So what's next?

Holy crap our dream came true!! Now what?
(Photo: Rafael Veve)

So, we're back from Hong Kong, our dream of becoming world champions firmly realized. What's next? Sitting on our laurels reveling in the bliss of it and cashing in on our fame and fortune? HELL NO. ('Cause there actually isn't a whole lot of fame and certainly no fortune!) We're back to the grind, hitting the gym and the water with gusto - more so than ever perhaps. We have Canadian Nationals coming up this weekend, and are paddling on TWO teams - our beloved womens and a new mixed team, which is super exciting. It's a whole different vibe, which brings with it new challenges, opportunities and, yes, even new dreams. Dreams which include paddling for Team USA in Hungary next year. So it's time to buckle down and form a new strategy. One which includes regular OC1 time, because team selections are based heavily on time trials in an OC1... which becomes a bit of a challenge when you don't have a (or access to) an OC1. Looks like we're gonna have to find ourselves a couple in order to train ourselves for this element of our journey - but that's no easy feat when they run close to $4k a-piece! Who knew this sport was gonna be so expensive? Urgh. Bake sale anyone?

That aside, it's time to get back to training. So yesterday G and I hit the gym for our first time together since we got back. And right away things went back to their usual hilarious stupidity. 

"OK, bench press is next. So for 12 reps...how much weight do you want?"

"Well, I want 50% of my body weight. So that's....???" G calculated in her head, her mouth turning up at the corners along with her eyebrows as she pondered the problem. "OK, well, let's round up to 80. And for you.... 90."

Should be simple enough, right?

I put two 25lb plates on. G looks at me like I am completely retarded.

"Umm... that's 95. Not 80."

"Oh. Duh. Well, it seems so puny. OK, so what do you want?" I take them off, and add two 10lb plates to each side instead. G goes over to the bar, touches it, then points to each plate ... 

"45, 55, 65, 75, 85.. no, still too much."

"Glargh!" OK off with two of the 10lb-ers and on with 5lb-ers instead. 

"OK, let me see here,"G's brow is furrowed in concentration again. "45, 55, 65, 70, 75. Now it's not enough. And she adds two more 5lb-ers. "No wait, that's not right either is it?" Duh, now we're back to 85. Different plate combinations, same frigging result. Of course by now we're cracking up so much our faces are red and our eyes are little slits with tears starting to squeeze through. 

"OK, little ones!" We take off the two 5lb-ers and replace them with two 2.5lb-ers. 

"45, 55, 65, 70, 75, and five... yeah, 80!" Hooray, only took us ten minutes to figure it all out. She pushes her 12 reps and then it's my turn. Mindlessly I pick up two 2.5lb-ers and them on. She looks at the bar, ponders, looks at me, looks at the bar again.

"Yeah... no... yeah... oh, no! That's only 85." Well shit already! Off come the little plates and on with two 5lb-ers. "Yeah, ten pounds. Right?" And we go through the whole calculation again. 

"45, 55, 65...."

We might be World Champions but we're still total crap at addition and subtraction! I hope nobody was looking!