Well just sitting down reflecting on the day, It didn't go to plan ... again. So time to relax and train without the pressure of a race for a while. There are many small reasons why today didn't go to plan which go back as far as October but lets not dwell on the past.
So today I ended up at the venue a lot later than planned - on fact too late to even complete my 20 minute warm up - running around trying to find water (in a University sports hall!) wasn't ideal either - also had trouble finding the toilets. All adds to it ... So on to the race machine and set the drag at least the headphones seemed to be working. So off we went on row and after 10 reasonable power strokes I backed off to my planned 1:32 - the plan was to hold that to about 1250 and then either push on or take stock - after about 500m or so I felt very comfortable and ended up drifting away - I stopped looking at the monitor completely and just looked around the hall at the spectators - other rowers - people in the background - anything - don't get me wrong I was still hitting my numbers - but just a million miles away. When I did focus back on the job I had a look at second place and looked at the meters between us and for whatever reason - tiredness - lack of hard training - getting to the venue late I just let it go and did what I needed to do to finish - came in slower than my second 2k from the Euros.
After collecting the medal and T-Shirt :o) the wive and I with the baby went into town so she could get some time doing what she likes - "row - life balance" while there I decided to have two large burgers - err double - so two large double burgers - hmm that didn't sit well for the 500m warm up about two hours later. So back to the venue and about 2500m with some controlled sprints - the burgers kept coming back to remind me of their taste lol but out onto the race machine and ready to rock. Seemed to be a long delay between looking at the get ready to row and the count down but once it came I found myself pushing 1:18's on the screen without too much pressure. Think I lead from about four or five strokes in and manage to finish strong enough to take a second Gold. Again off form as would of liked to be hitting 1:18 finish.
So time to reflect and relax ....
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