Nationals and off to Europe

Hi guys,

We had a great time at Nationals Champs in Oklahoma City (OKC) this year. It was kind of a unique year. The first day of racing went smoothly. My boat-mates and I took 3rd in the K2 500m race, and 2nd in the K4 race. Then a huge hail/thunderstorm ripped through OKC later that night. The next day was the K1 races, but the storm destroyed the course and specifically the super-expensive, brand new start gates (these are little boots that hold the front of your boat until the start official says go). They're estimating it at about $400,000 dollars in damage. Crazy how that can happen over night. It's too bad for OKC; what a terrible thing to happen in the middle of Nationals. We kind of took the 2nd day easy; my team just when out for a technical practice. OKC was able to get a few lines of buoys together for day 3: 200m day. These races went off pretty well even without start gates. It was a quick fix, good enough to race, but all of the 2nd day sprint races had to be cancelled. 

The day after Nationals, I flew out to Romania: that was last Sunday. I came out here with two of my men's C1 training buddies. We're all having an awesome time out here. We started paddling Tuesday and did some easy technical paddles the first day just to get our feeling back in the boat after a long plane ride. I'm paddling a K1 decked out in the Romanian flag pattern: blue hull, yellow stripe, red deck.  It's pretty cool. 

Yesterday I started practicing with the Romanian national team girls. Man, they are fast. I could get really good with a year paddling here. The thing I love best about the Romanian style of training: they care purely about how hard you work.  They don't have perfect technique (interestingly), but it's all about how hard you push on the water and in the weight room. I like that attitude. 

Off to Nationals and Europe

Hi guys,

Always great to get a nice little weekend in at home. I drove back for the weekend to drop off my car and epic V12 Surfski before a long trip around the world. It's so fun to go back to the water i grew up on and paddle around in my favorite boat: my surfski. Those conditions (V12 on Penobscot Bay, Maine) truly feel like home to me. Man, nothing is better than that!

Tomorrow I'll be flying out to Oklahoma City to race in the National Sprint Champs later next week. Then, I fly out for 2 months in Europe.  I'll go  to Romania for the first 2 weeks for some crazy training there.  Ill be training with the Romanian national team women as well as the Mexican women (who love to train with the Romanians).  After that I'll head off for 3 weeks of training in Germany. Here, I'll switch gears to more long distance paddling as I get ready for World Marathon Champs happening in Copenhagen. Ill take the train up with one of my teammates from Germany to Denmark for that. It should be quite a fun paddling tour.  I'm incredibly thankful for the opportunity to do all of this. I'm hoping I can grow as a paddler from all the international experience. I hope to have a good race at marathons this year. I'm 24 so this is the first time I race in the big bad senior women's class (I'm moving up from the under23 group).

Hope everyone's having a great summer and getting plenty of time out on the water,

Alex

The Journey

Someone I love once told me to 'enjoy the journey.' These are my trophies. 

PaddleBender, Dreher Island State Park, SC

We had a very fun race this past weekend at PaddleBender.  It was a hot and sunny day, relatively flat on the water, but fun nun the less. I love any excuse to hop into my surfski even for just a quick 8 mile race.  It was great to see all of the Southeast surfski regulars again, as well as the guys from Epic Kayaks.  They're awesome guys and are always super helpful with any surfski related question. I was happy to take home the first place women's trophy and to finish 2nd over all.  Thanks to John for putting on another great race!

Marathon Kayak Team Trails, Texas

Hi guys,

I just got back from the USA Marathon Kayak Team Trials in Sugar Land, TX.  It was an awesome course; we were doing laps on Brooks Lake.  I did 6 laps, with 6 portages.  The lake had low bridges, fountains, a no-dock portage, and narrow buoy turns: a very entertaining course.  The hardest part was by far the heat; this early in the year, I was not prepared for the climate of Texas. My start heat consisted of the junior men kayaks, U23 men kayaks, and the one canoer racing, my teammate Ian Ross.  I stole as many wakes from the boys around me as I could.

Unfortunately, I was the only women racing the senior class this year.  We also didn’t have anyone trying out for the junior or U23 women’s slots.  We have to get more women out there racing for our sport.  But because of this, for me it was a race against the clock; I had a time standard I had to beat.  I had to maintain a 10.8 km/h pace for the 6 laps/25.6km of race, and I was very happy to see that at the end of the race, my time was 2:14:32 making my average pace, 11.4 km/h. This put me about 8 minutes faster than my time standard; a very comfortable result to sit on as I wait for the official team announcements from the Marathon committee.  I think my time should be plenty fast enough to send me off to the World Champs in September.

This year Worlds will be in Copenhagen Denmark, which I’d love to go visit mostly because I’m a little obsessed with Vikings.  Hello Scandinavia! I’ve gone to marathon worlds the past two years, but this is the first time I’d get to do the big bad senior women’s solo race.  There is no race more prestigious for marathon women than this race in this class.

 

Hitting the Beach

What's the first thing you should do with a few days off? Hit the beach, obviously. I broke out my EPIC V12 and took a quick road trip out to Charleston, SC during my break after trials.  Cloudy weather; beautiful waves.  Charleston was getting hit with some thunderstorms and rough winds leading to decent sized swells traveling North-South along the beach of Isle of Palms, my favorite coast line in Charleston.  After a long and grueling winter of training on flat water and in a cold weight room, there is nothing more freeing than hitting the beach with my ski.  It truly feels like home again.

It's funny how everything happens on a bigger scale in the ocean.  The waves are bigger; the boats are bigger; the water's wider; the paddles are longer; my smile is bigger.  I swear I put in more effort on that paddle in the ocean than any flat water workout, without even noticing it.  I played, surfed, sprinted for waves, and found myself back at the beach hours later completely exhausted- yet, more level-headed.  There is something very peaceful about chancing a wave versus chasing an competitor.  The ocean is my happy place. 

I spent hours doing laps in the waves that day.  On my last half hour, in the middle of a big ride, I looked around to see I was in the middle of a big pod of dolphins doing the same thing I was: surfing.   I was very thankful for the trip.  It cleared my head and rebooted my body for another few months of tough flatwater training.  I think it's crucially important to have an reset button for when life gets mentally tiring.  I call mine: a 4h road trip to the beach.

 

 

USA Sprint Team Trials

Ok, we just got back from trials this past week.  There were a few extra big names returning to the game this year.  A few athletes took off the Olympic year (last summer) for school or surgery or what not.  Olympic year is kind of a low key season for athlete’s below the Olympic level; so if needed, athletes are more likely to take this year as a reflection/recuperation year.  The field for senior women was looking a bit deeper than in the past. We even had more athletes then the men’s events (which still isn’t that many compared to other nations, but you know what I mean).  I’m happy to say I was 4^th in the 500m K1 race. 

It would have been nice to come in top 3, but I could tell that a lot of my training this winter was focused on building-the-base to carry me throughout the summer months.  Unfortunately, I feel like I might have started speed work too late and too close to trials.  That might have been a disadvantage for me, but live and learn! I have high hopes that as we develop more speed-work throughout the summer, my times could seriously improve.  Coming from my surfski/marathon background, I always feel like I have a solid base.  It’s those short little 200m races that I now have to focus on.  I’m hoping to put most of my focus on the 200m throughout summer, figuring that, at the very least, I can meet in the middle with a killer 500m time.  We’ll see what happens.  Unfortunately, women don't race the 1000m; so bummed about that.

Being relatively new to sprinting, I learn a lot from every regatta in which I’m lucky enough to participate.  It’s been quite a journey discovering all of the little innuendos of this bizarrely unique sport of sprint kayaking.  I’m excited for what the summer has in store for me.  If it’s anything like last summer, it will be a lot of heavy training, and if I’m lucky, crazy improvements.  Next up for me:  USA Marathon World team try-outs in Texas, May 18th.  After that, a bunch of training and a surfski race or two as part of the Southeast Point Series.  Way more to come!