Eating as a Lighweight: Fall Style

My last lightweight feasting blog was tailored to race time.  Well now it’s training time.  Our schedule went from the low mileage, weigh in preparing, high intensity short piece to a long distance, lower intensity, aerobic base training plan.  This means a few things for lightweights.  1)  We need more calories.  2) We EAT A LOT MORE CALORIES 3) These calories are not necessarily always the best calories. 

The key to this whole new diet is to not go completely off the deep end.  It is enticing to eat ice cream and cupcakes for every meal, but that’s not how we’re doing it.  Basically, we just eat more.   I still eat vegetables, beans and lean meats, but on the happy end of that, we add a few desserts in to the mix.  After capping off a hard week of work with a Saturday erg slaughter, we tend to direct our attention to milkshakes and burgers. 

Eating now is definitely a little more fun and you can tell by the mood of the guys at meals.  Prior to racing we are in and out of meals faster than a bolt of lightning.  Now, we have fellowship.  Meals could last hours, just sitting and talking, while eating of course. 

You can see the change in our faces as well.  The cheek bones are not as defined and there may be an extra layer of energy around the waist these days (that's what we call it).  The funny thing is it’s always harder to take it off than put it on…  Oh well. 

Myself and the other USA lightweights are enjoying our first few days back together, working hard towards the goal and eating merrily.  I hope you are all doing the same.

Have a good one

- Jimmy

P.S.  Stay tuned for some OKC favorites from the team.  Yesterday we hit up the OK State Fair.  The corndogs were to die for. 

The Evolution of a Team

There are people that dispute evolution.  I don’t want to get in to a theology/science debate, but I did want to talk to you about what I call the evolution of a team.  From what I understand a team is a group of individuals that work together to accomplish one or a series of goals.  This definition is not from Webster’s or Wikipedia, but from my own head so it may not be completely accurate. 

At some point in a team’s life it begins as a group of individuals, but that is all they are.  They don’t become a team until they do 2 things, set a goal and work TOGETHER.  I have been part of many teams that have worked together to accomplish a goal.  My most memorable team was the Navy Lightweight Varsity.  We were all on the same page, working hard to get there.  Other teams that I were a part of that come to mind were on USS FORD (FFG 54).  Our goals varied, depending on where we were working on the ship, but we strove to work together.  If we did not work together, the group failed.  In all occasions I was part of the team, building together and as a result I have never really been an outside party to witnessing a team make the huge step from individuals to TEAM.  Well this past week that all changed.    

Patrick as a Plebe

My youngest brother, Patrick is a member of the Varsity Soccer Team at Navy.  He is a sophomore and this year they have had a slow start.  I have seen 3 games this season.  The first 2 games the group played more like individuals than a cohesive unit.  They did not communicate very well and did not play to their potential.  Proof of this are the results.  The first game they lost the lead with 5 seconds left and the second game they would let the other team regain all momentum after breaking it for a bit.  Honestly, it was hard to watch.  I saw these young guys struggling and I cared deeply because I could see the dejection in Patrick’s eyes.  They were lost.  Then something happened.

One of the top players on their team quit.  Skill wise, this kid was probably the best, but he did not make 

everyone else around him better and because of that they were losing as a team.  What I saw in the third game was beautiful soccer.  The Navy Soccer team was passing to open spaces, covering touch and goes and supporting each other on both ends of the field.  Not one person stood out as an individual.  Every goal had an assist and one even had two assists.  It was awesome to watch them figure it out as the game went on.  They defeated a solid team and accomplished one of their goals, playing good soccer.  The best part was the look of pride on their faces when they were leaving the field to sign autographs (Even I got an autograph).  You could tell they knew something had changed and they had made the next step. 

Being on the outside of that one was pretty cool and I hope to see it again in the future. 

Have a good one,

- Jimmy

Teaching Leadership: The Discussion

I have been thinking a lot lately about the importance of leadership.  I think in the past I always took it for granted because the majority of my experiences were with good leaders.  There were plenty of bad leaders, but usually there was a good one in the room to help out the bad one.  The question asked is, can the bad leader become a good leader?  My answer, YES.

One of the core classes at the Naval Academy is leadership.  When I was a midshipman I thought it was one of the dumbest classes I took.  I had the reaction that many do, “you can’t teach leadership.”  I rescind my statement.  At the time I was a 19 year old kid without many life experiences.  Now I’m a 29 year old KID with a few more experiences.  I was on the varsity lightweight crew team, worked on a US warship, got married and now am training with the national team.  Time has given me more wisdom and perspective. 

Of course, I do believe there are natural leaders and those who are not as natural and need some help.  Those who need help only need to look at those around them to figure it out.  You need to look at those who are leading you and decide if they are doing a good or bad job, and see what you like and don’t like about their leadership traits.  If you see something that you like, then try to emulate it.  When you see something that you don’t like, don’t see as being effective or don’t agree with then put it in your bank of things not to do. 

All 4 brothers with Mom, Shaunnah and Max

I have 3 younger brothers.  I try not to say little brothers anymore because I am now the smallest.  Anyway, my youngest brother Patrick is 10 years my junior.  I used to tell him he should make almost no mistakes because he had 3 older brothers to learn from.  Tommy, Chris and I (the older ones) all made mistakes and have been successful in different ways.  Patrick had the opportunity to see it all, or at least hear my parents yell at or praise us.  He has done an excellent job in avoiding the mistakes we made and excelling beyond any of our successes.  He’s a better athlete and is majoring in engineering in college.  He’s a stud and Tommy, Chris and I take all of the credit, haha. 

For those of you that disagree with me and say you can’t teach leadership, you are entitled to your opinion and I respect that.  I think my keystone statement for argument is: If you can’t teach leadership, then how do leaders develop their leadership skills through life experiences?  Like I said before, there are natural born leaders, but not all of them come out of the womb with a full leadership toolbox.  Leaders develop over years and years of experience, proving to me that they learn and can be taught. 

Have a good one.

- Jimmy   

R & R

After the racing last week Shaunnah and I got to spend some time together around the beautiful country of Slovenia.  After the intensity of racing it is always nice to relax.  Although, it always takes a few days for me to stop thinking about racing, I did manage to enjoy some spectacular sites with the wife.

We ran in to a herd of cows on an alpine road.  

Predjama (into the cave) Castle.  It was amazing.

Piran, on the Adriatic.  We stayed in nearby Portorose and rode bikes to Piran.  It's known as the Slovenian Venice.  The streets are so narrow you have to park your car outside of town and walk in.

Relaxing on the hammock outside of our hotel.  I was pretty beat.

Now I'm back in Annapolis until September 18th and then it's back to Oklahoma to get back to work.  The US lightweights have a lot of work to do.  Have a good one.

- Jimmy

The Journey

So Funday Sunday didn't go as planned.  We got to the course, made weight and raced.  2/3 of those events did go as planned.  We all took the 720 bus down to the course to check our weight and sweat for an 846 weigh in and a 1046 race.  We weighed in perfectly, averaging everyone out at 70 kg exactly.  The warm-up went really well and we felt like we were ready to go out and give it our best shot.

We got to the line and the official starting polling the crews.  After he said, "Australia" we were all set.  The light turned red and then green.  GREEN MEANS GO.  We pressed the hell out of the first stroke, trying not to rip water and then took a quick second, shorter stroke and continued to build the rate over the next 4.  We were off and instincts kicked in.  Go hard, keep us in this race.  We were in the race.  The Italians got out on us a little bit, but not nearly as much as they had in the previous race and Jack, our coxswain was filling us in where we were.  Then it happened...  We caught a pretty heavy digger with an oar and all of that momentum we had gained in the first 200 meters of the race was lost.  We immediately dropped back to last and had to start regaining boat speed all over again.

My first thought was "that just happened, now lets DO WORK and get ourselves back in to this."  From this point on the crew fought and fought, inching ourselves back in to the race.  We never really got in to contention for 1st, but we pulled up almost even with France and Denmark with 5 or 600 to go.  When Jack called for the sprint it just didn't happen.  We had spent too much energy working our way back.  It was heartbreaking at the end.

I felt, for the first time in my international rowing career that we were as fast as the top boats in the race.  We had a chance.  If we had a good race, we may not have won, but we would have left it all on the water and I can deal with that.  However, we didn't have our best piece.  If you don't have your best piece at the World Championships you are not going to win and probably not going to medal.  The margin for error is slim.  Needless to say, I was really pissed on Sunday and it was no Funday.

Then it hit me.  This result changes nothing of the past 8 weeks I spent at Dartmouth, on the Connecticut, selecting 9 guys from 25 and being coached by one of the best in the US.  Up until Sunday at 1052 I would have told you the previous weeks were some of the best in my post college rowing career.  Between 1052 and 2 pm I was saying things like, "what a waste."  It was not true.  We did pass up an excellent opportunity to put ourselves alongside the top guys in lightweight rowing, but it was not a waste.

I had a great time with this crew and would do it all over again the same exact way.  We can't let this result define us.  I will always be proud to be a member of the 2011 US LM8+.

- Jimmy

Funday Sunday

Getting your first race out of the way at any regatta is a relief.  The first race at the World Championships in the lightweight 8 is another level all together.  Most of the US crews at this year’s world championships have raced this summer and they know who is fast.  They also know where they stack up in the mix and have had time to work on things to get faster and make improvements.  We went in to yesterday blind

The lightweight men’s 8 is not an Olympic event.  We did not race at this year’s world cup series and yesterday was our first 2k where we lined up against someone.  It was a little nerve-racking.  We knew that there was speed in this line-up, but what we didn’t know was what everyone else had.  The only prior result was that Italy beat Denmark at the Lucerne World Cup 7 weeks ago. 

Italy is a perennial powerhouse in the lightweight men’s 8.  We knew they were going to be fast and we knew Denmark lost to them, but not by much.  Then there is France, who’s stern pair won the lightweight men’s pair at the 2010 World Championships in New Zealand.  So they’re fast.  Then there is Australia, who is returning at least 6 guys from last year’s 8 that placed 2^nd, beating the Italians who got 3^rd and us, who placed 5^th.  Basically, everyone is fast. 

So our plan was to row our race.  We had a malleable race plan based on what we and our coach (Dan Roock) had seen over the past 6 weeks.  The tricky part is that whenever we did pieces, they were solo; us against the clock and none of the pressure of another crew screaming next to you, distracting you.  So yesterday was our test run.

The test went well.  However, Sunday is funday.  Everyone will show up with strong intentions of beating us.  That is when the race is real and now we have a result against other crews in our event to build off of.  The race yesterday was tight and the finals always seem to be a little tighter.  We’ll bring our A game and put it all on the line.  That’s all you can do.

- Jimmy