The lake was just amazing yesterday morning, the water was like glass and it really felt like it was summer (a few of us brave souls wore shorts to practice). I was planning on wearing just a t-shirt but the wind picked up a bit (paddling in a thick hoodie, isn’t really smart but at least I was warm) After practice we had a paddling intro for anyone who wanted to learn how to paddle. One of my teammates was helping me take pictures when I was on the water.

Yesterday was a lot of fun, now only if this nice weather would stay around. I’d LOVE to start working on my paddlers (farmers) tan.

It didn’t hit me until yesterday when I was booking my next massage into my calendar, that my team’s first race of the season is truly in a month time (April 28). This regatta is a great one for the beginning of the season as the race course is only 200 meters long, as not everyone is able to do a 500 meter race just like that.

I do have to say it’s been a slow start to our 2012 season as mother nature hasn’t being playing nice and it hasn’t help that a few people are away over the spring break, which means we haven’t had a lot of on the water practices. Though a lot of us have been cross training in outrigger so we can get at least some water time, but it’s not the same as practicing in a dragon boat that your gonna be racing in. Outrigger is a lot higher up off the water and has a different stroke. Plus I’m also at the gym/on the treadmill at home every day I’m not on the water.

Source: pinterest.com

I just heart that quote!

Do you modified your training because of the weather?

With the weather being so nice, I decided that after practice I’d go to a local high school track to work on some sprints but when I got there the place was placed. Came home and bought out some cones to do some sprint drills. I hope I didn’t damage the grass

Fast forward to Sunday, I spent the afternoon in Whistler as I was taking part in Whistlers Sliding Centre’s public bobsleigh ride. It was something I have always wanted to try/do but wasn’t willing to spend money and fly to Calgary to do it. We all sign in and get weighted with our shoes/jackets and try on helmets. After a quick intro we get dropped off at the novice start (curve 7) meet our drivers and climb into the sleds. I’m not sure who got the fastest time/speed but all I know that the sled I was in, got up to 127.8KM/Hr and it took us 43 seconds to get from the novice start to the finish line (9 curves later). I’d definitely do it again but maybe next time as a push athlete/brakeman were I don’t have to see where I’m going ..

 

View the rest of the pictures on my flickr account

Since it’s the long weekend and there wasn’t really one on the lake, our coach decided to mix it up by having 16 of us in the dragon boat and 6 in the 6 man outrigger (oc6) and switch us though a few times to work on a few different drills. Since in a outrigger you paddle both sides every couple strokes (10 or so) and with my shoulder/arm that is still not 100% yet I just stayed in the dragon boat. I really do miss training on both sides of a dragon boat and even to outrigger. Right now I keep telling myself, it’s one day at a time.

After practice I meet up with a @BCBerrie from twitter over lunch. It’s always nice to be able to hang out with someone in person then always talk via twitter/facebook/chat. The commute home was insane it was grid lock heading out of town and seemed like it was normal rush hour traffic flow heading into town. But thankfully I don’t have to go anywhere but the gym on Monday.

How is your long weekend/Saturday going?

Comment for a Cause (C4AC) is back for it’s 4th year. C4AC is my way to raises funds & awareness. This year I’ve picked BC Children’s Hospital as my charity of choice. Each comment this site gets equals $1 that I will be donating at the end of the month.. Don’t forget to keep up to date by subscribing to my rss feed

Around mid season last year, I noticed my left shoulder was acting up more so then it ever has, I wasn’t sure if it was because of the years of paddling abuse and or from the type of work I do. And the stubborn/stupid me instead of seeing someone about it, I just took it easy by paddling on the left side instead of paddling on both as well gave up paddling outrigger for a while (as you paddle on both sides). Though once season ended I took time off from our winter paddling season to focus on my shoulder. Some days I’d rather deal with 38+ hours of labour again then deal with a deep tissue massage in the arm pit area.

It’s already been a few weeks into the 2011 season and I’ve been taking it slow which is a challenge for me and my coaches .. They rather have me near the front/middle of the boat but I’d rather be in the back so if I have to stop I can. Plus I LOVE the fast water that the back half always gets .. We have a race coming up which is mostly for newbies and for teams to work out the off season kinks. My goal this regatta is to use it as a trail run since they are only 200metre spirits instead of the normal 500metre races.

Til then I’m waiting for the day were there is no more pain and don’t have to ice my armpit/shoulder/arm anymore..

If you are interested in seeing what unfolds from this challenge, everything will be all uploaded onto my youtube account. Since I wasn’t really using that account for anything else.

Anyways enough with the small talk, here is a video of a local oc6 race (6 person Outrigger) I put together of my club racing.

What do you use your youtube/vimeo accounts for ??

My thanksgiving was filled with outrigger and spending time with the family and friends. On Saturday instead of the normal dragon boat practice, we opted to take out the 6man outrigger instead since not that many people wanted to paddle on the long weekend. The lake did not look choppy/white cap-ish but there were pockets were we paddled though were I just felt like I was gonna be seasick if we stopped paddling. Later that night we had our family thanksgiving dinner, the food was amazing there was barely any leftovers. The picture above is the pumpkin cheesecake that my cousins girlfriend made.

Sunday I helped out at a Outrigger regatta as one of their timers. It was great fun but for the fact it was freezing cold all day long. I was wearing two of my hoodies and I was still cold. And on holiday Monday my Mom and I headed over to my best friends for her vegetarian thanksgiving dinner.

Now only a month and a bit until I’m state side for US thanksgiving dinner.

For you Canadians, How was your thanksgiving?
Whats the one thing you look forward to on Thanksgiving?