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Emma Darling Blog: Preparing For 2007 FISA Rowing Championships
7/23/2007 12:00:00 AM | Rowing
Two-year Duke rowing captain Emma Darling was recently selected to the 2007 Canada U23 Women's 8+ Rowing Team for the second year and will participate in the FISA World Rowing Under 23 Championships in Strathclyde, Scotland on July 26-29. During her four-year tenure as a Blue Devil, Darling was a cornerstone of the Varsity 8+ and was named to the All-ACC Team as a sophomore and a senior and to the All-South Region Team as a junior. A 2007 Duke graduate, Darling has been training in Europe in preparation for the international competition and has written the first of several blogs chronicling her experiences.
Our team had a solid final few preparation weeks before leaving for rowing camp in Holland. We really came together as a boat and as a team. Every practice we knew we had to push ourselves and each other because there was no way Germany was taking any off strokes, and there was no chance Belarus wasn't giving 110% every day. Keeping that in mind and remembering the big picture made us all strive for that extra inch and find that harder stroke every practice.
We were fortunate enough in our final week at the London Training Centre to have Marnie McBean, a three time Olympic gold winner, speak to us. She stressed the importance of taking advantage of every practice and every stroke on the water because once you're sitting at the start line, you want to have the confidence in knowing that you have that mileage under your belt, that you are prepared, that you gave it your all in every practice and now all you have to do is race 2000m. When you add up all those practices, all those long hours on the water together and all that hard work and sweat, racing 2000m seems like a piece of cake. By taking that viewpoint, it simplifies racing; it becomes the culmination of all your training and a chance to show your competitors what you have brought to the race that day. It's futile exhausting yourself by anticipating or predicting the speed of the opposition. That's the beauty of racing; the excitement of not knowing the degree of your competitors until you're into the first 500m on race day.
She talked about that pit of doubt in your stomach after that power 20 in the warm-up, the “Oh my god...that was so hard, I'm exhausted...If I'm tired after 20 strokes how can I possibly make it 2000m!” She said that you can never train yourself not to feel that anxiety, it comes naturally, and you have to learn to expect it and not fear it. It was neat to hear that even a three-time Olympic gold medalist had fears and doubts on race day, that she is, in fact, actually human. I think we all took away some key messages from her talk, and it was great to get advice from one of Canada's most decorated athletes.
As we roll into our final preparation week at camp in Holland, spirits are high. We've met up with the Canadian Men's team, so our group has grown larger and it's been fun to share workouts and feed off of each other's energy. The purpose of this week is to keep focused, brush up on small imperfections and to have fun; because really, when it boils down to it, racing isn't all about the seriousness and grit, you've got to remember what got you there, your love of the sport and your passion for speed.
-d-u-k-e-
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