Back in the States

So now it's time to decompress. Spending over two weeks in Poland was a long time, and it's really nice to be back in the US. Looking back on our performance over there, I have to say that I'm fairly pleased. Half of our races were really great. I just watched our semi-final for the first time, and even though it sucked to watch us lose it in the last 200 meters, it's reassuring the know that the training that I'll be putting in over the next 14 months will give me plenty of extra juice. Our performance in the heat and in the final was pretty disappointing. Both were in tough conditions, and both times we failed to perform the way we've trained to do. In the final, I think we ignored the way we rowed in the rep and semi, and instead tried to row "like a lightweight 4-", that is we rowed high and choppy rather than long and smooth. In the rep and the semi, we were under rating the competition but pushing the boat feet further every stroke.

Fortunately, the disappointment of the final is tempered by the speed we showed in half of our races. In both of those races, we dominated the middle thousand. While we never were able to push our bow into the lead, by hitting our rhythm we were able to work our way into qualifying position with 500 to go in both races, although we did fall short in the semi. Even though we did fail to qualify through the semi, it is reassuring to know that the top two in our semi - Germany and Denmark, went on to finish 1-2 in the final, and while the Dutch finished last, a crab with 700 meters to go certainly blunted that devastating final sprint that caught us. In addition, we were only 2.85 seconds off of the World Champions in the semi, illustrating just how tight this field is.

Going into this fall, it'll be important to focus on the bring spots from the good races we had, and even more important to learn from the hard lessons from the heat and final. For now however, it's most important for me to focus on the eternal questions of our generation: McDonalds, or Wendy's? Hershey, or Nestle?! Long Trail, or Bass Ale?!?! Needless to say, these questions may take a week or two to figure out, and until I get the answers I need, the rowing will have to take a back seat.

Thanks to all those who've sent me messages of support through Worlds. I'll now be taking this blog back underground onto the e-mail list, but if you've enjoyed reading this blog and would like continue receiving updates on my training and racing, send me an e-mail at brian.deregt@gmail.com.

Thanks,

Brian

That really didn't go according to plan. We were dusted off the line pretty quickly and never really got back into the rhythm that we've been using so effectively in the rep and the semi. I'm very disappointed. I have trouble understanding why we couldn't just row the same way, but that's racing. I'll put up a more detailed review when I have some time to collect my thoughts. For now it's time to grab some McDonalds and rehydrate.

Video from the Semis

This is the link to the semifinals on Friday. I actually can't see this video because I'm in Poland, or I'd be able to give you a time to jump to. We were the third to last race though, and the second semi of the LM4-, so you can jump pretty close to the end if you only want to watch our race. Since we were in lane 6, I don't think that there is actually too much video of us, but it'll still be cool to watch.

http://www.universalsports.com/mediaPlayer/media.dbml?SPSID=105714&SPID=11656&DB_OEM_ID=23000&id=644799&sid=11656

Barn Burner...

... actually that may have taken out the entire farm as well. Not to spoil the surprise, but when the dust settled we found ourselves in 4th place in the semi. Not a bad result by any means- just not the one we were looking for. It's alright though, we put it out there, took the race stroke by stroke, and attacked at every opportunity we could. When you finish a race 2.85 seconds off of the Olympic Champions, you can only be so disappointed. The 1.1 second spread we had off of the Dutch could almost be considered misleading, it doesn't do justice to how close the race actually was.

Through the race we did a good job of staying internal, racing our own race, and letting people respond to us. Similar to the rep, we were out of qualifying position, just barely, going through the first 1000 meters, but we were able to get into 3rd place with 500m to go. At this point you really don't have any option other than to go for the line, as hard as you can, and while we put everything we had left into the sprint, we simply didn't have the kick that the Danish and Dutch had. Times are difficult to compare, especially today as the wind was inconsistent in both strength and direction, but our time would have won us the other semi.

That's life though, we raced the semi that we had, and did everything we could to make it to the A-final. History was against us; the last US LM4- to make the final was 2000. Now we must turn our attention to the B-final, and fight our way to the highest placing we can. Every race here has been an improvement and so we still have the opportunity to be one of the highest placing fours of the past decade. It's something that I'd like to do, and it would be a good way to start our four year push to London.

More fun with links

I've been interview by Sean Wolf at RowingIllustrated.com, talking a little about our rep and some other stuff. That can be found here:

http://www.rowingillustrated.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=1785

Shiva was kind enough to put up a picture that really captures what an impressive athlete I am:

http://shivspix.com/

Go to Gallery --> World Championships --> USA --> August 26th behind the scenes

It's the one with the water bottle about to hit my face...

As for our preperation going into the semi tomorrow, we're really hitting our taper. I've been trying to stay of my feet as much as possible, and we were able to sleep in this morning so I'm feeling pretty rested... and a little restless. It will be nice to get on the water again this afternoon before we launch for the semis.

Media

Hey all, just a quick update with some media-related links.

Pictures from our heat can be found here, on the first and second page:

http://www.row2k.com/worlds/photo.cfm?action=gallery&dir=2009Summer/09Worlds/0824Heats2&label=2009%20World%20Championships%20-%20August%2024,%202009&hi=yes

Pictures of our rep can be found here, starting on page 8, going through page 10:

http://www.row2k.com/worlds/photo.cfm?action=gallery&dir=2009Summer/09Worlds/0826Reps&offset=84&label=2009%20World%20Championships%20-%20August%2026,%202009&hi=yes

Shiva is the official USRowing and Hudson photographer, and she has some pictures up of our boat. Her website is:

http://shivspix.com/

Video will be taken from the A/B semi final, and will be available at universalsports.com, although when it comes up I'll post the link since it's a little bit of a tricky website to work through.

Also, my USRowing bio is up:

http://www.usrowing.org/News_Media/AthleteBios/bderegt.aspx

Moving on

F*ck yeah. Sorry Grandma, and sorry Mom, but jeez, that felt really, really good. We finally were able to put down the kind of piece that we've seen in practice, the kind that we hoped to put down in the heats. Conservative, but at the same time aggressive. Controlled, but reckless. While we got off the line pretty slowly, we had a very clean start, putting us in a position to assert our middle 1k. As the result sheet can attest, we were 4th through 500m, 3rd through 1k before moving into 2nd through 1500, and into the finish. Again, in the interest of further success, I won't talk about specific moves and shifts, but I can say that splitting responsibility between Taylor and me has allowed us to both focus more on the technical changes that Taylor calls for, and more effective moves.

Our time was also good for today, 6:02, and while it was the slowest of the four boats moving through to the A/B semi, Switzerland and Canada were only tenths quicker from the other rep. I really can't say enough how satisfying it is to finally put together a complete race, and to feel like I was contributing to moving the boat through the full 2,000 meters. Interestingly, unlike Monday, our warm up wasn't really anything great, and our first two attempts at base pace 10s were pretty much total failures. Even our third, and final, 10 wasn't spectacular, although it did have the feeling of being something that could be sustained for 2k. Clearly we were able to find the right mix of swing and press in the race.

Now we've got a day to relax before the A/B semi. We're going to go down to the course today for a very easy paddle, then get a little of a sleep in tomorrow to recover. My body's holding up pretty well, and anytime something feels like it might be a problem, our training staff have been more than up to the challenge of keeping me together. It is going to be hard to break myself from the habit of getting a rub down for my legs after races to flush the lactate acid though, because it really feels good.

Now I'm going to enjoy the feeling of knowing that we're one of the 12 fastest lightweight 4-s in the world, fast enough to beat a country that was in the Olympic final last year, before I have to face the reality of the A/B semifinal on Friday. The glow should last for at least a couple more hours.