Henley Women's Regatta

There are a few gaps on my trophy shelf, however one gap has been particularly bothering me.  I had never won Henley Women's Regatta.  I know this sounds silly when I have yet to win a Senior World Champs or even a Henley Royal but it was almost getting embarrasing that I couldn't say that I was a HWR champ.  At one point during the week I thought I was going to have to wait yet another year.  The river was extremeley high and there were some hideous winds that almost forced the regatta to cancel.  The regatta organisers did a fantastic job to keep it running despite the conditions and although there were no record times set, finals day on Sunday turned out to be a great day.

All the pink ladies winning at HWR

Myself and Erica entered the elite doubles comepetition as our last racing before Europeans.  We also boated our Leander Henley Royal quad for the first time!
We had straight forward wins in both semi finals despite some hairy moments off the start in both boats.

E4x final

The final of the quads we raced Vesper USA.  We had a few steering warnings off the start so they just managed to slip ahead of us by the end of the island.  Once we had found our rhythm (and station!) we managed to sit ahead of them to the finish.  It was great racing the Henley stretch, I was loving the home advantage.  Once we got to the 1k mark, I thought 'we know it's 500m to go, they don't....bye bye!' Very satisfying!!
In the doubles final we raced Rowing Ireland.  This was Erica and I's 4th race of the day and we both were feeling it in the legs.  It was a solid win and good to get some last bit of racing in the doubles before we start our Europeans training.

E2x Final

E4x winners

E2x winners

It was so much fun to be racing multiple races and in crew boats, it's something I really miss when we are racing internationally.  We are now in the quad leading up to Henley Royal (27th-1st) it's a really exciting project and I can't wait to have a lot of fun with my fellow pink ladies.

Roll on Henley!!

Holland Beker Regatta

Last weekend we took our double to the Holland Beker regatta in Amsterdam.  Myself and Erica were looking forward to racing some other doubles, finally! It was going to be a novel experience racing people in the same boat classification! We had some good comepetion entered with the Czech Olympic double racing both days and the Dutch double, who have just qualified for the Olympics, racing on the Sunday.

This was my first international regatta since 2009 (due to injury) and I couldn't have asked for a nicer welcome back! I love Amsterdam, partly because I've spent lots of time there to visit my boyfriend, but I also love being able to cycle everywhere and there's a very laid back vibe to the place which I think suits my personality.  Jane (our coach) was very keen for this to be an enjoyable experience so I got some time to cycle into the city and enjoy the weekend outside of racing, a very different experience to the tightly controlled environment of the GB rowing squad.

We were welcomed on our first day of training to a lovely flat calm lake.  Sadly this wasn't to last and our first day of racing was a tad breezy (luckily a tailwind).
It's always strange racing for the first time in a new combination.  You get to see how your crew mates behave before racing, some people are completly silent, others won't shut up and you get the occasional nervously angry person that you have to tip toe around.  Luckily I discovered Erica to be pretty similar to me...chilled, happy to chat, generally covering up any signs of nerves with a smile.  I think part of this was actual excitement to race, we both love racing and we have a VERY long season this year so are relishing any chance to go fast!

A very windy Bosbaan

Unfortunately the Saturday race lacked any real side by side racing.  We found ourselves in a bit of a void with CZE way out in front and the other club doubles (from Sweden, Germany and Japan) way behind us.  But it was good to brush away any first race jitters and good to find ourselves so far ahead of other club doubles.

Sunday turned out to be a beautiful sunny day and we got some great racing.  Our start didn't exactly go to plan, I thought that Erica had just had a bit of a stumble until I took a stroke that felt extremely heavy, I then realised she'd completely lost her blade! Some good skills from her and a couple of cool heads and we were back on track and managed to make our way back through the field.  After the first 500m the CZE 2x took a good lead and ourselves and NED emerged ahead of the remainder of the field.  We had a really good battle with them until the last 250m where they managed to slip out ahead of us.  We were happy to have such a solid first half and now need to go away and work on our sprint to the line.  It was altogther a great experience to get a close race with the Dutch and come away with a new PB time.

Erica and I post racing

Detailed results can be found here.  My parents took video from the truck following the race, the quality isn't great but you get the general idea! (we are closest to the camara). Video

Thanks again to 110% Play Harder, Headsweats, Faith in Nautre, Sigvaris Sports and Eat Natural for their product support so we could survive the weekend!

A new project

In my last blog I mentioned that Erica and I were going to race at the European speed order in a double in the hopes that we will be selected for the European Championships in that unit.

Since the last set of singles trials we have been working hard on getting the double together.  There have been some teething problems, as with all new projects.  Firstly we had some issues with with our angles.....our biggest challenge being not to hit each others blades at the finish...not conducive to good speed!

We decided to give it a go swapping the order so putting me at bow.  Instantly I was much happier there, mostly because I could be a bossy cow and being in bow means you always cross the line ahead of your crew, which technically means I have won (nope I would not say I am competitive in the slightest).  But it seemed that being bossy and a bit of a b*tch at times was going to come in handy when we hit our second challenge....starting a new crew without a coach.
Jane has been busy helping Rach qualify for the Olympics and our other women and lightweights coach had his hands full not coaching the lightweight men.  Leander were short on coaches (due to the fleet following the men's 8) and it seemed that no body wanted us :( (tiny violin playing in the background).
But after enough complaining and puppy dog eyes we managed to join in with the men's sculling group for a while and now we are being passed around between coaches like a hot potato!

We had our first 2k race in this order a couple of weeks ago at Caversham as a practice for the speed order.  Luckily we did 2 races as the first was a bit of a disaster.  We were a little over excited to hold our headstart over the womens 4- and after a pretty quick first half, the place where I used to sit in the boat was replaced with a giant mushroom cloud.  Luckily we learnt from our mistakes and went much faster for seemingly less effort the second time round.

Yesterday we completed the European speed order, where we raced over 2k twice.  The first race was ok, definitely a lung opener, but nothing special.  We were told that there was 'something....something...not quite....right....something....missing?'....constructive critism indeed.  Luckily we had a day inbetween races to work on that missing something.  Anyway our second race we definitely managed to find at least part of 'it' and went considerably faster with a 6 second pb!  Still plenty to work on but an encouraging race to show things were moving in the right direction.

We have also been having some more luck with supporters.  New ones on board with our double.....sunsense and 110% play harder.
Sunsense have kindly given me some suncream to last me through the summer when it finally arrives!
110% play harder are a relatively new, exciting compression company that combines compression leggings with ice, like an icebath on the move! We tried them out at our racing this weekend and loved them! You can find some pictures on my twitter page... @tinalstiller

We have also set up a new blog just for the double.... thepinkdouble.blogspot.co.uk.  Check it out to follow mine and Ericas progress :)

European trials and some thank you's!

Last week we moved training over to my favourite place, Caversham lake.  For those of you who don’t know Caversham (aka Cav/the place where your soul dies) it is a purpose built lake and boat house especially to house GB Rowing.  On the other side of the lake it is also home to a sailing club.  Last week was a good week for the sailing club.   Not so good for us….

We were due to do race at European and U23 trials over the weekend but due to a terrible weather forecast racing was moved a day forward.  However when it came to the semis and finals the wind was really strong and I was dreading a 9 minute race!

My semi went to plan, I managed to get out ahead in the first 500m and sit on my lead the rest of the way down the course.  I did have one ‘Oh S***’ moment when I had wound it down at the end and was so engrossed in the tight race for the remaining spots, that I didn’t realise how quickly they were coming at me!  All I could think was I’m gonna look like right idiot if I have to sprint to the line after paddling in at rate 20! Luckily the line came just in time to save face!

I decided to go with the same plan for the final, get a good start and lead the race from the front.  Sat on the stake boat I was just praying I could get a clean start.  I didn’t….. it was probably one of my worst starts.  However I guess it could have been worse.  One of my competitors in the lane next to me came over into my lane off the start.  All I was thinking was…..s***, I better get the hell out of here before she hits me!! I think this probably gave me a bit of an edge and I had clear water over the field at the 500.  The rest of the race went as I’d hoped and I managed to hold a clear water lead and fend off any pushes from the girls behind me.  I came through to win the race by 7seconds ahead of Georgie Hazell of Reading RC, who put in a good last 500m to just take 2^nd ahead of Pippa Whittaker of Nottingham RC.  You can read some more professional race reports from the weekend here.

On my way to the start at Euro trials with my new lucky visor courtesy of Headsweats :)

As a result of the trials I have been selected to represent GB at the European trials in a double with Erica Bodman, one of my fellow Leander girlies.  We have hit the sponsorship requests hard and have found lots and lots of kind people who have generously donated products to help with our training. 

Many thanks to Hunter Boots, Headsweats, Buff, Solar Sport and Faith in Nature for their support.

Like a kid at Christmas.  Hunter's new union jack wellies :)

Can't wait until winter and I can test all the warm weather gear from Buff

I have also been on a personal mission to find sponsorship.  I am looking for some dollar to help me buy a new boat of the new Olympiad.  Although I have not been lucky finding any money yet I have had lots of support in other ways….and every little bit definitely does help.

Many thanks to TCL Sports, Eat Natural, Sigvaris Sports, Power the machine and Ocado.

feet up resting between races in my Sigvaris Sports compression socks

Lastly a massive thank you to my big bro who has given up his time to build a website for me! It is still not 100% done but www.kstiller.co.uk is live!! Woooo!  So thank you Matt I massively appreciate it!    

The first encounter

So here goes my first blog! I can honestly say that I never saw myself doing this, but then again I can say that about a lot of other things….. "I’ll never wear lycra”, “I’ll never own a pair of crocs”, “I never want to row, it’s so boring!”  Evidently people change.

My Dad and I racing together (both in sunnies).  

My first encounters with rowing do not bring happy memories.  In fact the best word I can use to describe how I remember it, is ‘wet’.  This may seem obvious as rowing is a water sport, however I spent the first couple of years of my ‘rowing life’ on the bank.  It was my brother who took to the sport first.  I was dragged each weekend, by my parents, to a different river bank to stand in the rain and watch the boys thrash past for a few seconds and disappear into the distance.  I never understood (and still don’t) the spectator appeal of a head race.  Evidently my parents were a little more enthusiastic, so much so that they decided to join in and join our local club, Tees RC.  This soon caught on with the other parents and by the summer, every weekend was like another sports day complete with the mothers and fathers race.  Meanwhile, muggins here was left on the bank making daisy chains. 

me and my bro

Eventually I began to feel left out that I was the only household member without a ‘lycra drawer’ and couldn’t join in the conversations about popping blisters and share the devastation of ‘catching a crab’.  I decided to bite the bullet and give it a go.  Luckily all the watching had paid off and I took to it pretty quickly.  In case you are wondering, yes, there has been a full family outing.  But no, there are no photos of it...the evidence has been burnt.

Myself (left), Hannah and Arthur (crouched)

At the beginning of 2003 I won my first race at the junior interregional regatta in a pair.  Later that year I moved to St. Peter’s School, York for my A-levels.  This is where I met Arthur.

Arthur was my first coach.  If I had to describe him in 3 words…..small, welsh, eccentric and welsh.  I have many Arthur stories and will probably refer back to him in future blogs.  But I will share one quick one now though, to illustrate why I think he was the key to my rowing successes....

Arthur was never one to claim he was a technical expert when it came to rowing.  However, he did know how to work us hard!  One afternoon whilst out on the river we were out doing some long race pieces.  Once up to speed, Arthur removed his favourite green fleece (see right) and tied it round the throttle on the launch so it wouldn't move.  He then told me he would keep the launch pointed at the stern of my boat.  I had no doubt he was being deadly serious, if I slowed down I would be crushed!

After leaving school I went on to study at Nottingham University where I rowed at Notts County RA, now known as Nottingham RC.

After one medal at the Junior World Championships and 3 at the U23 world Championships I was selected to be the reserve athlete at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.   I then went on to join the women’s eight at the 2009 World Championships where we finished 5^th. 

Unfortunately I had been suffering with back problems since I was 17 years old and at the end of 2009 they became so bad that I had to take 18 months away from the sport.  I enjoyed my time away from the sport but it wasn’t long before I realised that I was clinically insane.  I missed early mornings, cold weather and long ergos too much. 

I have been back in a boat a year now.  I started training at Leander Club and I have been shocked at how quickly I was able to get back to my old self.  Unfortunately it wasn’t soon enough for this Olympics but I am gunning for Rio, a gold medal and some fiestas!!

Now you know a little about me and where I’ve come from and where I’m hoping to go, I hope you will join me on the rest of my blogging journey!