Introductions

Hi all, this will be my first public blog post, so take it a little easy on me. I do have a group of extremely generous and dedicated Trinity Alumi/ae that follow my adventures through e-mail, but as the World Championships approach I thought it would be nice to reach out to the greater Trinity community, as well as the wider rowing community.

First off should be an introduction. I'm Brian, and I sit three seat in the US Lightweight Men's Straight Four (LM4-). This boat was selected through the camp system in the US, and this year we were fortunate to have a very strong group, allowing us to put together not only a four but also a Lightweight Eight (LM8+), although technically they had to qualify through trials. This has allowed us to send what we hope is one of the stronger lightweight sweep squads in a while, although only time will tell.

As for myself, I'm a 2009 graduate of Trinity College, in Hartford, CT. This is my first Senior National Team, although I was lucky enough to represent the US at the 2006 U-23 World Championships in the Lightweight Quad (LM4x), placing second.

The stroke of our boat is Will Daly, a 2006 Boston University graduate. Will raced at the 2005 U-23 Championships in the LM4-, and the 2006, 2007 and 2008 Senior World Championships in the LM8+, winning in 2008. Will also represented the US at the 2008 Olympics in the LM4- and is the only returning Olympian from that boat.

Two seat is Nick LaCava, a 2009 Columbia University graduate. This is Nick's first Senior National Team. In the winter of 2008 Nick won the C.R.A.S.H.-B Indoor Championship in the Collegiate Lightweight division, but I'm not that impressed. Nick and I have occasionally competed against each other since we were juniors, as we both hail from Fairfield County in Connecticut.

Our bow seat is Taylor Wasburn, a 2008 graduate of Princeton University. This is also Taylor's first Senior National Team. Taylor spent the last year teaching and coaching at Phillips Andover Academy, where his father also teaches and coaches. His grandfather was also a rowing coach, meaning Taylor has quite a legacy behind him.

We're now all in Poznan, Poland, rowing on the Malta Rowing Course, prepping for our Monday heats. We've been here for almost a week now, so we're pretty well adjusted. We've been trying to balance our taper with stretching out all the tight and sore muscles, and I think that we've been getting it pretty close to right on. Most of our work is easier steady state and drills, but there have been some higher intensity pieces as well, culminating in a 1500m piece with the Heavy Men's 4- a couple days ago, which really got the blood pumping. However, with the heats rapidly approaching, our workload is rapidly dropping off. Personally, I love tapering, because I really like sleeping and I really like watching TV, and tapering lets me do more of both. It's also nice to feel the energy building in your body, and while sometimes you can get a little antsy, you know that it's just potential speed building in your legs and arms, waiting to be unleashed.

Anyway, I think that's probably enough for now. I think I've covered most of the important parts, and those of you on my e-mail list and those reading the other Worlds blogs have already heard of the epic Bear vs. Shark debate, so I won't bore you.