Video

Check out the first 2 video clips on the video bar I just added they are from Tuesday nights practice 4x300m , 4x200m on 8min intervals.

Team Boat Therapy

Team boat therapy...... the interpersonal dynamic in the boat hit the tipping point we needed professional help. As a team we decided to see if the Olympic Training Center sports psychologist could straighten us out.
Today at 1pm we arrived at our therapy session, 50min later we walked out a very different group of girls, ready to communicate and work hard with each other. One of the many ideas we got from the therapy was to do dry land synchronization drills so that we could be more in tune with each other.
We agreed to meet 40min before our 5pm K4 practice, at 4.20pm we arrived at the boat house with a mission, we sat in a line in front of the wall length mirrors and practiced stroking, counting each stroke and discussing what needed to be changed etc... We then sat around and went through our warm up plan for the day and who was going to call the drills and transitions through out the practice.
The start of the practice was a bit shaky but we turn it 180degrees around during our last 2 sets and turning it into the best practice by far we have had as a team!
-K

K4, K4 and some more K4

4 girls... 2 sisters, 2 alpha girls and one girl who is not quit in sync......oooooohhhhhh yes.....now say it with me DRAMA, major drama. After several days of rather unsuccessful practices in the K4 it was obvious we were heading for disaster. People were visibly angry or upset and making the girl who was at the root of the boats disjointedness feel awful. I decided it was time to break from my joking (trying to ease the tension in the boat) and lay some ground rules: 1. no bickering between sisters. 2. no finger pointing. 3. If you cant figure out a way to say something so that its constructive don't say anything. 4. No scowling after practice. 5. No talking about people behind their back. 6. Stay positive and focused in the boat, vent later. Remarkably today went much better! Team boats in canoe/kayak a very difficult every movement of your body needs to be in sync with every other person in that boat. In the top level boats peoples breathing is even in sync. Hostility and tension is easily transferred into the movement of the boat making it difficult to paddle. If one persons movements aren't smooth of slightly lopsided it can cause the boat to lean making it actually painful for everyone else in the crew.
Team boats are amazing when you get them to work and they're well worth putting in the hours on and off the water to get to that point.
I believe we are now off to a better start now that we have laid forth a set of ground rules and I look forward to the steady improvements we will be making.

New coach, and the death of the forearm

Yep you say the title right. New coach, and the death of the forearm while it may not make sense initially it will once I explain to you the new dynamic at the training center.
It all started with Nathan(head coach) hiring a new coach for the woman's K4/K2 team leading up to worlds. She's a really nice woman from Bulgaria and incidentally an ex Bulgarian national team member who placed 6th at the Athens Olympics in K2. Today was her first practice as our coach.....now we get to the death of the forearm and the shaking of limbs. First practice: 5x10min/1 off L2, normally this isnt so bad. Well, lets put it this way within 4min of the first piece we heard a soft voice eminating from the motorboat " your stroke rates are to low and you need more power behind each stroke". We complied with her request bring our stroke rate up and putting more ummph behind it, these "small" changes brought our heart rates up to L3. AM practice 2: weights. The new coach took one look at them and said "oh no this wont do" this is what we ended upwith
Bench press 27kg 30 reps
Russian twists 15kg 50reps each side
decline weighted crunch 25lbs 20reps
full dips 12reps
pull ups 10reps
single arm kayak pull 50lbs 50reps each side
pull downs 60lbs 30reps
straight leg sit ups 30reps
bench pull 30kgs 30reps
no rest between exercises and 3 sets
Now that combined with a kayak workout constitutes the death of the forearm.
This afternoon we have our first team boat workout which will be awesome .

surprises

Well in an odd twist of events it looks like I will be nominated to the sprint kayak world championship team!!!!

2nd Team Trials

Hi All,
Second team trials were this weekend. Day one was the 500m k1 races, day 2 was seat racing for the k4.
It was a good experience racing both days, there was significant wind and motorboat waves during the k1 500m finals in which I placed 8th I was very close to 6th, 7th showing significant improvement from the trials in May. I wasn't thrilled with my race because I have been doing extremely well in practice putting down fast times and being in the top of the pack, but I have a lack of race experience in sprint which showed this weekend.
Day 2: today we completed 4 seat races to fill out the K4 unfortunately since I was 8th I was put in the B boat as a domestic ie someone who has to put out a tremendous amount of effort in 4 head to head races against the A boat, while other people are swapped in and out of the A and B boats. The final crew is determined by the combination of people that were able to create the largest time gap between A&B over 500m.
This racing experience was extremely valuable for future race performance. While I did not make the Sprint Kayak team for worlds I qualified for the sprint canoe team so I will be competing with my C2 partner for top honors at worlds August 12-16th, from Nova Scotia I will be hopping on a plane to Alanta, GA for sprint Nationals where I plan on improving my US ranking of 8th. From Sprint Nationals I will be going to prague, czech for dragon boat world championships ( I was asked to compete by the US Dragon Boat association) from here its the east coast then a trip to Marathon World Champs in Portugal with Anne Blanchard (we have both decided to focus on the K2 and maybe break top 5).
I have recieved funding for about 1/2 of all my expences which is huge and I am very greatful for this however the rest will be coming out of pocket (not so good for a barista working at $8/hr.)
I would like to do some fund raising or locate some sponsorships to help cover the rest of the cost. With the economy in turmoil it is the worst time to do either so I am asking people for ideas. if you know a company which would like some international publicity etc..or anything else.. anyway please comment, any thoughts/epiphanies are welcome.
cheers
Kaitlyn

One More Hard Week

Yep, one more hard week down ....almost.
The woman's team started the day with a 4x15min L2 workout and ended the day with rousing game of Ultimate Frisbee with the men and Coach Luce. So today wasn't to bad but the rest of the week was really tough.
Next week should be a tapering week since we will have 2nd Team Trials on Friday, Sat, Sunday!
cheers
K