The Craftsbury Bump

After almost three months soaking in the sunshine and sweat in Florida, I have been really enjoying bringing out sweatshirts, long sleeves, tights, and most notably winter hats for our rows. I think I may have let myself get a little too tan over the course of our stay in the south, so it’s probably a good thing to have a few practices go by where my skin doesn’t see the light of day. Since getting back, the men’s quad of myself, Peter, Ben, and Ben have been training fairly modestly in an effort to get the travel out of our system and to avoid getting sick in the colder temperatures. Unfortunately, both Peter and I came down with a little cold this week and have been unusually quiet in the boat as a result. I think young Ben and Ben are enjoying this uncharacteristic silence ( while it lasts). This weekend we have been really lucky to have one of our coaches Dave Gleeson around for a few days. Dave lives with his family in southern California and has taken some time away to sharpen us up before we leave for Europe on May 11. Dave spent a week with us in Florida in March and provided us with a lot of the technical focuses we used to keep the boat firing on all cylinders going into Trials. The combination of Dave, Larry Gluckman, and Troy as our coaches has been excellent. Each brings something different to the table and they are all valuable in their own right. Larry will be traveling with us to the Final Qualification Regatta in Lucerne( and hopefully beyond), but Dave and Troy have certainly been a huge part of the process to getting us to where we are now. There are just under three weeks until we begin racing for our spot at the 2016 Olympics. We will be facing all the boats that did not qualify in the top 8 at last years World Championships in France. Top contenders consist of Canada, Russia, New Zealand, Italy, China, Norway, France and others. Top two finishers will be going to Rio. In the final days leading into racing, we aren’t trying to reinvent anything we will just be trying to show up to the race feeling healthy, strong, and ready to lay down our very best piece. So far this boat has been a blast to row and I think we are all looking forward to showing it off on the international stage in a few weeks. For now, we trying to breath as much fresh VT air as possible and get what Larry likes to call the ” Craftsbury Bump”. Although its not for long, it feels really good to be home.