’ve smashed ourselves week in and week out, setting PB’s along the way. In training we get very competitive in what we do together, within ourselves and also competitive against each other. Its challenging ourselves and each other that makes us go that extra kilometre, that extra second faster, that extra hill climb on the bike, that extra stroke….. We’ve left no stone unturned, we are now fitter and stronger than ever. Speaking of PB’s, I must brag about my Springbrook climb that I beat my previous PB by 26 seconds. Pretty happy about that. This has also been the case in the boat and also on the ergo.

I must say I’m really looking forward to racing. Our heat is on the 9th August, Semi final on the 13th and the final on the 16th. All races will be around 4-4:30pm in Beijing which is about 6-6:30pm here in Oz.

The excitement and anticipation is building and have I said before….I’m looking forward to racing!!! I’m keen to see what we can do with the preparation that we’ve had in comparison to our preparation leading into Lucern World Cup and also the last couple of World Championships, even the past couple of Games. Its been vastly different.

Thanks all to your support along the way.

Photo 1... Training in Murwillumbah (northers NSW) prior to leaving for Beijing. Ready for anything!!!
Photo 2... After smashing Springbrook