Training update – week 32 – 6 weeks to go

Had an interesting conversation with Dr Mark Campbell from Mosman Rowing club Sydney last week, when he said, “In the lead up to a major event, it’s the 90 90 rule. You need to be executing quality in 90% of the last 90-days leading up to the race.” With 42-days to go…and Mark’s comment in mind, I headed of to the Rotsee lake in Luzern Switzerland for a mini-training camp on Friday night, Saturday and Sunday.

Had some challenging days at work, and with the lack of sleep and other life stressors, didn’t feel on top of my game on the Friday evening. Resting heart rate was elevated, and performance wasn’t that great. Running through a ‘systems’ check, landed on the lack of sleep as the main cause. Got an extra couple of hours shut eye after lunch on Saturday, and woke felling refreshed and energised. Amazing what sleep can do.

Two and a half days on one of the best rowing venues in the world with a great coach. Very grateful. Racked up around 75km in the boat. With 2 high intensity sessions, one of which was to compare the Nelo R75 vs. the Filippi F22 at race pace.

All of the sessions were done under the watchful eye of Urs. I’m a great believer in coaching. Whether in business, sport or life. A professional coach can spot areas for improvement that one can either over look or not be able to see. I spent a lot of time with Urs, focusing on the connection with the water, the movement around the front end of the stroke, and looking after the boat speed between strokes.

Urs did all the coaching from the river bank, as the Rotsee is a protected lake with no motor boats allowed. We used both the walkie talkies and a ‘check-in’ with Urs for feedback, every lap of the course.

This week was a recovery week, so knowing that we had double sessions on the water planned, I rested on Monday and Tuesday, with the load building up towards the mini-camp. All in all 8 hours, 104 km, 597 TSS.