RowingRelated

JDS in his element (Photo © Tristan Shipsides) Before he decided to pursue a world record off the water, Australian Josh Dunkley-Smith had already earned two Olympic silver medals in one of the slickest crews to grace the rowing course, the Australian men's four—really, an institution in our sport. It's not as though he didn't know he had an engine, but, as he says below, it wasn't until recently that the pursuit of his own physical limits made the idea of a new 2k world record seem within reach. And recently, that potential came to fruition. 1. With two Olympic medals already to your name, it would be easy to say that you had nothing to prove—what was it that drove you to want to break this record? JDS: "The fact that it was held by a Kiwi. [Laughs] Nah, I think mainly just the self improvement aspect really—challenging yourself and seeing how far you can really push things. You follow that all the way through, and I was lucky enough that I sort of found...

Conlin McCabe (right) and the #TrueNorthFour in San Diego (Photo: B. Kitch)  Wednesdays are coaching days here on RR, and today we thought we would shift gears a little bit from our Best Rowing Drills series, and take a look at preparation for that most important of tests, the 2k. We asked former Crash-B Sprints champion and Canadian Olympic silver medalist Conlin McCabe how he goes about getting ready for a test, from the night before to the warmup.  Here's what Conlin had to say. RR: Do you have a routine that you go through the night before a 2k test? If so, what is it (and what do you recommend)? Conlin McCabe: The night before I test I try to eat a feast — I know in the morning I will be nervous, and I'll have a hard time eating when it gets too close to the race. Thinking about the erg test is inevitable the night before, so I set a chunk of time aside in the evening (10-15 minutes) and make sure I have a solid race plan . Once I have a plan I am confident in...

Agganis Panorama (Photo: © Tom Lynam) The 2013 Crash-B World Indoor Rowing Championships are in the books, and in the midst of many excellent results, three performances stand out from the crowd: first, high school senior Christine Cavallo took top honors in the women's junior lightweight event in a time (7:05.7—a new world record for the event) that would have won the women's open lightweight category, and was eleven seconds off the senior world record set by Ursula Grobler . Meanwhile, in the women's open event, high school senior Ruth Narode took fourth place overall in a very impressive time of 6:52.2. Both Narode and Cavallo are coming off stellar seasons, capped off with silver medal performances at the World Rowing Senior and Junior Championships in Plovdiv, Bulgaria last summer. Not to be outdone, Ryan O'Rourke , representing Lawrenceville School, took first place in the junior men's heavyweight event in a time of 6:02.4 (down from 6:13.8 in his first...

Lightweights racing at Crash-Bs in 2012 (Photo: B. Kitch) The junior and collegiate indoor rowing season is just around the corner, and that means sooner or later you are going be testing yourself for 2,000 meters along with your teammates. Whether it's at your club's boathouse, a regional championship, or Crash-Bs, there are a few tips that can help you to achieve your goals this winter. There are as many ways to approach a 2k as there are people rowing, but given my experience the following, simple tricks can put you in the right place when the electronic starting official let's you know it's time to go. 1. Don't worry if you can't sleep. Being nervous is natural, and look at it from the positive standpoint of neurological and physiological preparation: your body and mind are ready to get after it. That's good. The best advice I ever heard regarding sleep was as simple as this: when your body needs sleep, it takes it (I believe this came from Matt Pi...