Thursday, June 25, 2009

Another 500m day

Oh yes, to day was another day of 500m pieces. It is a workout that has you pleading with your body and mind to stay together and stay focused.
Today was not just an ordinary day on the water..... our coach was upset because of another series of poor performances on the world cup circuit. In addition to a mad coach we had two volunteers from sports medicine observing our practice. The pressure was on.
I think a combination of things lead me to feel "inspired" to push the limits today, including watching the USA soccer team go against all odds to find their way into the Confederation cup final yesterday by beating out number 1 ranked Spain !
The workout started out great and kept getting better. I hopped on Maggie's wash and hung in there for 500m after 500m trying to focus on each individual stroke and not get carried away.
We still have two more workouts and a team meeting but I couldn't ask for a better start to my day!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

you know you've had a hard day of training when......

You know you've had a hard day of training when...... you pick up a comic book and it seems tooooo heavy to hold up and read. Well that may be the accumulative effect of a few hard days of quality workouts. While this lack of function may seem a annoying I find, like many athletes, something oddly fulfilling and satisfying about this state when induced by strenuous activity.
cheers
k

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

sweet

Training is going very well, my times in each practice are becoming faster and more consistent. My stroke is technically much better, but I still find that my shoulder will fatigue during the last 1/3 of my workout. This is incredibly frustrating and done right annoying however I am listening to my body. When my shoulder stops functioning I stop. I find this much less aggravating then I used to because the quality of my workouts is so much better, it feels like something has really been accomplished during the first part of the workout therefore "making it ok to get off the water early".
Our morning practice today was interrupted briefly by a visit from USADA (us anti-doping association). Representatives from USADA come around randomly to check athletes to make sure we are in compliance with the anti-doping regulations. We are actually required to fill out Where Abouts filling Forms which list where we live, train, eat , work and go to school and what our schedule will be, additionally we have to list an hour everyday when we can make ourselves available for testing. They may or may not come by and test us but we need to stay put reguardless.
Cheers
Kaitlyn

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Breather

Finally a few minutes to breath, chill and soak up the sun which was out today for the first time in 2 weeks. Ok so I was at work and I only saw the sun through the window but it was still nice and maybe the only reason I had a few seconds to breath was because it was really slow at the Coffee shop but it all counts in my book. I feel slightly rejuvenated and ready to rock for practice tomorrow which has been moved back to 8:30am which means sleep a leisurely coffee and some time to read beforehand.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Training Hard, and Harder

6:05am the alarm went off. Laying in bed listening to my phone alarm I felt a distinctive urge to roll over and sleep. This desire was not fueled by fatigue but by the thought of the mornings workout 10x500m on 6min @ max average time (meaning as had as you can go and still keep going). I forced myself out of bed with the thought of a few extra minutes to sip a cup of coffee and read my book before hitting the water for practice it worked and 5min later I was out the door and on my way.
7am we were on the water and starting a slow warm up gradually preparing the brain for the workout to come (in workouts like these, the mind has just as great an impact on if the body fails as the body does, if that makes any sense. )
20min later we were cranking out the 500m pieces at 2:10pace which was a good 5seconds faster per 500 then I had ever done for this workout. The first piece I clocked in at 2:10 then the next, my stroke rate was low but I had good power and focused on technique keeping steady through the whole thing. By the end of the workout my brain and body turned to toast or mush or some combination but I had stayed consistent throughout focusing in on each 500m and not letting the work out get ahead of me.
Now at 3pm my brain and body are still mush as I prepare for the next workout of the day, and I suspect I wont have a lot of umf. But it is workouts like this morning that push you beyond your comfort zone which make the next work out no matter how uncomfortable worth doing.
(ok since I am still mush this post may not make a lot of sense but I will come back and check it tomorrow) till then
K

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Marathon K2 time trial

26km, 6 portages, 5barking dogs, 4children, several oblivious adults holding balls (and throwing them), and 2+hrs later Anne Blanchard and myself completed the a K2 marathon time trial in the allotted time earning us a slot on the US Marathon team. The team will be heading to Crestuma, Portugal for the 2009 Marathon Canoe/Kayak World Championships Sept 17-18.
Our time trial was done on a 6 lap 4.3km course with 6 150m portages through a picnic area, when I designed the said course this picnic area was people and pet free this was not the case on the beautiful sunny Sunday on which the race was completed.
The first lap and portage went off with out a hitch our boat speed was awesome and it felt effortless, the start of lap two was still feeling good, as we rounded the buoy to head in to the portage a second time I saw a few people gathered by the water with 2dogs "no big deal I thought when they see us coming they will move, or at least not throw the ball it to the water for the dogs to chase right?" no such luck. We shouted excuse me, excuse me, followed by a short explanation of what we were doing and that we would be back around. Ok that should cover it, we hopped back into the K2 and brought the boat up to speed setting out for the rest of the lap, a boat full of fishermen cheered us on and a loan kayaker or two looked at us slightly confused as we passed bye for the second time, wasnt one lap enough?
On to lap three and the 3rd portage, it seemed as if the crowed on shore had grown and it also appeared from a distance that several more dogs and a few small humans commonly referred to as toddlers were amoung the group hanging out at our put in and take out, "ok" I thought "they should move a little they know whats going on now" oh no was I mistaken. As we rounded the buoy a humanoid threw a ball into the water directly at us, the shore surged as 4 dogs lept into motion to follow the ball, converging on our location..... A few hard strokes a quick turn of the rudder and a brace brought us safely around the dogs and in striking distance of the toddlers, in the end all were safely avoided and the portage completed this little dance remained the norm for the rest of the time trial it seems that repetition did not help these souls figure out that we would be back. In the end all was well we made time standard, no one was injured and a new level of team work emerged for Anne and I.
We both look foreward to many more marathons together and a great showing at Worlds!