First of all, big congratulations to the Harriton Girls Varsity 4+, for getting 2nd at the Women's Henley in London, being one of two American boats to make it to a final. Impressive ending to an already fantastic season.

I didn't post yesterday so now time for a longer one. As promised, I've attached some pictures of the last week.

Yesterday morning we did a 29 minute piece with rate changes every 5-4-3-2-1-2-3-4-5 minutes between 18 and 26 spm on a dynamic erg with a damper setting of 0 (a rowing machine that slides back and forth to simulate the feeling of a real boat at the lightest possible resistance)

Rowing 18 strokes per minute on a dynamic erg for 5 minutes with 0 resistance is one of the most frustrating processes known to man. It's quite tricky keeping the rate that low (especially on a dynamic erg) while still meeting the required times with nothing to push against.

The weather was absolutely beautiful, the best weather I've had here. I took the opportunity to bike around Dunedin. I found a couple museums and churches that I might want to look in. When I arrived at the Boat shed, I looked out from the club room to see a full rainbow stretching across the lake. I've attached a photo but it does not capture the magnificence.

In the afternoon I spent half an hour on a RowPerfect (a rowing machine that gives huge amounts of data and displays a force curve) to experiment with my technique. It was good fun and I can imagine the machines would be quite useful for comparing the way several rowers in a boat work together.

This morning we went down to the High Performance Center's weight room and spoke with one of the trainers. Although he was not a rower, he studies the rowing technique so that he can work with national team and university rowers on their strength training. He gave a great talk explaining the purposes and pros/cons of weight lifting.

Later, as he was teaching us different core exercises, the Dunedin Highlanders professional rugby team walked right by us.

Afterwards, Dave brought the van over and we drove along the water to check out the country side. I've attached some photos of we saw (and I kept a rock as a souvenir!)

Next was the afternoon workout. It was called erg resistance training. We put the damper up to 8 and did 5 three minute pieces, changing the rate every minute. After that, we dropped the damper all the way to 0 and did 4 one minute pieces. The leg drive has never felt so fast...

It was such a tough workout that, when we finished, we went outside and put our legs into the water. It was very cold but my legs feel great.

After dinner, one of the university guys (who are headed out to Australia tomorrow to race the best Australian university crews) gave a few of us a tour of his floor and dorm. He lives on the top floor - he had a great view from his window!

And now the pictures:

University of Otago campus

Right behind the boat shed...interesting juxtaposition

I hate the mask..

Champions are built

Porridge and bread - post-practice meal

Some boats are bigger than ours

Right down the road

The University of Otago!

Cross this on the way to practice

A bit outside of Dunedin

The aptly named Neptune Street (right by the wharf, sailing club and rowing club)

Low tide

Home base for the next weeks

Only part of the rainbow