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

NESurfski Downwinder

Hi guys,

Great day of racing today with my old training group of New England Surfski paddlers. Today was the annual end of the season Downwinder.  If you’re paddling in New England, you have to check out this series http://www.newenglandsurfski.com/ I was pumped this race happened during my end of the season 2 week break at home. So I went out and met up with the group today for one of the most epic New England races I’ve ever paddled.

Usually this race happens in Maine (Kittery-York), but this year, wind and swells were coming from the east northeast demanding a coastline that could match this angle. 24h in advanced, a Facebook blast went out announcing the course had been changed to the always-choppy Gloucester to Beverly (Massachusetts) coastline, about 10 miles. This stretch would promise a better downwind experience.

And man, it was a downwinder. We got a relatively protected start in the bay at Gloucester; then quickly hit confused waves as we rounded the corner and headed southwest towards Beverly. At first, we had wind chop heading in our direction while the ground swells were coming at us mostly from the side. This turned into a game of reading the small bumps through the big rollers if you hoped to get any rides/help from the water.

About a half hour into the race, everything adjusted to our direction. We had wind chop on top of ground swells and current all heading in our directions. The water was big and powerful with swells at 6-8 feet. So for this stretch, it was all about string together as many rides as possible while watching out for the occasional rogue wave. This is one of those classic examples of New England coast: islands and peninsulas everywhere. This topography caused us to occasionally get hit by an unexpected rebound wave heading in a weird direction. Consequently, this course required a lot of focus.

The field became quite spread out in the rough stretch until we eventually ducked behind a few islands and the course mellowed out a bit. The last 1/3 of the race felt like a flat grind, or maybe this was just by comparison with the first stretch of the race. A few daring paddlers took the wide course around the islands giving them a longer stretch of rides but also a slightly longer course.

I tried my best to keep a steady rhythm for the flat bit as I headed towards the finish line. At the very end, we had a run up the beach finish: the traditional end to the NESurfski downwinder. It was an all around great race, complete with tons of surf and rides. We had 23 competitors in total which is an awesome showing. I was pumped to see how much the series has grown in the 2 years since I’ve moved away to Georgia. Thanks to the guys for putting on such an awesome event and for welcoming me back so kindly. It was really great to be racing back home again!