Welland Canal Images - May 27-28, 2011

 

Heading out for my Time Trial. Carrying the boat I always feel awkward.

 

My coach Doug giving last minute advice. Often it is very key information.

 

 

 

The last 250m of the 2km course.

 

Finishing Gates

The perspective shot from the tarmac and boathouse down the canal to the racecourse.

Welland Canal - Selections Regatta

This weekend, May 27-29 is the "Development Regatta" for Selections to the various rowing teams that represent Canada in the summer regattas. Under 23 (U23) team will be selected for a regatta in July in Europe. For me, I'm vie-ing for a spot on the Pan-Am team heading down to Guadalajara, Mexico in October. It will be a long shot but I will put it all on the line.

This Welland Canal is an arrow-straight body of water on a dis-used portion of the famous Canal that connects Lake Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. First built in 1829 after 5 years of hard back-breaking labour before excavators and dump trucks. The potion of the canal that is now used for recreation was re-routed in 1973 due to the large ships needing even larger bridges(or tunnels) for vehicle traffic.

Schedule for this weekend is:

Friday, May 27th: Practice 12-5pm
Sat. May 28th: Time Trial 8-11am, Semifinals 3-5pm
Sunday May 29th Finals 9am-12pm




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Blisters

Blisters are about the pleasure of pain!
It comes with rowing like bugs in your teeth comes with road-biking and rugburn comes with late-night after-party wrestling. What I mean by this is somewhat in the realm of how good it feels to finish a hard day at the job; You feel achy and sore and don't want to do anything. But, the feeling is somewhat silently wonderful.

Blister defined, is a small fluid filled pocket, usually in the upper layers of skin. It is caused by forceful friction, burning or freezing. Most blisters are filled with serum or plasma, but some can be filled with blood or pus if they become infected. An interesting factoid of blisters is that the word came from Old-Middle Dutch "bluyster" from the 14th century meaning leprous nodule; a fluid-filled cyst due to leprocy.

Now, is it because I have a half Dutch ancestry that I'm more inclined to blisters, or that I have the early signs of a rare but ever-present Leprosy infection. I joke, but I do have a continual conveyer-belt supply of fresh blisters almost on a daily basis. Just as a gloriously deep blister heals, the broad scar tissue surface buckles under the pressure of another tectonic plate shift and a new blister forms.

All rowers have them - it is a common thread of discussion; blister comparisons. I recently saw my National Team friend, Jerry Brown, and his hands were much better worse than mine, and his hands were thick with callousing. It makes me not worry as much. The only real issue is the stinging pain after the blister bursts and it comes in contact with water. I catch myself screaming very high-pitched in the shower after early morning rows, just after a new blister opened up.

There are many types of blisters, from small and almost camoflage blisters, there can be long and broad painless skin flaps, all the way to swollen, fluid filled pulsating painful ones. Just don't burst them if you can avoid it. I feel, the skin will heal up thicker underneath by the time it peels off.

May 9 Radar Submission!

Today was the deadline for the May RADAR submission. This day will go down as the most anticipated and hyped day, in my experience, as a Rower. Now that I have submitted my "scores" to Rowing Canada, I have a giant burden of lead-weight off my back. Little did I know that most of the excess stress in my life right now was to do with a few "small" erg tests. I think, deep down I knew that this was culmination of 8months of kick-my ass hard work and actually a quantitative approach as "can I handle this shit."

Well, the scores are as follows:

Test Name Result Calculated Watts 500m Spilt Time Score
Weight (kg) 74 kilograms
Height (cm) 185 centimetres
Arm Span (cm) 190 centimetres
Peak Power (190 Drag Factor) 879 watts 01:13.6 *28
Peak Power (Testing Drag Factor) 788 watts 01:16.3 44
1 Minute 364 metres 625 01:22.4 47
2000 Meter 06:27:0 time 386 01:36.8 60
6000 Meter 20:33:0 time 323 01:42.7 73
60 Minute 16529 metres 271 01:48.9 25
Time Trial 2000 Meter (1x) 07:34:6 time 238 01:53.7 63


This totals up to.... drumroll please.... 340.
Now, this is very exciting - as the last RADAR submission I was at 248. But, still the recommended score for funding and National team invitations is 350 points.

As of this moment, about an hour after I found out the totals, I'm not sure of how this all goes down. Can the coaches go easy on me and be lenient or is it a hardened set rule that I need the extra 10 points to bring me to 350 total points.

Regardless, my flights are booked and I'm heading to the Welland Canal, Ontario in 18 days for a very important time-trial for further selections to larger Summer regattas representing Rowing Canada.