Nathan Twaddle (NZ M2-) writes on the team New Zealand site
Simple equation for Twaddle
My latest update comes with a warning on the dangers of the over enthusiastic consumption of chocolate bars.
After races we usually spend 40 minutes to an hour cooling down on stationary bikes inside. It is a good way to get food and fluids in while still getting the benefits of active recovery.
I had a wee treat lined up in the form of a snickers bar but it all went pear-shaped when I bit down, 'slipped' and ended up taking a chip out of one of my teeth, not a major one but enough to make it a bit sensitive.
Adding insult to injury was having to inform my Dad, a dentist, who had travelled over with all my family, what had happened.
Fortunately the Olympic Village has more than enough resources in the Polyclinic to cover this sort of 'major' incident.
The Polyclinic is the main medical facility inside the village and they cover pretty much everything from MRI's, opticians and obviously dental care.
Peter Burt from the NZ Olympic medical team came over to ensure smooth sailing with the 'procedure' but the staff were very professional and the problem pretty minor so was all sorted out in about 10 minutes.
Since our heat on Saturday we have been keeping a fairly low profile. Our days have a lot of down time as the rows have gotten shorter and travel time is negligible with the hotel being at the start of the rowing course.
Hours are usually filled trying to catch any Kiwis competing in the Games, made a little difficult only having two Chinese channels to follow.
However we have managed to keep abreast of things with the nzoc.org.nz and tvnz.co.nz websites.
The semifinal is on Wednesday and the draw for it was released on Monday night.
We certainly got the tougher of the two but we are still confident of what we can do and I don't know about other sports but in rowing, coaches and legends alike are always telling competitors who grump about seedings and draws, "if you want to win you just have to beat everyone that turns up, no matter what race it is" – pretty simple really.
