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