August 9 - Princeton
Ryan, my coxswain, drove me down to Princeton yesterday. We had a good lunch with Jesse and then I spent the afternoon reading “Law School Without Fear.” It’s a useful book for kids like me who haven’t watched enough Law and Order to know all the ins and outs of the legal system, yet.
Jesse and I got on the water in the evening and had a so-so row. It was weird being back in a boat, especially a small one. Neither of us was very concerned, though. It just takes one row for the muscles to remember everything.
After practice we went out to Red Lobster and I ate about 3 pounds of pasta. It was incredible. Hunger is a state of being, at this point, because I can’t seem to throw enough food at my body to satisfy my perpetually accelerating metabolism. So much for gaining weight; I’m just trying not to loose what I’ve got. I should buy stock in Detour protein bars and Endurox energy drink for the amounts I’m consuming on a daily basis.
It’s about 1:30 PM right now and Jesse and I had an incredible practice this morning. We worked on starts—there is a special sequence of strokes you use to get the boat from a dead stop to top speed really quickly—and sprints. We felt very strong and very balanced. The problems I was fighting at our last practice camp seem to be getting much better. We were both pretty pumped when we got back to the docks. If we put together a few more practices like this, we’re going to go into our final full-team practice camp flying high.
It seems like all we talk about is winning, now. It’s a good thing to know that Jesse is as hungry for victory as I am. We’re so laid back off the water that sometimes people might think we have an almost casual approach to our rowing, but there couldn’t be anything further from the truth. We want to win and, really, we’re planning on it. I’m not arrogant about thinking it will be easy or anything foolish like that, but I’m also not going to go into this competition believing that a gold medal is beyond my grasp. Gold is the goal, let there be no doubt about it.
Jesse and I got on the water in the evening and had a so-so row. It was weird being back in a boat, especially a small one. Neither of us was very concerned, though. It just takes one row for the muscles to remember everything.
After practice we went out to Red Lobster and I ate about 3 pounds of pasta. It was incredible. Hunger is a state of being, at this point, because I can’t seem to throw enough food at my body to satisfy my perpetually accelerating metabolism. So much for gaining weight; I’m just trying not to loose what I’ve got. I should buy stock in Detour protein bars and Endurox energy drink for the amounts I’m consuming on a daily basis.
It’s about 1:30 PM right now and Jesse and I had an incredible practice this morning. We worked on starts—there is a special sequence of strokes you use to get the boat from a dead stop to top speed really quickly—and sprints. We felt very strong and very balanced. The problems I was fighting at our last practice camp seem to be getting much better. We were both pretty pumped when we got back to the docks. If we put together a few more practices like this, we’re going to go into our final full-team practice camp flying high.
It seems like all we talk about is winning, now. It’s a good thing to know that Jesse is as hungry for victory as I am. We’re so laid back off the water that sometimes people might think we have an almost casual approach to our rowing, but there couldn’t be anything further from the truth. We want to win and, really, we’re planning on it. I’m not arrogant about thinking it will be easy or anything foolish like that, but I’m also not going to go into this competition believing that a gold medal is beyond my grasp. Gold is the goal, let there be no doubt about it.
posted by Jamie at 3:17 PM
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