Mahe Drysdale Looks back on 2006 and ahead to 2007

by Mahe Drysdale on 18 Mar 2007
Hello again all and I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year and this year will be a good one for you all.

I thought it was about time to give you an update about what’s been happening since I have been back and review 2006.

The year ended very quickly after I got back to NZ with the first regatta of the season seeing me race 5 events and managed to go through unbeaten to keep my total losses in all racing in 2006 to 3 (2x2nd and a 3rd).

It was another weeks training then into the now customary hour erg before going home for Christmas. This is a painful event and involves going as fast and far as possible as you can in an hour. Last year I set the world record at 18129Metres or 1:39.3 split per 500M and was feeling confident I was in much better shape this year. Its all about judgement and for the first 36mins I sat on my split from last year, the last 24 minutes I took off and ended up smashing my record from last year and in the process set a new World Record for the 30min erg (2nd half of my erg). So a good way to wrap up training.

I then headed to Tauranga and had a nice Christmas with Mum and Pete before heading for Auckland to partake in one of the greatest events of the year, Boxing Day Races at Ellerslie. Was good fun but next day it was back into training and certainly a strain for the body.

I have been in Auckland since training and returned to Cambridge early January to be faced with a 2K erg test as part of the Rowing New Zealand selection process. It went as well as a 2K can and hurt like hell, but I came out with a score that exactly matched by PB set last March. To be at your best at this time of year is always a positive sign and I look forward to trying to better it in March.

So progress seems to still be happening and I am really looking forward to getting back overseas in June and trying to improve on this years performances.

2006 was an awesome year for my rowing and an absolute disaster in some other areas. I feel I made some really good gains both physically and mentally. I made some mistakes and learnt some valuable lessons, in most cases I was able to overcome my errors and still come out on top. I think this is what people refer to as experience! with the important end of the Olympic cycle approaching, trying not to repeat them will be the real test as to whether I have learnt or not.

I have really enjoyed all the racing I have done this year and enjoyed meeting new people all over the world. I have been lucky enough to travel to 13 different countries, racing in most of them. People have looked after me very well in most of them and I have had a huge amount of fun along the way. The one downside is now I want to race all the time and training is quite a struggle when you don’t have a race to look forward to in the near future.

I have set records and personal bests in most things I have don’t this year. That has been a challenge in itself and you may think it sounds stupid but it has been mentally tough trying to motivate myself to strive for more, (losing/missing out is definitely the best motivator in the world and the biggest threat to the winner).

Well I wrote this in early January and only sending it now so a little out of date. I will be back shortly to update you on what’s happened so far this year.

Mahe