A very familiar Mexican presence has returned to Elk Lake this week. Though I’m glad to see Saul, and so is the majority of the VTC, it’s at the same time not under the best circumstances as he was unable to split the Mexican lwt double for an Olympic bid. He is a very quick sculler – a Canadian National Champion –, which he demonstrated on his first around the lake time trial this week. However, he was never granted the opportunity to have a direct challenge against the duo. Sometimes doubles are just like that, I guess.

As for the Canadian lightweights, the lake has quieted down substantially. Spracklen’s group has left for Sacramento and somehow managed to take our coach with them, leaving us essentially without coach for the next two weeks. Not that it bothers any of us; we’re more than capable of training on our own. In fact, it’s been quite nice to have so much calm flat water uninterrupted by coach boat wash and engine noises.

There have also been some interesting responses to the fact that we have been testing on Sliders. I find it rather humorous that instead of looking at them as a valuable tool and progressive asset to training they are being labeled as essentially a mask for speed. Rumours are bouncing around that they remove anywhere from 10-15 seconds on a 2k and 2-3 splits on a 6k. We have been training on both stationary ergs and sliders in order to get an evaluation of what they do. It seems that yes you will go faster on a 2k, by about one split or 4-5 seconds, but over 6k it varies from person to person. Some see no difference, some see more speed by about 1 split again, and others even go slower over 6k. The fact is that the sliders allow you to simulate the feel of rate on an erg similar to the feel of rate in a boat. Because you can rate higher, you can keep the flywheel light and turning over. Therefore, if you were to hold the same rate, your score would essentially be the same, but if you were to take advantage of the rate as you would on the water, you would typically see gains. I finished off a long 30 min ladder (rates 16-32) this week with a 6:28 in the final 2k of that piece on stationary erg after going 6:10 on sliders for an all-out 2k the previous week. The identical workout on sliders the week prior to the erg test yielded essentially the same results.