NSR #1 Results and Miranda

I have not posted for quite awhile.  I have been busy doing the actual rowing instead of just writing about the rowing that I am doing.  Whenever I was at a computer, I was busy anxiously waiting for the results from National Selection Regatta #1.  I have no idea why I should be so nervous about NSR #1.  After all, I am clearly not the one racing!

I was cheering for Kristin Hedstrom who did an amazing job in the lightweight 1x, but I was also rooting for another friend, Miranda, in the open 1x.  I met this woman at camp in Wisconsin four years ago.  Back then, she was already pretty fast and very strong.  To illustrate, I remember one morning practice at camp when we did a watts or step test on the erg. 

Me, Miranda, fellow campmate at US Club Nationals

I believe there are different versions of this test and different conversion tables, but essentially, this is what we did--everyone set their erg to read watts or power output and erged 5 minutes on and 10 seconds off repeatedly.  We started out at 110 watts, which is a 2:27min/500m split according to the Concept2 watt calculator, holding this power output for the whole 5 minutes.  Every 5 minutes, we would increase the power output by 30 watts until we could not hold the output for more than three strokes, then we got to stop.  Depending on the output that we stopped at, our coach could translate that into different target splits for different percents of pressure. 

I got to the fifth 5 minute set, which was 230 watts or a 1:55/500m split, before I stopped.  For me, that translated into a 100% pressure split of 1:56.6/500m and a 75% pressure split of 2:08.3/500m.  One or two other girls stopped after I did.  Soon, Miranda was the only person left erging and we probably watched her erg for another four or five sets before she finally hit an output that she could not hold. 

Can you imagine what her splits must have been?  That day, everyone, including our coach, was in awe.