Training Partners

First of all, Happy New Year!  I hope everyone has enjoyed the holidays with friends and family.  I was lucky enough to travel home to Annapolis and go down to Virginia to see my parents and brothers for Christmas.  It has been awesome being with Shaunnah again and definitely makes me excited for the time when I get to move home again.  Although, the longer I'm away from home the better the rowing is going so Shaunnah and I are willing to make the sacrifice.

While on my break from the team I have had a workout plan to follow.  The main goal is to get rested from the previous five and for the next couple of hard months.  At the same time we don't want to let the progress of the previous months go to waste with laziness so there was still some mileage and hard work to put in.  I am lucky enough to have some friends in Annapolis who are willing to erg with me and even do some hard work.  I could do it alone, but it is MUCH BETTER to have company.  I would like to thank Tod Nix, his Annapolis Junior Rowing Team and James Smith for enduring the 90' erg sessions and two days of pieces.  As they say, "misery loves company."

I have trained alone before and it is no fun. It is much harder to reach your max potential on any workout and much easier to tell yourself 50' is enough when you're supposed to do 60'.  Although, with the motivation to do well at the Olympics I don't think many of us are stopping pieces early.

If you are committed to working out again this new year get a partner.  It will be much easier to make your working out a habit and not a chore.  You will see better results through pushing each other.  A number of my family members have begun working out a bit more and their partners help them keep going.

As I head back to OKC for the final push toward the dream I will think about the people who have helped me get to this point and I'm sure it will help push me to the end.

- Jimmy

P.S.  The video is of one of Todd's junior rowers and I doing some steady state.