April 2006 Training Camp

Now I am doing monthly visits to make sure the team is tracking to the plan. The goal in this visit was to get some good numbers for time trials to see which events we can be competitive in. The athletes did ergometer testing as well as extensive seat racing and time trials. Zaheer got very good at getting the information plotted so the athletes could see it. We finally started to break ground on the ergometers where almost half of the athletes go their personal best while everybody got the best score of the season. The sweep boats are still not going as fast as I would like, but the double sculls are really moving along.

Warmup on the erg for the monthly 2K test. I had scheduled the erg test 2 hours after I landed. Makes the jet lag easier because you can't fall asleep and also lets me use most of the 7 days I have in Islamabad.
Zaheer (left) watches over Zohaib, Nazeer and Majeed. All of them got their season best and Majeed set his personal record (PR)
End of the test for (Lto R) Sabir, Ali Hasan and another person hidden behind Zaheer. Lots of folks looking on.
Ghulam Nabi on the way to his personal best.
Sabir, Farasat and Maqbool warming up before midday weight circuits.
Maqbool with his new shades. He has already lost 5 kg and is on his way to losing another 10.
running around the track in the stadium. The weight room is in one corner of the stadium.
Shajjar doing weight circuits.
Farasat on his bent over rows.
Maqbool on cleans. The intensity on these were good and the men had sweat dripping off. I was pleased.
Maqbool on military presses.
Zohaib's shirt made us laugh. They had made a mistake in spelling "Superior Group of Colleges" which somehow took away from the superiority.
Zohaib on circuits.
Adeel on in the weight room. The temperature was climbing rapidly but the weight room was still quite cool even though it is not air conditioned.
Baby ducks. at the lake.
The duck family. Rizwan and Col Imran loved talking about the ducks and the chicken!
Ahmad Nawaz on outside arm drills.
Farooq on drills.
Early morning at the lake. We were at the lake at 6:00 am before the sun rose. By 7, it was warm and by eight hot.
Double on the water.
The Murree foothills.
Seat Racing!!!
They are now very adept at switching on the water.
Aslam Hayat after helping out with the course. He is the rigger, boat man, coxswain and keeper of financial records.
We saw a double flipped over and went to investigate and found two veterans in the water! Though they are not part of the national camp they were very embarassed to be rescued!
Out of the water but still soaked.
Maqbool in the single.
Jumpies and calisthenics before practice.
Nazeer leading on the right.
Aslam Hayat fixing a boat.
Foot stretchers being reinstalled.
Maqbool and Ali Hasan lounging on the dock.
Zaheer found a treasure trove of old speed coaches. Nobody knew how to use them for speed so the impellers were kept there useless.
oars in the storage area.
Four out on the water.
Heading out for another bout of racing.
Singles on steady state.
Sabir in the single.
Light double of Zohaib and Mohib.
More seat racing. Bring the boats together.
Switch bow seats.