Fevereiro 24, 2009
Bringing you up to date
Drysdale vs Waddell
Hello again and sorry about the long break between emails.
Things have been fairly hectic since my last email in November and there has been a lot of reflection, meetings, negotiations and decisions made right throughout my life. Firstly I will go back for a quick summary then we can move onto the present.
I finished my whirlwind tour of the world with a race in a quad in London, the crew was Iztok Cop, Myself, Alan Campbell and Tom Gale and we took out our third consecutive Head of the River Race for fours title. There was not any time for celebrations as I rowed back to the club grabbed my bags and headed for Italy for the Silver Skiff.
When we arrived in Turin I was starting to think a 7K race on the Saturday and an 11k race on the Sunday wasn’t such a good idea, Nathan Cohen was with me and we quickly rigged our boats and went for a row in the dark to insure everything felt OK. When I woke up to sore legs I got myself down to the river and prepared for the journey. With a lot of rain in the days previous, the river was flowing fast and it made it a long way. I was about 2 1/2 minutes slower in covering the course than previous years. Its hard to know how much was conditions and how much was fitness but some of it must have been conditions as I came out with a narrow win and finally got my hands on the silver skiff (a beautiful model skiff made of wood and silver for 3 time winners).
After the race it was once again a rush to grab my bags and off to another airport for the long flight home, 23 hours in Italy just wasn’t enough but was nice to finish my trip on a good note with 2 wins. Once I got home I travelled the country for speaking engagements while trying to fit in some training. I was still a strapping 110KG of muscle and finding it hard to get rid of it. Olaf Tufte joined me toward the end of November and I dragged him around the country threw him off anything high I could find and took him along to the various events I had on. We had a great time with Queenstown being a highlight with the local rowing club and AJ Hackett Bungy organising an awesome time for us.
Early December it was down to Wanganui and time to race again, in a 5K race against Olaf and a wild card (Hamish Bond being that man after a race off). This was a truly awesome event, we were there to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of Billy Webb winning the world Championship crown on the Wanganui and the locals put on a spectacular event. A huge crowd turned out and it turned into one of the best and professionally run events both Olaf and myself have attended. We hope it will now continue as an annual event. It was a great race with Olaf taking off like a cut cat and securing the inside running around the major bend, I threw everything at him during the middle of the race and got level with about 500M to go, unfortunately the lack of fitness and extra weight started to tell and I blew up before he did and he crossed the line in front.
By this stage I had had time to talk to people, analyse my last four years and think about what the future held. It was time to meet with Rowing NZ, we sat down and discussed the past and the future and what I wanted to achieve and what they were looking at doing. Most people know that over the years my relationship with Rowing NZ has been a little rocky at times but I left this meeting in a very positive frame of mind. There are a number of changes of personal in the organisation and it was a very open and honest meeting, we want similar things from the future. So far so good and all going well we can use this as a new start and continue to have an honest and strong relationship in the future.
Initially I was thinking of taking a year off from international racing this year and coming back in 2010. After my break, discussions and time away overseas racing I was soon convinced how much I love the sport and soon became convinced that I was ready to get in a boat and train full time. I did one full week before Christmas, Dick Tonks has been coaching the men over summer so as you can imagine this was a pretty tough week. I was pretty much useless after Tuesday and there were a few thoughts of ‘can I hack four years of this or should I have that break’. With some more time and thought I was soon convinced I was doing the right thing and when I came back to full time training on the 19th of January I was more motivated than ever and keen to make myself the best I possibly can be by the Olympics in 2012.
What it has all meant is I am now fully committed to rowing for the next four years, I am treating it more like a four year plan than year by year so everything will be focussed on 2012 preparations which means something’s may be sacrificed between now and then. I have set my goals and am currently in the process of making changes and working hard to remedy a few of my weaknesses from the last four years.
It is obviously very early days as I have only been training for four weeks now but already I am closing in on my ideal racing weight again. I am working hard on some technical changes under the guidance of Dick Tonks and fair to say because of Dick im making some physical improvements fast. Most importantly though I am really happy, my relationship with rowing NZ is really strong and so far we are working really well together! The training is tough but I am actually enjoying it and enjoying pushing myself as I continually try to improve.
I took a long time out after the Olympics and this was always going to be a risk. I am confident I can be at 100% by the time the worlds come around in August but I was always going to be below my best now which is when the nationals and trials happen. We have just had the nationals and I am very happy to say they went great. So far this year has been tough, We have trained hard every week and raced most weekends, my first regatta didn’t start well with a loss in the heat but I came back to win the final in the single and the double. The second regatta I won the heat but was 2nd in the final so I was a little nervous going into the nationals. During the week of nationals some of the changes I have been working on started coming to fruition and the semis went well. I went into the final as the fastest qualifier by 3seconds. The final was to be my first race against Rob Waddell this year.
The final was a strange race as Nathan Cohen flew out of the blocks to lead by 3 lengths by the 500M mark, this had the effect of spreading the field and as Nathan faded it became a two horse race between Rob and myself, he led by half a length to the 1000M but that’s where the race changed, I relaxed and suddenly my boat took off passing him shortly after the 1000M and opening up a 5 second gap between there and the finish. I won in a time of 6:47 which is very fast in Twizel and beat the record I set there in 2005 by 10seconds. I can honestly say Technically it was one of the best races I have rowed, its very exciting considering how much more I feel I can improve in the next four years. Obviously this is only one race and there is still a huge amount of work and effort to go in, but it’s a great way to start and gives me a lot of confidence going into the national trials starting Sunday where I am likely to once again race Rob for the singles spot at the worlds.
I know more than anyone its important I keep working between now and then to make sure I stay in front. I was beaten by 5seconds last year the week before trials and came back to win the first race. I am however happy, motivated and enjoying myself and that is when I perform my best so am looking forward to whatever is thrown at me in the next two weeks.
Briefly looking forward there is a very exciting event coming up in March. I will head off to the UK shortly after the trials to row in the head of the river race on the River Thames in London, our crew includes 8 of the top scullers in the world, places 1-7 in the single at the Olympics and Iztok Cop. It should be a lot of fun and hopefully a great learning experience and hopefully we can prove that scullers can beat up on rowers in their own event.
Well that’s all for now will be in touch again after the trials to let you know some progress.
Mahe
Thank you to my funding partners who are supporting me to London 2012.
