Days off

I religiously take one day off from training a week.  I need it, and really can't live without it.  Two days off a week and I start to get a bit antsy, no day off and basically I'll collapse a few days later.  I'm at a stage (i.e. age) where I need time to recover, and that is what helps me get fitter and faster (and lighter).  For instance, I can't do a heavy weights session in the gym (I'll touch on weights in a later entry) finishing around 8pm one evening, and then expect to have any kind of get up and go for an interval session in a boat at 7am the next morning before work.  Maybe I'll be able to do this after I've been doing this for a few years again, but certainly not now.  The day off really helps me recover, as I start feeling the workload at the end of the prior week, but then can start out pretty fresh.  I'm in the midst of changing my routine to fit in more strength and resistance sessions, so I've changed my day off from Monday to Tuesdays.  The first week was tough, but now things seem to be calming down a bit.  Mondays at work are pretty hellish - lab meeting and then individual meetings with the entire lab so I'm mentally exhausted at the end of the day.  Having Tuesday off allows me to recover both mentally and physically, so it seems to be working better.  I'm also often staying at home on Tuesdays to get some paper writing done, so it is all working out well.  Maybe this afternoon I'll get a massage.  There is a cool place down the road run by a really cool Hungarian couple (http://www.gulienmassagetherapy.com/).  I often fall asleep while they are working on me, and I feel great afterwards.  Now bring on the sketchy comments from the close minded.....

This Blog is a Rip-Off

Before I get too far into this I should own up and explain that the idea for the name of this blog is a shameless rip-off of one of my favorite reads, and which I wish I had more time to read.  I am talking about fatcyclist.com, easily the best blog I have ever read.  Eldon Nelson, the author, is an incredibly talented writer who originally used the blog as motivation to lose weight.  I have never failed to feel better after reading one of his posts - he is very very funny and has evolved his blog to raise money for cancer research.  So, if you are bored to death with my droning on about all kinds of crap (I know I am reading most other paddling blogs) then go check it out - www.fatcyclist.com  .  If you have ever been on a bike there will be something on it that will make you laugh.  And when you see me wearing my fatcyclist.com biking top you will know where it comes from.

Training is all due to the Tajik Kids....

So, I've been training now since the start of February, with major guidance from my "coaches" Andrew McEwan and Middy Tilghman.  I paddled on the US team with Andrew and Middy in 2000 and 2001 and had a great time in Europe but then I moved, got a new job and basically fell off the face of the planet paddling-wise.  In January I went down for a race in DC and was really just awful so I asked them (actually I asked first, cos I figured I would suck) if they would help me train.  And help they have, even when in prison in Tajikistan (or maybe that didn't happen this trip?). Their help has been invaluable, giving me focus, feedback, and generally keeping me motivated (by comparing my abilities to those of a small girl, mostly) and amused (anyone who knows us can tell you how childish we can be when in each other's company).

So, with around 7 weeks to go before I leave for the World Cup in Tasmania I would like to declare my undying gratitude to these guys for their help (this doesn't mean I will give you a reference for an apartment without any prior notice Andrew...).

Intro, of a kind

Hey, I probably won't have much time to update this, but here is an attempt at a blog. Just to give you some background, I'm a fat old boater who wants to get back into shape by training for wildwater. And I want to have some fun too. The major thing stopping me from getting back into shape, and the thing that got me out of shape in the first place, work. I'm an Associate Professor at a College of Medicine, running a lab with a million dollar budget and existing off of the good graces of my peers. Anyone who tells you that Academics sit in their ivory towers and never got off their butts was not talking about me, I can assure you. Since taking up this job I have probably averaged 60-70 hour weeks, so now I'm trying to be smarter at work and to get some of my life back. We'll see how that goes, I guess. If I don't write again you'll know it didn't work.....