Andy Baxter's blog

seems the big players are getting fired up for FISA Master Worlds in Canada this week.  after cycling and lifting rather than rowing for awhile, I have found renewed purpose in training 2-3 three times a day again; the priviledge of rowing 5 seat in the San Diego 8+ at Boston’s Head of the Charles october 23-24.  BRING IT.

got a nice comment about the Face your Twitterbook blog but i can’t figure out how to approve it to show on the page.  the wordpress page says it’s in moderation, and therein lies the problem; I don’t know what moderation is…where’s my hammer.

today I spoke with Wally Bortz on the phone just before he was to leave for Australia.  Dr Walter Bortz, like Dr Fritz Hagerman, is a full on Freakin Stud and, like Fritz, a hero of mine.  Bortz is living proof of my statement (www.bfitsolutions.com) that an 80 year old muscle is really no different than an 18 year old muscle.  rather than blather on about Dr Bortz’s accomplishments, which are practically endless and would give me carpal tunnel, check out www.walterbortz.com .  He offered congratulations on Racing Yesterday, and I thanks for his invaluable council on a previous literary project about strength and the aging body.  Who’s your hero and when was the last time you let them know it?

tomorrow, being Tuesday August 17, Sean Wolf should be posting both a review of Racing Yesterday and an interview on his Speed Five segment,  to be found on his website www.rowingillustrated.com.  For the Speed Five segment he asked good solid questions, but as to what he thinks about the book?  don’t know!  I guess we, the teaming masses, will all find out tomorrow.  how much mass do you need to make a team?  how much teaming do you need to make a mass?  hmmm

Andy, teaming mass of one

Pete Cipollone, savage Olympic competitor and fearless leader of men tells me that I don’t need Facebook and I don’t need Twitter.  Why? “those are generational things.”  So once again my AGE has freed me from certain social communication constructs that I never wanted a hand in to begin with.  I will stay with the Blog, the note tied to a rock and thrown, the yell across the valley when the wind is right and, in an emergency, relaying the message to Lassie and sending him/her for help…

howdy rowers,

in the words of Raising Arizona’s H.I. McDunaugh, “We’re just about set to pop here, honey.”  Oarsman, coach and author Topher Bordeau will be penning a review of my book Racing Yesterday in the September issue of Rowing News magazine.  I told him I didn’t know whether to be excited or terrified.  Tune in to find out!!!

OK, I am finally ready to get up to speed on this whole blog/twitter/facebook/shout out of the back window/carrier pidgeon communications thing…I think.  My book  Racing Yesterday is just about set to launch DIGITALLY!  Yay!  I get to keep it somewhat raw, free from certain preordained publishing dogma.  very soon we will get cranking via Concept2, JLRacing, Rowing Illustrated, Rowing News, etc.  if you are a Rowing Club and would like me to come down, up or across for a chat, drop me a line!

Andy

Holy Winklevoss twins, Batman.  Tyler and Cameron rowing for Oxford in the big race?  Go Oxford!!!  Pretty sure it’s Saturday morning at 8:30.  Check it out at www.theboatrace.org   also watch me and Steve hold off (just barely and not really fair at all) the pair at the Olympic trials on my website www.andybaxterrowing.com

Great guys and deserving of all good fortune that comes their way

Cheers 

Holy cow where does the time go? have not blogged since the Charles (’08). I had all but forgotton this thing until seeing a link on the Fine Print Literary site (www.fineprintlit.com). That discovery triggered senses of guilt and exposure. I better put something down! But WAIT, before I begin don’t forget to check out Brad Lewis’ Olympic blog on row2k.com, fun stuff.
So here is a quick update – after the Olympic trials and the Head of the Charles, it was time to get back to work. Work, in my case, meant surviving the recession with two medically based “over 50″ gyms in southern Oregon (www.bfitsolutions.com), consulting and licensing our proprietary fitness systems (www.agelessfitnesssystems.com), writing the occasional article and public speaking, and continuing to train in order to justify maintaining the same caloric intake I had in college. That is the day to day stuff. the latest big project has been one of the most exciting and rewarding adventures of my silly fun career. I invented a new line of physical therapy equipment (sounds odd saying that; just as odd writing it) called the Function Line by Scifit (www.scifit.com). The software side of things is being deftly handled by CSMi (www.csmisolutions.com). We will launch all of this cool stuff at the American Physical Therapy Association conference in Boston June 16-19. Come by and say hi!

Like bulls at the gate we await the start.  Nerves give way to excitement, excitement to aggression.  Mike bangs the gunwales with his giant hands, like prehistoric man banging clubs as a show of force before battle.  “Alright, let’s do this thing.”  The beauty of the rolling start is that the transition is subtle.  Before you know it, you’re in it.  Wilmington is 3^rd at the start, San Diego 4^th, and Pocock 5^th.  We are racing between 33 and 34 strokes per minute and Mike is definitely on his game.  We have a good rhythm and I am ready as the pain tide floods.  We are now well passed the “oh shit” moment and fully committed to the pain.  By the first split at Riverside, we have a 9.548 second lead over Wilmington, 9.796 second lead over Pocock and a 15.876 lead over San Diego.  What we don’t know is that, way back in 16^th place, Minneapolis Rowing is charging hard and trails by only 3.941 seconds.  Mike and Stormy had warned us that Minneapolis would be “gunning for us.”  Their stroke seat, John Jablonio, is a member of the Rocky Mountain Rowing Club.    

The yellow pyramid shaped one mile marker does not congratulate me on finishing the first of three miles.  The yellow pyramid shaped one mile marker mocks me, a crushing reminder that there are two miles left to go.  Minneapolis is now 3.559 seconds behind us.  I hear Harry’s breath behind me, perfectly in sync with my own.  That’s something.  Focus on that.  We take two breaths per stroke, 66-68 breaths per minute.  Saliva flies from my mouth and nose.  Spitting would upset the rhythm.   I am in control.  I am having The Tammy Talk (with all I have invested in this sport, I want to be there for every stroke) in my head.  My reality shifts.  It is not that I have only completed one mile and have two long miles to go.  It is that I have already completed one mile and I only have two miles left before this amazing experience is over!  I begin to tear off giant chunks of pain and chew on them voraciously.  The pain is empowering, it is my fuel.  It is my friend.

This is so much better than last year.  Raedene has developed a calm and steady pattern of alternating Power 10’s; first for leg drive, then for length.  Then leg drive, then length.  As a coach I used to tell my coxswains not to continuously repeat the same command, as it would desensitize the crew and dilute the command’s intensity.  But this is different.  Raedene is not calling the same thing out of desperation, or because she doesn’t know what else to say.  Raedene knows exactly what she is doing.  Raedene is a natural born killer. 

Through the Powerhouse Stretch we swing and fly.  I don’t even remember seeing the two mile marker.  At the Cambridge turn our lead over Minneapolis has increased to 4.520 seconds.  All other boats are no longer in sight.  We are alone, with 1980 somewhere far ahead of us.  Out of the Cambridge turn we begin our sprint at 37 strokes per minute.  This is part of our race plan.  Mike told me on the way to the starting line, “when I go, be ready to go with me.”  I am.  He does.  We all do.  It is tremendous, vicious, primal.  We are through.  It is over.

Rocky Mountain Rowing Club maintains its’ 2^nd place ranking by 4.780 seconds over Minneapolis.  Today, out of 26 boats, only Rocky Mountain and Minneapolis are fast enough to stay within 5% of the winning 1980 boat.

Hi all, the final youtube chronicling the Olympic trials is up and running.  Do check it out and feel free to leave comments!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94gJAn_8s9U

Andy