In my last blog I mentioned that Erica and I were going to race at the European speed order in a double in the hopes that we will be selected for the European Championships in that unit.
Since the last set of singles trials we have been working hard on getting the double together. There have been some teething problems, as with all new projects. Firstly we had some issues with with our angles.....our biggest challenge being not to hit each others blades at the finish...not conducive to good speed!
We decided to give it a go swapping the order so putting me at bow. Instantly I was much happier there, mostly because I could be a bossy cow and being in bow means you always cross the line ahead of your crew, which technically means I have won (nope I would not say I am competitive in the slightest). But it seemed that being bossy and a bit of a b*tch at times was going to come in handy when we hit our second challenge....starting a new crew without a coach.
Jane has been busy helping Rach qualify for the Olympics and our other women and lightweights coach had his hands full not coaching the lightweight men. Leander were short on coaches (due to the fleet following the men's 8) and it seemed that no body wanted us :( (tiny violin playing in the background).
But after enough complaining and puppy dog eyes we managed to join in with the men's sculling group for a while and now we are being passed around between coaches like a hot potato!
We had our first 2k race in this order a couple of weeks ago at Caversham as a practice for the speed order. Luckily we did 2 races as the first was a bit of a disaster. We were a little over excited to hold our headstart over the womens 4- and after a pretty quick first half, the place where I used to sit in the boat was replaced with a giant mushroom cloud. Luckily we learnt from our mistakes and went much faster for seemingly less effort the second time round.
Yesterday we completed the European speed order, where we raced over 2k twice. The first race was ok, definitely a lung opener, but nothing special. We were told that there was 'something....something...not quite....right....something....missing?'....constructive critism indeed. Luckily we had a day inbetween races to work on that missing something. Anyway our second race we definitely managed to find at least part of 'it' and went considerably faster with a 6 second pb! Still plenty to work on but an encouraging race to show things were moving in the right direction.
We have also been having some more luck with supporters. New ones on board with our double.....sunsense and 110% play harder.
Sunsense have kindly given me some suncream to last me through the summer when it finally arrives!
110% play harder are a relatively new, exciting compression company that combines compression leggings with ice, like an icebath on the move! We tried them out at our racing this weekend and loved them! You can find some pictures on my twitter page... @tinalstiller
We have also set up a new blog just for the double.... thepinkdouble.blogspot.co.uk. Check it out to follow mine and Ericas progress :)
