Last weekend was the only long distance trial that saw the full squad (or at least those who were healthy) racing against all the Olympic hopefuls in the UK. It was a 5k time trial in Boston (Lincs not Mass unfortunately)! The weather was due to be terrible so we were all watching the weather forecasts and waiting for news from British Rowing about whether the trial was actually going to be run. We found out on Wednesday that it was on and Cam (Cameron Nicholl, my pairs partner) and I set off for Boston.

We arrived in Boston and set about finding a restaurant that would feed seven rowers getting ready for a long distance trial. Between the seven of us - Cam, Alex Gregory, Mo Sbihi, Alex Partridge, Andrew Triggs-Hodge, Charlie Cousins and me - we managed to polish off 15 main courses and some side dishes and desserts and were still in bed by 8:30. That is what being an athlete should be about, quite unlike my normal life when I juggle rowing, family commitments and my work with Lane4.

In the end the conditions were pretty much as good as could have been hoped for in Boston in the middle of English winter, but still a shock as we have just come back from Sierra Nevada where we have been doing an indoor camp at altitude. As always when you train on a 2k lake (and even if you train on a river actually) racing 5k is a very long way, and is a shock to the system, but not nearly as far as doing the Boston Marathon (31 miles) which I won in a quad in 1989 and I think still hold the record for!

In the trial we managed to kept the rate up and moving loosely the whole way and we were fairly pleased with coming 4th overall. Andy Hodge and Alex Partridge won the trial in quite convincing fashion - 5k is really Hodge's forte and it has been a very long time since he has not won the 5k trial, and Alex has been training really well this year, so when Peter Reed (Hodge's normal partner) was taken ill, Alex was the perfect partner. Second place was Alex Gregory and Mo Sbihi, then third only by a fraction was the pairing of Louloudis and Nash, with us fourth. It would have been nice to find that few hundredths to come third, but it was a good row and good result never the less. I got drug tested afterwards, which was a bit of a blow as I was desperate to get home and spend the rest of the weekend with the family. To add insult to injury when it came to it I could not pee enough so had to hang around for another 2 hours until I could produce enough for a test - then on the way home had to stop to go to the toilet twice!

I am now back home, training every day in Caversham and enjoying the unseasonably warm weather (well compared to last year anyway) and gearing up for a family Christmas, you never know, I may even do a 5k test on Christmas day (but I doubt it). We will be into Olympic year for my next instalment which I am really looking forward to, now, back to training.

Merry Christmas to everyone and happy new year.
Greg

photos from Nicola Housam (Boston Rowing Club)