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.

On Rowing with Pocock, Parker, Nash and Perry - row2k video

On Rowing with Pocock, Parker, Nash and Perry - row2k video

A great video with some of the legends in US Rowing history. I especially like what George Pocock says about the importance of leadership over technical knowledge with respect to coaching and the way Ted Nash describes the sport.

- Jimmy

Going Back in Time

Training has been going really well over the past few weeks.  The volume and intensity are high and the results are showing progress.  When I'm at practice or watching video on my own I try to stay focused on that, but it's nice to think about the old days as a kid when not much was on the line and enjoy some fun stuff.  Tonight, I went to go see the new Muppets movie.

Christmas season is always great for bringing back childhood memories.  I definitely have developed what I like to call an adult switch.  I realize I am an adult and feel that I can act like one when needed.  However, sometimes I like to flip the switch and watch cartoons, horse around or do stupid stuff that I could get away with as a youngster.  Shaunnah can testify, I love cartoon movies.  Shrek is awesome.  Tonight, I really wanted to see Arthur Christmas, but chose the Muppets instead.

It was great to not think about practice, upcoming erg test or selection and veg out to some old friends.  I haven't watched the Muppets in YEARS.  I'm no spring chicken and it may have been 15+ years since my last Muppet experience, but it was great.  The movie was well written and funny.  I found myself surrounded by little kids and parents and it's always interesting to hear adults laugh when kids don't.  Some of the jokes are just above them and I love that.  I remember watching Shrek for the first time with Mike Berganski and his to daughters.  They were in middle school at the time and Mike and I laughed our butt's off.  After the movie the girls said they didn't like it nearly as much as us.  Many of the jokes in that movie came from Disney movies that the girls had not seen because they were just too young.  Mike and I, on the other hand were rolling with laughter.

Christmas is always a great time to think about opening presents as a kid, or hearing your Dad drive a four wheeler across the yard on Christmas morning.  That was one of the best Christmas presents ever!  The movies that play this time of year bring me back as well.  I downloaded the entire Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack on itunes the other day.  That is my favorite Christmas movie.  I'll just turn it on and read or hang out.  I think my roomates are getting a little sick of it...

Well I hope all of you are enjoying the Holiday Season.  Take a minute from your busy lives and act like a kid again.

- Jimmy

Leading when you need to be led: Sitting bow in a pair

Bow seat of a pair is a difficult seat to row.  You have to be in perfect sync with the guy in front of you and you have to be on top of it mentally at all times.  Your responsibilities include, setting the boat, making steering calls, pulling hard and making technical calls.  The technical calls are what can get you in to a bit of trouble in the boat. 

When I’m rowing I’m constantly thinking of things to correct.  Self criticism is the best criticism in my book.  I try to hold myself to a high standard of rowing or anything else for that matter.  However, when I’m rowing in bow I’m not going to make calls to myself.  That would sound ridiculous and is a waste of energy.  “Jimmy, reach from the hips and sit up.”  My stroke seat would probably stop rowing and ask if I needed to talk to someone.  On the other hand I am responsible for making the technical calls for the entire boat and that includes stroke.

It’s a hard business making calls to someone other than you.  People can get defensive or begin to say to themselves, “why is he only making calls for me?  I know he’s not rowing perfectly.”  In order to have a solid pair relationship and create speed this needs to be avoided.

I try not to harp too much on one singular thing the stroke is doing and if I do feel something I usually try to come up with a drill that will fix it.  The drill helps him feel the difference instead of hearing me “complain.”  Another great tool is the “royal we.”  We need to hold the legs down a bit more while the bodies come over and let the boat run out.  We need to be a little more horizontal at the catch.  The thing is I see him doing it and 

I’m supposed to follow his every move so the collective is very relevant and a great tool. 

Stroke seats remember, your bow seat is not just berating your technique solely.  He is still trying to better his own stroke as well and these calls only create positive speed, so deal with it.    

On another, more defensive note, I have not had any stroke seats flip out on me.  I was discussing this point with another guy I train with who usually sits bow and stating how difficult it is to not sound like an elitist while rowing bow. 

  

Good Enough and Some Video

When I was a kid and would go over to my Dad's shop and help out there was a poem on the wall of his office.  All I ever remember were two of the lines, but they go:  "My son beware of good enough, it is not made of sterling stuff."  I don't know who the author is, but it's a great line.

Whenever I'm feeling sorry for myself during a practice and want to take a stroke off I think of this.  It helps motivate me to maximize every workout and get through the end of the day.  If you guys know my Dad then you'll know he isn't into literature.  However, he found this poem and took it to heart.  I think it helped him build a successful business.

Anyway, enough ranting.  I hope you are all enjoying the holidays.  I've actually been listening to Christmas Music which may or may not be driving my roommates crazy.  I'm looking forward to the next 2 weeks of hard training and then a break in Annapolis.

BEAT ARMY!

- Jimmy

P.S.  The video is of Ryan Fox and me doing some power work with a bungee on the boat.

Not Eating as a Lightweight. Thank you Thanksgiving

My favorite holiday is right around the corner, Thanksgiving.  It is the one holiday that I am not affected by marketing.  No presents, cards, flowers, candies, just cooking and fellowship.  I enjoy the aromas, sitting around an watching football and I do not participate in the black Friday hoop-lah, so it is a relatively stress free holiday.  The most wonderful part about Thanksgiving is trying to eat like a champion.

Unfortunately, I will not be home with Shaunnah for this Thanksgiving, booooooooooooooooooooo.  Despite five years in the military and four deployments between the two of us, this will be the first Thanksgiving we spend apart as husband and wife.  I'm going to stay in Oklahoma City.  However, that will not affect the status of my belly around 6 pm on Thursday.  Some of the guys I train with are going to stay here as well and we are preparing a mighty feast.

The famous casserole is on the right side of the table in the
dish.  This is in Mom's kitchen.

I am going to help with the Turkey (brine is the way to go) and make what has become a Thanksgiving staple in my life since I married Shaunnah, sweet potato casserole.  Everyone has their thing when it comes to traditional dinners.  My Mom makes the best stuffing you've ever tasted.   The key, I believe is the sausage.  Shaunnah's specialty is a sweet potato casserole.  It does not have marshmallow... oh no.  It has something much better; a thick layer of butter, brown sugar, sugar, pecans and other goodness baked on top of a buttery, velvety layer of sweet potatoes.  I don't really have a specialty.  I just ride the coat tails of the women in my life, haha.

Again, I wish I were home, but I am definitely glad that I can bring some of my home to OKC and share it with my teammates.  I wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

- Jimmy

At the Mercy of the Elements

Driving to the course this morning for the Fall Speed Order I saw mirrored reflections on Lake Carnegie.  I was thinking to myself that this will be a fast race with perfectly flat conditions.  In the back of my mind I was remembering the wind forecast I looked up the previous night that said a 8-9 mph headwind would appear between 8 and 9 am.  However, I ignored the forecast saying to myself, "There's no way the wind will pick up from 0-9 mph in 1 hour.  I WAS WRONG (we started at 9:15)

Will and I shoved from the dock at 8:38.  We wanted to get a good warm-up in to row the 6k erg test out of our legs before the race.  About 3k in to the warm-up I noticed there were no more mirror reflections and the wind kept building over the next 10 minutes in to a pretty stiff head wind headed straight down the first 1/2 of the 3 mile course.  I told Will it would be awesome.  We would just pound it in to the head wind and make everyone hurt.  What I forgot to think about was how much it would hurt me as well...

We had a solid piece, but that first 1.5 miles was tough.  After every stroke it just felt like the boat was slowing down way more than it should.  It was painful and I'm sure added a good 20+ seconds to the first 1/2 of the race.  Then we started to turn and found about 150 meters of shelter and started to gain some momentum.  Once the wind became more of a cross head instead of a direct head we got in to a better rhythm and moved a bit.

Rowing is funny.  Conditions can change in an instant and there is nothing you can do about it but bear down and pull hard.  At least it wasn't hailing.

Enjoy the video (Will Newell and I doing some low rate stuff earlier this week).

- Jimmy