Runnin' (formerly ''Crewin'...., as they say in Philly')

Rowaltman.Blogspot version 2.0!

2010-09-16T09:16:00.000-07:00

Welcome (or welcome back!) to rowaltman.blogspot.com. I've let my blog sit dormant since Beijing, but I've decided to start it up again to post about my training for the NYC marathon on Nov 7, which I'm running in support of and to raise awareness for Right to Play, an international humanitarian organization dedicated to creating sports programs for kids in the developing world.

I'll keep you posted and you can follow the misadventures of an ex-athlete as he desperately tries to cling to his fitness and work it around a full-time job (and tries to avoid the fate of ex-major league pitcher Kenny Powers.) For those of you I haven't been in touch with in a while, I've temporarily relocated to Boston for work, as I recently took a job with a cleantech firm HQ'd here. In December I'm planning on moving back to San Francisco to work out of the satellite office, just in time to miss the arrival of the worst part of winter.

Thanks for reading!
Mike

2008-08-28T02:35:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone

Sorry for not being current with posts, but life post-racing has been hectic to say the least. So much happened the week after the racing I'm not really sure where to start, so I'm not going to just yet... but I will say that being an athlete who is finished competing is like being a rock star in Vegas - cool, but exhausting and frenetic. I did arrive back in the states (after getting delayed another day in China) and now am getting rested up again and ready to transport back to the West Coast.... but I wanted to post up a story that my college roommate drafted up that didn't make the papers (too much Olympics coverage already) that I liked...

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Golden Opportunities

When you first meet Mike Altman, you would not at first guess that he is an Olympic athlete. He is tall without being overbearing, slender to the point of skinny. But as you spend more time with him, you notice something in the way he carries himself, how he moves with the economy and grace that characterize an elite athlete. You later pick up that his jaw is unusually square, and his blue eyes have a certain hardness to them. When you notice all that, it isn't so hard to see him as an Olympian.

Mr. Altman is a lightweight rower. At Georgetown University, he rowed with the varsity heavyweight squad. After he graduated in 1997, he was invited to try out for the lightweight national team—provided he could shed almost forty pounds from a body with virtually no fat on it. He dropped the weight and made the team.

Mr. Altman went on to compete at various international events, winning medals at a number of world championships. But, like most amateur athletes, there was one thing that he truly wanted: to compete in the Olympics. He didn't make the cut for Sydney. More painfully, he was the last man eliminated from the boat that competed in Athens. After the 2004 Games, Mr. Altman faced a painful decision: Should he continue rowing, or not?

It's a particularly acute question for elite rowers. Crew remains a sport where athletes make a name for themselves at top-tier universities, usually in the Northeast. (The three notable exceptions to this rule are the Universities of Wisconsin, California, and, especially, Washington.) In 2008, the top three men's lightweight eights at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association were Cornell, Yale, and the Naval Academy; the top three boats at the Eastern Sprints were Cornell, Princeton, and Yale.

Elite athletes at elite schools often enjoy a world of opportunities awaiting them after graduation. Many superb rowers find it awfully hard to pass up a six-figure salary for the austere life of an amateur athlete.

Compounding the difficulty of Mr. Altman's decision after the Athens Games was the fact that rowing is a sport that can abide longevity. It's not unusual to see rowers compete into their 30s. Rowing isn't like women's gymnastics, where an athletic career is often over before the gymnast faces a single adult decision. (Sir Steve Redgrave, for instance, is a legendary heavyweight oarsman from Great Britain; he is the only athlete in history to have won gold medals in five consecutive Olympiads, starting in Los Angeles and culminating in Sydney.) Even after his near miss in Athens, Mr. Altman would have a legitimate shot at Beijing.

Mr. Altman thought it over for a long time. He arrived at his decision just as one would expect from a jock—albeit a jock with degrees from Georgetown's prestigious School of Foreign Service and UCLA's business school. He turned to the principle of comparative advantage.

Mr. Altman was aware that he had an absolute advantage in lightweight rowing. He was, quite simply, one of the nation's finest lightweight oarsmen. He had the times to prove it, and a display case full of medals from international competitions. The invitation from USRowing to try out for the national team was dispositive proof. He was one of the best.

But was it to his comparative advantage to continue rowing? Mr. Altman had studied David Ricardo, and he knew that to determine his comparative advantage, he would have to compare the competing opportunity costs. Only then could he seriously evaluate the tradeoff.

The opportunity cost of continuing rowing was significant. Mr. Altman had already sacrificed a great deal for his sport. The physical exertion alone was daunting. A six-minute, 2,000-meter race is said to exact as much energy as playing back-to-back basketball games. Exhaustion, pain, and injury wear down even the most dedicated rowers.

There was also his career to consider. Though he had worked in finance for a while, Mr. Altman had not had the time to fully devote himself to the job. He was furthermore eager to start coursework toward an MBA, and was reluctant to forfeit the advantages it might confer on his employment prospects. He resolved to leave the water, focus on his career, and head to business school.

But as the Games drew nearer, Mr. Altman began to re-evaluate the opportunity cost of leaving the sport. The potential upside of returning to rowing was highly uncertain; there were no guarantees he would make the Olympic team. The potential downside was likewise serious. He went to one of his college teammates for advice. "I know I sound like a heartless investment banker when I say this," his friend told Mr. Altman, "but if you really intend to get a decent return out of your investment in the MBA, then now is your best opportunity to make it happen. If things don't work out, you're stuck with the fixed costs associated with financing school, no summer internship to fall back on, and competition from the next batch of MBAs."

And yet Mr. Altman knew that if he chose not to pursue a seat on the national team, he knew he would wonder for the rest of his life if he missed his best chance to compete in the Olympic Games. That, he ultimately decided, was too high an opportunity cost. So Mr. Altman returned to training—and made the Olympic team. Along with Patrick Todd, Will Daly, and Tom Paradiso, Mr. Altman was selected for the Olympic men's lightweight four (without coxswain).

En route to Beijing, the four rowers were joined by four more American lightweights in Linz, Austria, where they won the World Championships in the men's lightweight eight. It was a particularly sweet victory for Mr. Altman, whose first international competition had been in the same event ten years earlier, where his eight had missed the gold by a tenth of a second.

The results in Beijing, however, were less cheerful. The four drew tough heats, and was eliminated from medal consideration in the semi-finals. The boat ultimately finished fifth in the B-final.

Was it worth it? "It's disappointing, but we just weren't having a great week for whatever reason," Mr. Altman recently wrote on his blog. "It's frustrating because we are a good crew, probably the best I've been a part of, so it's too bad this stretch had to come at the Olympics."

Mr. Altman may not have placed as high as he would have liked in Beijing. In twenty years, it's possible that his career may not be as advanced as it might otherwise have been. Yet this much is certain. If you were to ask his college teammates—among them many successful lawyers, consultants, and bankers—they would, to a one, acknowledge that Mr. Altman is the richer man for it.

Hard racing

2008-08-16T06:25:00.000-07:00

We finished up today 5th in B final with some good racing. It's disappointing, but we just weren't having a great week for whatever reason. It's frustrating because we are a good crew, probably the best I've been a part of, so it's too bad this stretch had to come at the Olympics. We had some trouble getting the boat off the line in every race (that is, executing a starting sequence to the race), for whatever reason, and couldn't get any comfortable traction. The race itself is a bit of a blur and I don't really remember much... but I was pleased to see it was a bit closer than I initially thought.

Currently rather than being out celebrating, I am hanging out at the hotel recovering. Immediately after the race, I got hit with some kind of puking spell that lasted over an hour, followed by 2 hours of dizziness and lying down. Since there was little in my stomach but water at that point, is was sort of unpleasant. I felt fine with normal raceweek soreness going into the race today, but it's possible there may have been some bug in my system that got stressed by racing. The team doctor very patiently talked me through it and said it was a result of overexertion. Now I am back at the hotel doing a little better. I've never, ever after any workout or race in my life that I remember, been hit so hard. I tried hard to make sure I left it all out the water today, though, and I guess this was the result.

I wish it could have produced a better result for myself, my team and my coach, as we'd hoped we'd end the year (and my rowing career) getting medals rather than me being nursed through puking. It's frustrating having tried to do everything possible to prepare for this week, but I guess that's the way it goes sometimes... and I'm trying to remind myself that sometimes it goes the other way, too.

__________________________
SUN AM UPDATE - So I woke up this morning feeling much better, so I am not sick... my system is back to normal and while I am still disappointed at not having performed better I know it was not for lack of effort.

Not the result we wanted

2008-08-15T06:19:00.000-07:00

If you checked the results, you probably saw we didn't do as well as we would have liked. We are gearing up for a better race tomorrow in the second level final which should be really competitive. Think fast for one more day.

On hold....

2008-08-14T06:57:00.000-07:00

So I went to the rowing course today for the semifinal, got warmed up, stretched, weighed in, and was prepping to launch to race for a spot in Sunday's Olympic medal final - and then thunder and lightning struck. My race got delayed, which put us in a holding pattern. Sat and waited in the United States 'waiting room' (we have cots to relax on), not sure whether we were going to go out and settle this today or not. The key during these kind of unexpected delays is to stay cool - pressure does strange things to people so lots of times regattas turn on who handles speed bumps like this the best. Finally, we got the word that the races were canceled, so we loaded up on the bus and went back to the hotel. It sounds like there were a lot of factors that went into the decision to delay, primarily what this would do to the TV coverage and crews that weren't planning on working tomorrow (Friday was supposed to be a 'buffer' day with no racing before medal finals start on Saturday). So we'll do this again tomorrow, and I'll repeat all my pre-race rituals again and get ready to go out and race hard...

One other development - strange stuff happens at the Olympics.... the German crew, which has been really fast this year, had to scratch due to illness. This is following up some shocking races yesterday, including the semifinals of the men's heavyweight four in which 1st, 2nd and 3rd place from last year's Wold Championships all failed to make it to the medal final of six. Having been thru this before, it doesn't surprise me all that much - I knew crazy things would start to happen, and it would be all about being ready for them.

Day before the big race

2008-08-12T23:18:00.000-07:00

So our semifinal is tomorrow. That's the race we've been targeting all year. Because this is one of the lightweight events in the Olympic, the depth is this field is pretty incredible and there is only a few seconds between first and twelfth. In our first couple of races here, we haven't been able to race up to our potential - and we've gotten really bad breaks with trying to set our oars to the conditions (headwind vs. tailwind). So we are making a few more adjustments, and will be ready race hard in the semis. The level of racing will be pretty incredible, but this is what we've been waiting for. I know we are a good crew and we will try to put together a race that we are all proud of.

Think fast.

Freezing cold....

2008-08-11T00:37:00.000-07:00

So I just stepped out of an icebath, which is the new trend this year to remove lactic acid from your legs. It seems to help, but it's pretty painful to step into freezing cold water and wait for your body to go numb. But I'll take any little edge I can get.

If you saw the results yesterday, you probably realized we didn't place quite as high as we hoped, but we are looking forward to racing tomorrow. In all seriousness, everytime I've been put in a situation of having extra races it has helped me out by the end of the regatta - you learn something about yourself as a crew every time you go down the course. So while we don't like having our backs against the wall, provided we get through tomorrow I think it will ultimately help us later on. We are making some minor strategic adjustments which we believe will make a difference, and we'll just be ready to race hard and improve each time we go down the course.

Go time.

Day before racing

2008-08-09T01:40:00.000-07:00

New layout, some new pictures at the bottom. Gotta bring the A game for the Olympics.

I'm in the hotel getting rested up for my heat tomorrow. Hard to believe the Olympics are actually starting - the rowing has kicked in already with several of my teammates racing today. You can track racing at the following rowing-heavy websites -

www.row2k.com
www.fisa.org

All events are streamed live at nbcolympics.com, I believe.

As for my event, there are 13 crews in the lightweight men's four. We race in the heat tomorrow against three other crews. Three of the crews will advance directly to the semifinals on Thursday, the 14th. The fourth place crew goes on to the repechage (second heat) on Tuesday, which eliminates one crew. The semifinals on Thursday are our big race, if we advance to the medal final it will be a hugely successful regatta for us and anything can happen because the crews are so tightly packed together in our event.

My heat is tomorrow at 4:10 PM in China, and by finishing top 3 we will move on directly to the semifinal on Thursday, which will be about the same time of day.

Article on me in my hometown newspaper

2008-08-06T23:38:00.000-07:00

http://origin.marinij.com/sports/ci_10105410

Am going to try to figure out how to get some photos up when I get a chance. Also, it appears that more people are reading this, so I'll try to upgrade the appearance a bit, although I am not known for my internet prowess.

So our draw for the heats came out today... I try not to think too much about other crews and just stay internal, but it's weird now that we actually have our opponents lined up. It's getting more real. The opening ceremonies are tomorrow as well - I won't be attending, since we are 45 minutes away and we wouldn't get back to our hotel in late at night, and with heats two days later, it's just not a smart racing move to expend that much energy and do something as distracting just when we need to be getting zoned in. So we'll be watching them on TV at the hotel - which is fine, we'll save the partying for the week after racing. But it all seems a little strange that it's really starting...

A Perk to the King and Queen Garden Hotel - Birthday Flowers

2008-08-05T23:11:00.000-07:00

So apparently it is a custom in China to celebrate birthdays.... our hotel is sending flowers to everyone who has a birthday. I walked into my teammates room and saw some flowers, assuming that his girlfriend had sent them over to him. But no, the management of the hotel sent a printed card with hearts, flowers and a handwritten signature on it. The Chinese are very thorough...

I ran out of water today so I took a cab down to a local grocery store to stock up this morning. English is limited, so I had to have a translator set me up with the cab driver to have him wait for me. The Wu-Mart, as it is called, is a true experience... and with my Olympic credential on (since I needed it for security reasons to get back to the hotel), I got way more attention from clerks who don't speak English than I knew what to do with. But I got what I needed, in bottled water, laundry detergent and chocolate to keep me happy at the hotel.

I was talking to our trainer this morning and telling him our stir crazy we are going... he had some good insights, and reminded that as agonizing as the next few days until racing starts are going to be, this is what we love - the adrenaline, and the fact that there is no assurance of any safe outcome at a regatta like this. There is nothing to hang on to when you get out on the racecourse - the starting line is the great equalizer. You start from scratch everytime you go to the line and have to dig deep because there are no past victories to hang on to, and that is really great about it. The feeling of being totally juiced on adrenaline is impossible to duplicate anywhere - and I guess that's why I stuck with this for so long... guess I only get that one more time, so I better enjoy it.

Getting closer to racing

2008-08-05T07:09:00.000-07:00

So we are still 5 days out from our heat (I think, I'm losing track of days here at the hotel), and about 9 days out from our semifinal, which is likely our most important race here. We are relatively calm, but time is starting to drag. However, we are starting to get indications that the racing is approaching. It happens slowly when the official 'USA' stickers start to go on the boat, and we got our official regatta boat picture taken today, as well as weighed our shell to make sure we were at regulation weight. But the NBC commentators showed up our hotel, and I know people's family will start showing up soon. And pretty soon I know that time will start to accelerate... families will start to arrive to spectate, photographers will arrive, and then it will be important to keep the distractions out so that we can focus on our race. The whole atmosphere will start to have some excitement to it, and it will be up to us to put our best race together in the midst of everything.

We were officially put on lock down today at the hotel. We are not allowed to go and see the sights in our downtime, which is fine - we all want a good performance. But we it's going to be tough because in the week I've been in Beijing I have literally not had a chance to do spend time anywhere other than the hotel or the course. We only get one English TV station at the hotel - fortunately I've got a Nintendo DS and some DVD's to keep me occupied. I've been stretching out my mealtimes at the hotel to over an hour in order to pass time and avoid being in my room. Unfortunately I'm a bit too worked up in order to concentrate on books right now, so electronics will be my only form of entertainment.

The rowing community is small, and those who race in various events all know each other. So I'm running into my 'friends' from other countries - it's hard not to be friendly with them because of the respect we have for each other, since such a small group of people have made it to this level. On raceday we are pretty stonefaced around each other and only acknowledge each other with nods, but otherwise it's kind of like a reunion every time we race.

Unexpected shopping

2008-08-03T01:19:00.000-07:00

So a team of Chinese tailors showed up at our hotel in order to sell us suits. Seriously. I couldn't not buy them, they were so cheap. And tailor-made. They took our measurements, and gave us a set of fabrics to choose from. Custom suits from scratch came to about $120 each. Seriously. I bought two, doubling the number of suits that I own. And I got a couple of custom fitted dress shirts to go along with them ($10 each).

It was quite a sight to see a team of Chinese tailor scurrying around a group of 6'5" guys taking measurements. Each side of the transaction was equally thrilled - we got some custom clothing at an incredibly cheap price, while they got a ton of business. It almost seemed so cheap I couldn't afford not to buy a couple. Even the women's team got into the act, buying tailor-made dresses. Guys were able to get whatever they wanted - tuxes, blazers - out of any material. I was less creative, just going for the standard suits.

Apparently haggling is a big part of buying suits from tailors - I didn't even think to try and talk the price since it was already so cheap, but I could have knocked a few dollars off an already rock bottom purchase. I'll be a wiser consumer next time.... But haggling is added conflict, which is not something I need as I focus my energy on racing.

I haven't gotten to uploading any pics yet, but my teammate Pat Todd has a bunch of us up here - http://picasaweb.google.com/patrick.todd/LinzAndBeijing8308214PM.

Clear air

2008-08-01T05:08:00.000-07:00

So we actually saw the sun for the first time since we have been here, the course is actually really beautiful with the mountains in the background, there were thick clouds from humidity every other day we have been here (interesting article on the air and efforts to clear it - http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/beijing_olympics/story/0,27313,24100565-5016818,00.html). The humidity can be pretty intense and really sneaks up on you when you are working out - you don't really feel that hot, but as soon as you stop rowing you look down and are just completely drenched and soaked in sweat.

The Canadians and Italians have arrived at our hotel and will be staying with us thru the Olympics. They set up separate eating areas for us to give us our space, and we often exchange minor nods/pleasantries with those that we pass in the halls. But every now and then I pass someone who I know is in my event, and that I'll be racing in a few days (9 days until the heats start now). It's kind of a weird exchange - we go to nod or smile, then realize who it is we are eye to with. There's kind of an understood "I'll be seeing you in a few days" look exchanged briefly, and no one wants to be the one to break eye contact (as it might be taken as backing down). But we somehow manage to avoid a prolonged stare-down scenario as we keep on walking....

Nike got me...

2008-07-30T23:32:00.000-07:00

So I was unloading my gear package in my hotel room in Beijing today - I'm kind of jetlagged and tired, and probably a little stressed, and I was kind of grumbling as I was throwing my new clothes around, throwing out a lot of "What the hell am I supposed to do with a beret with the Olympic logo on it?" We are kind of isolated out at the rowing venue, especially behind all this security, and it's easy to get stir crazy. Then I caught an inscription on the inside of my Nike windbreaker that made me stop and sit down and think about the opportunity I have.

"You've been training for this all your life. Now, as an Olympian, you represent the highest level of competition in the realm of athletics. Your commitment and your achievement honor the United States of America and ennoble the human spirit. In the dignity, integrity, and entirety of your effort, lies victory for us all."

Whoa. Gut check. Guess I better get focused.

Here's another video the USOC put out recently that gets me every time too - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKRJXY6PeCo

In China

2008-07-30T07:06:00.000-07:00

So I made it to Beijing, via Austria. Got here yesterday, but my body still has no idea what day, time or continent it is supposed to be on. We flew in from Austria after winning our tune-up race at the World Championships - we didn't race any of the people we will be racing here at the Olympics (time to step up and race the varsity athletes). But it was an eventful trip. Due to the Lufthansa strike, we had to take a train from the small town in Austria we were staying in to Munich (5 hours or so with all of our luggage) and then fly overnight to China. We arrived and found some express customs lines for Olympic athletes, and had the press snapping photos of us as we walked thru the terminal (fortunately we were wearing our snazzy USA jackets). Now we are out at the rowing course in a huge brand new hotel with serious intense security. We have to show our credentials to the Chinese military police and put our bags through screening x-ray belts as we walk through metal detectors just to get into the lobby of our hotel. We go through the same routine at the rowing course - security is very tight there too, with the roads completely closed off for about a half-mile radius around the course.

Anyway, gotta run, will write more detail soon and try to post more soon.

Here is a write-up on our race in Austria.

http://www.usrowing.org/News_Media/PressReleases/detail.aspx?nws_lKey=564

In Austria

2008-07-25T00:52:00.000-07:00

So I'm in a little town in Austria called Linz for a World Championship regatta race prior to heading to Beijing. It's been a whirlwhind for the past week and I'm just starting to get settled over here. We left Princeton last Thursday packed up ready for Beijing, and flew to San Jose where the entire Olympic team is going through processing, meaning getting insane amounts of clothing and being reminded not to embarrass the United States in China. Because of our racing schedule in Austria, we were the very first group of athletes (meaning my lightweight four, not the entire rowing delegation) to go through the processing center at San Jose State. We watched a few power point presentations, and then were handed a shopping cart in order to get 'uniformed'. We were like kids at Christmas as we watched our shopping carts get filled up with more gear than I could possibly have imagined. The opening ceremonies uniform, which I won't be able to wear at the games since we can't attend, is a blazer, dress shirt and slacks by Polo. We had tailors from Polo on hand to fit us and do the alterations on the spot (Polo wanted to make sure the athletes look right on TV).

Anyway, a few hours later we were on a plane to Austria in order to get here in time to adjust to the time change ahead of our racing. We are racing an eight here at the World Championships with our entire training group that has been together the entire year, which is a huge plus for us because the group is so competitive that it keeps our level of performance high and sharp heading into the Games. We raced the heat a little bit tired because we came in from the States three days prior, but we are expecting to be feeling more 'with it' by the final. Regardless, we won the heat with a solid race and are looking forward to the racing on Sunday. Here is a quick write-up and photo - http://www.row2k.com/worlds/features.cfm?ID=1784. By the bye, this is the event that I rowed in my very first World Championships ten years ago, and missed the gold by a tenth of a second to end up with a silver medal. I still haven't won a World Championship, and it would be nice to come full circle in this event and win it to close my career at the Worlds with a victory here before heading to the Olympics.

I've got very limited internet access right now, but I will try to post when I can and get some photos up when possible...

NBC Coverage

2008-07-15T14:15:00.000-07:00

Here is a doc I just received on rowing coverage... looks like all the races will be live online at nbcolympics.com (there's your plug, Wasiljew), some will be live on USA. They will pick and choose the races they want to show, and it looks like the men's and women's eights get the prime time slot on Sunday since they were medalists in '04. I'm sure they will add crews that medal that day to the prime time slot (knock on wood, hopefully including the light men's four).

NBC Olympic Rowing Coverage (Tentative and Subject to Change as of 7/8/2008)

All rowing races will be streamed live and be available on-demand on www.NBCOlympics.com.

Saturday, August 9 (Heats)
NBC and NBC HD: – 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Time Slot

Sunday, August 10 (Heats)
NBC and NBC HD: – 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Time Slot

Monday, August 11 (Repechages)
NBC and NBC HD: – 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Time Slot
USA and USA HD: -- Live, 2 a.m. – Noon Time Slot

Tuesday, August 12 (Repechages)
NBC and NBC HD: – 8 p.m. – Midnight. Time Slot
USA and USA HD: -- Live, 2 a.m. – Noon Time Slot

Wednesday, August 13 (Semifinals)
USA and USA HD: -- Live, 2 a.m. – Noon Time Slot

Thursday, August 14 (Semifinals)
NBC and NBC HD: – 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. Time Slot

Saturday, August 16 (Gold Medal Finals)
NBC and NBC HD: – 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Time Slot

Sunday, August 17 (Gold Medal Finals)
NBC and NBC HD: – 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Time Slot
NBC and NBC HD: – 7 p.m. – Midnight Time Slot for the Men’s and Women’s Eights

It's official

2008-06-27T08:03:00.000-07:00

OK, so I've known for a couple days and the shock is wearing off. The press release hit today.
http://www.usrowing.org/News_Media/PressReleases/detail.aspx?nws_lKey=538

I made the Olympic team. This is my first time actually making the team proper. In 2004 I traveled but was an alternate and didn't get to race....

Our plan is to leave the states at the end of July to fly to Austria for a tune-up race in an eight-man boat. Then four of us will travel directly to Beijing about two weeks before the Olympic racing starts on or about the 11th of August.

More soon, sorry for the short post. But needless to say, I am very, very excited.

Also, here's the article from my hometown newspaper...

http://www.marinij.com/sports/ci_9709845

You Tube vanity search

2008-06-24T14:33:00.000-07:00

Still no news... but I did some random clips on You Tube. In my hours spent mindlessly killing time between practices, I went onto you tube and searched my name to see if anything come up. I found of couple random videos from when I raced at Worlds in 2002 and 2003. It was funny because the 2003 clip I've never seen and I don't remember at all (not surprising since it looks like I have a lot of adrenaline going)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMdYqjXmoj8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcYbRtXUAlk

Just for some background, I rowed the lightweight men's pair in 2002 and 2003 at the World Championships. We were the first US crew ever to make the medal final in this specific event in '02 at the Worlds in Spain (thanks to succesful desperation sprint in the semifinal), and then became the first and so far only US crew to medal in the event at the 2003 Worlds in Italy.

"Your muscles are like a bad steak..."

2008-06-19T16:55:00.001-07:00

So some of my little contact with the outside world is via my physical therapist, Mark, who is awesome and has been working on all of us for about five years now. He has a term for me because I set a new standard for tight muscles -he refers to people as flexible, moderate, tight - and 'Altman tight'. I've never been known for my ability to stretch...

Anyway, today when he was working on my legs and kneading some knots out, he likened me to a 'bad steak' - sinewy, tight and tough with no fat. I thought it was hilarious... but then, since I'm not doing or talking to anyone about anything but rowing, I'd probaly find anything funny.

Your coach (Korzo) was wandering around the racecourse, I told him I was working on you and getting you healthy again. He said, "Good, get him back in working order. Altman - that kid scares me." (This line became a running joke, since Korzo talks in a barely understanable Polish accent).
I saw Tiger Woods winning the US Open with a torn ACL and a broken fibula - that is one willful kid. I didn't realize Altmans came in different sports...
I feel like Sisyphus when I work on you - I push a boulder up a hill in getting your body working again, then it comes rolling back down the hill when you go out and thrash it again and come crawling back in here in worse shape than when you left.
Your new coach came and asked why you are coming to see me, he seemed kind of worried that you might have a defect. I told him not to worry about it, he's just an old man.... (guess that I'm washed up and over the hill at 32).

Still no lineup...

2008-06-15T09:45:00.001-07:00

So we are 10 days away from the official naming date, and we are still rotating through line-ups. It's a little stressful because none of us of the eight remaining athletes knows if we are actually going to race at the Olympics... but at this point it's actually gotten fun because we are heading out to practice in various combinations and racing everyday, which is kind of exciting. We know we have to be mentally up and ready to race for every practice, which is hard to do but also makes life simple. Between practices, we are doing basically nothing but recovering - which means watching pointless TV (today I've already logged in Office Space and Ricky Bobby). It's tough, but fun. And things for the summer will be sorted out in a little over a week.

Will post some news when we've got it. Think fast thoughts for me, please...

Back from Switzerland

2008-06-03T14:25:00.000-07:00

Racing is done, I'm back in NJ. We actually had a good regatta given our level of preparation - our coach is being very careful to not let us peak too soon. We finished 8th, or second in the B final, which is about what we expected would be a pretty solid performance. We had three races (heat, semifinal and 'petite'/'B' final) and each one got better. Attached a picture of our mad tight finish in the B level final, it's just a few strokes before the line and we are just about dead level with Aussies and the Dutch. Australia nipped us by a tenth of a second to win the B final and we got the Netherlands by about two tenths.

http://tinyurl.com/4j6dj7

Gotta run, but I'll try to come up with some more commentary this week. We are right back into selection and the boat won't be finalized until June 25.

Killing time til raceday

2008-05-28T06:19:00.000-07:00

So we are in Switzerland, and I gotta say, it's SOOOO good to be out of New Jersey. The weather here is awesome, and the scenery is great with the snowcapped mountains and the attractive locals. We've been here since Sunday AM and are trying to get our bodies adjusted to the European time zones in time for racing.... we did our standard World Cup travel itinerary - flew in 6 days before racing starts on a red-eye, and took a few days to get our bodies in whack. It's super important we don't mess around with the jetlag, so we stay hydrated and don't let ourselves sleep unless it's at night. With the pre-race nerves and a body still on a North American clock, it can be tough for a rower to get a good night's sleep. I'm still not able to get to sleep when I go to bed, but am feeling relatively adjusted at this point (Wed). After a really, really bad experience with Ambien while racing in Germany four years ago, I force myself to do it all without any drugs or sleep aids.

Lucerne is a great place for racing because the course is one of the best in the world with great protection from wind and the town is really easy to get around. The food here is AWESOME, especially the candy. While I've given up candy due to two root canals last year, I am caving and eating a decent amount of Swiss chocolate and gummi candy to satisfy my sweet tooth while I am getting to weight. Fortunately with the crew we have here weight should not be an issue, which is good and allows me to walk around with less stomach growling during my stay. Looking forward to some greasy Swiss food after the racing, as well as hopefully getting to the top of the local mountain peak (Mt. Pilatus).

Heading to town on my afternoon off to shop for Swiss Army knives and a watch.... they are everywhere in this town... then I'll probably watch about four hours of French Open tennis with German commentating on Eurosport before heading to bed (and I don't speak any German). Will try to enjoy this week and race hard, because as soon as we get back to the states the intensity ramps up again right away as we get right back into seatracing....

Headed to Europe

2008-05-24T09:42:00.000-07:00

Leaving for Europe tonight to race in Switzerland next weekend. It's a Friday, Saturday, Sunday race. You can check results at www.fisa.org (Lucerne World Cup, LM4-) or www.wcsn.com.

Not really sure what to expect. We are not peaked for this race, meaning we are still on a working efficiency at lower intensity before really winding things up for the summer. But I haven't raced internationally in three years so it'll be good to get under my belt. It's going to be a bit of shock to the system -but it's good for me. I know from past experience once the starting command goes all hell breaks loose and the ferocity that gets unleashed is pretty indescribable. It's one thing to say, hear it, and remember it, but it's another thing to experience it. I wouldn't count on us winning this one, but if we can be competitive and show signs that we are on the same level as the other crews at this stage of our preparation we will be in good shape later on.

Gotta run and take a red-eye and wake up in the land of chocolate...

The waiting is the hardest part....

2008-05-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

That Tom Petty song is really the truth. We are in the final stages of selecting the team. Since I've come back to rowing last June (2007), I realized I had exactly 12 months until the Olympic team would be selected. I've made it through 11 of those 12 months, and the last one is without question going to be the toughest. We've got 8 guys in contention for the four that's going to race in China. The 8 guys we had in the fall and winter have changed slightly in terms of personnel, and we are all a lot better than we were... we all have our own strengths and weaknesses, and it's unfortunately not entirely clear yet what the best combination of four guys is going to be. So we are going and racing - a lot. And making line-up changes - a lot. Bottom line is we have to all bring our 'A' game everday. One bad day won't eliminate anyone, as we've all got a solid record from various points of the year - but a series of bad days right now would be pretty tough to recover from by the naming date, June 25, just over a month away.

We actually have a group going to Switzerland on Saturday - it's not the final group, but four guys are going to race at the World Cup to get us a data point. We are not primed to have our top performance at this race, but that's all part of the plan as we get ready to peak in August. But here's the kicker - we leave in four days and we don't actually know who is going yet. We were supposed to find out tomorrow, Wednesday, but it sounds like that won't be finalized. So we may not know until Friday....

Suffice to say there is a lot of uncertainty, but you learn to live with it and do your best everyday. I tell myself it builds character.

So my HUGE acquisition today was a few new belts. Since I am 'at weight', meaning I'm about 20 pounds lighter than I was in grad school a year ago, my clothes don't fit me anymore. I finally realized how annoying it was to walk around having to yank my jeans back up my waist constantly and that it wasn't really a good look to seem like you are wearing your older brother's clothes. So I picked up a few smaller belts and amazingly, my pants are staying up! It makes such a big difference after almost six months of being too preoccupied to address sagging clothing... Also, I broke down and bought a pair of jeans that I'll never fit into after I'm done training (waist 30), but it's satisfying to know that don't have to walk around looking like a clown in my clothes just because I'm training... really, I think this is most excited I've been in weeks - and I know that's really sad.

All right, going to try to head to bed - but it's going to be really tough tonight because we just had a racing workout this evening. It sucks having the hard workouts at night because we get so amped up and have so many endorphins flowing that it's really hard to get to sleep... so I'm preparing myself for tossing and turning until at least midnight, and might have to watch some pointless TV shows as I'm letting my brain settle in from a brutal session (for those of you who know your rowing, it was 2 * (3*750) w/2 minutes rest at 36 SPM, 5 min rest between sets).

Post-race

2008-04-29T11:42:00.000-07:00

Racing in the books. My pair finished second, and I was really happy with how me and my partner raced (although I will admit I really wanted to win this one). Official race results and photo...

http://tinyurl.com/4h3lhz

http://tinyurl.com/4qll7y (unfortunately you can see the wake from the crew that is 3 seconds ahead of us in the foreground)

I forgot what a total mental investment racing is, and about the adrenaline spikes that come along with it. It's Tuesday today, and I am just starting to feel like a normal person again. A typical racing weekend involves a taper in actually workouts a few days before hand so your body can start to build itself up in order to race at peak levels. You start to feel more rested and antsy, but then you typically get worried a day or two beforehand because you are feeling tired again, but it's really just your body conserving energy and getting ready to go. Raceday involves a series of energy ups and downs; I typically spend a lot of time with my headphones on in order to really slow down all the thoughts racing around in my head. (Music choices on raceday range from old school rap to trance to classical, and the Gladiator soundtrack is another favorite). By the time I hit the water, I'm pretty zoned in, relaxed and feeling ready to go. I never really amp up until right before racetime, which is when the butterflies really kick in. The last five minutes before the start are by the far the hardest - it's a pretty unsettling feeling, but I know I need that nervous anticipation in order to get the level performance I need. Once the gun goes off, it's all automatic - the first quarter of the race involves getting all that nervous energy out, but once you get into the base of the race you finally don't have to think anymore and can just race. It's a pretty good feeling.

Anyway, the stored up adrenaline is pouring through your system, and the weird thing is that you are tired but at the same time you're not - your muscles feel the ache and the strain, but rather than wanting to stop or the race to be over, you are trying find energy stores to drive them harder than they want to go. It's hard to describe... almost like your body is tired but your brain is not and the two are fighting each other. (In typical training workouts, the reverse happens - you mentally want to finish up and get out of there, but your body is usually capable of doing a little more.)

Afterwards, coming off the water, you are on hopped up on the adrenaline. Words typically come out about 100 miles per minute. It takes some time for your body to adjust back to reality - I force myself to sit quietly with headphones for at least 15 minutes until my brain slows itself down again. Then the adrenaline crash comes about three or four hours later. It hits you hard - it's almost impossible to sleep at this stage, but you're really, really tired. Somehow, though, we generally manage to party through it...

Anyway, like I said, it's Tuesday and I'm just starting to feel normal again. I had kind of forgot how much I love racing... glad the season is finally here, and I hope I get to keep doing it all summer.

Race Week

2008-04-21T10:58:00.001-07:00

So we are racing this week, coming up on Saturday. It's been so long since I've raced I forgot the subtleties, like how you really start getting 'zoned in'. It's kind of a hard feeling to describe, but everything just starts to fall away from your consciousness except for thinking about your race, almost like your field of starts to narrow and you are wearing blinders. It gets easier and easier to focus because you can feel your adrenaline start to pump up in anticipation. And every time you are out on the course practicing, you are thinking about what it's going to be like when you are screaming down the lake at maximum speed in a few days. Even looking at the starting docks, which have recently been added to the lake, I start to get anxious and nervous in my stomach, which is the natural reaction to pulling your boat into the starting line.

This week isn't the end-all, be-all for selection, but we are basically racing ourselves in two-person boats under simulated racing conditions so we get a sense of how people perform under a little more pressure than a typical practice. It's got a lame acronym (NSR, for National Selection Regatta). Anyway, it's a good chance for me to establish myself if I do well with the guys and the coach, and will start to prepare me for racing in Europe later this summer if I get selected to do so. Regardless, I love racing week because things start to get interesting - especially because coach can't beat the snot out of us with hard workouts since we need to be rested for the weekend.

Weight Making

2008-04-13T18:07:00.000-07:00

So I'm 2 weeks away from my first race of the year 'at weight', meaning that since I row in the lightweight category I have to lose a few pounds. I have to weigh in at the round number of 154.3 pounds (or 70 kilograms) in order to race. Generally I walk around/train all year at about 160 - 2, then skinny up for racing. Once I get down to that weight, it's pretty easy to keep it down. But getting down the first time is a bitch. So if you ask me what I am doing this weekend, the answer is 'not eating.' I have purchased myself a wide assortment of gum in order to keep flavor in my mouth - I have at least six flavors at my disposal, including Sweet Cinnamon, Sweet Peppermint, Raspberry Mint, Sweet Berry and Forever Fruit. I actually highly recommend Stride Gum (http://www.stridegum.com/#/home/) to those of you who are gum lovers. The packaging is pretty cool, and the flavor lasts. It beats out Orbit gum any day.
I used to chew on gummi candy (gummi bears, gummi coke bottles, etc) and LifeSavers (I would pop in one Peppermint and one Wild Cherry simultaneously) when losing weight because it's fat free and sweet, but then I had to have two root canals last spring and that was the end of my candy consumption.
I also feel really weird when I have a sweet craving and end up walking in an ice cream shop. Everyone around me is ordering milkshakes, oreo toppings, hot fudge and some kind of exotic flavor. I have to put the blinders on and do my best not to look at the really tasty options and look straight at the frozen yogurt menu. I'll be honest, I'm pretty self-conscious when I order a fat free, sugar free kid's size vanilla/chocolate swirl frozen yogurt. I try not to look anyone in the eye and duck out of the store as quickly as possible. Part of me wants to explain - "Really, I'm trying out for the Olympics - that's why I'm ordering this..." but I bite my tongue everytime.

more gear - and Easter

2008-04-03T08:34:00.000-07:00

So I'm getting guilted into buying way too much 'high-end' training stuff. Since I don't want to leave anything undone, I'm buying everything that I think will make my training easier. That includes hundreds of packets of GU energy gel, way too many Clif and power bars, and now the latest is Skins compression tights, the latest trend in training. They are supposed to increase bloodflow and improve recovery of muscles - I did some research and there is no scientific research that they actually help, but athletes all seem to say their muscles feel slightly better when they use them. So I logged on to the Skins website, to find out the tights and the long-sleeve top are $100 each. Sweet. On my $480 USOC stipend, that's a pretty big percentage of my purchasing power. But since I promised myself I'd buy whatever I felt like I wanted for rowing (minimizes stress and economic waffling). I am so, so, so looking forward to not having to spend all my money on training accessories, but since this is my priority right now I gotta do what I gotta do.

Also, quick note on Easter. We had to row Easter morning. It was about 30 degrees. And we had to race, meaning the practice was important and we had to be on top of our game. It's not quite the typical Easter brunch day that many might have enjoyed. We were all joking before practice that our coach was going to show up with Easter eggs and Easter chocolate for us and tell us to go home. We were joking, but there was a very very small part of my brain that believed that might actually happen - hope springs eternal, I guess. Anyway, as you might have deduced, we did the racing. Not really a fun way to spend Easter... next year it's Easter egg hunt for sure.

Last 2K erg test - EVER

2008-03-18T18:45:00.001-07:00

This spring is a spring of lasts... at the end of my umpteen year rowing career, I took my last 2K erg test today. For those of you that don't row, they are not fun and can drive you crazy if you let them. You sit on a machine and try to hit your maximum output for about 6 minutes, timing your effort expenditure so your body fills up with lactic acid and crashes at the precisely the right moment. It's a true 'max' test. Anyway, the tendency is to get really worked up a few days before because they involve so much pain and the scores are so important ranking you among the other athletes. You really have to work yourself up for them. The whole preparation process (building up, tapering down, getting mentally ready), takes about a week. I wanted this one to go well since it was my last, and hence I barely left the house this weekend and watched a lot of college basketball and Entourage on HBO On Demand. Yeah, how cool am I?

Exorcist Stairs

2008-03-15T20:00:00.001-07:00

So I am just watching Georgetown, my alma mater, in the Big East Championship. Right now they are trying really, really hard to lose to Pitt... anyway, they flashed to the Exorcist Stairs in Washington DC. You may know them as the stairs that the priest falls down at the end of the movie, The Exorcist. I know them as the stairs I had to run repeatedly for training in college. The commentators were talking about how Roy Hibbert, the big man for Georgetown, runs them. He apparently ran them eight times with a minute rest. Maybe if he'd run them as many times as I ran them when training (48 times in 40 minutes) they wouldn't be losing this damn game to Pitt....

Too many trips to the store....

2008-03-15T16:41:00.000-07:00

So I got completely spoiled by having a cafeteria at my disposal at the San Diego training center... now I have to go grocery shopping, and I end up going to the store almost everyday. Nutrition is my latest kick, so I'm trying to make sure I get all my food groups all the time. I am constantly running out of fruit, or yogurt, or cereal, or oatmeal, or spinach... and inevitably when I get to the store I forget something. When training is your primary activity, you've got to have healthy (or at least nourishing) food around. So having my PB and J or my Wheaties is important to getting recovered for my next workout.

The other side effect is that I'm getting good at cooking - maybe good is not the word, but I can actually make real meals that don't come in pre-packaged containers. A typical daytime activity between practices is picking out a recipe from my Sports Nutrition Guidebook and heading to the store to get the ingredients. Pretty exciting, I know...

March

2008-03-08T14:01:00.001-08:00

March is a tough month as rower. The weather starts to get better, and you have a few days in the 60's... then the temperature plummets on you again and your taking your boat when there is ice on the dock at 7 AM. For soft Californians like me, it's like being purgatory waiting for the spring to really hit. I have to bundle up layer upon layer every time I head out on the water - tights, unisuit, short sleeve base layer, double long sleeve base layers, wool hat, plus sunglasses because the glare off the snow that's still on the ground can be intense. Takes your body a LONG time to warm up when it's in the 20's....

So even though it's boring, I quietly hope coach will keep us indoors on the rowing machines while we are waiting for decent rowing weather.... I get my wish about half the time...

Yet Another Random Thought

2008-02-25T18:38:00.000-08:00

Back in Princeton and in the grind again. Although it's a little easier now because it's warming up instead of getting colder and the days are getting longer instead of shorter. Also I'm coming off a long rest week now so I'm feeling a little better than when I was in the middle of my last hard training cycle.

So I realized today that I'm inside my last six months of rowing. It hit me when in a team meeting with the nine guys who are realistically in contention for the lightweight four that will race in Beijing today and we were discussing various scenarios later this summer, and I actually said to the group the words "I'll retire...." I'd been thinking it for a long time, and there's never been any question - and I didn't doubt the words when I said it... and I'm pretty sure I didn't surprise anyone. But it was still weird to say that. I've taken time away from the sport - but the finality of the words, and how close 'retirement' really is were kind of strange...

Later on I realized that when I am wrapped as a rower later on this year, I won't have to wear unisuits anymore - after all, they look really lame unless you are a rower yourself. And I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all the ones of I've accumulated - I've got like 20. And they usually cost about $50 each. I haven't paid for most of them, but still.... that's a lot of uni that's not going to get anymore use.

Back in NJ

2008-02-18T12:46:00.001-08:00

Finished up camp in Chula Vista and back in NJ. I don't love the cold, but it's nice to be out of 'prison', aka the training center. So I'm back in the house that I've been living in... but the drawbacksto being 'paroled' is the lack of dining hall. I've suddenly got to shop for myself again - no one is going to provide the five food groups to me.

So big day on Valentine's Day. No, I didn't go out on a romantic date - trapped at the training center with no car and practice three times a day puts a crimp in your love life. But I got a decorated cookie from the US Women's Field Hockey team. It said "U R A 10". Yeah, that's right....

Lots in the last two weeks

2008-02-08T19:34:00.000-08:00

So I've been up and down California the past few weeks. I headed up north for an Olympic Ambassador conference, then spent a week in Berkeley training with an Australian technical guru coach, now I'm back in San Diego (in prison) and heading out of here next week.

The conference was kind of interesting, if a little cheesy. The USOC flew us all in and put us up at the Union Square Hilton in order to teach us not to embarass them on national TV. It was a little interesting... they hired an improv troop to teach us how to handle ourselves with the media. We had breakout groups, and we put really lame skits together about handling pressures at the Olympics. I actually had Kerri Walsh from the AVP in my skit group - she's really tall. Was surprised the bigshots actually had to attend this... the best part of it was meeting athletes from other sports - soccer, boxing, track, synchronized swimming. The other best part was partying in San Francisco at the Fiddler's Green.... good times.

Spent the following week in Berkeley - I was bitter because I got downgraded to a little roach motel in Alameda. And had to spend about 7 - 8 hours a day at the boathouse which is excessive even for me. But the coaching was really good, and I learned a lot. Tim McClaren was the coach of the some legends and multiple gold medalists from Australia, so it was cool working with him.

Flew back to San Diego on Sunday and missed the Superbowl due to bad weather in SD and a broken airplane - and then had to the workout I missed because I was sitting on the runway until 10 PM. Now I am back to the training grind.... and tired. Looking forward to upcoming 'regeneration' when I arrive back in lovely Jersey to catch the tail end of the winter.

Nothing to do w/rowing

2008-02-06T20:41:00.000-08:00

Cool video made by one of my grad school buddies (slightly obsessed with the Bruins)....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Ag_TLtDLU

Repost of San Diego Update

2008-01-18T14:32:00.000-08:00

For some reason my latest update didn't go thru to a lot of people, so I'm reposting here because I hate spamming.

Mike
_________________________________________________________________

Hey all -

Here's my latest 'newsletter' which is rapidly becoming my primary form of communication with the outside world.
Updating you all from San Diego this time, where my team has relocated to avoid the winter of the East Coast. We live in a dorm-like facility here, which is one of three training operated by USOC where athletes can reside (Lake Placid and Colorado Springs are the other two). I will be mostly in San Diego for the next 7 weeks, not including a week in the SF Bay Area.
I made some big jumps with my fitness and am finally starting to feel like an athlete again after my two year layoff; that is, I'm not tired ALL the time. My body is adjusting to the massive amount of training we do. We had some physiological tests on the rowing machine over the holidays to measure our short- and long-distance capacity, and I was near or better than my personal records on both, and I still feel like I have room to improve - which is good.
We are switching back and forth between boats and the rowing machines fairly frequently while we are in San Diego. There are 8 of us here, and we are trying different combinations in four man and two man boats to see who works well with who, and rowing the eight man boat a bit just to mix it up.
Our last month in Princeton was cold, with a lot of days where it dipped down into the teens. We were getting frozen off the water for a few days at a time (literally meaning or lake would freeze) which would force us indoors on the rowing machines for a couple of days. As a Californian, the chill was really difficult to deal with - it took a lot of extra time to get my body warm and I wasn't nearly as sharp as I am in warmer weather. Needless to say, glad to be in CA now.
This is an intense training period, and selection for the four man boat to race in the Olympics from the eight of us training here will really heat up in March and April.
Wrapping up fall in PrincetonIn November and December, my squad (the lightweight men) stayed behind in NJ when the other teams (heavyweight men, all the women) took off for different warm weather training locations in California and South Carolina (Clemson). We had the NJ facilities to ourselves, which was good, but it was starting to get really difficult to deal with cold. It can be really tough to wake up when its dark and 20 degrees out and try to get your body awake and ready to race out on the lake. I was resorting to getting up before 6 AM for a 745 AM practice in order to get my blood flowing by the time I had to be ready to go and was taking about four hot showers a day. Racing is getting better all the time; I'm figuring and remembering a lot of the subtleties that are important - I still need to get more consistent and expect that will come over the next couple of months. My scores on the rowing machine (ergometer) kept getting better with each test and workout, so I am hoping the upward trend will continue. We did a test right after Thanksgiving, which ranked me 8th on the squad, a test right before Christmas in which I finished fourth, and one before New Years, which I finished 3rd. They are different length tests so they measure different abilities/strengths but I am glad to catching up relative to everyone in general. The middle test before Xmas is actually the most important because it mirrors or racing distance of 2000 meters and about six minutes - I finished in 6: 16.2, less than 1.5 seconds off my personal record and I'll look to shave some seconds off that when we do it again in March. At this level, taking even a few seconds off is a LOT of work, but I think I have some room to get quicker. Scores on the rowing machine doesn't translate directly to the boat (that is, people who are fast on the machines are not necessarily fast in the boat), because there a lot of technical and skill aspects to being on the water, but it's a good relative measure of aerobic capacity and strength because there are no variables (wind, personnel combinations, etc). California
We are staying at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, which is near the Mexican border and Tijuana ( http://www.chulavistaconvis.org/olympic.asp ). It's a great facility where we are very well taken care of - cafeteria, amenities, on-site trainers, very quick walk from the dorms to the dining hall and the boathouse... Essentially when we stay here, we have no expenses and live in a self contained unit. However, I equate it to a minimum security prison because we are well taken care of and the weather is great - but we can't seem to leave. I've barely left the grounds since I've been here. However, it's a great facility for training, and it's great to be back in warm weather. We have a packed training schedule and I am having to eat a lot more to keep nutrition, which is good because up til now I'd been struggling to lose weight. It's good to hang out with athletes from other sports, which we don't get to do in Princeton. Teams that train here include track, archery, triathlon, canoe/kayak, women's softball (Jennie Finch and her kid live right below me for those that know who she is), field hockey, and they just a built a BMX ramp since BMX biking is now included in the Olympics (I really want to try the ramp but know I would kill myself on it). We got here on December 30, practiced twice New Year's Eve and twice New Year's Day. For the first time I can remember I slept through midnight on New Years... I also had to do my fitness tests on the rowing machine a few days before Christmas and a few days after, so not my most relaxing holiday season. But you gotta want it..... We practice everyday at 10 AM and 345PM. Two to three times a week we also have lifting sessions, but for inexplicable reasons those don't count as actual workouts with our coach. I am spending all my time with the same group of guys, and maturity levels have dropped rapidly in this environment (we rarely go more than twenty minutes without one of us dopping a cleverly-timed "That's what she said"). I also put my job with a private-equity fund on hold for now, so I do some twiddling of my thumbs between practices - I'm not used to not being busy. But it lets me focus more on rowing for now without worrying about other responsibilities (although it does hurt my cashflow a bit). We have eight guys here training for the four man boat that will race in Beijing. We are trying different combinations right now, meaning we row in different line-ups in the 4 for five days at a time and race them on the last day to test their speed. This stretch is more about training and getting fitter than selecting the final boat. We do a very heavy amount of work at this time of year in order to push our max capacity up - basically during the year we go through 6 - 7 'cycles' of increasing work with recovery periods of about a week in between, the idea being that when we recover between cycles our muscles will grow back stronger. I've been really wearing down towards the end of cycles, but now am starting match and beat my personal records when I am rested. So that is a good sign, and I am hoping I will keep improving over the next few months as we get closer to selecting the Olympic team.

We don't get off the base very much - last time I was here in 2004 we stayed for five months and I invested in a car, but we are only here for six weeks, so for right now I am 'landlocked'. I finally got off site the other night and went and played dodgeball - yes, dogeball - at a bar which hosts tournaments on Sunday nights. SO FUN. Few things I have done quite relieve the stress of training quite like sprinting around a little room and winging a rubber ball at people. Watching groups of rowers (oversized and competitive by nature) playing dodgeball must be amusing - we got smoked by some teams that were really serious, but we did manage to take out the best team in the tournament in one of our games (despite our 2 and 4 overall record). It wasn't quite racing at the Olympics, but it was really fun nonetheless....

Waiting....

2008-01-18T07:23:00.000-08:00

Stuck in downtime here.... this is one of the hardest parts about the sport - the waiting. We were supposed to do a racing/competitive workout at 7 AM, so we dragged ourselves out of bed at 6 AM, went to the dining hall to get some food in our systems to wake ourselves up, only to have our coaches decide that they didn't like the direction of the wind on the racecourse, so they sent us back to our rooms until 10 AM. Now I've got three hours to kill and still have this workout hanging over my head...

One of the reasons sports like this can be such a time-suck is that a one hour workout doesn't take an hour - it's more like five hours between getting to and from the boathouse, stretching/warming up, cooling down, getting your water bottle/sports drinks and snacks, and recovering afterwards. I didn't really realize all this until I started grad school and I intended to keep training full-time while going to class - until I realized there was no way I could fit everything into my day.

The time-drag factor is exacerbated here at the San Diego training center because we've got nothing else to do - no jobs to get to, no wives/girlfriends to see. It's just us and the training. You can pack a lot of focused training into your camp here, but not much else.... somehow despite having several hours between practices, I can't seem to get anything else done during my day (and that's coming from someone who considers himself generally productive).

On a totally separate note, we are still giving blood to the sports physiologist. I'm really tired of getting my finger pricked. I keep hearing that I have high lactate levels. That's bad because it means my body produces a lot of lactic acid but good because it means I've got a high pain tolerance. Either way, I'm getting tired of bleeding all over my oar handle...

New Favorite Sport

2008-01-08T19:30:00.000-08:00

I've developed a new favorite sport - played Dodgeball in a bar with a bunch of my teammates the other night. SO FUN. Maybe it was because it was my first time off the base since I got here to San Diego.

A bunch of us piled in my friend's car (and I mean piled - 8 of us fit in a Range Rover - we have limited cars here) and drove out to a bar by Mission Bay which has Sunday night dodgeball tournaments. Yup, just like in the movie. A lot of serious players who apparently play in tournaments in Vegas. We rolled up, signed up two teams of four, and immediately got all nervous about getting embarrassed by dodgeball players. Which of course happened, but still, it was awesome. It's amazing how much adrenaline you can get winging those rubber balls at people. We ended up winning two and losing six games, one of our losses to a bunch of scary looking girls wearing t-shirts that said 'F*** Like A Porn Star' (seriously). BUT, we managed to take out the best team in the tournament - pure luck, but we'll take it. The MVP was definitely my buddy Wyatt Allen's girlfriend Rachel Jeffers - somehow she was always the last one left our team and won us a couple of games.

Regardless, the sight of a bunch of oversized rowers playing dodgeball must have been highly amusing to anyone watching. I can guarantee we will back, keep an eye out for us in the dodgeball circles.

Brief flicker of humor

2008-01-05T22:26:00.000-08:00

Posting at 10 Pm on Sat night. Awesome. But that's how I roll these days.

Made coach laugh today. It's really rare, so I feel it needs to be documented. Practice ran into the early evening when it was pitch black. Frustrating, I actually hate rowing in the dark because it makes me tense because I am often responsible for steering and I have no idea where I am going. Also can't see my timing/rating monitor. But anyway, our coach motored up to us and said that he was glad we were out so late because it was valuable, and one of the guys in my boat commented that it was zen-like or something to that effect. I couldn't resist and commented on how it was not only zen-like, but also much like Ralph Macchio doing wax-on, wax-off late into the night. The timing/delivery must have been pretty good, because I'm realizing that it's not that funny when I'm writing it here, but I got at least 30 seconds of laughter out of it, including coach. Which, like I said, is rare.

Boring. I know. But like I said, that's how I roll these days.

TGIF

2008-01-04T21:37:00.000-08:00

OK, I realize this is pretty similar to my last post.... but it's Friday night at the training center. Needless to say, we are not heading to happy hours. In fact, I had no idea it was Friday until a few hours ago. Time really loses any sense of meaning here - days of the week mean nothing. I was pretty sure it was a weekday by the television that was on in the middle of the day, but it was kind of scary when I realized I couldn't tell what day of the week it actually was - because I had no reference point. It's kind of like the time I was rowing on a lake at the tail end of a long European racing and training trip, and realized I couldn't remember what country I was in. Things just blend together into a string of practices...

Other random training observations - somehow our weightlifting sessions don't count as practices. So we have two practices a day here, plus weights. I would have thought that was three practices a day - but you say tomato, I say tomoto...

225 days til the finals in Beijing.

New Year's at the Training Center

2008-01-02T12:44:00.000-08:00

So I rang in the New Year with more workouts... I arrived at the US Olympic Training Center in San Diego on Dec 30, rowed twice on New Year's Eve and twice on New Year's Day. Suffice to say, I didn't do a lot of partying that night. I think it was the first time that I can remember actually sleeping through midnight.... Ordinarily New Year's would definitely be off from practice, but not this time around. I suppose it is only fitting because it's what I'll be doing non-stop for a good chunk of this year.

Arriving at the training center was pretty surreal. I spent six months here leading up to the 2004 Olympics, and when I stepped back in it was like getting into time warp. I'll write more about what life is like down here when I get some more time, but it's a pretty simple life that revolves around training, eating and sleeping. The weird thing is that it feels like I never left.... the whole time I was off in business school, living and training in Princeton - seems like it never really happened and that I stepped into a weird time warp. Such is the curse of this place.... a minimum security prison. We are well taken care of - but we can't leave....

my latest youtube clip

2007-12-21T18:43:00.000-08:00

Looks like I'm pretty bad at being a regular blogger... I'd think I could find 5 minutes or so a day...

Anyway, this is my latest clip that I watch to get myself fired up. Wrapping up my career this year, it reminds me about the ups and downs and what you can learn from them. While I hate what Brett Favre did to the 49ers in the playoffs for so many years, he is one resilient QB....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWrcYxfwOVc

Still cold - countdown to CA

2007-12-10T10:08:00.000-08:00

Just checked my countdown widget and we are at 250 days until the finals at the Olympics - watching the days tick down helps remind me that it's really not that far away (it doesn't seem that long ago it said 290 days). Doesn't seem so far anymore, even though the lake has already frozen up on us. But Cali boy here is having a little trouble with this cold thing - seriously, I can't get the chill out of my body no matter what I do. I've always made fun of people who wear gloves when they row, but this year I broke down and did it (figure rowing with the national team gets you a bye from being mocked). It's really a whole different ballgame when its below freezing - my lungs can't get the same level of oxygen, fingers are frozen to the point of not being able to grip the oar, and I have to take like 3 hot showers a day to get my core body temp back to normal. Frustrating because these aren't real racing conditions and the results matter in final selecdtion- but what are you going to do.
But less han 2 weeks til I'm back in California - a week in Norcal for Xmas and then training in San Diego for several weeks so we miss most of the winter on the East Coast. I think my teammates are very happy about heading to CA because they won't have to listen to my constant whining about the cold.....

Real Meal

2007-11-29T19:21:00.001-08:00

So over Thanksgiving, I blew off the dieting for a day and ate a real meal - SOOO good. Can't even tell you how good turkey tastes when you've been dropping pounds from your 5% body fat frame for over four months. But man, that chemical that makes you sleep hits you HARD when you are on a diet.

And BTW, it's below freezing every morning when I wake up and I've got to bundle up and get my body awake and get out on the water. I'm getting more and more used to it... but seriously. 29 degrees and barely light and we are going out. I've realized I can't really stop to think about because it's not rational.... amazing what you can get yourself to do when you turn off your common sense.

Lactate Testing

2007-11-08T18:24:00.000-08:00

I gave a bunch of blood the past few days. Not as in donated, but had a bunch of blood samples taken to measure my lactate. We flew some doctor out from San Diego to follow us around during workouts, and take blood samples during the sessions at various points (after hard work, medium level work) to measure the amount of lactate our body is generating - lactate is what your body produces while you are working out, and you can only tolerate so much of it before you go to muscle failure. I've had this done at least10 - 15 times over the course of my career. I realized this time around I have no idea what it really means. I measured a 2.6 milliloule (sp during our medium level workout - no clue what that's all about. I was told I was working too hard, that I only want to generate 1 millilloule (sp). I actually don't even know what a millilloule (sp) is. I'm sure it would be helpful to know.

What I did learn this weekend is that I am a bleeder. I got sampled with a pin-prick on my finger in the middle of practice, and then again at the end. I never stopped bleeding (it didn't hurt after the initial prick), and managed to not have to get pricked again. I now have a personal oar - thanks to the blood staining I gave this particular one. I wonder if I should be concerned about the lack of clotting...

Quote of the Year - "When do you guys blow off steam?"

2007-10-27T11:15:00.000-07:00

So the funniest moment of my training thus far this year happened this week. 'Coach' was asking us about the schedule, and what our preferences are for our schedule. Generally, we have between 10 and 12 practices a week - right now we are using all 7 days, meaning we haven't had a day off since early September. Our most important/intense practice of the week is on Sunday morning at 8 AM right now, which kind of crimps our style on Saturday evening.

Anyway, if you read one of my previous posts about losing my social skills as a result of my training so much, you might understand my surprise when our coach said - "I'm kind of concerned about the dork factor. When do you guys go out and blow off steam?"

After about a two second delay of shock and exchanging looks with each other, we all burst out laughing. We had naturally assumed that the schedule was set up this way to keep us in check and too tired to get in any trouble - which it is doing a damn fine job of, I have to say. Rowers definitely have a habit of going kind of over the top when they do get to go out - rowing was where I got the idea for the 9-house, 9-drink progressive golf party that became a staple of my business school years. But not on this schedule, which puts into fatigue and keeps us there. Even our days off have us prepping/resting for test pieces on the rowing machine (aka the ergometer for you rowers).

I will never forget that quote as a staple of this fall. Blow off steam. Ha. If lying on a couch watching a rerun of Friday Night Lights, too tired to get that bottle of water on the coffee table, can be considered 'blowing off steam', then I'm pretty good at it.

Didn't think anyone was really reading this...

2007-10-24T09:50:00.001-07:00

OK, so the funny thing is - I haven't been posting much, mostly because my posts are kind of inside jokes to myself - primarily because I didn't think anyone was really reading this (I didn't really advertise it, just started posting). If I did, I probably would proofread before I post. But over the past few days several people have told me they are actually reading this, which kind of threw me for a loop. But since I have at least a core group of people who seem somewhat amused by these random incidents, I'll try to post a bit more often.

I gotta run to practice in a few, so I gotta make this quick. But went to Boston over the weekend for about the umpteenth time to race in the Head of the Charles. Raced as the New York Athletic Club with all my national team teammates (I won't explain why we rowed as NYAC and not USRowing, it's kind of a long story that basically comes down to money) in the lightweight eight and won. It was pretty cool, since I've rowed that race for years and never won it. The Charles is kind of an exhibition race, because a lot of people show up but the results don't really mean anything because its a very early season event and the course is really difficult and unfair. But we beat the Canada and Dutch lwt squads, which was pretty cool to do. So despite the fact I had practice at 7:45 AM in New Jersey the next morning, I hung around Boston until 7 PM because I really wanted to go the medal ceremony for this race which I've rowed at a million times but never actually won before. Also, I don't think I'd won a medal since 2004, so I was really looking forward that little tug on the back of my neck that comes when they drape a ribbon over your head and then let go of it, and the medal drops flat against your chest after a bounce or two and the ribbon falls flush against your skin (not that I've obsessed or daydreamed over it or anything). But anyway, it was about the quickest medal ceremony you've ever seen, with only the people who actually won medals in attendance, and only about half of them bothering to stick around (only half my eight actually stuck around for it, I was one of the stubborn few). It was cool nonetheless, but was followed by a long, traffic filled drive back to NJ - complete with Dunkin' Donuts stops - and practice at the regular time the next morning. Who wants to go the famous Charles after-party the year you've won the race, anyway, right?

so tired that I'm too lazy to put myself in a reasonable sleeping position when I fall asleep...

2007-10-09T14:39:00.000-07:00

So another random side-effect of training.... I am really tired when I get to bed, and I'll often try to keep my eyes open for a few minutes and read. Last night I feel asleep while reading, but rather then putting my head flat on the pillow (I was either too tired or lazy for that, not sure which), I fell asleep kind of sitting up and rested my head against the wall - my bed is in the corner of my room, so this is easy to do. I think I slept at least five hours like this, with my head not actually on a pillow but resting against a hard wall. I'm not a doctor, but I really don't think that was good for my neck. In the choice of immediate sleep or comfort, I clearly put a premium on the extra three seconds of sleep that repositioning myself on my pillow would have cost me....

goodbye, social skills.... I'll have to work on you again next year

2007-10-08T18:58:00.001-07:00

OK... one more random training observation. I'm pretty sure my social skills are slipping away. I think I'll get them back, but literally my life is waking up in the morning to go row, come back home, eat, fire up the PC, do some work, head to physical therapy, talk about rowing with the other rowers there, head home, grab a quick snack, head back to practice for a workout on the rowing machine, then the last workout of the day on the water. Pretty rowing heavy..

With practice seven days, I am finding myself in a quandry - go hang out with people in my spare time, or just decompress. I've been decompressing, which is good because it freshens me up for my next practice - and if I try to cram something non-rowing related it just means I spend my downtime rushing around. So there are no late nights at bars or evening trips to NYC (unless they are work-related; I'm doing 20 hours a week with a private equity firm).

The funny side effect - I'm paying more and more attention to fashion - for the first time I actually know what's 'in' this fall. And ironically I own some of it - despite the fact I never get to wear it beause I am always in workout gear or sweats... And I'm never around people that would actually be impressed by it.

So if you know me and I seem little out of it when we finally talk - note that it's because I've gradually become socially inept. Please try to pull me back into the real world if you can...

Random Training Observations

2007-10-02T18:49:00.001-07:00

So I'm hitting the training stride at this point. I've been falling into my regular program, kind of a shock to the system as I haven't done work in this kind of volume for three years... (the year after Athens I basically skated by on residual fitness, then I went to grad school for two years and could only workout as my school schedule permitted). There a lot of things that I forgot go along with training this much, so if you don't mind listening to some minor gripes, here are are some of the inconveniences of working out five hours a day.

constantly running out of food. Despite the fact that I am dieting and trying to drop a few pounds, I can't ever seem to keep enough nutrition around the kitchen. I end up the store at least every other day (mostly to buy bananas to put over my Wheaties - bananas only stay good for a few days - and for the record, I'm pretty sure I'm only the 30+ person in the world that still eats his Wheaties everyday)
an incredible amount of laundry. It's incredible how many workout clothes I go thru. the funny thing is, a lot of times I don't even sweat in the gear and up washing it. I'll wear a dri-fit t-shirt to the boathouse, then if the weather is good I'll take it off as soon as I get on the water. I basically use it as a towel to wipe off sweat. And I feel the need to wash it before I reuse it. Somehow when I was in college I got by on two pairs of shorts and array of t-shirts, now I've gotten really high maintenance.
somehow I manage to forget one of the following three items everyday - my chest strap to monitor my heart rate, my sunglasses or my water bottle. Sunglasses are the worst to forget - bad glare can make it almost impossible to keep your eyes open, which make it especially difficult if you are responsible for steering for that workout
constant sleeping. I'm kind of in a readjustment phase, so my body is demanding a little more rest than it normally would, but the amount of times I have to fight off a nap in the middle of a weekday is pretty amazing (I've got a part-time job that I work mostly from home, so I've got to stay alert). Last Saturday, I wrapped up a hard practice at 9 AM, came home, took a two hour nap, got up for a while, took a four hour nap, got up for dinner and watched some TV til 10 PM, then slept until 7 AM the next day when I had to get up for practice. I don't normally sleep that much, but man, was it refreshing.

Well, I've got an ergometer test tomorrow (fitness check on the rowing machine - how many meters can I go in 30 minutes at 24 strokes per minute). As erg test go, this one isn't all that bad, and it's a shorter practice for tomorrow. But this is the Olympic year, so it all counts....

Watching the World Championships from the States

2007-08-31T19:29:00.000-07:00

The World Championships are this week, and I'm at home training. It's a little weird to not be there racing, but in a lot of ways I'm glad. I am laser-focused on building towards next year, and in the States training and getting fit again after 2 years of grad school is where I really ought to be right now. This is definitely a sign of me maturing as an athlete, because for years I would have been really bent out of shape at missing a race or regatta. After my huge disappointment at the 2004 Olympics, I think I realized that there actually more important things in this world than racing.
Labor day weekend coming up, and I'm making big plans, though- training, sleeping, wash, rinse, repeat. Even though this contradicts what I just said a sentence or two ago, the reality of the finality of my rowing career is hitting me, and I don't want to waste any time (plus I'm headed to Costa Rica next weekend for R&R and surfing - boo- ya!) .
I've also gotten myself a job in NYC, which involves commuting a couple days a week and working out of Princeton the other few days. The job is great, and I'm learning a lot - it's with a private equity fund, which is a pretty tough industry to break into, especially at 20 hours a week. Funny thing is, I am just now realizing how tired my training really makes me. I am not nearly as productive as I expected, and I have already blown up a few Excel financial models in my short tenure (the employers have, however, been very understanding and to my surprise the job will continue). At any rate, this gives me something else to think about for a few months before I really bear down and zone in - after January, I think I'll be going into zero-distraction mode and cut out all my other activities - sounds fun, huh?
I'll keep y'all blogged... thanks for reading.

Inside a year...

2007-08-19T10:10:00.000-07:00

So I'm calling yesterday the -1 year anniversary of my official retirement from rowing, because it was exactly one year out from the Olympic finals. I reminded my doubles partner of the fact throughout our entire workout; I'm not sure he was as amused by it as I was.
I'm 'home' in Princeton this week, getting back in shape while the bulk of my teammates are in Munich getting ready to race the World Championships this week (I missed out on the team, see my previous post for details). In previous years I would have been devastated at missing out on a chance to race internationally, but now that I'm an old guy, I've got a little more perspective. I know that being home and not racing this time around is really the best thing for me for several reasons.

My body really isn't race-ready yet, even though I thought it was.
I need this time to focus on the long, low-intensity aerobic work which will set me up to handle the high-intensity work later this year.
My back is a little suspect, and I can take some time to heal it.
Perhaps most importantly, I get to savor a couple of weeks of quiet time to myself before I commit to my full-time training next year.

I am thrilled that I get to make it to a buddy's wedding, which I would have been forced to miss if I was stuck in the middle of high-intensity training. I got to relax for a few hours yesterday floating down an inner tube on the Delaware river, annoying practically everyone on the river with my shouts of 'GNARLY' everytime I went over a little rapid. I'm gearing up on a great job that will keep a little cashflow coming next year and let me work on a flexible schedule. And perhaps most importantly, I'm planning a trip to Costa Rica for few days to really unwind and get mentally prepped for the mayhem that is about to ensue for the next 11 months as the top athletes in the country and the world scramble and battle for spots on the Olympic team and ultimately for Olympic medals. It's going to be a long haul, and I think this time last little bit of downtime is going to be really important to keeping me fresh mentally and physically for next year.

So I'm taking advantage of the calm before the storm as best I can, while still training my butt off to make up for lost time. I'm already to starting to feel the positive effects of my training, even if I am tired all the time (one of my coaches stopped in the boathouse yesterday and asked "Mr. Altman, have been on a 2 week bender since you lost trials?", and the truthful answer was no, my eyes were just red the fatigue from all the volume of training I've been racking up). This time around, I'm focusing on the little details which I know can ultimately help me - like core stability and flexibility, so I'm attending yoga and pilates, which is great at opening up my joints and is packed with flexible, stretching girls to keep me entertained. And of course there is the hours of physical therapy. I'm also heading to NYC about two days a week for a job that I just started, which lets me work mostly from Princeton but also lets me get out of here completely for a while and not think about rowing at all (it's a great opportunity in and of itself, so I'm lucky to have it while I am on a tough rowing schedule).

That's all for now. Thanks for reading, gotta get motivated to get some work done and put the finishing touches on my plans to head to Costa Rica.

364 days... in the words of one of my teammates, "Boom, son!"

Counting down

2007-08-13T19:24:00.000-07:00

So according to the geeky spreadsheet I put together, we are now inside a year to the start of the racing at next year's Olympics. 364 days, to be exact (although there is the whole issue of the international dateline my spreadsheet doesn't factor in....). So it really hit me that from here, everyday counts. In training for Worlds/the Olympics, I've kind of dreaded the off-season training because it is so boring. It's repetitive, because in reality its really just a lot of rowing. Rowers use the fall season to build up their aerobic base with lots and lots of miles at low intensity, so that when the spring and summer rolls around and its time to race hard, we have a lot of general fitness under our belts and can focus on shorter speed work.
But anyway, this year I realized I don't want to go through the motions with the off-season. I've always seen at as a necessary evil that I had to put up with in order to be good in the springtime. The time ticking down to Beijing is not just the time until raceday, but also the time ticking on my career, which in a way I'm both excited and bummed about. Excited because when it's over, I can get on with my life and not worry about getting my 80 - 160 minutes of cardio everyday. I'll be able to take these trips I've heard of called vacations that regular people take - they are supposed to be fun and relaxing. But it'll also hard to let go of being an athlete and being so good at something. But the reality is that after this year, I won't be willing to make the sacrifice I make to be so good at this. The time I spend at this really adds up, and while I'm lucky to have been able to work this quadrennium around school, I know I won't be able to be really good at a career while I am so committed to racing.
So I realized I want to make this year count. This fall is not going to be about just putting my time in. I put that lame spreadsheet together so I am constantly reminded of the fact that my last race is coming up, one way or another, whether it's in Beijing (knock on wood), in the U.S. at Olympic trials or in Europe at an Olympic qualifying regatta. For this one I'm going to put together lessons learned from all my experiences - good and bad, success and failures. But I know its not the result that defines the experience. Rather, it's an unexpected moment in the middle of training where suddenly you learn who you really are and what you are capable of.
When I look back on my career, its not the big international races I remember. They are kind of a blur, and surreal to the point that its hard to believe they really happened. Its the random moments in training. Most notable are the times that I had to I dig so deep in the middle of a hard workout that I didn't really care where I placed or what my score/time was, I was just proud of myself that I finished. That's where I really found the character that carried me through the high-pressure racing. And then there were the times when I busted out of a slump I never thought I'd get out of, when I'd been going slow for some unknown reason, and suddenly everything made sense to me all over again and my confidence in my ability would skyrocket, and I felt I was ready to race anyone in the world.
Anyway, I know that in the next year I'm going to have moments like that and that's what I am really looking forward to - not the travel, the press or the gear. And when I do have those moments, I'm going to know that the clock is ticking to build off their momentum because my last race is right around the corner. And this time, come hell or high water, I'm going to be ready.

PS - On a more humorous note, I got to work with a new coach today, an Australian - we'll call him Mim TimClarren, an Australian. Our coach-athlete relationship is off to a rocky start because he told me to recite my 'A-B-C's' while rowing. No joke. When I wanted to know why (I'm pretty stubborn), he said it was my balance was bad and he didn't want me thinking. So he wanted me to say A-B-C's and nursery rhymes (he suggested hickory-dickory-dock, I really should have responded with an Anderw Dice Clay comment). I'm not making this up. You can't make this stuff up.

Update 1 - Number crunching to rowing

2007-08-02T10:31:00.000-07:00

Here is my first update on my training since graduation (2 versions, the short and the long).....

Here is the short version of the update. If you want more detail you can read below:

I arrived here the in Princeton the day after graduation from UCLA's MBA program, and jumped right into training w/the national team
After one week of training I had a back spasm and couldn't walk for about 2 days, which was followed by my first MRI, which showed me that I had 2 bulging discs in my back
The back is totally fine now, I'm heading to physical therapy three days a week to stay on top of it and keep it healthy, and taking anti-inflammatory
I raced this week in the lightweight single at the US National Team trials. Somehow or another, I managed to win this race last year without really training. But this year two years of b-school finally caught up to me and I didn't have the fitness to pull this one out, so I won't be heading to the 2007 World Championships.
I disappointed because I hate to lose, but in the long run it's actually a good thing. I actually think I raced really, really well given my limited training schedule, and I think I was riding on too much confidence after winning the same event last year.
I am really upbeat because I can start to focus on training for next year's Olympics at a reasonable pace instead of rushing into World Championship competition after being in school until June. My body is not quite ready for that level of intensity in racing, and could use a breather to get myself mentally ready for a hard year of training upcoming.
I'm going to take a few days off, and start building my fitness bike early next week in preparation for Olympic selection next year. The upshot - I'm excited to get going with my training for the next 11 months. Now that I've wrapped up my degree I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do fully committed to training again.

______________________________

____________________________
OK, the longer, wordier version for those of you with some spare time.

The back injury

June 15 - graduation from UCLA Anderson's MBA program
June 16 - frantically move out of my Brentwood, Los Angeles apartment in one day, take red-eye out of LAX
June 17 - arrive in Princeton, NJ, start rowing
June 24 -my back goes out on me while picking up a t-shirt following first week of training, reminding me that I've been rowing for 15 years now
June 25 - July 3 - flat on back, on painkillers and anti-inflammatory
July 11 - get MRI, find out I've got two bulging discs in my back.
July 11 to present - physical therapy 6 hours a week, which involves massage and rolling around on a big blue Swiss Ball (this is in addition to my 30 hours of training I already do on the water).

Basically, my body is paying me back for 15 years of rowing. It's not uncommon at all for rowers to have disc issues, and I won't need surgery if I take care of it. It's an area that's been giving me problems for the past 5 years, and now it's good to have identified what's going on so that I can address it to keep it from flaring up.

Training
Since I've been back, I've doing a mix of sculling (rowing with two oars) and sweeping (rowing with one oar). It's two slightly different skill sets with the same set of muscles, much like long jump versus the triple jump. My coach and I finally settled on sculling for me this summer, because I could race the single and train at my own pace while I was getting my fitness back up to the level of the other athletes who have been training year-round. Sweep is what I focused on up through the 2004 Olympics, and I've only learned how to scull in the past couple of years and it turns out I have a knack for it. Being able to do both makes me a little more versatile and will give me a few more options for racing as we got closer to the Olympics.

When I got back, I mixed in with all of the other athletes who have been training, it's a small community so it's all guys that I know and have raced with before. The good news is my skill and my mechanics are as good or better than anyone's here, the bad news was that despite my best efforts to work out while I was at school I wasn't able to keep up the same level of fitness.

It's been a strange transition for me going from being in school, where I was busy every minute of the day, with a ton of different classes and activities, to working out twice a day with about eight hours of downtime in between. My days have gone from spending hours in the library, class or the occasional happy hour to spending hours on the water or in physical therapy and recovering from hard workouts by heading to bed early. I haven't been working while I am transitioning back into training so I can get rest between workouts (but if anyone knows anyone who could use an MBA for about 20 hours a week, please point them my way - I could really use some intellectual stimulation). Another big transition is the California to New Jersey switch, I had blocked out this whole concept of humidity that I left behind when I headed to UCLA. Finally, I've been losing a lot of weight to get back down to my racing weight - lightweight men rowers race at 155 pounds internationally. Needless to say, I am very hungry for any kind of junk or fast food right now - McDonald's commercials have been driving me crazy because Quarter Pounders have never looked so tasty, and those of you from UCLA can relate to my cravings for In-N-Out and Didi Reese.

Racing
Okay, so the big question I need to answer is "How did this guy not make it thru the semifinals of the event he won last year?" Short answer is, I was overconfident going into this week's racing, because I've performed exceptionally well in sculling the past two years without training very hard. (I actually won a spot in the lightweight single on the 2006 National Team, but turned down the trip to the World Championships in England order to finish out my summer internship and get to UCLA on time for the start of school). This year I followed a more regular training schedule, but what became apparent is that the past two years I was doing well because I was benefiting from fitness that I gained in 2004 - training in the Olympic year is really intense, with up to three workouts a day for a good portion of the year. That has been gradually eaten away while I've been away from the training center at school, and even working out more regularly this year wasn't quite enough to pull out this week's racing.

I am actually really happy with how well I raced given where I am physically, although it was a bit of a shock to lose an event I had been fairly dominant in for the past two years. I had a bit of a target on my back and a lot of people gunning for me. Strategically, I rowed a perfect race. Those of you that have seen me race know that I am a closer/sprinter, meaning I usually hang back in the early part of the race and put myself in position to sprint in the last quarter (we call it the 'last 500' of the 2000 meter course.). I actually was exactly where I wanted to be going into the last bit, but when it came time to put them away in the race, I simply didn't have the physiology to do it. It was disappointing, but I don't think I could have done any better than what I did based on how much I have trained.

Those of you that know me well know, while I really hate to lose, this will only make hungrier and train harder for next year's Olympics, which is the race I am building towards. It is actually a bit of a relief to because I've been non-stop on the go finishing school, moving, dealing with an injury and preparing for trials. But I am all set up to train for the next 11 months - I've got a great place to live right by the boathouse, I got a good summer of training which was really productive, I identified the discs in my back as a potential weak point so I know I have to stay on top of it.... and I can get some much needed R & R before the training really kicks up in the fall. I'm going to break out my running shoes and my road bike to build up my aerobic capacity away from the boat for a little bit. I also get to go to a buddy's wedding that I would have missed if I had raced at Worlds, can look for a part-time job to keep me occupied and am looking into potentially a taking a quick trip to Central America to get my surfing skills up and relax before I really have to hit the training hard again. So I am disappointed at losing, but I do think I couldn't have done much more given my schedule the past two years and I am psyched to gear up for next year.

That's it. Those of you still reading, thanks for taking so much time to read about the life of Altman. Talk to you all soon.