Racing

Our most recent camp in Charlotte North Carolina ended with an international competition with athletes from Canada, the USA, Europe and South America. As always the course was challenging and there were many spills and thrills.

 

I was happy with my competition considering our priority is still squarely set on training. The volume was quite intense with all of our paddling sessions for the two week period being out on the whitewater. The gym work also compounded the stress on our bodies and by the time the race came around we were dragging our feet a little bit.

 

I have been struggling with my first runs in the early races this year so I wanted to be sure that I was as precise as possible and attack the first run. I have been working very hard with my coach Han Bijnen to create a solid platform to race from and while it was a little mechanical I was happy that I was able to execute the model quite well. I finished the first run in first place, right where I need to be.

 

Second runs saw the wind pick up a little and the fatigue set in as well. Still I had a solid run with one mistake near the bottom, good enough to take first place, my first win of the season. You can check out video of my first run at the following link:

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1431817087735249090

 

Now it is a little time at home before heading to Beijing for a camp on the Olympic course before returning to Charlotte NC for the Pan Am championships at the end of April. I will be putting my head down and working hard to get some intense training done and in the bank for later in the year.

 

NEW BOATS

I have just received a new boat from Galasport and I am amazed at how identical the cut is. I measured it against my other new boat that arrived in November and most of the measurements are identical and those that are different are only out by 1mm. I am curious to get them both out on the water and see how they feel, it will be hard to decide which one to leave in Beijing without really having time to test them both. It’s a good position to be in to have two great new boats to choose from.