Article

Here is an article from my hometown newspaper the Fosters Daily Democrat, thank you to Nick Stoico for writing it.

http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20140722/GJSPORTS_01/140729867/0/SEARCH

Afternoon Practice Tuesday

We had a very short row this afternoon, but it felt like things finally clicked. We got on the water before the course got too crowded and were able to do a few starts along with some strokes at base pace. Rowing aside, we were out there in style with our Craftsbury uniforms. The unique uniforms appeared to draw some attention from the Italian team.

Tuesday Morning Practice

With most teams here, the course today for practice was packed. Are attempts at 250 meter pieces had to be done in bumpy wakes and between slow singles. We did our best to get out of the traffic by rowing in the long-distance lane. This was the best water we got the whole practice.

We have a practice this afternoon and one more tomorrow morning before Wednesday afternoon races begin. After that, it will be a long wait until our heats Thursday morning.

By the end of today we'll know who's in our first race and tonight is the opening ceremony.

Monday round one

This morning we did a starting 1250m with the light 2x and the women's 4x. The piece went pretty well, it definitely was good to take some more hard strokes at pace in the new boat. To finish the workout we did a last 500 with the light 2x. Things are feeling better in the boat as we are ironing out the last of the rigging. This afternoon we are going to try lengthening out our oars a little to see if we can get some more mechanical advantage without loosing the feel we have in the boat, or having to lower the rate.
More teams are arriving and the weather is cooler after thunderstorms last night. Also, the haze has cleared showing us the Alps on the lake. It is truly awesome. Heat sheets come out soon then racing begins. Wish us luck.

Video from Sunday Practice

Here's some video from our Sunday practice. Rigging is a little off here. Thanks to USRowing!

Sunday Afternoon Practice

We continued to adjust the rigging on the boat today and getting the kinks out. Getting it setup right is harder than we expected. The meter total was light again, but we did our best to take advantage of the flat water.

More countries are showing up, as different colors can be seen out on the water.

Tomorrow morning we will be doing pieces with the women's quad and the men's lightweight double.

Rigging

Today we finished rigging our Filippi 2x. Afterwards we rowed it for the first time. The boat is a slightly smaller size than the one we have been using, and it has carbon fiber wing riggers. The course had nearly perfect water.  It is fairly well protected from one side but is completely open on the other.

Everyone on the team is really nice. So are everyone else on other teams that I have talked to so far. Varese seems to be a very nice city. There are a lot of old stereotypically Italian looking buildings. There are also lots of churches, all of which have bell towers that ring at seemingly random times. The hotel we are staying at with the rest of Team USA is very modern, and has a horse track right outside. Yet, there aren't any grocery stores within walking distance of either the hotel or course. Italy is a lot more humid than I expected.

This afternoon we are going for another quick row, just 2 loops on the course. We are going to throw in a few more 15s building to and above race pace. After that we will do so start and sprint work to finish off the row and see how the rigging is at high rates.

Only a few more days till our first race. Wish us luck.