The Road to Henley – October Update

After what feels like forever, an early season dominated by fits and starts, we are finally getting into a good rhythm as we approach the midsection of our normal season. Normally by this point we would have a couple of head races under our belt, looking to supplement that race experience with couple more before Christmas, with maybe a regatta or two in addition.  Despite the relative lack of race experience with other clubs for this time of year, I wouldn’t say that we’re behind where we would expect to be in other years.

In fact, the opposite may be true. We have had the bonus of extra time before having to be race ready, allowing us more time to focus on refining technical work and expanding the aerobic base fitness before gearing up to the anaerobic sprints. In addition to this we have been running regular time trials on our river, giving the athletes the opportunity to get out and test themselves against the clock once a week. Over the weeks we have run various distance trials in the quad and in small boats too. The bottom line is this really – despite the lack of racing so far, we are feeling very well prepared for the summer racing season. Both the boys and I are very exited for them to sit at the start line alongside other crews, ready to show what they can do.

The mood around training since we came back from the holidays at the start of October has been fantastic, the warmer days and blue skies noticeably lifting spirits. Now there is a more regular routine to training again the crew has really taken the opportunity to support each other above and beyond how they were before. They are all incredibly excited by the prospect of Henley, and they’re more motivated to train by this than I have ever seen them. Even on days that the school gym is used at lunch by younger rowers, two or three of the Fawley squad sneak themselves in the back to pedal a few easy miles on the watt-bike. As a coach, it’s a pleasure to work with such driven athletes.

This weekend we competed in the Australian Indoor Rowing Championships, as a chance to have some form of competition, and the boys came out with some fantastic scores. Some huge personal bests were achieved in the 2k, and they then went on to race a further 2.5km in various events across the day. As I write this, results are currently being collected and worked out from all the various virtual competitors, but I would not be surprised at all for the boys to have picked up a handful of medals between them across various events. At the end of the day, they were exhausted, but pleased with themselves and each other.

During the day I found the time to talk with each of the boys about their reasons for being so excited for Henley, what do they find attractive about this dream? It turned out the majority of the crew has never left Australia before, and so are excited by the idea of travel and seeing a new place, exploring some English history and culture, summed up by their desire to be part of the historic Henley Royal Regatta. The greater part of the drive comes from the chance to prove themselves on an international stage, competing at a level that can be very hard to find domestically.

Things are moving well, and as the sun comes out and restrictions ease, momentum towards the start line of the Fawley Challenge cup is building. Bring it on.

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