Last workout of 2010...

New Year's Eve and we're heading to the gym with focus, determination and renewed zeal. Yesterday we made a mid-week trek to the north to get some training tips on the Concept 2 and then submitted to a brutal but oh-so-fabulous circuit that left us half-dead. It was one of those experiences where you look back and think, wow, that was SO worth the trip! And what a way to end the year - never did we think we'd be this far along in our dragon boat goals so soon...and sometimes we truly have to pinch ourselves. Happy New Year - may it bring  all much peace, prosperity, health and happiness.

Week 11 on tap

First day back at the gym yesterday and it felt like we'd been gone forever! (The way my body feels this morning just cements that notion even further.) We, completely coincidentally, wore matching shirts and black bottoms... which prompted several curious glances and comments. "Are you two on a weightlifting team?" was my favorite. Hee. So we took a moment (within our 90" of rest of course) to talk about this dragon boat adventure we're on :) Dorky as it may seem, we might plan matching outfits again sometime :)

There is a downside to all this exercise...

... just one teensy little one. My arms no longer fit into any of my shirts!! If I liked shopping that wouldn't be such a problem, but I don't. And then there's the issue of this gorgeous leather jacket i treated myself to last year... I can get it on but I sure as heck can't move in the thing. Sigh.

Skip a week and jump to 8

Not sure what happened.. but time flew by and we are now midway thru week 8! Or maybe we were just numb from the pain and it took all our energy just to function semi-normally! Which might explain why our first set at the gym today seemed crazy long. I would say it was on my 8th rep of the lat pull down that i realized I had managed to combine two different programs into one monster one. Oops! But hey, what's a little extra pain when you're going for a gold medal on a world stage? Pish!

Week 6

Halfway through week six... not sure what happened but after today we're both about as useful as bowls of jiggly jello. I could barely get my bra off and thought i might end up showering with the sucker... and G, though she apparently managed to get herself naked had trouble getting clean undergarments back on! And when i tried to unscrew a nice new cabernet bottle... lord almighty i almost had to walk over to my neighbor's and ask for help! Mad crazy. Gotta say... it's like we're on drugs... we want more more more!

Week five - DONE

Happy to see this one go.... got out of bed (well, crawled more like) this morning absolutely thrilled at the prospect of tomorrow being completely, totally, exercise FREE. The massive headache (umm well maybe it was a wee bit of a hangover) did not help... and the prospect of driving up to Montreal for two hours of delicious torture was not quite as appealing as usual.... but we went, we pushed ourselves and exceeded all expectations (as in not throwing up was quite an accomplishment to be sure!). Hour pool paddle followed by a killer circuit, a 150-rep ab thing, plus a "race" on the erg. About all I can accomplish tonight is nothing. Followed by a bit more nothing and then bed.

Have to admit that this week's gym funny was at G's expense again (getting to be a bit of a pattern... heh heh). Long story short...saw a friend, did a little more chatting than spotting while G was on the bench press.. didn't quite notice she was having trouble with her last rep... and suffice it to say her boobies ended up a leeetle bit sore and squished. Whoops! I guess whatever punishment she metes out to me this week will be wholly deserved. Sigh. 

Coach A

Our awesome first international coach and supporter... he's the one who's been pushing and encouraging us this last year. There've definitely been times we've wanted to stuff him into a machine or two, but we wouldn't be where we are without him (even though he is a Duke fan). He wanted a page on here all to himself but I've got work to do and besides, can't let his head get any bigger... he'd look really weird.

Our little marathoner

No it's not chocolate... it's a REAL medal silly :)

This is what 11 hours of sleep looks like

ING New York City Marathon - one amazing insane latina, with close to 45,000 other runners...and a time of 5:32:01. Awesome!

First Fitness Test.... check!

Yesterday was our first team fitness test. As we neared Montreal our stomachs started churning faster and faster... we were so unsure of what to expect. Thankfully it wasn't nearly so scary as we imagined. The test consisted of a weigh-in, followed by chin-ups, lactic bench press (45lbs) and 500m on the erg. Each exercise had a max time limit of 2 minutes, with a 2 minute rest in between. Happy to say that G & I did pretty dang well, even though we underestimated ourselves on the chinups and used a hefty resistance band to assist. We've been training on the chin-up machine at the gym... but after seeing our teammates use the bands it became clear that the machine forces us to use a whole different muscle set and does not allow for any swing or similar momentum. Since it was our first time using the bands, and we didn't want to totally embarass ourselves (or repeat G's earlier  foiled attempt which ended very much like she was a deer strung up in a tree, much to my intial amusement until i realized she wasn't actually kidding, despite the fits of giggles, and did need my help getting disentangled) we went with the biggest ones. On the bench press I think we both started too fast out of the gate and fizzled out as we got into the second minute. The moral of the story: go with lighter bands and do a better job of pacing ourselves on the bench press... but hey, live and learn right?

Anyway.. our scores/times? The weight part we'll keep to ourselves thank-you-very-much. But chinups/bench-press/erg are as follows. G - 7/51/1:56. L - 12/52/1:43 (the fastest time and a new team record apparently.. holy shit, yahoo!). It was awesome to see everyone give their all, not to mention the encouragement and support everyone gave and received. It's so amazing to be part of this team - and we were definitely inspired to reach higher. Some of these ladies are SIZZLIN'! We're super super thrilled at how we did and are totally energized to hit Week 5 with renewed purpose and a notch more intensity.

all this work...

...and working out is making us hungry. On any given day, at any given time, we could eat a cow... each!

(un) dear erg... i seriously hate you

as much as you can hate an inanimate object, i hate the rowing machine. Almost as much as my ex-husband. But as in that case, my conflict with and how i approach the damn thing are making me stronger and more powerful :) Heh. G is in NYC today - ran a nice easy 5M this morning and Sunday is the BIG 26.2!! I can't even imagine the scene... 45,000 runners..? Getting to the start line in Burlington's 8,000 was a feat in itself. But this many? Must be awesome. Good luck G!

Shoulders on F.I.R.E!

Took coach's words to heart and upped the weights. Lots of shoulder work today... last reps were a struggle.. definitely feeling it all like mad. Advil, big stretch session, hot shower, good supper... and a glass of cabernet of course!

Week 3!

Our choice of name is more appropriate than we could have imagined. Because with all this working out we are CONSTANTLY STARVING! It's terrible... i just hope we don't eat back more than we expend.

Gym sessions are funny. Yesterday I tried bench pressing way more than I should have.. and ended up having to screech at G to get the bar up and out of my hands. Of course she didn't believe me and so we both ended up in fits of giggles. Then I wasn't paying attention and gave her a bar with more weight on one end than the other...more fits of giggles when we realized what the heck was going on. The chin-up machine is pretty funny too. Not as funny as when G got stuck in the rubber band... but close! And of course what makes us laugh even more is that everyone else in the gym is so serious.. not that we're not focused too.. but oh it can be SO entertaining.

Yeah, we are loving this stuff. The sweat, the work, the pain.. the long hot showers after a killer workout.  Tomorrow I think we may jump in the hot tub or sauna after... mmmm....

[p.s. Almer - your voice is with us every time we're in the gym (tho it'd be better to have you yelling at us in person of course)... and THANK GOODNESS you taught us how to use all those machines!]

Week 2

2010 20K Challenge - what a day!

We're into week 2 with a vengeance. Already we hate the erg though.... we bitch and moan the whole workout. But we're sticking to the plan no matter what... despite complaining the entire time we make it through to the end and feel all the better for it. It's great to be able to do two workouts a week at home (rather than go to the gym 6 days a week) so we'll take it. I've dragged mine into the kitchen and the living room now, trying to find a place where i can have the most entertainment. G & I were throwing around the idea that we'll load them both into our trucks and go workout in a field or something. Heh heh. Hey actually, that's not all THAT bad an idea... hmmm.....

First day at the gym together

Yesterday we went to the gym together to do our Wednesday resistance program. It was so amazing to be back in they gym with a partner who is working toward the same ultimate goal. The only bad part was we really suck at chin-ups. REALLY suck. Hopefully with a little practice and determination we'll get to the point where we can actually do a couple!

Week 1

Got our training guide ... there are approximately 90 weeks until Hong Kong 2012. The 2 years have been split into phases, so this first phase is approximately 48 weeks. This is week 1. G & I will have to start getting together at the gym here 3 times a week, and then in Montreal on Saturday mornings. Today's workout was all resistance training... bench presses, curls, rows, planks and a little ab work. Tomorrow, the erg. Wednesday more resistance. Thurs we'll have to improvise a circuit as we can't be with the team up north. And Friday is more erg time. Plus: we have "at-home homework"... 20 chin-ups apiece. Eeeek!

Winter training schedule has been set!

Beginning 10/23, our Saturday mornings will consist of going north for an hour of paddling followed by an hour gym circuit... it's gonna be awesome. During the week we'll be working out together in the gym at home. Our first training as a duo will be next Tuesday. We have to get ready for our first fitness test in less than a month! AAA!!

It all started with an itty bitty 20KM dragon boat race...

2 hungry dragons determined to become world champs!

We started paddling in 2006, but it was the summer of 2008 that we REALLY decided this dragon boat thing was pretty awesome... and found out that there was this whole big world of it we hadn't imagined even existed. We threw together a team of misfits and entered our first ever 20km race... ("who knows what will happen but hey, it sounds like crazy fun!")... and realized... THIS is what we wanted to do for the rest of forever.

We didn't do spectacularly well in the race - unless you count the fact that we a) finished and b) didn't come dead last. It inspired us to get fitter, lose a little more weight, and see what else we could accomplish. We've run road races together in sun, rain and snow, tried the Sugarbush Winter Games (err.. nuts!), and just had a lot of fun in the process. Now, 2 years later, we're hungry for more more more, we're training our butts off and traveling to Montreal (that's where the action is!) on a weekly basis, and have set our sights on 3 world championships: 2011 in Tampa; 2012 in Hong Kong, and 2014 in Italy. The road ahead promises tears, laughter, sore muscles, frustration, anger, joy and a whole lot of paddling. The journey starts today.