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Hannah Every - Hall

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HANNAH IN THE MEDIA

ABC TV News

July 20th 2010

Towards London 2012

3 Weeks til Europe! (5 June 2011)

London, Lucerne, Varese and Bled, here we come!

Well hi there all,

Training over the past 4 weeks has been tough! We’ve had a great block of some solid physical and technical improvements which is just exciting and now we’re looking forward to some racing at our simulated World Cup #2 in Sydney next weekend.

It is amazing to think that there is less than 3 weeks to go now until will depart Australia. I can’t say that I am sad to leave Canberra with the minus 7 and 5 degree mornings it has been throwing at us. Poggies (rowing gloves!) and vests have come into realm of their own. I am looking forward to rowing without 3+ layers of clothes on. Though, it does scare me a little to think that I am 5 weeks without my husband and children before they visit me in Varese. I am hoping this time will fly, which I think it will as we have Henley and Lucerne regattas during those 5 weeks. I am incredibly excited about Henley...so much history, tradition and fashion! So much fun, but I need to remember our dresses need to be below the knee or refusal of entry is imminent!

I am incredibly excited to be able to share the overseas jaunt of my rowing with Michael this year. It is his first real trip overseas and he (and the boys) will spend 2 weeks watching me train in Varese, travel for 2 weeks and then meet me in Bled to watch the World Rowing Championships. We will also manage to have a week together post Worlds to have some family time which will be amazing. So Mick is plotting and planning his trip with great excitement which is in turn getting me very excited. Harry and Charlie on the other hand are just excited that they will have their own televisions and games on the plane! And when Michael asked Harry “if there was anything special he would like to see while they were in Europe?” Harry replied “just some sheep Dad!” Wow that’s an expensive trip to see some sheep!

Well time for me to sign off, I need to go and get ready for tomorrow morning’s training session. Forecast minus 4 with showers...ooohhhh fun!!!

The Potato! (10/11/2010)

Hi Amazing Support Team,

Thank you again for all your kind words of support. They truly are quite humbling. I feel incredibly special to have such a following of support. Amazing really.

Well we got the potato!!! 4th place! Arghhhhhhhh! We (Alice and I) are not disappointed with the result by any stretch of the imagination. But we are incredibly disappointed that we did put out our best row in the final of the World Championships. It is a very empty and unfulfilling feeling.

The weather conditions were atrocious, and they were for everyone, so that is no excuse. But it is a reason for not having our best row possible. FISA (the international rowing body) later said that the conditions were “rowable...but not really raceable”. 3 other crews just handled the conditions better than us on the day! Another disappointing thing is, that FISA all week warned us that Thursday and Friday’s weather conditions were going to be horrendous and that we should be prepared that if our final is on Friday, we would be racing it on Saturday. So in the back of our minds we thought we would be racing on Saturday! Anyway...it is what it is.

We can take a number of positives away from it. We know we are on the money with the rest of the world, even having a bad race. So heading into the next two years looking towards Olympics 2012 we know we have the basis for a brilliant crew, which is incredibly exciting. Better to have this result and these feelings now rather than in 2 years time. It has also shown us that we need to work technically on our blade work. This whole experience has also brought Alice and me closer together with more focus moving on! So there are lots of good things to come from it. Best of all, Michael and the boys were there to support me all the way! That was fantastic. I think poor old Mick needs a holiday for himself though now! A champion!

I have also had surgery on my hip (Monday) which has been better than expected. They only had to clean it all up and shave back a little bit of a boney pincer in the acetabulum (hip capsule).There was no labrial repair required so this means recover should be significantly faster than anticipated which is exciting!

I am now looking forward to a little R&R and family time over the next couple of weeks leading into Christmas. We only have 2 weeks down time until we are expected back into formal training. Before then we are having a birthday party for Harry at the local park with some of his friends from childcare. Then it is Christmas...and I love Christmas. I can’t wait to get back to see family and friends. It’s been a long season (this time 12 months ago I was just finishing competing in the World Masters Games...oh how life can change so quickly!). We are also trying to work out how we can get up to Queensland, however given the incredibly tight timeline that we are on, it is looking doubtful unfortunately, but maybe a long weekend might be possible. It is only 20 months til the Olympics...!!! CRAZY!!!

Thank you again all for your support. Will be in touch and keep you updated with recovery and 2011 selection! Wow things surely move quickly! That is something that Alice and I learned from this journey, it is all over very quickly and no one gives you an inch... so if you want it, you have to go and take it!!

Love to you all,

Hannah

We've made the A Final...the Hard way! (4/11/2010)

Firstly thank you to all your text’s, emails and Facebook messages. I have read them all, and really appreciate them. They are very humbling.

It has been a rollercoaster ride here in NZ to date. It feels like we have been here forever. We arrived last Tuesday (26th October), with our first row on Wednesday. We have generally only done one row per day in the morning, with the afternoon session consisting of a wind trainer (stationary bike) or ergo session. As the weather has been quite variable and the course is a good 20minutes from our accommodation.

Which leads me to our first race, the heat...we were flogged! And there are really no excuses! We just didn’t handle the conditions very well and didn’t attack the race as we should have! So there was a lot of soul searching and huge rollercoaster ride of emotions over the next 24-48 hours. But we fortunately turned that around in the repechage. We attacked the race with more gusto than any race we had done before. And this fortunately made up for our previous race failings. This also resulted in an incredibly fast time from which we gained a lot of confidence. It did also make us realise that no one is going to give you and inch. You have to go out there and take it! We are racing the best in the world!

Today saw us row our semi final. This is a nerve racking race...it is do or die! We finished a comfortable 2nd rating 29-30 stroke per minute, when we normally finish on a 37 or 38! We had a lot in reserve, and were now incredibly excited and ready for our final on Friday! Alice and I have grown through the regatta and balance each other out beautifully. We both feel incredibly lucky to have each other to depend on!

I am also lucky to have Mick and boys here too. They have been a great inspiration and support. The boys are so excited to see and love cheering for their Mum in the grandstand...which gives me warm fuzzies!!! There is a huge playground for the kids which they love and have meet and played with a number of kids the same age from all across the globe. An exciting experience for them! So fortunately they are easily entertained during a long day at a regatta venue which is often quite tiring for all! Michael is champion. He always positive, and an amazing strength of support. This is the first time he has watched me racing internationally, so it feels quite special to share this all with him when he has endured the entire journey with me!

Mum and Dad are here also. Mum, as you might all guess is a nervous wreck every time I race, and struggles to watch the whole thing and just wants to know the result. Dad is constantly analysing our performances and working our strategies of ways to improve and then giving me tips on what I need to do! Very funny! I do tell him I probably can work it out! They are both incredibly proud and it is wonderful having them here to cheer and share in the amazing experience!

The New Zealanders have welcomed the rowing with open arms...it has been incredible. The racing is on live daily with a replay shown at prime time in the evening (8pm!), there is a 12 page newspaper spread released daily with updates, photos, results, draws and stories from the regatta. This is produced by the local newspaper. They have catered for everyone...even the non rowing enthusiasts! Just a beautiful place! I could actually live in New Zealand...Noosa is still my favourite though!!!!

Anyway, bedtime now. I love and thank you all for your support. Cheer hard at around 12:30pm (lunchtime your time...2:33pm local Kiwi time) on Friday! This is providing weather permitting. They are predicting storms and there is a slight possibility that the racing may be postponed to Saturday...but weather predictions have been a little inaccurate to date.

Take care and I hope you are all well!

Good luck for all those Masters rowers going to Pan Pacs! I will be returning the favour and cheering for you!

The Final Preparations...for Worlds 2010 (25/10/2010)

Life has been frantic prior to leaving for our pre-departure camp. Charlie had his 2nd birthday and has seemingly grown up so quickly since. His is a little boy now and loves following Harry around and telling him what to do!!!

Harry broke his elbow (the lateral condyle of the humerus) in September. He had to endure surgery to have 2 pins inserted into his arm. This was a fairly stressful period. It is still in plaster, however follow up x-rays has shown it is healing well. He gets the plaster off the week we get back from NZ, and then has to go in for surgery again to get the pins removed in December. Though he is incredibly excited for his 4th Birthday and having a party!

I had another cortisone injection in my hip as a little insurance policy. I am booked in for surgery (labrial repair and a debridement of a pincer lesion...basically an arthroscopic for the hip) on the Monday after the Worlds. So no tourist stuff for me in NZ...straight home to go under the knife, but it is all good!

I also had a severe case of bronchitis, this put us out of the boat (modified training) for about 2 and half weeks. And as you know prior to that our training together was modified with Alice’s broken foot. So prior to now training has been a somewhat disrupted. But we really think this has worked to our advantage.

It has been an incredibly long season (3 months longer than a normal season) for everyone, however as we have had so much time apart we have exponentially improved and just loving the boat and training together, learning more each day. This is an incredibly exciting place to be at...especially now 6 days out from our heat, and 11 days from our final!

Our pre-departure camp in Penrith (14th October) has gone smoothly and has been incredibly successful. We’re posting some great times and still feel we have room for movement. We’re now really looking forward at getting on the plane tomorrow morning! It does feel funny having a short flight (3 hours) to the World Championships and not a long haul flight.

Michael (my incredibly amazing and supportive husband!!!) and the boys along with my Mum and Dad are coming across too which will be just lovely, and incredibly exciting to have them there to share the experience.

Thank you to all of you who have sent good luck messages, I have read them all even if I don’t respond, and they are incredibly appreciated.

For those of you who are interested the World Championship website is incredibly informative

http://www.wrch2010.com/ or http://www.rowingaustralia.com.au/ or http://www.worldrowing.com/

They will all lead you to the timetable and how you can watch it online. We’re racing

Sunday 31st Oct – Heats, Monday 1st Nov – Repechages (hopefully we won’t need to race these), Wednesday 3rd Nov –Semi Finals, Friday 5th Nov – FINALS!!!!

Again, thank you to all of you for your support. It has been an incredibly journey to get here, with an amazing amount of support from family (both our parents) to help look after the children and keep our household running as normally as possible. Not only do we appreciate you, Harry and Charlie have loved having their Grandparents around! Dutton Park Rowing Club...amazing....thank you thank you thank you! Noosa Boat Club – my training buddies! Ian O’Dwyer Fitness Personally – showing me how efficient and effective training should be! I am stronger and fitter than I ever have and so much of it is from what I have learnt from you!

So thank you. We love and appreciate you more than you know.

So now it is down to the business end. I hope we can do you all proud. Stay tuned! Will try and have regular updates on http://www.facebook.com/search.php?q&init=quick&tas=0.5603008184151179#!/pages/Hannah-Every-Hall/161036517259089

Here we go!!!!

3 Weeks to go - New Zealand here we come

The countdown is well and truely for the 2010 World Rowing Championships! Less than 3 weeks to go until our first race. So what do the next 3 weeks hold for me.

Tomorrow (Thursday 14th Oct) the Australian Team head to Penrith in Sydney's western suburbs for our pre departure camp. The camp will fun until Tuesday 26th October when we will head to NZ. During our time in Sydney we will be training a couple of times a day fine tuning our preparation as well as making sure we get plenty of rest and recovery to allow us to recharge our batteries. I am hoping my family will be across on the weekends for a chance to catch up.

Once we head to our NZ base we will be only 5 days away from our first race. Our race schedule is as follows

Sunday 31st October - Heats Women's Lightweight Double Scull

Monday 1st November - Repecharge (hoping we are not rowing in these)

Wednesday 3rd November - Semi Finals

Friday 5th November - Final World Rowing Championships

I will be posting regular updates at my new facebook page and hope to keep you all informed as we work through training camp as well as the race week.

Until then, thank you for all your messages of support and I will be in touch shortly.

Hannah

Selection Trials

Well, sorry for the tardiness in the update front. Life has been somewhat interesting.

The last update I gave you all was the day before my cortisone injection and MRI. Now then, that went well. It was an interesting experience, and a little painful also. I had the injection under CT scan, where they injected cortisone, contrast dye (for the MRI) and a long acting local anaesthetic. I could do anything after that...literally. I had and am still having great relief and managing well. Actually, I am rowing considerably better (faster and technically more proficient) than when I was overseas. So that is exciting.

So I had the injection on Wednesday before the final selection regatta (Penrith). In order for the cortisone to have its greatest effect, you should rest the joint for up to 5 days. Thus I was ordered to rest my hip until Monday, the first day of selection. So I hit the pool and the gym. On Friday we (my husband and 2 boys) decided we would have the weekend in Sydney visiting my sisters and their families before I headed out to Penrith. Prior to departure I heard that Hannah Jansen was to be rested for the rest of the season and Ingrid (the Australian lightweight sculler) had decided she had had enough for the 2010 season, and we will see her firing again come 2011!

We were having a lovely day with my sister and family when I received a phone call from Alice letting me know that she had just come off her bike on the way to training and had hurt her ankle. What was thought to be a sprain at first ended up being 2 broken bones! OMG!!!!

So Alice was sent home to Melbourne for a break and I was told to return home and do some cross training! The entire team was on a break, including my coach Laryssa. So for a week I just did my own thing which was just lovely. I did some cycling, ergo, stepper, weights and a little rowing. Last week was my first formal (I had a week of training with my Laryssa) back on deck. Training in my single and on the ergo and in the gym by myself.

Alice returned home today, still with a moon boot on, but in good spirits. It is great to have her back, even if she can’t get in the boat! She can swim, gym and cycle on the stationary bike, so has maintained her fitness really well. We think she will be back in the boat by the end of the week which will be great.

There is 8 weeks to go until we hit the start line in NZ. So heads down and bum up...here come the AUSTRALIAN Mighty Lightys! Harder, tougher and more motivated than ever! Watch out!

Highs and Lows of Trials - August 17th

Since the World Cup we have put in some solid training. The initial 2 weeks post the European tour was tough, physically and mentally. Reflecting upon it, it is amazing how much of ‘coming up’ for a race is mental. The mind and mental power never ceases to amaze me!

We always knew this was a long season (World Champs in November as opposed to August), and that the past 5 weeks (the time from Lucerne to final selection regatta) was going to be a bit of no man’s land. But having said that, we have really put in some good training (especially after those first 2 weeks home). We have improved on technical points we knew we had too, and the boat is running as well as ever. Alice and I have been getting a great buzz from rowing the double (2X) as we feel we are learning and improving literally every row. It is just awesome and keeps us loving what we do!

The highs and lows...well my hip is still not 100%, which has resulted in me being pulled from doing ergo trials and am getting an MRI on it tomorrow to get a definitive answer of what is going on. I mean, I am no worse (a lot better in fact) than what I was when we were overseas. Thus am a little frustrated as I would love to post some ergo scores and see how/ where I am at. However my hip hasn’t improved fully, and hence we need to ensure that everything is tracking right towards November and 2012. I don’t want to develop compensations nor not be at 100% in such a competitive field. Thus we need to be a little more aggressive with treatment! Therefore I am having the MRI tomorrow.

Friday sees us (all Australian Team vying for selection for 2010 World Champs team) head to Sydney for selection trials. Alice and I are in a fortunate position having been preselected. But something exciting for us is that they are looking at doubling us up in the lightweight quad (4X) also. Which to our knowledge, has never been done. This is providing the 4X is a first and final (i.e. no pre racing/ no heats or semis etc). This is incredibly exciting! So we will be trialing that boat on Tuesday next week 24th August to see if it goes fast enough to be competitive. And if it does...we get to race it! Can’t wait.

Will keep you all posted!

Back to the Daily Grind - August 4th 2010

Rowing is a sport that requires full time commitment. Unfortunately the sport does not offer the same financial recompense as other sports and Olympic events. The training is year round with the Domestic season requiring travel across many states and territories within Australia. Now selected Hannah has forgone her dietetic practice to relocate to a Canberra and will be required to travel to countries across Europe to gain race practice. This means the chance of gaining meaningful employment is very limited.

Whilst travel costs are met by sporting institutes the miscellaneous ‘living’ costs are considerably large and are at the athlete’s expense. Add to this Hannah’s commitment of raising two small boys with her husbad Michael and the chance to work becomes impossible hence financial stress is real and can impact greatly on ultimate performance.

Hannah is seeking to raise sponsorship in the order of $500 per week ($26000 p.a.) across the next 3 years which will enable her to concentrate on training and competition through until the London Olympics in 2012.