05/01 A New Year

This is the first post of this 2012 year so happy new year!

While training had been going on pretty well over the last  few weeks, I came upon a road block in my winter training path. While attending a party on new year's eve, a fight broke out and I was hit in the face for being there at the wrong place and at the wrong time, but no worries, besides a little soreness I am alright. Because of an investigation, I had to take a day off to speak with a detective and then my lady treated me a day at Islands of Adventure as my Christmas present. With a two day break from any type cardio, I felt worthless. In other words, not productive. Before this small break, I had been doing a lot of running and cycling, but also added swimming as I joined my lifeguard friends at the pool for some laps on a cold evening. With the time off, I got to thinking that I was doing enough cardio but that the power on the erg hadn't felt right, meaning I haven't been putting enough kilometers on it. So this morning I got up and went for an easy 20mins on the ergo to stretch out and get the muscles moving. Later on, I set myself up for 40mins and got some sweat out. Finally a good pain. Tomorrow should be even better as I will be able to get my body adjusted by a good chiropractor, he knows his shit.

In other news, I had stopped publicizing the growth of my moustache and its surrounding areas because it seemed to had just gone on strike, but now it's looking even better. Knowing that I have a little over a week left of having this magnificent beast on my face, it is nice but sad also since work will start right back up. Who knows I might give up the money...

In all reality, break is now coming to an end and school is commencing once again. With a loaded scholastic and rowing schedule, the blood will be pumping on and off the water this semester. I believe that this break has been a very productive and successful training wise (it could have been better) and will set me up right for what is about to come. Hopefully everyone did their homework too. 

Heading back to Jax on Sunday.

Cheers!

23/12

It is now about the half way point of this break. Training is going pretty well especially the last two days which included a solo 9 mile run and a few hours at the gym hitting the ergo and the weights. In the next few days I will be working less on weights and more on core and endurance. That is the secret to coming back for school training. Besides that, there are only 2 days left until Christmas so hopefully that will make us all more fruitful and the moustache is still growing but at a slower rate. I hope it won't be a disappointment!

Enjoy your family and friends when you can and keep smiling because you have it good.

Merry Christmas!!!

19/12

As the days until Christmas decrease in size, the laziness and moustache increase. Every year it's the same scenario, we all get excited to go on break so we can relax and work super duper hard because we want to come back better, but let's be real, does that ever happen? You start out great for the first few days and then you want to go out, eat a bunch of crap, or go on a random adventure that will most likely get in the way of your training. "Dude, you always have tomorrow to train. You're fine!" is the usual response from your friends when you tell them that you should get 1 hour of erging in. This has somewhat hit me since I've been home, but not too badly.

I was speaking with an old friend from the SA team earlier this morning just catching up, and he reminded me that an athlete with as much experience and intensive training should be logging 160km no matter what and that doing what was asked of me would put me in the right spot. I guess you always need certain reminders to keep you on track.

After figuring out and actually getting presents and cards for Christmas, I'll be mounting the bike at the gym for a 60min spin class to get the legs going after a lazy Sunday. To follow, a semi-long jog to get the endurance working a little harder.

This weekend wasn't as lazy as I mentioned it to be. We headed down to the Canal (C54, a small race course) for the 2nd Annual Christmas Regatta to spend the morning with the current members, rowers and parents, of the Melbourne High School Rowing Team. Every year, I recognize less faces, but see ones that I have forgotten. After a few hours or food and discussion, some boats went out and raced 500m. We finalized the event with an alumni race which included many different years of Mel-Hi's rowing history and kick their asses. It was a lot of fun and I'm hoping to see a lot more alumni next year.

To finish off, it has now been 1 week and 2 days of growing. The hair is looking pretty good and I'm hoping to watch it flourish even more.