Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in liamsoddyssey's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, July 18th, 2006
1:17 pm	one more day... one more day of training. we race around noon local time, which is about 6 hours ahead of ontario time, so results should be up when people back home wake up. we're rowing well, staying as focussed as possible, while still taking in the experience. tony (our coach) has been scoping out the competition on the water for us, and no one looks too terrifying, so that;'s good. we have to remember that all we can control is our own speed, so we will race as fast as possible. Off to bed. i'll try to write tomorrow, the night before the first heat... (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, July 17th, 2006
11:43 am	maple leafs... we put our leafs on our blades yesterday. it's a pretty cool thing. you haven't officially represented canada as a rower until you have the leaf on your blade. we had a little ceremony that was somewhat like a low key graduation and were given our leaves. Rowing with the leaf on the blade feels much more serious, but also very very cool. We moved to belgium this morning and re rigged and had our first row on the racecourse. it's a lake course, so the water was dead calm with no current, so there should be no difference between lanes, which is good. we're rowing incredibly well right now, and have figured out a lot of things over the last few days. we actually look like we know what we're doing and it makes rowing a lot easier. hopefully we can stay focussed until next sundays and the finals. our first race is on thursday, and results will be posted at www.worldrowing.com and www.row2k.com and www.rowingcanada.org The world rowing site will likely be updated the most efficiently. i may not be able to post very often, as internet here is expensive and i don't want to expend energy finding an internet cafe. we're on the super taper now, sitting and lying down and resting as much as possible. I'll post if/when i can... wish me luck (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, July 16th, 2006
3:55 pm	uni's and time trials today we finally got our racing unisuits. they're red and white and can only be worn at the world championships. we've all tried them on and taken pictures and then put them back in their packages and stowed them safely in our bags. it's much more real now, what we are doing. we've all worked a looooong time to have the chance to wear the red and white and maple leaf. it's pretty exciting. this morning we did time trials, and graham and i are significantly faster (5-6 %) in a relative sense than we were back home. we're starting to catch up to the faster crews and are feeling much more confident and capable at speed. our starts are blazing fast, our finish pieces are getting there, but our middle thousand is very very strong. i'm really looking forward to racing, heats start thursday. we're leaving our camp here in holland tomorrow morning and starting our very specific preparation at the world's course in Hazewinkel, Belgium tomorrow afternoon. I"m pumped, especially after how well this morning's time trials went... (Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 12th, 2006
10:58 am	still training, sleeping better we've been doing just two rows a day, a welcome change from three. it's a pretty easy life right now. we're working on bringing up our speed. the dutch under 23 team is training at the same location. they don't seem to have a pair, but we got the entry today and there are 18 entries in the pairs event, it's one of the more heavily subscribed events. should be some fun racing... I think i am over the jet lag. i slept straight through from 10pm until 7 am last night. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, July 11th, 2006
3:33 am	in the netherlands... jet lag sucks. it's 530 am. i am fully allowed to sleep until 1030 am, but i can't. My body doesn't know which end is up. we made it safely, we got in around 330 yesterday afternoon after an uneventful trip. we didn't get our kit on time, so no one really knew who we were on the flights, which was a little frustrating, especially when we saw the u 23 volleyball team at the airport with all of their team canada stuff. the next week involves training and getting used to the new time zone. should be a good time with lots of down time, so i'll try to update... things are still pretty surreal... (Comment on this)
Monday, June 26th, 2006
8:42 pm	it's a long story.... So it's been a while since i've written and there's been a fair amount of intriguing developments since then. i wanted to make sure that everything was totally sorted out before i wrote anything, so that the whole story would be clear and concise. as mentioned in my last entry, i made the four. we simply had to time trial it on saturday of last week and make the time standard. well, we didn't. for whatever reason, we just didn't get it together well enough to make the time standard. the eight did, the coxed four did, but we didn't. this is where the complications began. After the time trial, we were brought upstairs in the boathouse for a meeting. at this meeting, the head under 23 coach announced that the coxed four had made the standard and that we hadn't. the coxed four was congratulated and we were told that our future was somewhat uncertain. there were three options: 1) we are given some more time to get it together and make the time standard (this is what the four of us wanted. we felt that a day was not long enough to get up to speed and that given a little more time, we would surely fly) 2) the four as a unit is killed and the four of us seat race to be in the pair 3) the four is killed and the four of us either go home or tryout for the world university games team (this was the last thing we wanted, as i'm not eligible and the other three guys were pretty focussed on making th under 23 worlds team) So monday morning we came back and had another upstairs in the boathouse meeting. at this meeting, we were informed that the four was dead, but the four of us would compete for the two spots in the pair. There were some issues with this, as based on the seat racing and speed orders results, we were all faster than the guys in the coxed four who had now recieved the official handshake agreement of world's attendance. So two of us would be in the pair, and two of us would either be going home or somewhat reluctantly trying out for the world uni's team. Our four coach, Tony, told us to take an hour away from the boathouse to think about things and come back ready to start working the bugs out for the pairs trials that would likely happen the next day or wednesday. the four of us met on our own, away from the coaches, and three of the guys said they didn't really want to try out for the pair. this was where some of the issues arose, as when you lose three of four guys, it's hard to row the pair on your own. There was the feeling that the pair would be the "spare pair" and no one really wants to be the spare pair. so we all went our seperate ways for an hour to think about it. I went for a walk in the woods near the boathouse. did some thinking, some crying, i ran for a bit to try and clear my head and generally watched my dreams of competing for Canada drift away. We all came back, the other three guys said they were done and left. i stayed. i wanted to figure something out. i figured i should be given a chance to seat race into the coxed four. i knew i was fast enough to make it, and figured something would be worked out. once the head coach came in, i talked to him, somewhat distraught. he didn't know the other 3 guys had bailed and was somewhat confused. once things were cleared up and he knew the whole story, he said "just row the single for now, we want you in the program, i'll work something out." so monday (the day all of this went down) i rowed the single. i felt like the rug had been yanked out from under me and didn't really know what to do. i wanted to go home, i didn't want to pull hard with no clear goal or goal whatsoever. Tuesday, i rowed the single, again, without much heart. after my second row, one of the guys i had rowed the four with came down. he was on his way to the airport and came to pick up the passport he had submitted in order to be registered for the regattas overseas. The head coach talked to him for at least 20 minutes. i don't know what about, i assume just clarifying the details and making sure he knew the whole story. after this talk, he went to get one of the other guys from the four who he was living with. the head coach (Terry) talked to him (Blake) for about an hour, and again, just clarified the position of rowing canada and answered his questions. so as of that afternoon, blake and phil (two harvard boys) were back in the mix for the pair. of slight issue for me was that blake was port and both phil and i were starboard. so i would have to compete against phil while he was rowing with a fellow harvard rower. Graham, the fourth member of the four, hadnt come back yet, and had gone camping. terry tried to reach him at home, and spoke with his mom. they couldn't reach his cell phone as he was deep in the okanagon. they finally reached him tuesday evening. he was heading back, and had decided on his own to give the pair a shot. so as of wednesday morning, all four of us were back in the running for the pair. there would be more seat racing, this time a straight switch of starboards. i would do 1500m with graham and then 1500m meters with blake. Phil would start with blake and then switch. the racing happened thursday morning at 715 for the first piece and 745 for the second piece. The first piece with graham felt really solid. we put a lot into it and got alot out of it. the second piece with blake didn't feel as good. it felt weak and for some reason i felt really nervous and generally uncomfortable rowing with him. so we came in exhausted, having been involved with selections, racing and the related stress and messed up schedules for the previous two weeks. we waited for them to double, triple and quadruple check the results on the water. They called us upstairs for yet another meeting. similar to the kiss and cry for figure skating, i guess. thye congratulated us all on racing hard and leaving everything on the water, but told us that two of us would be going to worlds and the other two wouldn't. Phil and graham were congratulated and told that they would be the pair.... I didn't know what to do. i was basically trying not to cry. there were relieved looks from phil and graham, and blake and i were just kind of shocked. The results of the first race were 5:16.21 for myself and graham and 5:21.61 for blake and phil. so far so good for me. "But it was the second race that made the difference." 5:21.21 for phil and graham and 5:25.31 for me and blake. I was still in teh shocked phase, but i was trying to put a positive spin on it. i was thinking, at least it was close. Mom will be happy with that. i should be happy with that, i wasn't, but soon, i thought, i might be. it might be good, go home, get a job, take some time away from rowing, do some cycling, lift some weights, get the beach muscle back... that's when it hit me... they were wrong. if this was based on "bad seconds", i had less than phil. I asked to see the numbers. i double checked the math, i triple checked the math, they were still wrong. they had me with 5.5 bad seconds and phil with 5.1 bad seconds at the bottom of the page. but the math said that i should have 5.1 bad seconds and phil should have 5.5 bad seconds. i pointed this out... they all said "huh,, that seems right, we;ll double chcekc with the results from terry;s computer. terry was still on the water coaching the eight, but they called him on his cell phone and asked him to double check (which i think means it was the quintuple check) I was right. i had less bad seconds, therefore was faster, and most importantly, i had made the pair. it was almost the worst possible way to find out. phil was pissed, i was pissed, we all felt sick . Phil expressed his displeasure, as did we all, at the way things had turned out. then phil and blake left. Tony decided the best thing for the newly formed pair to do was to go elsewhere. we went up to brentwood college where he used to coach for a little technical session. Brentwood is a private school built on the edge of the ocean. it is also built around the boathouse, so it's a pretty sweet set up. we did a long technique session, toured the school and got our boat ready for the next day. Graham picked me up the next morning (friday) in his dad's bright red porsche that he had been lent for the day. we made it to brentwood, the water was dead calm and there was a sea otter on the dock. we had a great row, did some video work, and then had lunch at tony's overlooking the bay. On the drive home, the car broke down. but it broke down in front of a really neat inn overlooking the inlet. as we waited for the tow truck, we had several beers and talked about how good our summer was going to be. i'm somewhat convinced that i'm charmed... (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 16th, 2006
4:33 am	5 months sleeping on a floor, rowing 18 times a week... So we finished seat racing today. we did 8 pieces in the morning, again, my boat won 7 of 8. Apparently the results weren't conclusive enough so we had to race another 4 pieces in the afternoon. The senior A boat raced with us. we beat them on the first piece. it was awesome. nothing like beating the senior national team 8 while seat racing. my boat only won 2 of 4 in the afternoon pieces. So, the results... I was fifth on starboard side based on the results of speed orders, the pair matrix and the 8's seat racing. i was never directly raced against the top 4 starboard side guys, as they did really well in speeds and the pair matrix. so as of right now, i am not in the 8, but am in the four. we just have to make the time standard during saturday's time trial in order to be belgium bound. i think it's mostly a formality. worst case scenario, i'm in a pair and still going to belgium, so i'm really excited. if you're going to be in belgium around the 19th of july (i'm not totally sure of the date), swing by hazewinkel and watch me race at worlds...I can't believe i was able to say that. I'M GOING TO WORLDS. I AM ON THE NATIONAL TEAM. woooo, that was fun (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 15th, 2006
3:24 am	So that's how seat racing works... I've never seat raced before. i must admit, i was kinda worried. It went much better than i expected. The boat i was in won 7 of 8 pieces and the 8th piece was really really close. In my direct seat races (where i was directly switched with someone else in the other boat), the boat i was switched into went from losing by a fair chunk of time to winning. so i'm pretty good at seat racing, i guess. i may have moved myself into the 8. we'll see after tomorrow's 8 pieces. i'm getting more and more confident, but not resting or assuming anything... plan is to pull hard until i get sent home or cross the finish line in belgium. i'm hoping they'll make the last set of cuts tomorrow, and then work on setting the boats, it's hard to say though. everything is up in the air still, could be another week. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 13th, 2006
2:34 am	hurry up... and wait... we met at 2pm today and were sent out in two eights. tony carr, who's been coaching for a long time and must be at least 65 said they were the best two throw together eights he's ever seen. he's beyond excited about how well we're rowing already. i thought today would be seat racing in eights, but it was just a "paddle". I should have known there's no such thing as a paddle out here. we lined up both eights side by side, were given a stroke rate cap of 20 and told to go for it. so our paddle turned into a race up and down our regular route for 90 minutes. it felt good to get back in an eight, and my eight won more pieces than we lost, so that was good. I was sure we would know if we had made it by tuesday or wednesday, but now they are saying the end of the week. To quote Terry " we'll hopefully know by the end of the week, within one or two guys". To translate, "we aren't really sure how long it will take, it could be another whole week or more.... keep your life on hold". There is no more offficial selection stuff until wednesday. tomorrow is another " paddle" where we pound each other for 90 minutes and no one gives an inch. should be fun. i'm getting a little stressed and scared and really just want to know whether i've made it or not, it's the uncertainty that kills me. i think the fear makes me work harder and focus better, so it's probably a good thing all in all. (Comment on this)
Sunday, June 11th, 2006
11:23 pm	PS I will be adding some photos from speed orders to my picture site shortly.... there aren't many, as we were pretty focussed on racing and i didn't have much battery life left, but they're pretty good. (Comment on this)
11:11 pm	one step closer... I made it through the first round of selections. after pairs seat racing, i was 4th on starboard side. so it's on to the next round They took the top 6 on either side, plus the 4 guys who got the exemption. as it stands right now, there will be an 8, a 4 and a pair, but there is some talk of adding a coxed 4 and taking away the pair. so there are at least 14 seats, if not 16. there's a lot of depth this year in the under 23, which is a good thing. any boat i end up making will be fast. the 8 is the priority. i'm going to try my best to make the 8. there are at least 3 guys coming in late tomorrow, having missed speed orders and the first round of seat racing, a lot of people aren't very impressed. the argument in their favour is that we want to make the boats as fast as possible, so if they come in, and are faster, the boats will be faster. So, apparently we should be happy that they are allowed to skip the last 5 days of gut busting racing and come in fresh. i'm not sure what i think. i think i'm going to beat them in the next round, so i'm not too worried. 4th on my side puts me firmly in the 4 (assuming the 8 is the priority, then the 4 and then the pair). I'm not counting my chickens yet, but it looks promising. I have to remain focussed on going as hard and as fast as possible for the next 2-3 days and see how it all shakes out. i'm feeling much more confident after the pair seat racing, though, so hopefully i can move myself up another few spots into the 8. rowing tomorrow at 2pm, and they're still claiming we will know by tuesday... (Comment on this)
1:19 am	So this is what seat racing is... Today we started seat racing. here's how it works: It's sweeping (that's one oar each). Everyone is given an oar. mine is number 19. every Port Side rower is given a boat (i row starboard). there are 20 guys, 10 ports, 10 starboards, all seat racing. 4 guys have been given a bye based on their performance at speed orders, and another 2 or 3 are showing up after the pairs seat racing. so there are at least 26 guys trying out for a maximum of 14 spots. so every port side rower stays with their boat and will eventually row with every starboard side rower. we race a time trial over 1500m and the people with the best times after the ten races will be given a chance to seat race in the 8 and the 4 and the pair, if they decide to make a u 23 pair. So it's really intense, really tiring and pretty stressful. racing for your life kinda thing. We've done 5 of the 10 races today, and the other 5 will be tomorrow. After that, there will be some cuts (i assume) and then some more trials in 8's. Today was really tough. we're half way done the pair matrix, but no one knows any results yet. we'll find out after tomorrow's 5 races. i'm totally exhausted, but should be able to recover with lots of food and a good night's sleep. i'll keep you posted... (Comment on this)
Saturday, June 10th, 2006
4:47 am	close... So we were dead last after the first 500m. finally, we pulled up our socks and rowed through everyone. we were leading through the last 350 when the pair beside us started to bite back into us. in what ended up as essentially a photo finish, we came out on the wrong end. we were .23 seconds behind the eventual winner of our final. so it's all good. everyone has been invited to a meeting tomorrow morning at 730 and it sounds like selections will be tough. off to bed to get ready for more selection stuff tomorrow. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 9th, 2006
5:26 pm	that's more like it.... We won our semi easily today. open water, didn't have to work too hard for it. It's on to the C final. we've beaten everyone in the C final before, so we're fairly confident, but also not counting anyone out. it'll be a good race and hopefully we will come out on top. again, the results will be posted shortly at www.rowingcanada.org (Comment on this)
3:44 am	tough.... Our rep was tougher than we thought. we had written off one of the pairs and assumed we would be right next to the other two pairs. we started slow, really slow... we were dead last at the 1000m mark, by a fair amount. Based on the 500m splits posted at the course, we made up 9 seconds in the last 850m. we were third, a half second in front of fourth place, and about two seconds back from the second place boat. i guess it took us a while to find our groove. tomorrow, we will have to work harder and get off the line faster in the first 1000m of the race. We have a pretty easy semi tomorrow, so our plan is to win it and win it big. after that, we plan to win the C final, ranking us as the 13th pair in canada. that's the plan. we need to keep our focus and make sure we get off the line efficiently. i still stand in a good position for the under 23 team. selections will continue till tuesday as far as i know. keeping my game face on and eating and sleeping right... Results from speed orders can be found at: www.rowingcanada.org they've been posting results before i get home from the lake, so they're pretty good. tomorrow morning's semifinal is at 830. results should be posted around 11am BC time (that's around 2pm ontario time) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, June 8th, 2006
8:05 pm	new plans... So, as expected, The guys from the world cup podium won our heat easily. Malcolm Howard and Keving Light. Our race did not go so well. we rowed pretty poorly and and never really found our rhythm. However, we still placed 4th and were in the mix. if we row well, we will be lighting the world on fire. we have a repechage tonight, and it will be a dog fight. the top two pairs will go on to semis A and B (thus allowing them a chance to qualify for finals A and B). There are four pairs in our heat and there are three pairs who will be in the mix for the top two spots. We have reworked our race plan, written it down and shook hands over it. we're both committed to it and will need to be in order to light it up tonight. we're the dark horse, but that's the way we like it. we're taking our bad race this morning as a positive and as a learning experience, and are using it to go a lot faster... it's going to be a tight battle, but if we have a good race, we can make it through. so send your fast thoughts around 6ish tonight. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
1:30 am	It's started and it's good... We hd our seeding time trial this morning. we were a little nervous and didn't row as well or as fast as we know we can. but it still turned out great. we were 11th overall (out of 22 pairs), and there was only one under 23 guy who finished in front of me and he didn't finish that far in front. So it's going well. our heat is a tough one tomorrow, but we're going to race it and see where it leaves us. i stand in good stead for making the team, if the time trial is any indication. a few of the pairs that we were worried about finished pretty far behind us, so we're really excited to race tomorrow. we won't win our heat, as the pair who just got back from winning a silver medal at the world cup in munich is in it, but we will likely do well in our repechage. we're staying focussed, which is kind of a new thing for me. my head is fully in the boat and we will make at least the B final, and if we really turn it on, we will make the A final. I love racing... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 7th, 2006
3:58 am	it begins... Tomorrow is the seeding time trial for the heats on thursday. should be fun, first chance to see how our speed stacks up. i'm nervous, but in a good way. it'll be good. i'll post results here as soon as i know them and get back to post them. thanks to everyone for their good luck wishes... Eye of the tiger... (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, June 2nd, 2006
4:06 am	flying... the taper is starting. the idea behind a taper is that you reduce the volume of training in order to make sure you are race ready. you end up with a lot of energy because your body is used to being pounded into the ground on a regular basis. we've started our taper. I'm starting to feel pretty energetic for the first time in a looooong time. Today, we did 4 by 1000m pieces in the pair. Our first piece, we finished in a dead heat with a guy from the last olympics and one of the olympic spares... we felt awesome and incredibly fast. apparently it scared the bow rower, making him worried that they're not fast enough. it felt soooo good to be that close to them. they beat us on the next three pieces, but we gave them a run for their money in the first. We're working on staying calm and making sure we know we can only control our own speed, not anyone else's. things are going much more quickly now. a lot of people are starting to show up and the lake is getting crowded. One of my old guelph teammates, a guy i've rowed with since my first year of university, is staying with me. he and another guy i know are trying out together for the world university team. i'm not eligible because i took last semester off, and they're not under 23, so we're shooting for different teams. It's going really well, James and i are doing well at rolling with the punches and working hard to get even faster. we have no idea how fast anyone else might be, but we know we're going to surprise some people. in less than a week, things will be much clearer. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 31st, 2006
3:47 am	so it's been a while... ... since i've last updated. it's going well. there have been some ups and downs, but it's definitely an up right now. the tryouts start in a week (wednesday the 7th). Day one is a time trial, used for seeding the heats. this is to make sure that all the fastest guys don't end up in the same heat, thus making the racing more complicated and less telling than it should be. thursday are heats and repechages ( a second chance in case you do poorly by accident in the heat). friday is the semis and finals... Based on these results, there will be invites to the selection camp handed out. it's sort of a complicated process, but in 2 weeks, i will know if i have made the boat or not. so, on to what's happened lately... at the beginning of last week, i was rowing in a pair with a guy who's nickname is "the Fridge". he's pretty big and defintely very strong. he's been on the under 23 team a few times and is carded. His attendance record sucks, which is scary when you're supposed to row a two person boat with them...we rowed together for about a day in a canadian made boat called a Fluidesign. The Fridge hates fluidesigns. they're apparently too hard to row, too hard to get set properly and generally slow. So he had a few hissy fits on land, as well as on the water... allegedly about the boat... but i think that was a cover. we were rowing poorly together, but that's to be expected on the first few rows. my approach was to just relax and let things happen and see where they were going. so after these two bad rows, the fridge decided our thuird row that day should bbe in singles... he apparently missed the lesson in rowing about "any boat, and seat, any time". The coach asked me why were in singles, i told him the fridge thought it was a good idea... Coach terry thought that was stupid, said he would talk to the fridge. So the next morning, coach comes up to me and says i should row my single at speed orders and the fridge would be rowing with Graham (who had asked me to row with him before i got put in the boat with the fridge). They were also given a hudson (another canadian boat, but easier to row and set up, but arguably a little slower). So i was taught the lesson that you should whine and act like a baby to get what you want. I was particularly frustrated because i need to practice rowing in a pair to be ready for speed orders and, more importantly, seat racing (seat racing is hard to explain, basically you try a whole bunch of combinations in a boat to see who moves the boat fastest) afterwards. so i was going to be stuck in my single, unable to practice sweeping and ending up unprepared for tryouts... Around this time, i heard that it was better to do mediocre in the pair at speed orders than to do well in the single, as all the seats available are in sweep boats (that's one oar ). so i asked Terry about it (who i was really pissed at after the whole Fridge thing), and he agreed. but he also said there was no one around to row the pair with, except for James... and the way he said it, it was like rowing with james would be a bad thing and that he knew i wouldn't want to. i decided to go for it. part of the issue too, was that there would only be a Fluidesign pair to row... but i figured if could row well in that, a hudson would be easy. so me and james rowed this fluidesign first in a practice row... it went really well. one of those rows where things instantly click. so we discussed our plans for speeds, both of us wanting to row the single. but the plan was to practice fairly often in the pair so we would be ready for seat racing. we also decided to row it every practice for two days to make sure we knew where we stacked up against the other pairs. so friday morning, we rowed the pair. we were right in the mix, and beating a few other pairs with carded guys in them. Most importantly, we were destroying the pair with the fridge in it. getting vengeance on the water feels great. saturday was a 2 by 2k (2k being the official race length) time trial. there ended up being only 4 pairs, and we were third, but very close to the other two pairs, wherein both members are on the national team (are carded), and destroying the fourth place pair, wherein one of the rower's was carded. So we decided we would row the pair together at speed orders, and it's going well, and there's still lots of speed to be found for us. so that was last week this week, there's been a few new pairs showing up. A pair from the university of western ontario, most importantly. one of the guys in this pair referred to me and James as "nobody's" in march when he was here for a training camp. he was asked who was rowing bow pair in the eight for the regatta after the training camp. he replied (in font of me, no less) "I dunno, some nobodies... they probably suck". so he and his pair partner show up this week, start rowing with the training centre.most people who are new are fast for the first day because they are fresh and not exhausted and have something to prove. Me and the other nobody have beaten him on every piece, and beaten him by a lot. We'll see who's a nobody in two weeks time... (1 Comment |Comment on this)