Our sessions with yoga sport science specialist Heidi Unwin have improved with the warmer weather - despite some odd looks from people walking by!

In other news: Fiona has made a welcome return to the water after a period of illness and is making good progress. Yasmin is also hoping to be able to train in a boat again this week after her rib injury in April prevented her from taking part in the trials for the U23 World Championships this summer.
For now - Happy rowing!

The squad have been busy winning races this month. First race up was Leicester Regatta, where Pippa raced with Jonny Walton whilst Nikki paired up with Craig Turner from Loughborough, racing in elite mixed doubles. The two doubles both progressed without too much trouble to the final where they met in this side by side knockout event. As lightweights, Nikki and Craig were faster off the start, catching Pippa by surprise, but eventually (over the 700m course) the power of Pippa and Jonny showed, and they went on to win. Once down the remainder of the race can only be described as like rowing in a washing machine - it definitely tested our core! This was the first win for the group in the regatta season. Thanks to Leicester Rowing Club for organising a great days racing.

Next on the racing schedule was the British University Championships, held in Nottingham. Pippa raced in championships singles for loughborough University and dominated the event from the start, winning the event in style and securing her position as a lead sculler in the university and U23 field.

Philly and Ellie raced for Nottingham Trent University, first coming 6th in the final of the womens' quads, and then on the Monday raced in intermediate doubles. The regatta was disrupted due to unexpected fog first thing in the morning, meaning the girls raced a 1500m time trial first, with the first 6 progressing to the A final, with the next 6 moving to the B final and the rest eliminated. The girls put in a strong performance to progress to the A final. Once there they had a great race, but were slightly outmanouvered and came home strongly in fourth place. Although disappointed not to medal, the girls learnt a lot and came back fighting at Notts City Regatta, where they came second behind a more experienced Mortlake Anglian and Alpha crew in IM3 doubles. The girls were due to double up into a quad with Lindsay and Catherine, but a lack of further entries meant that the quad were unable to race. Lindsay and Catherine both raced elite singles, where they came home fourth and fifth. A good start to the season given a winter disrupted by injury. Laura was due to race in the single as well, yet illness forced her to withdraw from both Notts City and the Masters Championships the following day. At the Masters Championships Lindsay raced in a quad and a four, winning both, and maintaining her 100% success rate at this regatta.

On the same weekend as Notts City Nikki raced at a speed order test at Caversham in a potential lightweight double for the World University Championships (FISU) in Kazan, Russia. Currently no selection has been made for this championship which is held in early September, and she will continue to race the double through the early part of the season in a bid to be selected.

Five athletes travelled down to Caversham for the GB under 23, World University and European trials. Unfortunately a rib injury prevented Yasmin from being able to compete at these trials, although she will hopefully be able to prove her speed at a later date when she is better. Results from the racing were:

Pippa: 3rd in W1x

Nikki: 6th in Wlwt1x

Laura and Fiona: 6th in W2-

Stu: 15th MLwt1x

We now move in to the second stage of assessment with crew formation, with trials still ongoing to find the fastest combination of athletes. 

The squad spent the beginning of April on camp in sunny (?!?) Nottingham. Promising weather the week before camp turned into freezing cold and windy conditions. For a change of scenery we travelled to Rudyard Lake in North Staffordshire for a couple of days away from Holme Pierrepont. Despite being promised that the lake never got rough, and our optimism as we drove through a blizzard that we would be met by mirror flat water, this wasn't to be and a speedy alternative was found for our training for the day when we were told it was too windy to go out on the water. A 60 minute power walk around the lake provided early entertainment, with Pippa and Fi leading the way with flawless technique. A spinning session at the local leisure centre kept us out of trouble before lunch, and in the afternoon we travelled to Audley Climbing Centre for a few hours of climbing. This mainly affirmed that none of the squad is built for rock climbing! The next day dawned bright and sunny, allowing us to get some good work done on the water. We returned to Nottingham to finish the camp with some hard pieces and some crew boat work to begin forming our racing crews for the summer.

It's been a while since we last blogged, and we have had a busy March. After our pennant win at the eight's head, our focus turned to 2k erg tests. Pippa, Laura, Fi, Yasmin and Nikki all travelled down to the national training base in Caversham to complete their 2k tests which are required for trials. Both Fi and Nikki got PBs, with Pippa and Yasmin both very close to breaking their best as well. Laura and Fiona then successfully raced in a pair for an invitation to the European/World Uni and U23 trials held in April. This means that Yasmin and Nikki will race their singles at these trials as lightweights, Pippa in her single as a heavyweight, and Laura and Fiona in a pair - this is the largest group of Nottingham athletes to race at these trials since the formation of the Nottingham High Performance Group.

Not to be outdone, the rest of the squad raced at the Eurpean and British Indoor Rowing Championships, run by Concept 2 and held at Nottingham University. Opening the medal count was Ellie racing in the student event, although finishing in a time slower than she hoped for, Ellie came home with the silver medal – a great achievement for her first indoor competition! Yasmin raced in the open lightweight category, where she won by 15 seconds to maintain her winning streak at this event. This also makes her the European Champion. Last to race were Catherine and Lindsay in the open event. The girls faced strong opposition from Pavalina Zizkova from the Czech Republic, who went on to win the event. Lindsay came home strongly to finish with the silver medal and becoming British Champion in the process with Catherine chasing behind to come home with a bronze medal. This gives the squad a 100% medal count at this event for 2012. Thanks need to go to Concept 2 for organising a great event, we will return in 2013 bigger and better!

The group are now on training camp in preparation for summer racing - can't wait!