GB Rowing Team Annoucement - World Championships 2011

Today is the annoucement for the team that will compete at the 2011 World Champs.  The Champs also double up as Olympic qualification (if your boat fails to qualify for the Olympics it is possible to qualify in the early summer of 2012).  I have been selected as part of the Men's Eight; the crew remains unchanged (see the Team Announcement post from May).  We have had a pretty reasonable season so far and I'm really looking forward to cracking down to some good training over the next two months in the lead into the Championships.  Racing for the medals will be tight and exciting, I have every confidence we will be right in the middle of it "giving it some cheese".  On Friday I am off to Silveretta [Austria] on altitude camp, I'm really looking forward to it.  It's no holiday camp - hard work is on the menu every day - good things don't come easy.

New Single - with help from John Elliott & the County Durham CF

All wrapped up.

I recently took delivery of a brand new single scull; an Empacher V12 [reverse wing, carbon trim].  For the non-rowing geek, this is the Audi R8 of the rowing world.  Many of the top scullers in the world use an Empacher single including Ondrej Synek (current World Champion) and Olaf Tufte (reigning Olympic Champion '08 and '04).  The wing rigger is made from an aluminium composite; the main hull is a kevlar and carbon fibre mix.  You can say I was pretty chuffed when it arrived.

Every season we race and trial in our single sculls to gain our place in the national team.  So owning reliable and top spec. equipment is key to consistent training and a good performance.  Next year is the Olympic season and I want to demonstrate good speed in all that I do.

My previous single was also an Empacher, and I used the funds from selling that and some savings to put towards this boat.  Without the support of John Elliott of the Ebac Fund at the County Durham Community Foundation I would never have been able to purchase the boat.  John and the CDCF have supported me several times since I was a junior; their financial support has been pivotal to being able to purchase equipment that I would have never had access to.  Rowing is expensive - this single cost close to £10,000 - yeah, you read it right.  CDCF do great work and the staff there are really friendly, supportive and, thankfully, interested.   You can visit their website by clicking on their name above or by clicking on their logo on the left hand side (probably need to scroll down) or follow them on twitter (@CountyDurhamCF).  I can not thank them and John Elliott enough.

You can leave suggestions for boat names below!*

Tomorrow is the annoucement of the GB Rowing Team for the 2011 World Championships; pop back tomorrow for an update.  You can also follow day to day on twitter (@nrod2012).

*T's and C's apply - one entry per person, no entries from DH6 4QB [Emily exempt].

Ondrej Synek using the Empacher V12

Trip to the House's of Parliament

Big Red's BIG chin ruining my shot of Big Ben

Today was the Parliamentary Boat Race; the event was supported by Siemens - who sponsor the GB Rowing Team.  A few of us were asked to go along and represent the team (Marcus, Rich, Rob, Hester and myself).  It was the first time I had been into Parliament.  Inside was different to what I expected, to be honest it wasn't as good as I imagined - some bits were very good, others not.  Just past the main lobby there is a small holding area where you can head off to function rooms etc; there is seating by a fire place, well I call it a fire place but it was a plastic facade with a 60 watt bulb behind it - pretty tacky.  We were then led out to the Pavilion (function rooms and bar along by the riverside, by accident I went in the House of Lords area.  The first thing I saw was a fat security guard smoking, learning at a heavy angle against the side of the gazebo.  None of the Lords seemed to stick to smoking or non-smoking areas, and most seemed to be smoking - I found this pretty shocking as any pub or restaurant in the country would have their licence revoked if they operated like that.  Thankfully the event I attended was well run and there were plenty of interesting people to talk to.  Things sorts of events can be a little sterile but everyone seemed pretty open and they was definitely a lot of schmoozing going on.

Siemens are great supporters of the GB Rowing Team and have now had a long standing relationship with the team, this is led with enthusiasm from the CEO Andreas.  With the support of Siemens GB Rowing is able to run programmes and offer support at levels that our [generous] Lottery Funding would not be able to afford on it's own.

It was great to get the invite today and thanks again to all those at Siemens.

Lucerne World Cup

At the weekend I raced Lucerne [Switzerland] in the final race of the Rowing World Cup Series.  The Series is made up of three European races, generally used to prepare crews for the World Championships later in the year.  This year the GB team only competed at two of the three races due to Ecoli infection concerns in the Hamburg region.

This is the first time I had raced in Lucerne and so enjoyed the change of scene.  Lucerne has a certain "je ne sais quoi" about it.  It is pretty much always been the last race in the World Cup Series and so always has a strong attendance as all nations want to test themselves against the best, before the World Champs.  The course is set in a tight valley along a thin long lake, only just big enough to hold an Olympic size course; as a result the weather can change very quickly with dramatic effect.  Above is a picture of us in our 8 the day before racing, below is a youtube clip of the very same storm - watch out for the size of the hail stones! 

Racing started on the Friday; we needed to win the race to go straight to the final, any other position and we would have to race the repercharge the next day.  The photo on the left below is the photo finish from the heat.  We lost out to the Dutch National 8 by 0.01 seconds - the race took 5mins 30 and meant we lost by a margin of less than an inch over 2000km [or 78,740 inches].  Unbelievably tight and a kick in the teeth as we had beaten the Dutch in every race in Munich some weeks earlier.

This meant we had to race in the repercharge on Saturday to secure our place in the A-Final.  Our main opposition were the French and Polish.  We had beaten both crews in Munich (where the Poles came third, ahead of the Dutch).  A strong sense of deja vu swept over us and again found ourselves in a tight battle on the line.  This time losing out to the Poles by 0.23 seconds, but well clear of the French and Ukrainians.

This wasn't an easy or nice situation to be in, we had come to Lucerne believing we were at least ranking second in the World and were ready to take the challenge to the Germans; now we had been beaten by Dutch, Polish and had seen the Americans run the Germans closer than we have so far this season - and then see that American crew be beaten by a re-invigorated Canadian 8.  It meant racing was going to be unbelievably tight and we could end up being 6th, within several hundredths of a second of several other crews.  The final would require us to step up big time.  Below is the photo finish, this time missing out to the Dutch by 0.04 secs, coming in 3rd ahead of the USA.  You can watch the race here on the BBC (including Greg's video diary) or here on the World Rowing website (click on the Men's 8 in the bottom right to view our race)

It has been a busy few weeks and I'm looking forward to digging back into training.  You can subscribe to the blog post via email on the left hand side; also feel free to leave comments or ask questions.

Henley Royal Regatta - Sat

Today we raced the Australian national eight at Henley Royal and won by a margin of one length.  There was an amazing atmosphere, a great turnout and an unbelievable amount of noise the whole way down the course.  We came close (1 second) to breaking the course record that has stood since 1989 - I was born April 1988!

Tomorrow [3:30pm] we will race the two time World Champions from Germany.  It will be a great race.  If you can't make it to Henley to watch, you can get the result on twitter (@HenleyRegatta), on the Henley Royal Regatta website or you can listen to live commentary online at Regatta Radio.

Tomorrow is my mum's birthday, it's rude to ask a lady her age - but you can work it out, she was born in 1965.  Happy Birthday Mum.

Henley Royal Regatta

Stepping into the boat

This week is Henley; every major rowing club in the world has made the trip to this regatta, some every year.  It's a special event with old traditions, a unique atmosphere and quality racing.

Tomorrow will be my first race of the regatta.  I will be racing in the GB Men's Eight for the Grand Challenge Cup.

Wikipedia Entry -
The Grand Challenge Cup is a rowing competition for men's eights. It is the oldest and most prestigious event at the annual Henley Royal Regatta on the River Thames at Henley-on-Thames in England. It is open to male crews from all eligible rowing clubs.

Our race will be about 3pm and will be against the Australian National Eight.  This will be a big race.  There are no second chances, there are no runners-up; you either win or lose, continue racing or be sent home.  This makes it so much more personal.

In the words of PJ and Duncan - "Let's get ready to rhumble!"

400 Days to Go!

As you can see from the countdown clock on the left, today is 400 days until the Olympics.  Time is ticking on and each day of preparation is important.  St Mary's R.C. Primary were marking the day today and here is a short series of clips from other GB Rowing Team members made especially for them.

[Featuring Alan Campbell, Steve Rowbotham, Adam Freeman-Pask, Craig Williams, Jess Eddie, Alex Gregory and Caroline O'Connor - thanks for their participation]

Day off & building for Henley Royal - Oh and Happy Father's Day!

Today was a day off, it's been a while so it was nice to have a break.  It's been a mixed week and so good to get some time to prepare for the coming weeks.  Henley Royal will be our next race, our event is packed with talent - our first race will be against either Germany, Australia or USA (the gold, bronze and 6th place crews from last year's World Championships).

I had a great nap yesterday afternoon, much needed. I then had dinner with my brother Ben, Louise and my housemate James.  Louise cooked a great Terry&Aggy Chicken thing.  This morning I went coaching and then went to Women's Henley for a picnic lunch.  Above is a picture from my day, I'm there with Sarah, Kara and Louise [L to R].  James was taking the photo, good job really as he has a face for radio.  After a couple of hours by the river, and numerous duck attacks, I headed home to relax.  After mentioning Henley Women's there are invariably many "poo-sticks" and "competitive drifting" jokes, today I will refrain.

As anyone who has passed a Clinton's Cards in the last week will know, today is Father's day.  I am lucky to have a great dad who has done so much for me and all my brother's and sister's.  It would be nice to have our training centre closer to home as it would mean I could see my family more; I get to see Ben more often (he is studying in London and also rows for ULBC).  My dad was the one who got up early on school days to take me to training before lessons started, my dad was the one who was/is always in my corner, my dad is more of an influence on me than I would ever had imagined (for better or worse!!).  There are four other "Fathers" that have had a distinct influence on me and how I am.  My grandfathers, John Reilly and Patrick O'Donnell - both victims to cancer, both so much more than that.  JR took me to my first ever Sunderland game and encouraged my interest in sport, POD had genuine physical strength I am yet to see any Olympic athlete match in the gym.  In a paragraph I can't do justice to their stories, but they are regularly in my thoughts.  Two other "Fathers" that have shown me great support are Fr Corbett and Fr Hayden; they were my local parish priests as I grew up but are so much more than that to our family (Fr C is now based in Newcastle).  Fr Corbett was my sponsor when I was confirmed and he recently celebrated 40 years as a priest, he must be cracking on a bit now, but there are no signs of it showing.  Fr Hayden is calm, considered and, like Fr C, has a great sense of humour - a truly good man.

I best go, training starts again at 07:30, lots of sleep stops the wheels falling off.  Feel free to subscribe to blog posts on the left or leave comments below.

Oh nearly forgot, congratulations to Gina and Alex Partridge who became first time parents to Eva Florence!  Great Fathers Day gift!

Update and Henley plans

I raced in the Diamond Challenge Sculls last year at Henley, this year I will be racing in the eight.

As I've mentioned, the GB team has pulled out of the Hamburg World Cup as the risk of ecoli is too high; some other teams have also pulled out since we announced our withdrawal and the Germans have insisted there is no risk to athletes.  That means two things 1) we will get beasted at home instead 2) Henley Royal Regatta is our next chance to race.

The eight is going well and we are progressing on a few fronts, hopefully gaining the necessary edge to overturn any opposition.  I feel I have made some good personal improvements but still need to apply this on a more consistent basis.

Henley Royal is a unique event; for those who haven't been, you will no doubt have connotations of hoorah Henry's and dusty WASP farts. There is no denying that those stereotypes exist, but Henley is so much more than that.  We will be racing in the Grand Challenge Cup, the blue ribband event. We will be racing against the fastest eights in the World - side by side, Mano et Mano.  For the athletes involved it will be one of the most electric feelings you will ever get, as a result I'm getting goosebumps as I write.  If you are available you should get yourself down on the 29th June - 3rd July.  It's held in the centre of Henley and tickets for the Regatta Enclosure can be purchased here or you can watch the whole thing for free by finding a spot along the river bank. Due to high numbers of drunken chavs and rowdy toffs, Saturday night is not a family environment.  Any other time it's a fantastic way to relax and watch some really world class racing is a fun and carnival atmosphere.  I hope to see some of you there!

Pulling out of Hamburg

Last night GB Rowing announced that all GB crews would be pulling out of the Hamburg World Cup (meant to be in 10 days time).  There has been a significant outbreak of Ecoli in Germany, originating in the Hamburg region.  With one of the symptoms of ecoli being death, it's a serious thing to consider.  If anyone caught anything like ecoli, it could very easily end up being the end of their Olympiad.

Plans have been changed and we will look to make just as good a use of our time.  I don't know to exact plan yet, but I am assuming Henley Royal will be the next chance to see the men's eight race.  It's disappointing not to be racing at this event, but there will plenty of other opportunities ahead.

Without doubt we have one of the best support structures in the sport, and all athletes in the team never have to worry about things like this as the right decision is often made.

Hard week plus O2 and London Youth Games

 

I've had a pretty tiring week post Munich World Cup.  We got straight back into training but certainly had to tough it out towards the end of the week.  As I've mentioned before, your body can react in funny ways after hard races, particularly when racing over a few days.  I was in a bit of a bad way, but kept recovering enough to make it to training the next day.  There is a strong sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when you're tired and ill but still able to plough on.  The light on the horizon was the day off on Sunday, without that I'm sure I would have crumbled quicker than a digestive.  Along with training I had two events to attend this week.

On Thursday evening I went straight from training to an O2 employee event at Battersea Park.  I've recently taken up an offer from O2 for work experience in their legal team, admin stuff is still going through but I hope to start in the next week or two (more about all this in a later post).  The event was for management from all branches of the O2 family, looking towards the next 12 months and how O2 wants to develop in that time.  I have found that anyone to do with O2 is unbelievably positive about the company, and from what I can see there is good reason - lots of positive stuff, particularly for customers, will be rolling out over the next few months.  I met and spoke to quite a few people, I also joined in the 1 minute ergo challenge that was going on - hopefully I still had the top score at the end of the night (if I didn't then I will look like a right mug).  It was particularly good to chat to Ronan Dunne, the CEO at O2, a nice guy with a great knowledge of sport.

On Saturday I had my second event of the week, which was probably my second event of the year come to think about it.  After training, I shot across London to the Royal Docks by London City Airport.  The Thames Water London Youth Games Regatta (catchy title) is a competition held each year between all the London boroughs as part of the wider Balfour Beatty London Youth Games; points are won for the borough in each event, with an overall borough champion named at the end of the games.  I was there with Andy Triggs-Hodge, who is sponsored by Thames Water.  While there I met up with Amanda from Atos Origin (who provide a bursary to aid my training to 2012), it was great to chat to her again and will hopefully see her at Henley Regatta this year.  Andy and I gave out the medals to the winning crews.  Each person celebrates a victory in their own way, some were very smiley and excited to receive the medal; others were more stoic.  Every village has it's idiot and every Olympic champion has a super fan.  Well Andrew Triggs-Hodge met her in East London on Sat 4th June 2011.  I don't know her name, but she won the girl's single scull event.  As her win was announced she jumped from the floor (from a cross-legged position, and didn't use her hands!), ran [arms flapping] to the steps of the stage.  As she climbed up the steps she squealed to Andy - "Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God, I follow you on Twitter" (with various excitable noises).  Andy laughs nervously and the girl nearly collapses with joy.  Nearly forgetting her medal, she leaves quicker than she got up there.  All in all a good day and a great story for the lads down at Caversham.

Surprisingly, I know a lot of people missed out on Olympic rowing tickets.  You can register on http://www.eventeam2012.fr/ before midnight in France (11pm BST)  TONIGHT and you will have an exclusive 48 hours from June 13 to buy tickets on a first-come, first-served basis.  After the two-day window, the remaining Olympic tickets will be on general sale.  This is a genuine website and there is a further article on this on the Telegraph website today.

Silver in Munich

For those of you that havn't seen the race, you can view it here on the BBC.

Some rowing trivia for you - when you line up on the start line you can be easily blown by the wind as you try and hold your position.  Two things help you stay in a straight line and make sure that you all start exactly on the line. 1) The stakeboat boy/girl - my brother Ben is hoping to be one at the Olympics and basically consists of hold the end of the boat while lying on your front on a pontoon. 2) Electronic "Clog" system - "Clogs" (they look like a lunch box) are raised from under the water, when you are held by the stakeboat boy/girl.  Its a small perspex box where you position your boat so that if the wind blows across the boat won't move.  The starting system is all electronic, so when the buzzer and lights go, the clog drops (fast) and releases all six eights like greyhounds at a dog track.  If you click on the link to the footage above, you can see a small splash of water at the front of the boat when the buzzer goes, that's the clog retracting back to its watery grave.

All in all, it was a strong weekend of racing for GB Rowing and my crew was very much part of that.  We had four strong races and performed consistently against the rest of the field.  I, and the rest of my crew, don't get up in the morning to collect a silver medal - we are here for one thing, and that thing is to beat people; but what is positive from the weekend is that we tried a few things, we raced honestly and we have clear focus' for the coming weeks.  What was very clear to me was that we were the only eight (bar possibly the French) to have total faith in our own programme.  On the first day we had two races; one a time trial, the other our heat [report here].  With the exception of France, we were the only crew to totally commit to the time trial.  In my eyes that can be for only one reason - that they didn't want to put themselves at a disadvantage during the "real" racing and therefore conserved energy aka they didn't know if they could still perform under extra pressure/fatigue and therefore opted out.  The World Cup races are very important races (they are 3/4 of the main international races we do each year), but they are a means towards the World Championships (which are a means towards our primary goal, the Olympic games).  It's important to use every opportunity on that path, and I feel we used our weekend well.  We raced Sunday afternoon and I was back training 7:30am Monday.

The next World Cup is in Hamburg [Germany] on the 17th-19th June.

Munich Day 2 - Repercharge

Today we raced at 15:06 BST in our repercharge; we won the race, with the Netherlands a close second followed by France and China.  We race at 12:58 BST and you can watch live streaming of the race online at http://www.worldrowing.com/live-results or on the Red button on the BBC.

At the moment Man U and Barcelona are 1-1 at Wembley, its good for the Man U fans - only a short tube ride to get home from the game.

Tomorrow I will paddle early in the morning, get the system woken up and then will prepare myself for the final.  Hope everyone is enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend!

Munich Day 1 - TT and Heat

Tom Solesbury looking crisp at bow (far right)



Today has been a busy racing day.  It started with a TT at 1:35pm and a heat at 18:36pm.

We, along with most GB crews, performed strongly in the TT.  This is for two reasons 1) we are a really strong team competing for medals in most events 2) other nations couldn't be bothered.  For some the TT offered a chance to skip a round and go straight to the semi or final; for others, like the men's eights, it didn't really mean a whole lot and was more of a formality.  We took this challenge on and performed well, others backed off and minced down the course.  You say tomato, I say tomato.  We posted the fastest time of any boat.

As evening approached, we prepared for the heat.  We drew Germany, Netherlands and China - all strong crews, particularly Germany who are the reign world champions from 2009 and 2010.  Our race was a mixed bag, showing some great strengths and things to learn from.  We came second to the Germans by two seconds with the Dutch and Chinese a few seconds behind that.  The first place gives the Germans a bye into the A-final; we will race the repercharge tomorrow at 16:06 local time (15:06 BST).  You should be able to view it at worldrowing.com/live-results.

Tom Solesbury was "puckering" today as he realised he had forgotten his racing all-in-one (main piece of clothing).  Thankfully for him I often carry a spare in my bag and so was able to lend him one of mine - might have been a bit tight, but they performed well and qualified for the A-final.

I've been updating my Twitter now and then; I threw a few people off with a tweet that posted while I was on the start line - you can follow me @nrod2012.  Keep an eye out for some mid-race tweets.

Matt Wells has had his ghost writer typing for him again at redexpress2012.com.  Today's post cover's nine ways to execute a time trial.  They left off "No. 10 - The Hogwarts Express" - it consists of the Weasley twins, a couple of brooms each and a stiff yellow snake to use as a boat; then just let the magic happen.

Night before Day

Here is a video I took a few days ago while at Dorney lake, I've uploaded a few other clips to my new YouTube channel ["nrodvlog"]; You should also be able to view it on the left hand side (part-way down).

Today we had two good sessions on the course in Munich.  We will have two races tomorrow; the first at 12:35 BST; the second at 17:35 BST.  Our first race is unusual as it will be a time trial over 1900m.  Readers of previous posts will know that we often do this as part of our National Trials, but I have never had to do it in an international race.  The reason FISA (the World Governing Body) is doing this is to practice the procedure should it be required at events where the weather prevents fair racing in a side by side format.  It should be interesting how it pans out...

The second race will be our heat.  The heats will be seeded from the time trial and the winners will go straight to the A-final.  Places 2-6 will have to race again in the repercharge (Sat).

Both races can be watched live at here on the World Rowing website.  I don't think there will be a live video feed until the finals on Sunday.

I'm aware my posts have become slightly sterile and will look to juice them up a bit where possible!  Comments and suggestions welcome.

Munich Awaits

Today I, and the rest of the GB Rowing Team,  landed in Munich onboard flight LH 2471.  Everyone told me that the weather was going to be rubbish and so packed a full 20kg of wet-weather gear; instead I emerged from the plane into 24 degrees of clear skys and light breeze.  Munich airport is no stranger, and so made the usual route from arrivals to the coach park.  From there it was straight to our hotel (Victor's Residenz-Hotel Munchen) for lunch.  After lunch I saw the physio (Sally) for a bit of work on my hip and side.  The bus to the course arrived at 3:30pm, everyone in the team boarded to unload the boats from the trailer and go for a session.  Today we had a great session and made a real positive start here in Munich.  Here is an extract from Matt Wells on his blog @ http://www.redexpress2012.com/ -

"With all the talk being of the Ash Cloud the sequel descending on Europe again. We thought that we would be up against it, even just getting to Munich.
But we are here and all the kit has arrived in the same condition it left. That is thanks to the team of drivers and equipment managers who do an amazing job, going far beyond what is ever expected of them. Without this experienced and unflappable team working tirelessly behind the scenes British rowing would never be the successful sport it is.

When we the British Team arrive at a regatta venue the rest of the world know about it and that isn't just because of the noise certain members of the women's team make. We are all clad head to foot in matching Adidas showing how much of a team we are, it’s a real show of presence.

However once the unloading of two trailers is underway teamwork is quickly forgotten and it is every boat for themselves. When there are eighteen boats to be taken off the two trailers with the corresponding riggers/wings and blades there is a lot of action, when you then throw into the mix the fact there is only eight sets of slings you get the picture of the chaos.    I say chaos but when you look around each boat is working in total synergy, each person being responsible for one particular job this is even more remarkable when you consider there isn't even one person in charge, it’s like an army of ants!  There is then a rush to get onto the lake to get the best water."

Uncharacteristically amusing from Matt there, he must have a ghost writer...

I hope to bring you a few pictures and videos for tomorrow but don't hold your breath as the internet as a pretty low upload limit!

Update coming soon

The past fortnight has been very hectic with some good training and new things happening.  I will update soon...

Press Coverage from today

Daily Telegraph ran a spread in the sports section today.  Here are two articles published online -

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/rowing/8506148/Great-Britains-mens-eight-may-be-made-up-of-believers-boffins-and-sceptics-but-they-are-pulling-in-same-direction.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/rowing/8506626/Great-Britain-mens-rowing-team-man-by-man-guide.html

Team Announcement

Today is the formal announcement of the GB Rowing Team for the first World Cup.  I am really pleased to have been selected for the GB men's Eight - I will be sitting in the "two seat" (see photo below) and can't wait to get this season's racing underway. 

We have been training as the Eight for the past week or so and I'm really enjoying to be back in larger crew boats.  The Eight is such a big machine that it takes time for everyone to be working as one - in total unison - but when it does come together it is such an electric feel.  Communication, honesty and mutual respect are big themes; we work hard to engage each other and ensure no stone is left unturned as we progress this project forward.

The rest of the crew ahead of me are World Championship silver medalists from 2011 and the guy behind me (Alex Partridge) is a multi-time World Champion and Olympic silver medalist - so a pretty strong group of guys to be rowing with!  The team is very competitive and seats are very hard to gain - and ever harder to keep.  My tasks over the coming weeks and months is to prove I have something to continually bring to the Eight, to keep improving and most of all - enjoy it. 

The first World Cup is the weekend of the 28th/29th May and it will be in Munich [Germany].

As always, thank you to all those that help and support me, I couldn't do it without you; in particular my friends, family and sponsor (Atos Origin).

442 days to go...

[copyright credits to Peter Spurrier @ Intersport Images]

Now on Twitter

I'm now on Twitter, find me @nrod2012.  For those of you not on Twitter, you don't need to join to be able to see what I put up, the last five tweets I make will be on the Twitter feed on the left.  What's the difference between Twitter and the Blog?  The blog will give way more detail, Twitter will just tell you how often I'm #verytired.  As I've mentioned before, you can receive my blog updates via email by filling in your address to the bar on the left.

No other major news so far this week.  Just getting back to basics with my training, long miles and heavy work.  As there has been no let up since some racing pieces last week, I'm feeling fatigued and diabetic.

Shout out to all at Atos Origin, thanks for continued support!