Hi all.

 Finally made it to the seventh week. I've just been enjoying the weekend off catching up with friends, family and lost sleep. This has been the one and only weekend off to give Steve and Michelle a well earned break from us.

 Well this week has been the hardest so far, with full on trainings all the way up to Friday. We have been pacing Laura Fischers U23 quad which has really helped push ourselves to perform and we have really benefited from this. I even overheard our coach Bruce telling another coach that we have had an outstanding week which is always a good boost.

 We have had a nutritionist and psychologist come talk to us which left us with a few good pointers. We have been told that it is best to have some sort of lollies after afternoon rows, which helps cuts muscles recovery time by around a third, from 72 hours to 24 hours, which is a huge amount. Boys have to have either 6 jetplanes, snakes or 30 jelly beans while girls only half of this. They have to be taken within 5 minuites after training, so Michelle has begun bagging jetplanes which our coxswain gives to us on the pontoon straight after training.

 The Psychologist was also quite intersting but just emphasised that at the top levels of sport, natural talent is just not enough and that races are won using the top two inches. This is absolutly right and so we should go into every training with 100% and even make goals for every training, such as improving a part of your technique like keeping your arms straight( aye Rob! Robs been telling me this for years ), so even if the row isn't the best you can say, well I completed my goal and so I have achieved something.

 We have now finished at St Peters as the school is now on holiday so we will be continuing with our schooling at the high performance centre over the next three weeks.

 I may have caught up with some of you at the fundraiser at the Blue Baths. Thanks everyone for your continuing support.

 Cheers Nigel