New Time Lapse video

A new version of the time lapse video has been posted, this one has a soundtrack!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vuGvxdAJ6g&feature=youtu.be

The Journey Home and Closing Remarks

            This morning, we left Gainesville at 6:30am, for the 14 or so hour journey home. Happily, there were no major mishaps with the travel home (at least that I have heard of thus far), and we have all made it back to London safely! In our car, we enjoyed some truly stellar audio, by finishing the Jurassic Park audiobook, and then some good ‘ol music We ran into a few small snow flurries on the way, but nothing which caused any problem road conditions.

            All in all, I think everyone had a good week of training down in Georgia, and we’d again like to express our appreciation to the Lake Lanier Rowing Club for their hospitality and boats. As well as to thank the kind folk who hosted us at the Inns and Suites.

            Keep checking the blog over the next couple weeks! I’m going to put some new pictures up as well as a video/some video clips.

Meet your ATC

Following the tradition of last year’s blog “Florida Breeze,” it’s time to meet the members of the ATC (I will endeavor to keep this fairly brief and entertaining):

Coaches:

Dan ‘Dr Dan’ Bechard: One who’s composure at times verges on Vulcan. He is also known as ‘Danimal’ but I’m not touching that one. Actively prepping for a Gala dance off with Vanessa (hint: get your Gala tickets!).

Matt ‘Wakeout’ Waddell: A clever joker, manages to keep us laughing. He was quite excited about the ice cream dispenser at the university cafeteria. Driving skills rivaled only by well, pretty much everyone except Mario Andretti. Batman to Dan’s Robin. His volleyball skills rival those of Tiger Woods. Best lightweight nutrition support available.

Athletes:

Derek Stedman: aka me, one who managed not to read the label on the drink dispenser. He was quite excited to write the blog this year.

Jill ‘the smoker’ Moffatt: Her coughing on the way down suggested a pack a day, or a cold. Your call…

Sarah ‘actually has a voice’ Royce: The prankster of the group, has managed to circumvent Matt’s defenses a couple times already for a few hearty laughs. Has been known on occasion to consume entire cinnabons.

Vanessa ‘velociraptor’ Beland: Excited to discuss pretty much anything. She was excited by a, well anything really.

Claudia ‘ not contagious’ Blandford: Partner in crime to Vanessa’s discussions. She can’t wait for Chipotle.

Andrew ‘big spoon’ Mcguire: “I’m not a lightweight, just a small heavyweight”, but that’s ok b/c it means I can eat what I want.

Beth ‘B-Farnes ‘ Farnell: A Kingston native who betrayed the Gaels by coming to Western. Enough said.

Jody ‘the pianist‘ Schuurman: The most studious of the group, her epic piano playing reaches Dakin –esq heights.

Chaundra ‘pele‘ Manorome: The queen of random you tube videos, don’t ask because chances are she’s already seen it. Intense about soccer.

Robert ‘this would look nice in the summer‘ Dodd: I wasn’t sure what to write here until he literally ran into our room and announced that the Arizona Republican Debate is on TV. Hmmm.  A fine connoisseur of southern colonial architecture.

Jerome ‘little spoon’ VanLee: I am from Holland! Isn’t that weird! But actually, the tall novice who pulls a mighty erg, and eats too much pizza.

Andrew ‘I know I’m a dick, but’ Boui:  Current lead for the Dolphin award, look out Michael Phelps

Kathleen ‘Freak Out’ Morrison: Don’t worry, she’s a lifeguard, however she may or may not be afraid of going in the water.

Kristen ‘goal post’ Bujnowski: During a game of soccer, while most people would prefer to play positions such as forward, defense, etc. She asked to play the goal post.

Alyssa ‘super serious’ Ethier: Look again, she’s actually smiling.

Calin ‘hair friendly’ Deguefe: Swag swag swagga from Guelph. 

Jacob's Ladder and Lake Lanier Farewell

            This morning was a balmy 19 degrees, however cloudy. This morning’s workout was scheduled to be the infamous ladder workout, except twelve times instead of 8 times. The workout started with a mild cross wind, which decided to dramatically increase as the pieces went on. The session went on pretty well, with Andrew Boui putting himself prominently in the lead for the dolphin award. However, he was not the only one too score a point there, with Kirsten and Kathleen taking a swim at the start of one piece. The workout had to be called off after 8 pieces due to the white capping wind at the location where we were doing pieces. We did the remaining pieces as 4 x 25 stroke starts, not quite as fun as the ladder pieces, but the weather was getting real bad.

            Just before lunch, Beth left  for a flight out of Atlanta this afternoon and needed to head for the airport. We wish her a safe trip home!

            Lunchtime garnered a little extra excitement today when it was announced that this was to be the last meal at the university cafeteria here. Suffice to say there was a bit of a rush to the ice cream machine and the cherry coke dispenser (yes, they have cherry coke here).

            After lunch, during the quick break before the planned second row, I found out that we are currently under a tornado watch. Seems like a real good time to head out for another row! As I told the others, it’s ok, it’s only a watch, if we get a warning then we’re having fun.

            We got back to the lake for the second row, however, the wind proved too much (we’re talking massive whitecaps at the dock) for us to be able to go out. Instead, we cleaned the boats up and then packed up the oars. After this, we decided to go for a two mile run around a local park. Followed by a quick (and by quick I mean 45 minute) and pitiful game of volleyball, where we all enjoyed Matt’s mad skills with serving the volleyball. As well as a general lack of coordination from everyone. After a while we decided to call it quits there and headed for the hotel.

            The dinner plan involves heading off to the ‘Monkey Barrel” restaurant in ‘historic Gainesville – none of us are quite sure of the historic aspect of this town, but maybe we’re all just ignorant. Or maybe it’s a plea for tourists, there is a large steam train on blocks besides one of the roads here, so maybe something to do with the railroad.

            Tomorrow, we head back up to London, it’s expected that there could be really high winds as well as some lake effect snows once we get to more northern Ohio/Michigan/Ontario. So that could prove to be problematic. Hope for the best!

            Now, you may have noticed that posts occasionally had a “Dolphin Points Tally” at the bottom. Today, the Dolphin award was presented. The award consisted of a set of pink with polka dots water wings from Target. Andrew Boui was this year’s recipient, with a score of 7 flips throughout the week. The final points tally can be found below.

Dolphin Points Final Tally:

1)      Andrew Boui : 7

2)      Kristen Bujnowski: 2

2)Kathleen Morrison: 2

3)Andrew McGuire: 1

4)Jill Moffat: 1

5)Calin Deguefe: 0.5

6)Jerome VanLee: 0.5

Summary: Andrew Boui went swimming five times. Kristen and Kathleen went swimming in the double (a win tech double), so it was decided to give them two points each. Andrew McGuire and Jill each took a swim from the single. Calin and Jerome ¾ flipped their double on the dock, they didn’t officially go swimming but it was very close and it was on the dock; so it was officially decided that half a point each would be awarded. No one else got wet.

Under The Sea

           Today was by far the warmest day which we have had thus far. We woke up to a 15 degree morning, though cloudy. Only one row was scheduled for today, with the afternoon set off for exploring Atlanta, or whatever someone may feel like doing.

            Even though it was only one workout, it was a pretty hard workout, designed to be a sort of miniature regatta, with two 2km races to be done. The first race was done time trial style, and the second one was done in two flights of three, seeded from the results of the first one. Time trialing proved to be fun as the wind decided to rise up spectacularly and suddenly during the middle of the piece and as if to further spite us, it decided to be a headwind. This caused a fair annoyance to most crews, however we fought through the wind to finish off the piece. Fortunately, Dan decided to make change the direction of the second piece, so that we would be able to race with the tail wind. A good decision this turned out to be because the wind was strong enough to cause waves; which for those of you who raced NRC’s this year, would seem small. Suffice to say we successfully completed the workout.

            After the workout, we were informed that we had ‘volunteered’ to help out around the boathouse here a as a thank you for loaning us boats to use this week. A good idea, and a nice thing for us to do, considering the hospitality we have received this week. The first bit of work seemed fairly standard boathouse style work, move boat trailers around into different places. But then we ended up moving some – and by some I mean a few kms worth, of pool lane ropes. Also, this work was preceded by the person in charge saying “I hope y’all aren’t afraid of Black Widows.” Huh. Alright then. We proceeded anyway, and fortunately we didn’t see, and no one got bitten by any Black Widows.

            The afternoon was the more interesting part of the day, where initially many people were interested in going to the Atlanta Aquarium. It ended up being Claudia, Vanessa and I (and in the confusion, we might have accidentally left Matt, which we are really really sorry about (actually)) who actually went to the aquarium. This proved to be quite the experience, most of the exhibits were cool, but I think the one which took the cake for us was the ocean exhibit with the walk through ‘glass’ tunnel. This exhibit was a massive tank containing many different types of fish, but especially important was the Manta Rays and Whale Sharks (one of two aquariums in the world with these animals). There are a bunch of pictures which I don’t have yet, but hope to be able to post some of the better ones later (and maybe I’ll include a few rowing pictures).

            The ones who did not go to the Aquarium in the afternoon went out to a local outlet mall, and it was relatively mundane, lets face it, it’s a mall. And also I haven’t really talked to anyone about it except to hear ‘it was alright’.

            Exciting news! Below is a link to a you tube video from our trip. It is a ten times speed time lapse of our cat six row from ‘a few strokes of bliss’. The camera was attached to the bow of my boat, unfortunately there is no sound track right now, though I am accepting suggestions for a music track. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYsY1zC5C_c&feature=plcp&context=C33c7965UDOEgsToPDskL6VWakghee2GFpl-R90koU

Some Pictures

Panoramic View of The River

Chilling in The Double

A Huge Panoramic view, right is towards the Olympic 2km, Straight Ahead, the boathouse, left the dock and river

Women's double and quad

The Men With Some Stellar Finish Timing

I Guess The Camera Really Didn't Want To Focus On Matt

During Circuit Training, I Decided To Demonstrate How To Void Your Bowels In The Woods

If I Only Had A Sail

            Today started out rather unusually, rather than a hum drum breakfast with a bunch of tired people, we were all fairly attentively watching the weather forecast on the lobby tv. There was a prediction of potential of severe storms with the potential to produce large hail and tornadoes. This forecast produced a bit of a stir among the crew, because generally tornadoes and rowing shells don’t mix well.

            The weather was cloudy and appeared to be alright, so we headed out to onto the water for our morning hard workout. There were two different workouts set out for this morning, depending on people’s comfort with high rates. The one workout was 2 times five times 5 minutes on and 90 seconds off, with rates of 24, 26, 28, 26, 24. The other workout was 2 minutes on, two minutes off, I’m unsure of the rates because I did the five minute one. For some reason, it was decided that I didn’t work hard enough yesterday and I should have to face off against two women’s quads again. Later in the workout, the wind picked up so that we were fighting some fairly hefty white caps. This made the workout slightly different than intended due to the waves breaking over the bows and riggers of our boats. Though altogether it was not a wasted workout, still some good and hard strokes were had.

            After lunch, it was decided that sore hands and sit bones would be given a break from the usual grating routine of rowing. Instead, it was decided to play a game of soccer, though, I really don’t know if it can truthfully be called soccer, more like 18 people running around a field with no discernable order for about 45 minutes. Oh yeah, there was a fluorescent foam ball somewhere on that field as well.

            As the wind was still blowing a bit – but at least not a tornado. I say at least, though I would have been pretty excited to see one. Though as long as it didn’t cause any damage to my car, I think my stuff may have suffered enough damage this trip haha, though no ‘official’ word on that yet. An optional cat six row happened after the soccer game. Officially it was optional, but everyone went out for a row, and in a new variety of boats, where to my delight, a few more dolphin points were earned! The row only lasted for about 45 minutes, but that seemed to be enough as there is definitely a slightly tired feeling among the group by this point. I think people are looking forward to the afternoon off tomorrow, theoretically to go and explore Atlanta or something, but potentially just a really long afternoon nap, we’ll see.

            Dinner was as good as ever, and we were happily back at the hotel by 6:15 (as opposed to yesterday’s 9:30 after dinner), though admittedly now we have to find something constructive to do for the next couple hours before it becomes socially acceptable to go to bed. I’m sure we can think of something to pass the time.  

Dolphin Points Standings:

1)      Andrew Boui: 4

2)      Andrew McGuire: 1

2) Jill Moffat: 1

2)      Rob Dodd: 1

3)      Everyone else: 0!

A Few Strokes of Bliss

            This morning we were greeted by the a cool and cloudy sky, as well as the news that today is the day where we are planning on accomplishing three workouts.

            The first workout of the day was another cat four workout, with the planned activity being 8km of leapfrog alternating between rates of 22 and 26. For some reason, Dr Dan and Matt decided that the best setup for this workout would be to put two mixed women’s quads out with me in the single to make a three boat leapfrog setup. For anyone who knows the difference between a single and a quad (in both length and speed), meant that I got to have a lot more ‘fun’ (as Volker would put it) than the quads. Thought, really I shouldn’t complain, it was a good workout, though to be able to stay with them at the lower rate and pass in a reasonably short period of time, the rate may have slipped up towards the 24-25 and 34ish range.

            We all seem to be finding that most of the boats we borrow seem to be inclined to move towards starboard. Fortunately, I have come up with a potential reason behind this phenomenon. In this area, many people are quite interested in NASCAR racing. In NASCAR, the cars exclusively turn left, as they drive in a circle for 3 hours or so and it’s really exciting to watch them crash, uh, I mean the awesomeness of the racing. The figuring is that the boats are designed like the cars, to always turn in one direction.

            After the usual lunchtime smorgasbord, we went back to the hotel for a quick 40 minute reprieve. For many of us that turned into a quick 40 minute nap, this was a nice mid day break. The strength training circuit was the second workout of the day, this proved to be a rather painful 60 or 70 minutes of our time. It’s truly amazing how difficult lifting up your own body weight can sometimes seem. Not helping the situation was the ‘improvised’ pull up bar that had a completely acceptable bend to it while you did a pull up, not to mention the risk of having a rather large concrete block dropped on you at the same time. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger right? Unless it crushes your rib cage.

            A quick 30 minute break and we were at it again, on the water for the afternoon cat six row. That row proved to be . . . superb, to say the least. The sun decided to come out and honor us with very nice evening light. As well, the wind came right down, so the majority of the row was on glass flat waters, which were completely undisturbed. There were some great strokes had.

            Now, tonight we did not have a pre-arranged meal at the all you can eat cafeteria, so some of us ended up at the Olive Garden, while others joined Dan and Matt’s second man date of the trip (uh oh) and went out to find some sushi. I went to the Olive Garden and we haven’t heard from the others yet, so I can’t speculate on the sushi. The Olive Garden was quite enjoyable, and our server, George, promised to read our blog. So hopefully he will/did. We found something we hadn’t encountered before, you can get drinks in a doggy bag (or maybe a doggy bowl?) if you want a re-fill when you leave, even of water. That was something we found to be very interesting, and perhaps a wee bit entertaining.

            Three workouts again tomorrow, so hope for the best!

Our Daily Dose of Vitamin D

           Monday morning started out with a nice surprise, an ultra sunny, yet still a little brisk morning. In general, spirits were noticeably higher around the ATC, until Dr Dan decided to announce the morning’s workout. We took out almost the same boats as yesterday, with the idea of people being able to work harder in a boat they are comfortable in. The actual workout consisted of 2x4km time trial style, open rate. Overall, it was a well run workout given that some crews are not too experienced skullers and none of us are very familiar with this course. At least a few good strokes were had by all, and we had Rob put himself in the lead for the dolphin award – he was later ousted from this position by Mr Boui.

            The men’s quad managed to get themselves thoroughly wet throughout the duration of the workout. They might possibly also have been beaten by at least one of the women’s quad. I’m not completely sure on this one, but rumors are circulating.

            Although we all pulled harder this morning, we were all much more ‘controlled’ at the all you can eat lunch buffet. Generally at lunch the team sits together at a large table. However, at this lunch Dan and Matt decided to have a man date at a separate table.

            After a quick reprieve at the hotel, we went back to the course for a nice steady state row. For this row, we decided to abandon the 2km course and head along the river. We rowed about 7.5km up the winding river until we decided to turn around. This proved to be a very nice place to row, with wide sweeping turns and upscale housing along the shoreline. The temperature was very nice allowing for warmth in shorts and t-shirts, but not excessive heat.

            A few of us went on a pre dinner run, specifically Jill, Claudia, Beth, Matt and I. However we accidentally left Matt behind about 5 minutes into the run. After we left Matt we decided to turn off the main drag onto a side street, a good idea in theory to avoid all the traffic. In reality, not so much a good idea due to the neighborhood we accidentally turned into. It was the kind of area which would make EOA back in London look like a fairly safe place to walk/run. Fortunately we found a way to get out of the area and back to the hotel safely.

            The most intense competition of the day occurred at dinner, when Matt decided to show up at the dinner table with a fairly aesthetically pleasing and fairly American sized ice cream cone. Five minutes later, Dr Dan showed up at the table with a ‘perfect’ looking ice cream cone, and upon sitting down says “one upped!” to Matt; who then decided to go and refill his cone. Gauntlets were thrown.

            Currently, an after dinner Wal-Mart run in taking place. It is beyond me what supplies from there are needed - except Guns and Beer obviously, but I’m sure it will prove to be a wild adventure.

            Another one of our fun Georgian adventures, today occurred in our room when ‘somebody’ (#blamethenovices) managed to break the toilet – and no he didn’t jam it, somehow the back managed to get broken, so that when flushed water would be poured into the bowl at such a rate as to cause the toilet to fill up to the point of spilling over the top. Fortunately, the front desk decided to promptly fix the problem.

            We have been learning some truly spectacular things about the cultural differences between Canada and southern Ontario in the last few days. For one, weather which we consider beautiful t-shirt and shorts weather, the locals are still found wearing long sleeves, pants and even jackets. Further, there is a different standard of advertising down here in the American south, our favorite thus far is an add for a local health facility, which shows a child on what appears to be a small sled and says “Hey y’all watch this!” then “urgent care facility” on the bottom, not quite what we’re used to.

That’s all for today from the ATC, except for the current Dolphin award tally. Also, see the pictures below.

           

Dolphin award points tally:

1)      Andrew Boui - 2

2)      Rob - 1

3)      Everyone  else - 0

A view from the Boathouse in the evening. (Photo courtesy of Jill M)

Jill M and Sara R after a cat VI in the 2x (photo courtesy of Jill M)

Matt and Dan on a man date at lunch

A wider scale, lower quality image of the rowing club in the morning.

"I think later I'm going to hook up my mouth to that ice cream machine"

That quote comes from our coach, Matt “Wakeout” Waddell upon discovering the all you can eat nature of the university cafeteria where we are planning on having most of our meals. I was surprised with how at home we all seemed to feel at this university cafeteria, I guess that it’s the similarity to Brescia college back home. The food is good, no question, however it has lead to a few memorable quotes such as:

“I swear, tonight we’re only going to have salads”

“I poured too much maple syrup by accident, so I had better grab another pancake”

“I did two rows today and managed to gain five pounds???”

            Ah the joys all you can eat food and hungry rowers. The overall meal and food quality was quite good and enjoyable.

            Aside from that, we enjoyed our first experience on the water in several months this morning, and it felt just like we left it back in November, raining and cold and windy. Good day for some people to learn how to skull, though as the workout wasn’t very long no one got too cold, though we all were quite keen on hot chocolate at lunch.

            The second row was a slightly longer row up and down the 2km course a few times, rain persisted, making those of us from BC quite reminiscent of home. By the end of this row a few hands were starting to be a bit sore, along with a few other body parts.

            The dinner which followed also took place at the university cafeteria, which delivered yet again. And unfortunately leads to fairly uneventful blog reading.

            Fortunately for us, the Rowing club here was willing to loan us some boats after the unfortunate accident last night. For this we are quite grateful.

The World's Best Subway Man

Another post wasn't planned for tonight, but this guy was just awesome, plus Jill is watching the Bachelor, so seriously what am I going to do? Thank goodness for the slow buffering times of free wi fi!

A few different discoveries were made while on different expeditions to find dinner. Not Contagious (Claudia) and the velociraptor (Vanessa) decided to go to “Wild Wing” for dinner , our resident smoker (Jill) needed to get some cash so I offered to provide a ride to the bank. However, Jill managed not to extract money from the ATM, due to the fact that the US government frowns upon people trying to use Bank of American ATMs to access their accounts in the Caymans. I guess she’ll have to go to New Zealand to avoid persecution by the US government.

            Luckily for her, footlong subs are only five dollars. When at this subway, we encountered the  best subway employee ever. As a self proclaimed ‘aspiring chef’ he suggested new and unconventional ways to enjoy your subs. As delicious as these suggestions sounded, our subs were nearing completion. We were also provided with a cool new idea which he claimed is unique to this subway, which we hope to try sometime later this week. He also suggested that we bring our entire team in later this week for a ‘substantial discount.’ This was a big change to change to the subway employee from earlier today (the knife-guy place), where while not being rude, successfully managed to instill a Volker-esq fear in Jill, though at least she didn’t make any sexually provocative GermEnglish comments! Though she was eating chocolate at the time.

            So now we’ve ended up back at the hotel, waiting for the others to arrive here, as well as Claudia and Vanessa, who may or may not be sitting at a table for four waiting for us, oops, our bad. At least we get to catch up on the bachelor, something I’ve been looking forward too all day.

Introduction and Travelling to the ATC

We decided to meet at a fairly ungodly hour this morning to leave for a something like 14 hour drive from London ON, all the way down to Gainsborough GA (just NE of Atlanta). In my car we had me, Derek Stedman, Claudia 'not contagious' Blandford, Vanessa 'velociraptor' Beland and Jill 'smoker's cough' Moffat.

Our route took us across the border at the undeniably scenic town of Sarnia, After heading south for a while, we ended up on interstate 75, or as it will forever be known - the Waffle House Expressway (literally every exit - not kidding). The highway driving proved to be relatively uneventful  (for us, but we'll get to that later), given the straightness of some of the interstates here rivals that of the attire of an average Western male social science student.

A brief stop for five dollar foot-longs at subway in nobody-cares Kentucky, proved to be more eventful than planned when a kindly gentleman offered to sell us his hunting knife in exchange for gas money. We decided to eat on the road.

The audio entertainment was Grammy worthy to say the least, given that I was going to be driving three girls down in my car and my expectations were not high. However, we enjoyed the aural experience of Michael Chricton's "Jurassic Park", the narration of the female voices left a little bit to be desired. This shortcoming was slightly reconciled by the raptor and t-rex impressions taking place in the back seat during the key action parts.

A slight rain storm reduced visibility and speed for the last hour or so of our drive, however, we managed to make it here safely. The hotel (which will hopefully be starring in a MTV CRIBS style video later this week) is one which, compared to the valueplace Orlando is the Ritz. However, they didn't take too kindly to the whole 'the coach will deal with the bill when he gets here' idea.

Now, on to the more serious and sadder news. Upon arriving at the hotel, we decided to phone Dan 'Dr Dan' Bechard. He informed us that the trailer had a minor 'accident' on the way down and to say the least, some damage has occurred to the boats (and my boat). Fortunately, everyone in the van is safe, and the van itself is safe. That did manage to successfully put a damper on our arrival, and diminish the speed with which we decided to go and get some dinner.

And now: "I'M HUNGRY" - Lex from Jurassic park, say in the most annoying female tone you can possible think of. And so therefore, this is the end for today.