Arrived in Oakland California

The Olympic Rowing Team has arrived in Oakland California for its annual winter training camp. We are staying in a place called Alemeda which is right near the Oakland Airport. Several of the rowers in camp went to school down here at the University of California Berkley and so we are boating out of their very new 10 million dollar boathouse!!! Yes....10 million!! It is amazing. It makes our facility at Elk Lake in Victoria look like crap....but then again....it is.

Anyway.....we will be training twice a day here which may not seem like much, but these are 2 hour rows and we will always do at least one long run of 40minutes of hard rowing in eights side by side, no stopping....this is killer stuff. So far, my boat has won both of the rows leaving the other boat in our wake basically alone for about 25mins. Not fun for them. We will continue to row in the eights for the next few days then we will break up and row in 4 fours for a few days.

I can't stress enough how important this training camp is for us as a crew and a team. This is the type of environment when all of our focus is on rowing, we can bond more as a crew on the water and learn what makes us go fast. The physical aspect of this camp will pay off huge in 2 months. Anyone who misses out on this camp or doesn't take full advantage of this situation could find themselves struggling to make a crew come selection time in March/April.

These pictures are of the Cal Bears Boathouse....it is sweet!