World Cup no 2 is behind us now. Tired satisfied and tagged for more I am back home now.
The last week I sort of lived in a vacuum. It was a bit weird since, I had the biggest fan club ever (for me that is), Mam, Louise, Ton, Arnoud, Ellen, Marko and his Annelie and off coarse PB where there. This together with Frida’s mam and Lassie’s parents made it more than a fun thing pass the grand stand rating 37 strokes a minute.
Even tough friends and family are there and it is sooo tempting to just hang out with them and talk about what ever and show them around in my little rowing world I could not do that. Even tough I feel that I am acting normal even the days before I leave Louise told me that she knows when I am prepared properly for a good race. She says that I put up a shield and only lett in my environment to a certain level. She finds it bit sad that she is not reaching me as she normally does during these days, but she sha tought it was sort of fascinating to see how I focus on the tasks that lay ahead. I gues this goes automatically.
Rowing is a very simple sport. It is just about moving your boat from Start to Finsish as fast as possible. To do this you do not have to come with surprises and or have to depend on luck, goal posts, etc etc. You only have to do what you are capable of. Now the whole damn thing with rowing is that that is not so ‘Only’. The know that you soon have to perform at you best is a challenging, exciting, fun and scarry thing to look forward to. Different toughts go through the head. ‘I feel so prepared now, I have been training a lot, this is going to be fun to get paid back with a good result now!’ is the best way of thinking. ‘This is going to hurt, the boat is going to feel like lead after 300meters, I wont be able to keep up’ are the more negative ones.
Anyway.
We arrived to Amsterdam Wednsday eavening att Schiphol and Arnoud was so nice be there to pick me up! A great distraction…but I felt I could not totally relax and felt excited for what was coming.
We together rigged my boat, which is always a fun thing…everything can still happen! The bosbaan has these huge boat sheds that swallow hundreds of boats and when I walked into hangar 13 I saw Lassie designated place. SWE1 it said on a sticker and it was 6 boats high from the floor. I laughed…haha good for him that he so tall haha… A few steps later I found mine…it was 7 boats high…all the way at the top. I made a mission of it to be able to lift my boat up and down to it all by myself. Later I saw some of my opponents using their coaches to help them and I tought…not me. After a while I pretty sure that at least I was easely best at taking down my boat from the shelves. Very mature.
We continued on to the Van der Valk hotel that sits just along the highway to the airport. A 20min drive to the Bosbaan. When I still lived in Holland I sort was sure to never need to live in that hotel. Suddenly I realized sat there in the banqueting hall of this place with a few hundred of the worlds most dedicated rowers. Funny how things go.
Next day, thursday, two trainings just to prepare mentally and fysically. I decided on 12km spin in the morning with series of speed bursts and a longer one in race pace. As usually thursday training days is so much fun. So many boats on the water,..a special vibe…everybody can still be a winner, etc. After a very wobbly 12km due to the extremely many boats on the very small Bosbaan I felt that I perhaps rowed a bit to hard. I quickly went back to the hotel and crashed on the bed. I planned an other short 8km spin before dinner. Not really sure to go or not to go I decided to go for it in order to at least become nice and hungry. The buffet in the basement was awesome!
After a 40 minutes in the traffic jam I arrived at the course only to learn they just closed it due to thunder storms. Rowers were waiting everywhere to get out and do their final little paddle. I deciced there and than that this only is a psycological thing and that it was an omen to not row. It was 20min to the next bus so I jumped on a rowing erg to just get a quick sweat. The 10min on it showed me that my legs were in good shape and I really enjoyed pushing a bit on the mashine! YEah!
Dripping in Sweat I jumped on the bus and attacked the buffet when we got to the hotel.
Friday, Race day!
Even tough friday the entire regatta is still only half awake…it is the most important day. Here everything can go wrong! The flags are not up yet, the huge sponsor signes are still flat on the ground, the moving grandstands are not there yet, the massive mega screens are not working and the crowds of people are not there either.
Since we were 36 boats in the M1X class they decided for a system with quarter finals. This means everybody had to row 2 races on friday. At least everybody that did not end up 5 or 6 in the heat. So this was my goal. Get through the heat. At least get 4 and do this preferbly by not having to row flat out. Linz memories still alive. But now with a good experience from Norway in my luggage I knew I can top perform after a tough morning as long as I just not empty my bag with marbles all the way. I tought that there would be 2 guys I could beat. The Swiss guy, and the French guy. He was really quick in my E final in Linz but I worked him down all the way at the end of the race. So I knew that in order to beat this guy I would have to row a reasonable high speed all the way. So this was the plan. A high 2000mtr speed with no funny stuff. The start went and I more or less directly fell into 2000mtr rythm. Wich is nice,…but slow. I looked to my right after 100mtres and saw….nobody…Shit they all left. It did not stress me. I decided very firmly to stick to my plan. Just keep grinding at 32. I know I am fast and efficient in this rate. The Swiss guy to my left was winding hard… I felt he was really pushing. And it had effect. He was more than a lenght up on me. I could not help thinking…good luck! Johan, Frida’s coach, was working me to step it up…’Come on Paul!, you have to push now!, dont sit here! At 1000m I felt strong and fresh and a smile came on my face. I felt it was starting to work. I passed the Swiss guy rating 31. The Yank was dropping back and I felt I was getting to the position I needed to be in. Suddenly at 500mtr to go the big Estonian’s bubble bursted.
He came sailing by. This was a very nice surprice as he was leading the field and had shot of as bullet! The reason why I was happy with this because it felt that the Yank (John) felt he needed to race hard. So he pushed back and passed me again. I purposly did not want to sprint, but anyway was doing 34 from 500mtr in. 4th place! YEAH! But it was hard work all the way….I was happy to not have to sprint like mad, but it was a tough race…or I made it tough anyway. I criticized my self to have been to cool at the start. It worked anyway.
Åsa, Frida’s masseuse, worked on my legs for a while and after a quick lunch and quick chat with family and friends I fell back to the hotel for a 90minute rest.
Coming back to the regatta course in the thick of it. I felt good. I had a look at the draw for the quarter final and sort of said to myself…thats gona be a bit to tough I guess. First three would go through. Number four directly to the C final. I decided to race all I have to att least make C final.
Hollands famed Dirk Lippits, Englands canonball Allen, China’s giant, the Austrian, and worst of all Bulgaria’s powerhouse with an Olympic bronze in his pocket.
I got orders to go for a bit more offensive start. Further I would stick to my concept. I got away nicely. I had lane 6 closest to the bike path and I was getting instructions in 3 languages and in a variaty of dialects. I prolonged my start to 250mtrs and looked to the right….What…? Austria and Bulgaria level or even slightly behind me. Damn..this works.
I settled in my 2000mtr pace and kept working. At thousand I felt pretty ok again, and I decided to allready go fo a push. It had some effect I realized as people directly sarted shouting from the bikepath to keep it up! On the far side the Chinese was working hard. Than Arnoud shouted at me that my bow was getting contact with his stern (I was moving up), This was what I needed to hear! 500mtrs to go…feeling strong! GO now! I increased preasure and rate to 34 and noticed I was moving up! I tought of my race in Norway where I was longing for the 250mark to full out! THERE it came! BOOM 37 now! Just look straight behind, think of nothing and Pump. Yeah… The good thing is, that by now you are so numb you dont eaven feel anything. It is as beeing really drunk. I knew the Chinese was not keeping up with me! I demolished him. And in my rampage for the line the Dutch guy gave way to. In my clouded vision I saw something orange come by. A damn good race. 2nd place!
Semi finals! Two Swedish boats in the Singles Semies. Only Sweden had two boats there…must be quiet a rowing nation Sweden…
Needles to say I was pretty damn happy and really felt as if a huge load dropped of me. A repeat of my race in Norway. Down side was that my back was starting show signs of the strain. As I have rather drastically changed my rowing tehnique for the better lately I am also using other parts of my back and not all the muscles are as prepared yet. So a little naging pain that started last week after Norway got more with each race and on friday eavening I was walking like a cripple.
Saturday morning, Semi finals day. Here would be diceded whom goes to A final or B final. Actually a bad part of me is that I’m not totally stupid. Obvisouly there are no easy semies. There are just to many awesome rowers at the moment. Nobody is safe and nobody knows how is the favourite. So cool. But my mind told me that being amoungst the first 3 in the semie would mean at least beating my mate Lassie. Something I am not affraid of doing or trying to do at least. But I could not prepare mentally for this battle and the pain in my back probably gave me to many questionmarks etc. The morning training was 4km of annoyance. 20 strokes…auw..damn it. I deciced to not eaven race for it. Just paddle in and settle for a good B final. During the warmup though later that day I had to admint that adrenaline and high pulse sort took away the pain. But I was still not really pumped. The start went well and I sort of was along for the ride with some of the big boys. But just after the 250mark I felt that today was not the day and I let them go. An awkward paddle rating 26 took me to the B final. Having back wash of 5 singles and eventually even the judge boat is not fun to row in…specially with the banks packed with people. I decided to let the occasion make me feel mentally stronger. I made a decision and I saw it as a tactical one. One step at the time.
The big China man raced hard and got 4th in an awesome time of 5:48. That felt bitter…I would really liked to record a good time since the conditions were so good.
Marius, the Norwegian team physio, gave me som super pain killers and the next morning my back felt not to bad. I loaded the same way as on friday and really felt focussed. I need one more good race! A ligfht jog and some stretching at 6:30, than breakfast and of to the course. 9:36 it was time again. Warmup felt good.
It was me, Sjoerd the big Dutchy, our Chinese friend, a giant from Cuba, a Argentian with also A-final Olympic experience. I wanted to just copy my Quarter final race.
It went actually exactly the same way. My rythm was not a good as it could be and I was sometimes a bit struggling with an oar digging to deep, a bouy coming to close, and the wash from the other boats warming up (lane 1). At 500mtr to go I was still last but I felt the Cuban was getting closer.
Than I heard that China was also getting closer. YEAH! Here we go again….500mtr to go, open it up a bit more…I went directly to 35/36 and pushed pased the Cuban. Oops…that hurted. I dropped of again to 34….wait! be cool! Wait for 250mtr. Here it comes! Flat out! NOW! I was in lane 1 closest to the grandstand. Awesome to hear the roar from the crowd! Specially if someone is sprinting…this is what people want to see!
Somewhere there I passed the chinese again and ended up 3rd behind Sjoerd and the Argentian. A reasonable good race! Really happy and releaved at least to finished of this regatta with a solid performance paddled in to the dock where Louise waited and helped me wash, and take appart my boat.
Shields were gone again and we could relax for real the rest of the day. Watching the A finals is’nt that easy either tough. Pretty much shaking whan I saw Frida open up here race by really being gutsy and just tore away from the rest of the field. (with exception of the unbeatable Belarussian Karsten). After 750 It felt like Frida had to pay for here opening, and the iron lady from France inched back at here. Also the Chinese girl powered by here. But amazing enough Frida reacted and pushed the french girls straight back into here shoes. With a noticably big smile on here face she sprinted in picking up a bronze medal! After having been bitching and wining all the week about here rowing, and that everybody was to fast for here…she really got her act together in this race and decided to not take any prisoners! Cool! That was inspiring.
Mens single final was a thriller in its own. The thingh here is that who ever wants to end up top 3…has to overperform. 100% just is not good enough here. Cannonbal Allen shot of as usuall and actually managed to lead the pack of animals for the biggest part of the coarse. Olaf had opened up agressively and went for a very early spring. 750mtr to go…rating 37. AUch that hurts. It worked and he crushed them all than and there. But the finishline was still far away and cool Ondrej from Czech was staying to his plan….which reminded me of mine. At 500 he started to wind it up and actually never stopped winding untill he was rating 43 and past Olaf. Impressive. Coold thing was that more or less everybody was happy with their race..except maybe Allen who fell apart in the last 300mtrs and lost even his 5th position ther to Lassie who was working hard all the way in and finished 5th! A great effort as he was totally close to the rest of the pack.
I was also so happy to see my hero Juuri Jaanson win the double scull!
They just kept the pace all the way making sure they were with the pack for 1900mtrs. Than a change to 42 strokes a minute catapulted them over the finish line in 1st place. His huge and perhaps 20 year younger partner was completely devistated…collapsed in the boat and was still in the hours dock gasping for air…Juuri, probably the sweetest boat mover around…so effortless, controlled…and perfect. His rythm combined with the power of a young guy behind him make them a really dangerous double!
OK, Pictures will come soon!
Thanks for all the SMS’es!
Next mission is Lucerne…World Cup no 3
Hoping to be able to lift the game a bit more!
