Blog de Puree

Rowing, by it’s very nature, is a smooth, rhythmic movement. When coaching novices and other rowers, I often tell them to picture sea grass that sways back and forth with the ebb and flow of the water’s currents. The grass moves in unison, is relaxing to watch and it bends at the same place every [...]

This past Saturday was the 27th Annual Festival Regatta, hosted by my rowing club, the Merrimack River Rowing Association. As a club member, my role this year was to drive one of the marshaling launches just upriver from the starting line. The regatta marshal and I zipped around our neck of the river coordinating the [...]

Rowing champ Xeno Muller posted an exciting seven minute video of his 2000 Olympic single scull race on his blog yesterday. Regardless of his finish (2nd place), the video highlights the great technique used by world class rowers. Pay particular attention to how the body, arms and legs all finish together at the end of [...]

I’ve rested on my laurels this winter and it shows. I’ve got a slight pooch in my belly and there’s this new double chin on my face. My family says the belly-fat is my layer of love—from being happily married, which I certainly can’t deny, especially with Randye’s cooking. And the double chin is apparently [...]

Olympic rowing medalist Xeno Muller is reaching out to offer veteran’s benefits at his Iron Oarsman rowing studio in Costa Mesa, Calif. As he explained on his blog, he wants to make veterans’ situations better, whether they are completely healthy or disabled. He writes: My idea is to open the IRON OARSMAN every Friday from [...]

When I was a collegiate rower, I remember lugging my coach’s heavy launch with a deep keel from the boathouse to the dock. The coach had to watch how fast he was going so that he didn’t create a wake that interfered with the rowers boats. My senior year, we upgraded to a flat-bottom boat, [...]

This past Sunday was the Textile River Regatta in Lowell, MA, sponsored by my rowing club, the Merrimack River Rowing Association. It was also the one race all season where I raced against other lightweight rowers (165 pounds or less) and didn’t have to worry about getting smoked by heavyweight masters scullers. But I didn’t [...]

Another unsuccessful regatta this past weekend at the Meredith Bay Regatta. The negatives were that I came in 11th out of 13 rowers in the Masters Single event and again, my butt was handed to my by a myriad of midweight and heavyweight rowers. Here are the official results. But there are some positives out [...]

I thought I was in good shape for the Coastweek’s Regatta this past Sunday in Mystic, Conn., but that was not the case. It turned out, I was unprepared for the race length, which was just over 2000 meters, and not 2.5 miles. A big oops. (The two races styles, head race and sprint race, [...]

I had a particularly good, long row this morning, and held off our club’s top rower during a three-mile piece at about 75% pressure and a 26 to 28 stroke-per-minute (spm) rating. He crossed the river when I was about half-way along and he never caught me, so that’s a good sign. Upon finishing, and [...]