Heading Home from PanAms

We had a great regatta at PanAm Championships, Mexico City. Now I'm headed home. I competed in a bunch of races (K1 1000m, K2 1000m, K4 500m, K2 200m, K1 5000m) and I'm thankful for all of the experience I earned from this regatta. Thanks to all my teammates, coach, as well as the Mexican team and new friends for their support.

 

PanAm 1000m K1 Champ!

Bright and Early Saturday morning, I won gold in the 1000m singles race! It was an experience like no other, this is my first international win, and I'm stoked to have been able to accomplish such a big result at such a big regatta.

How it went: This was my first race of the day which usually means I still have the extra nerves. It's always nice to have a heat or smaller race earlier in the day to slop off your jitters. Not my luck. My best choice was to go out for a hard warm up prior to the race. I had a decent start. Everyone at this level is a great sprinter. I got off the line in about the same position as Canada and Mexico (these are great women on and off the water). As always, I knew my strength would be my middle speed. Coming from my marathon background, I tend to rely on my endurance and steady middle pace to get me ahead. After we each transitioned out of our hard starts and into our middle speeds, I could feel my competitors dropping back. I had my coach riding next to the course on a bike shouting the whole way: my support system and my set of eyes. In the race, there's no time or energy available for looking right or left. I relied on his shouts to indicate how my position looked on the field and where I should do my pick ups. I gave it all I had left for the finish, crossed the line, and then felt all of the energy of the win. It was such a rewarding experience.

My favorite part? The anthem. There is nothing like standing on the highest block of the podium, watching your coach award the medals, listening to your nation's anthem. It's an honor. I was so thankful for the opportunity to compete in this race for the USA.

The next step: This was not the biggest race in the world, but it was a big step for me. It's back to training in the hopes of getting faster at even shorter sprints: the 500m and the 200m distances. I'll do a good bit of distance training this fall, and in three weeks I'll compete at the Marathon World Championships conveniently hosted in Oklahoma, USA. Then it's back to a sprint mindset.

 

 

 

 

Mexico City, Mexico Training for PanAmerican Champs

Hi guys,

My training group and I are back to work in Mexico City. This is my 2nd trip here this year (1st in March). It's a great course and a great training environment. The purpose of the trip: train up for PanAmerican Championships which will be hosted here the first week in September. We had to get here early because Mexico City is in 2,200m of altitude. There's a lot of theories on altitude training, but we generally believe it takes about 3 weeks to acclimate to the lighter air. The first week is hard; the 2nd week is harder; the third week, you're about back to normal. I'm glad I've already experienced the cycle once this year and know what to expect- more or less. It's a great training opportunity here: my Cardio should be great for the fall. The Mexican team is helping us out a lot with boats and figured out. They're great friends!

The IceBucketChallenge!

Thanks to Andrew McLain (my little brother) for the Nomination. I have done the bucket Challenge, just after practice today, to promote ALS awareness and research. I donated to the cause and did the challenge! Good Luck to everyone who takes the challenge on next.

 

 

 

Marathon Trials 2014

Just finished marathon tryouts this past weekend. We missed the first trials in Oklahoma this year because of our Euro-trip. But got special permission to do a second trials during our brief time at home between trips. I had a solid run, keeping just under a 12k/h pace with 6 short laps and lots of portages. It was a great day for all of my teammates as well. We're all excited about the hopes of representing team USA at Marathon World Champs in America this year (Oklahoma City, end of September)! It'll be cool to do a world champs in our home country. 

Local News!

Look for us on local News (Northern Goergia) this weekend as we talk about nationals! 

Nationals

Just finished a week of National Championships back in Georgia. It was very nice to have my club hosting. We got that 'home court' advantage. With some of our top American women off racing at World Championships, I had some top finishes in my Nationals races. I'm very happy with all of my K1/singles races (distances: 200m, 500m, 5000m) where I placed 1st or 2nd in all of them. As well as my K4 race where my teammates and I took 1st again. Fun week, great too see old friends from around the country! Nationals is always about the team (versus National Team Trials in April which always feels more like independent races). It was great to come back from Europe and see so many young faces competing on our team for the first time. Love that development program.

Romanian Training Camp

Hi guys,

I’m still training away in Romania. Since World cups, we’ve spent the past 6 weeks in a grueling training camp. We did a 4 week long “cycle” of hard training: 12 paddle, 6 lifts, and 3 runs - a week (Sundays off). Then took a long 3 day weekend complete off. Now we’re back half way through our 2^nd training cycle. The first cycle took a lot out of me. Most days, I felt like I was on top of the world and fought hard, pushing till I had no more to give. This cycle, I keep grinding away everyday but with less of that spark I saw in the first training cycle.

They say you improve the most when you’re struggling and tired. So this feels like the time to keep powering along as hard as I can through paddles/lifts/runs. I’ve been learning how to find my 2^nd winds, 3^rd winds, 4^th, 5^th. I learn how to push when I thought I had nothing left. I learn how to bounce out of soreness and tiredness. I think that’s where improvement comes fastest: pushing when you’re down. It’s all about keeping a positive mental outlook and finding that “fight.”

We have another 2 weeks of training here in Romania. We’re at probably my favorite place to train: Lake Snagov which is the site of the Romanain canoe/kayak home base. Nothing to do here but eat/sleep/train. Life is so simple and focused. Then I get a week back home with my family in Maine. Hallelujah. After that, it’s preparations for National Champs (end of July), and then PanAmerican champs (beginning of September). What a summer!

Happy 4^th of July, America!

 World Cup 3 - Szeged, Hungary

 World Cup 3 - Szeged, Hungary

 World Cup 3 - Szeged, Hungary

World Cup 3 - Szeged, Hungary

Road trip back to Romania

Race Course - Pitesti, Romania

Sunset - Pitesti, Romania

 Snagov, Romania

Snagov, Romania

Erg Training in Timisoara, Romania

Eurotrip 2014 Begins

Hi guys,

More great training around the world. We left for Europe two weeks ago. Last week I competed in my first World event: World Cup #2 - Racice, Czech Republic. Now that I'm just starting to compete at the world level, the main thing for me to focus on is: EXPERIENCE. Race an many races as possible, learn all I can, watch, take it in, grow, become faster. My coach signed me up for all the K1 distances: 1000m, 500m, 200m. It's a lot for one regatta, and no one at the top does that many races. But I might as well get the most out of my accreditation.

And it was a really awesome weekend. It's impossible not to go into your first world event without a few nerves. But I shook most of those off in my first race: the 500m heats. Then, continued with various other heats, semis, and finals throughout the weekend. Such an experience.

This weekend I'm very excited to race in World Cup #3 - Szeged, Hungary. I feel like I have a world of experience after just last weekend. I'll go into this regatta with a better understanding of what to expect from the races and myself. I'm looking forward to it!

After that, I will continue to train in Europe this summer with a bunch of my teammates. We'll road trip around to various races and training venues, some in altitude, in the hopes of becoming bigger Beasts On The Water.

Alex

Off to Mexico!

Hi guys,

I've just reached the end of a long winter training session. Main focus of the winter: endurance. But by endurance I mean something more than just the ability to paddle for miles and miles (although that came along with it). I mean the ability to endure brutally large amounts of work throughout the day. For the past month or so, a typical day has looked like: a 2-3h lift in the morning, breakfast, 10km paddle, lunch, nap, afternoon paddle, afternoon lift, sauna, dinner, sleep. It took my body a while before I was use to the physically draining workout schedules. I learned to let my body rest whenever I had a moment of down time. But with my training, I can now practice for hours and hours out of the day, and as we get closer to race season, I know I can handle big workouts. In the next two months that lead up to USA national team trials, it's all about transitioning that endurance into aggression and power on the water - through sprint workouts. 

And it's all been worth it! Tomorrow I leave for a 4 week training camp in Mexico City. Reasons to go to Mexico for March: 1. ALTITUDE TRAINING! Mexico City is in crazy elevation (so I hear), which will be epic for cardio training. If you can do a fast time in altitude, you can go 5s faster at sea level. 2. WARM WEATHER! I really can't complain since moving to Georgia, but it has been a colder winter than most, even in the south. We've had a couple snow/ice storms (SnowJam 2014!) this year thanks to the 'polar vortex' or whatever were calling it these days. The weather has cut into workouts both on the water and in the weightroom (because our local gym closes at the first rumor of flurries). 3. BREAK THE MONOTONY! Winters are a long slow grind; there's nothing like a change of scenery to spark your fight to train hard. 4. TOUGH COMPETITION! There are some big names heading to Mexico this march. A lot of countries are preparing for their national team trials, which means a lot of the northern countries head south for spring training. I'll be training against some fo the best. 

I can't wait to get started, and see what I can make of this trip. It's sure to be both an amazing experience, and the best training I can get as I get before the start of the race season. More to come!

Alex