I wrapped up my season on Sunday with the C final. After a hard-fought race, I ended up 2nd in the final (putting me 14/22 overall). Now I am taking a couple of weeks “off” before getting back into training in Texas.
My plan for the C final was to continue to build on the race strategies and lessons I had learned in my previous 3 races but see if I could push a bit more in the base 1000 and come off the line a bit faster. Going into the race, I saw my main competition as the Tunisian rower who I had beaten in the previous races (time-wise as we hadn’t been in the same rep or heat) but who was relatively close to me.
Off the start, the Kazakhstanian and Tunisian went out fast. I didn’t realize how fast until later rewatching the race. Once a boat is more than 5 seconds ahead it is hard to tell how big the margin is, especially if they are in adjacent lanes as I would have to really turn around to see them. Coming through the first 500 I was in 4th, about 8 seconds down on the leaders. This gap remained about the same for the next 500 but in the second thousand, I really focused on consistent, clean rowing, letting the boat run out, and trying to maintain as much boat speed as possible.
This was effective and I was able to walk back from a 30 m deficit, walking through Tunisia and to half a length down on Kazakhstan. I worked hard to try to make moves on him but, to his credit, he rowed a really solid race and held me off. I was quite gassed around 750 so I started my sprint a little later than normal, but despite this, had my fastest sprint yet. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite enough to pass him. Even though it would’ve been nice to win the final, I was very happy with how I rowed the race. I was able to stick to my plan and apply a lot of the technical and strategic lessons of the previous two weeks. I also went 9:58 in pretty flat conditions which is definitely a PR.
Obviously, a big goal for worlds was securing a qualifying spot, but even though I was unsuccessful in that, I think that I made large strides in my rowing and racing abilities. I also built a strong foundation that I can use as a stepping-off point for this upcoming year’s training. I am so grateful to be able to race and compete at such a high level against some fantastic competitors. Often I get caught up in the day-to-day of not qualifying or not improving fast enough, but it’s important to step back and recognize that I am still quite new to this field and have already made considerable progress.
I am excited to take a couple of weeks off and focus on work and moving, but really eager to lay out a training plan for the coming year. Lucerne, the last chance regatta is the next and final chance to qualify for Paris (hence the name) and is in only 7 and a half months. Remarkably close. I’m not certain yet what the big changes will be to my training plan but I think building in some more quantitative benchmarks and testing will be one big change in addition to continuing to add on volume. I was reviewing my workout data for 2023 and was surprised to see I have rowed almost 1.5 million meters in the past 8 months and I am excited to see what I can row in the next 8 months.
Another change is that I am moving down to Austin at the end of September and am planning on rowing out of the Texas Rowing Center. This will allow me to train with some national team members and other elite small boat rowers, as well as be much more convenient for rowing throughout the winter.
Thanks as always for the support! If you have any questions about worlds, rowing, Paralympic qualification, or anything else feel free to reach out!