Through it you can follow my journey that i call »My Way To The Top«. Browsing the page you will find out more about me, my sport and the way of achieving my goals.
I hope you enjoy the site!
JZR
Saturday 20 June 2009
Summer starts here
Really getting into the serious part of the season. The Word cup is over, weather is getting sprinting hot, the training is getting really intense and the big races are just behind the corner. You can still make a lot of improvement in this part of the season, after all it is when you try to slowlly transform all the hard volume into a fast performance, but it is also important to stay fresh, relaxed and hungry for what HurryKen Wallce calls the 'summer sloughter'. So besides coming back from Szeged and having 2 easy days, i kept quite buisy with having fun. In the week after Szeged i had a race with my fellow friend Igor Božeglav. It was our annual clash of codes. Rower versus canoer, backward stroking versus forward paddling, aristocratic versus native peoples way of living, 36 quadriceps strokes versus 110 spins per minute…but also a recreational athlete versus a serious one. Igor won again, but his winning margin dropped from 8 seconds from last year to 4 seconds from this year. That makes me happy as he admits to be feeling faster this year. I was even leading for the first 250 meters but he crashed me with the travelling speed in the middle part of the race, felt like fighting a K2! This is our annual battle standard course called : Canal grande, not to be confused with the slightly more famous Canal Grande in Venice. On Sunday i played little-ligue coach and took some kids from my club to a race. In my club we dont have a real flatwater project yet, so kids race only downriver and slalom (and are damn good at it). But we try to encourage them to learn all kayak disciplines at this young age. This way their training is more interesting and sets a great base for later development and gives to the coaches a good feedback about wich kids should specialise for wich disciplines later one. The race was not very interesting as the level of flatwater racing in Slovenia is still low, but the kids had fun testing a new kind of boat and also enjoyed visiting lake Bohinj on a stunningly sunny Sunday. Personally i also enjoyed crossin the Sorica mountain pass for the first time – really big spaces and really big forrests. And on Tuesday we had the official presentation of the Slovenian Mediterranean Games team. The games are held in Pescara(Italy) this year and will be my third games of this kind. There are 23 nations participating form 3 continents and competing in 27 different sports. This means the 'Mediterranean village' becomes a pretty crowdy and interesting place. I will be racing in Pescara 4 days after the Europeans in Brandemburg wich will make it a fun and challenging 10 days in July! P.S: Jure Robič started the assault at his fifth straight RAAM victory 2 days ago. Follow him here. For me he is a legend and a symbol of endless human potential and will power (see the trailer of the movie about him here).
Posted by Jernej on Saturday 20 June 2009 - 21:24:42 |
Wednesday 10 June 2009
World cup in Szeged
The 3rd Word up race in Szeged was tough as expected. Except a few, all the fast guys were there plus the whole Hungarian falanga. Allegedly 10.000 (?) spectators in the final 2 days and the good organisation of the event made it by far the most exciting event to race in this season so far. My performance was generally good. I made a step up from the Poznan world cup. Got into the final in the 1000m race. And instead of being out in the heats like in Poznan i made it to to the B-final of the 500m race(7th). I was quite pleased with my paddling in the heats and semi of the 1000m. While my 1000m final was lacking an extra gear for a tough field and the tough front wind. The Swede Anders Gustafsson commented that he could normally stop for a snack along the course to make the time he needed to win against such a wind. Congratulation to him for his fantastic double gold performance this weekend. In the 500m my performance was not that sharp and after a 4th place in the semi i finished 7th in the B-final. In general i am happy to be bringing into racing more and more of the changes we made this year, but still looking for a bit of extra speed and more constant performances. After the racing we had the usual 'get in to the van-straight after the race-and drive home through the night' pleasant experience . It took us approx. 14 hours to get from Poznan to home. But 'only' around 9 hours from the Pick home town to Most. No need to tell you i normaly don't train on Monday mornings after these sweet transfers. (Find full results here.)
Posted by Jernej on Wednesday 10 June 2009 - 21:04:50 |
Tuesday 26 May 2009
Racing in Poznan
After 2 weeks less than a year i was back on lake Malta in Poznan. The feeling before the race was good and i was happy to race again on this cold but fast course. I knew i was very fit but not yet very fast, so the morning 500 heat was nice on hand to prepare me for the 1000 meter racing that followed(it also ended up not being nothing else than a good warm up, unfortunately). The 1000 heat was a really good race, with a good feeling and a comfortable second place. Next day, don't know why the 1000 semi did't turn out well at all, i was totally off the pace and out of the good feeling from the day before. I ended up 4th and far behind the winner max Hoff form Germany. I than raced the 1000m B final on Sunday and it was a good race. I managed to find again the good rythm and feelings and had a great fight with my Friend Steven Ferguson from New Zealand and Ethiene Hubert from France. Ended up 3rd, just a second off StevO's time. So despite a not so great placing my performances since the races in Zagreb and Mantova a month ago are growing strongly and i am staisfied for now that the changes in technique and training are showing some results already. Also the times are improving quickly. A 3.47 in Zagreb, a 3.40 i Mantova and a 3.31(with back wind) in Poznan. Sunday afternoon i took parta also in the 5000 meter race. It was really exciting at the start with 32 guys on the line and just 750 meters to the firs buoy. I had quite a good start, come to the first turn inside the best pack. But i lost the leading pack during the first turn and lost 2 more positions on the second turn. From there on i was trailing alone behind the best for the whole race and finished 10th. Have to get some turning and wash riding skills quickly and i will be able to improve my results in this discipline a lot. It sure gives you a lot of pain, but also lots of fun! Already looking forward to race in Szeged world cup in 2 weeks time! It is going to be for sure the biggest and most exciting world cup of 2009!
Posted by Jernej on Tuesday 26 May 2009 - 12:59:12 |
Thursday 21 May 2009
World cup in Poznan
I am already in Poznan Poland for my first world cup race of the season. I will be racing K-1 500, 1000 and 5000m(the later is a new discipline). We start tomorrow and you cane follow the results here. Is nice to race on the Malta lake as long as it stays calm. If we are lucky with the weather it will be a weekend full of exciting hard racing!
Posted by Jernej on Thursday 21 May 2009 - 21:38:28 |
Monday 04 May 2009
Lake Bled
Each year, at the end of April and beginnig of May i choose to train on Lake Bled. It has been like that for many years now. I love to train here at this time of the year and with its peace it feels like the perfect place for the last camp before the world cup starts. With Rok and Lovro we only had 5 short days to spend here, but we enjoyed it a lot. Training on a beautiful lake with all our top rowers here too, is always a great experience (it looks Iztok Čop and Co. are building up some new crews). As always we stayed in Villa Kessler, just under the Osojnica hill. But this time we were dining at the new 'Chilli Bar and Restaurant'. The proud owner, ex-rower , Olympic medal winner and friend Jani Klemenčič was a great host. This week Lovro and Rok are attending the 1st World cup in Račice (follow the results here), while i will stay home and train alone on the lake in Most na Soči.
Posted by Jernej on Monday 04 May 2009 - 21:02:14 |
Wednesday 29 April 2009
Racing in Mantova
I am just back from my first international race of this season. There were 6 nations present and it was also counting as 1st of the 2 selection races for the Italian national team. The level of competition was very respectfull but i was feeling good lately, so i was expecting some good results. At the end i finished the race with a 4th place on 1000m and a 7th place on 500m. Not exactly what i was aiming for. It looks a bit like after all the good training i have been putting in through April, 2 easy days were not enough to enable me to race on a consistently high level. But no reason to worry. At the start of a long and hard season, this wake up races are a great reference of what is good already and what needs to be done by summer! There were some great results for our team: Anja Osterman (1st in K1 500 for juniors), Matija Babič and Alan Gregorič (1st in K2 500 for juniors) and Lovro Leban and Rok Kuk (7th in K2 1000 for seniors).
Posted by Jernej on Wednesday 29 April 2009 - 21:08:04 |
Sunday 19 April 2009
A good-hard week
The closer we are getting to the racing season and the more often i get to race, the harder becomes finding time for quality and undisturbed training. This month i will only race twice (national selection regatta and the Int.race in Mantova), but it is already evident how important it is, to optimally balance resting, racing and continuing to put in as much as possible of quality training. That's why i am particulary satisfied about the past week. My new and young training group really helps me to train hard and keep the quality high. So that even when i keep the volume up there is no unnecesary bulk volume. The past 7 days were really good: 3 gym sessions, 4 running sessions and 16 sessions on the water (2x speed, 2x resistance training on the water, 3x hard endurance session and 9 steady paddles with wash leads). Still pretty much in the 'the bigger the base, the higher the castle' spirit….
Posted by Jernej on Sunday 19 April 2009 - 21:28:34 |
Sunday 12 April 2009
Zagreb
On Saturday we had our slection race for the 2009 sprint national team. We allways have these trials in Zagreb because it is the closest fully arranged course at this time of the year. This year my preparation was not as long and meticolous as in the other years. And same time we had probably the largest and strongest field ever assembeled on our trials. So it was goig to be a challenge for me to try and win what normally wasn't much of a big deal. There were all the three guys that won last year's wildwater team world champs plus the young and promissing Rok Kuk. Anyway i managed to win the 500 and 1000m distances and finished second on 200m. I was not really satisfied with my 1000m performance, while the 500 and 200 meters felt surprisingly good. There was some front wind so the times are not a real picture of how fast i believe we were paddling. On the kilometer distance Lovro Leban (he is also individual world downriver champion) went really fast untill the half way mark but faded a bit in the second half. So i could win with a bit of a slacky performance.The 500 meters were a great clash and all the guys were really fast in the first 250 meters , so that i could only take the lead in the last part of the race. The 200 meters were a race on its own where Nejc Žnidarčič was two classes above everybody else. Overall i am fairly satisfied with my performances on the test. I made the team and got some valid feedback on my present form. And most of all, i got the confirmation that there is a solid competition growing up at home. That means exciting times ahead of us!
Posted by Jernej on Sunday 12 April 2009 - 21:28:15 |
Monday 06 April 2009
Training camp in Pusiano
I have just returned from a week long training camp in Pusiano. Pusiano is a small town in the italian region of Lombardia, half an hour drive north from Milano and very close to the big Como lake. The lake with a little island is in a way very similar to my Lake Bled. The local club 'Circolo canoa kayak Pusiano' could offer us everything we needed – all the club's infrastructure, a nice gym and a 2km lane on the water… We were sleeping in an ex monastery called 'Palazzo Beauharnais' and eating great italian food in the cosy restaurant 'Eupilio'. Mr.Mario Pizzo from the local club took very special care that we weren't missing anything. And we also had the honour of Antonio Rossi coming daily too and checking if we had all we needed. Rossi is a legend in canoeing and due to his 5 olympic medals (bronze in Barcelona, 2 golds in Atlanta, gold in Sydney, silver in Athens and a fourth place in Beijing) he is extremely famous in Italy. He lives very close to the lake and had been training on this lake for most of his career. It is also because of him, that many foreign teams come to train on this lake every year. As for us, we really enjoyed the lake and the atmposphere around it. We're still doing quite a big volume but the intensity was really good this week and we are all satisfied with the work done. Now we have 5 more days of training in Most na Soči before going to Zagreb for the national team selection race next weekend.
Posted by Jernej on Monday 06 April 2009 - 14:49:23 |
Sunday 29 March 2009
Coast to coast and Ironman
I just learned that Gordon Walker won this year's edition of Coast to coast race! The Coast to Coast is a one day multisport race from the west to the east coast of New Zealand. The non-stop race consists of this: 3km run, 55km cycle through the Southeren Alps, 33km of run, an other 15km ob bike, a 67km long kayak leg down the Waimakariri river and the final 70km on the bike to the Sumner beach in Christchurch. No woder they also call this race 'the longest day'!
Gordon's last win was in 2007, while richard Ussher won in 2008. He is a great runner and an even better cyclist. But i met him when he was coming and training with us in a sprint boat last year in New Zealand. The Kiwi kayak team would proudly say: hang out with the fast paddlers-become a fast paddler! This year he was considered the favorite. And he lived up to the expectations beating the second place finisher for 30 minutes, a record in the history of the race.
Well done Gordy!!!!! Congratulations!!!!
But there is more endurance news! My great buddy Ben Fouhy, world champion and olympic siler medalist in canoeing, went and raced the New Zealand Ionman Champs. He competed exeptionally well for an upper-body using athlete. Swim time of 52minutes, 180km on the bike in 5.13 and finishing of with a marathon in 3.27.....! That was a damn long day too!!! With the result of 9.41 he qualified for the Ironman world champs in Kona, Hawai!!!
Great job Ben!!! Bravo!!!!
I am thirlled and honoured to have been training with these guys!
Posted by Jernej on Sunday 29 March 2009 - 21:27:57 |
