Elk Lake First Day Recap

I was feeling jittery taking my first 10 stroke burst during the warmup to my race in the heat of the men's open single.  Without meaning to, I held 1:36-37 splits for 10, stroke rate 32.  Guess I'll be going fast enough, then, I thought to myself.  The race was only two to go through to the A final (six boats), and I had two "Rowing Canada" entries in my heat of four scullers.  I was not expecting to win, or to go through to the final, but the water conditions were pretty severe in the middle of the course, and you never know.  My plan was to race this piece all-out and hold nothing back, because with two Canadian heavyweight National Team members in my heat, to presume I would beat them would be ridiculous.  I did my normal start sequence, going on autopilot for the first 400 meters or so, then noticed something curious.  I was level with both the Canadian National Team entries.  Not behind, not ahead... dead level.  Over the next 30 strokes both of them, predictably, moved away from me a bit as I shifted into my race pace.  It's fine, I thought, all I have to do is row my absolute best in the bad water and come as close to these guys as possible by the finish line.  The guy in the far lane had stopped moving after we got into the massive crosswind.  I gave it a little gas and actually started moving on him.  It was like he wanted me to just go away, but I refused.  We were level after halfway, and I knew from how I felt that I had a lot more power to put into it, so I went.  Soon I was one length up, then two, three, four... by five lengths up it was clear he was having more trouble than must have seemed worth it, and he packed it in.  I shut down a bit, shifting to 26-28 strokes/minute, then checked on the leader.  Only two lengths up?  I geared up again and closed as much as I could, coming second in the heat by about 5 seconds (no idea actual time).

Heart Rate data from the race.  It's easy to see the little dip in the
middle where I knew that the sculler in third was not in the race
anymore, and the rise after that when I thought:
 "what the hell...let's come back on first!"

Disappointingly, I was denied a chance at the A Final because it was not held today.  The race officials made a decision to cancel racing for the remainder of the day due to severe winds.  Since I was still tuned up for a race tonight, I rowed the static ergometer for 40' at an easier than steady state pace, then had some Nuun hydration beverage, greek yogurt, and part of a Larabar as a post-workout snack.  No big deal - tomorrow morning Alex and I have a time trial to see if we make top 6 of 12 for the A Final of the men's double, and midday we race with Aidan (our University of Washington frosh lightweight) and Chris (very capable junior lightweight) in the men's quad.  Plenty of racing to go around.  It feels good to feel so strong - usually our training has me feeling beat, especially for our harder weekend practices.  The first race of the spring is off to a good start.