U.S National Team

If elite racing is as professional as it gets for our sport, then an international regatta is like going on tour. This week’s venue, Linz, Austria, is showcasing the talents of some 900 athletes strutting for the spotlight in various boats. I’m racing in the women’s pair, an event I’ve raced before and with the same partner, yet I’m as nervous and excited as the very first time.

The crewing in the semi-finals this afternoon will be the most competitive race, in terms of personnel and experience, since my first speed-order/NSR in the Spring of 2001. Lake Carnegie was tranquil back then. This type of racing format was new for most of us as a key part of selection.

Coxes, I recently received this question in an e-mail: "Do you have any tips on how to bring more intensity to steady state? Or what to say to rowers between pieces, esp. when they are not going well? I could use your help!" -J

This is a tricky topic and a subject with which most coxes struggle. So I was going to take a stab at it and break your question down into two parts.

One of the simplest ways to introduce outsiders into our niche of the elite athletics community is to create a basic understanding of one of the most fundamental elements of the sport that we as athletes may at times take for granted: the training facilities. I know that I am guilty of complaining about not having security lights in the parking lot, or the cloud of stink floating out of the men's locker room that you have to walk through in order to get to the women's locker room, but the fact remains that the facilities at Princeton are some of the best in the country and we rarely have any real complaints to lodge with our training facilities. In this week’s entry, I’ll try to show you what it looks like to row and train at the Princeton Training Center. Nat’l teamers bear with me, I know you all know what it looks like, but there is a remote possibility that not everyone in the world knows what it’s like to train at PTC, since people seem to ask me all the time.