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.