2 Ways to Supercharge Your Fitness This Weekend

Malians at the 2015 Summer Splash in Montreal

Local to Burlington, VT? In a fitness rut? Sick of just [insert activity here] day in day out?

Or maybe you're training hard but without any great purpose... in which case, try these two things:

1. Come down to the Burlington Waterfront on Saturday, August 29 between the hours of 9am and 12 noon. Put yourself through one of Malia Racing's classic fitness evaluations and see how you stack up! Top men's and women's results will get a free month of training and paddling with the crew!
2. Join one of the Malia practices Monday and Wednesday nights. We launch at 6:00pm from the Lake Champlain Community Sailing Center. If you've never tried dragon boat before, you'll be in for a treat (not to mention a full body workout that will test both your cardio endurance and muscle strength)!

That's it - simple really. Come down and try this dragon boat thing before the season ends and we're forced indoors! (More info: maliaracing.com)

How to make your dreams come true in 10 easy steps

Well.... Ok, maybe not exactly easy, but I will let you be the judge.

Step 1 - Buy an old house and fall head over heels with it

Step 2 - Chuck existing, fairly lucrative and way too safe career, move to VT and enter graduate school in order to learn how to care for said old house properly

Step 3 - Join local fire department dragon boat team on a lark to raise money for charity but mostly for an excuse to have rowdy, splashy fun

Step 4 - Meet your future BFF and long-lost twin (pay no mind that she's darker, shorter and speaks with an accent quite unlike yours, she's definitely kin)

Step 5 - Get told "who are we kidding, you're not an athlete" but join elite dragon boat club with your new BFF anyway, and cross a border 2-3 times a week to do it because you can

Step 6 - Suffer through bikram yoga to train for competition in Hong Kong; make up a new on-your-butt steering style to make sure you don't flip boat in one of busiest harbors in the world; and manage to win world championships with 22 now-sisters-for-life

Step 7 - Ignore naysayers who try to squish your big ideas and start your own dragon boat club with BFF, with huge support from those who truly matter

Step 8 - Earn a spot on Team USA dragon boat team and represent your country (along with BFF no less!!)

Step 9 - Marry your (former) coach and personal trainer

Step 10 - Put in for a shot at coaching a national team - and GET IT. Actually, you get TWO teams. And the best part. WITH YOUR BFF!!

And there you have it. All you have to do is buy an old house.

Ok, so there are a few things I left out but the bottom line is, this week G and I learned that we were selected to coach two USA national teams: the U24 Open (men 18-24) and the U24 Women (women 18-24). We are thrilled, honored, excited, humbled, crazy excited, breathless, happy, super excited and just... WOW. Words cannot express how we are feeling right now. Here we are, as unlikely two friends as ever there could be, who met by chance by a fence in a field by a dilapidated old building (hmm... I'm beginning to sense a theme here), who fell in love with a sport they had never even known existed, who followed their hearts, who learned and watched and soaked up every little thing they could, who paddled and trained and coached and paddled more and trained harder and just went for it. That's the lesson here. You gotta go for it. But if you want to buy and love and care for an old house I highly encourage that too. Because old houses are just as awesome as dragon boats.

A New Era Has Begun

2013 is drawing to a close - and what a year it has been! This was the year we not only realized our ultimate dream - but realized it several years sooner than we had ever expected, or even dared to imagine.

G & L at opening ceremonies in Szeged, Hungary this past summer.

1. We each qualified for the USA National Dragon Boat Team - G in Senior A women's division, L in Premier Women's and Premier Mixed divisions.

2. We wore the Team USA uniform in Hungary and netted four glorious medals. EACH.

3. We started our own competitive dragon boat racing club (www.maliaracing.com)

4. We took a ragtag bunch of complete novices (sprinkled with a few dormant and even some not-so-new) paddlers and guided them to glory (first season on the water and we medal in a tough division).

Also - two things that weren't part of the plan but came about in amazing and wonderful ways anyway: 

L got married (to her and G's first Montreal and fellow Malia coach/co-founder - such a reach this sport has on people's lives!) - G now has to share L a little bit ;-)

and

G discovered a new passion and fierce talent for drumming and leading group exercise.

SO what's next?

1. We're presently working hard working Malia members SUPER hard and recruiting new members to complete our men's (premier), women's (premier) and Grand Dragons (50+) mixed teams. (Know anyone or want to join? Let us know!!)

2. We're also working hard back at the gym ourselves, trying to make sure we're on the roster for Club Crew Championships in Ravenna Italy with our Montreal team (roster will be announced in February).

And the rest of the plan .... we'll leave for another day. This is PLENTY to focus on for now!

A dream come true: representing our country at world championships!

We MADE it. Vermont girls who went off to train in Canada in order to make Team USA. The gamble paid off (if those smiles are any indication at all)... here we are at opening ceremonies at the World Nations Dragon Boat Championships in Szeged, Hungary earlier this summer. 

This has been such an exciting summer... it's been a whirlwind of activity: so much so that I've been unable to keep up! In my last post we'd just made the national team... and here we are in the thick of autumn already - the boats are out of the water, paddles have been put away, and flip-flops have been traded for sneakers as we begin our season of intense indoor training.  Over the next few weeks,  I'll be chipping away at getting caught up! 

How to render a border guard speechless

So I'm crossing the border, alone for once, and roll up to be greeted by a tall, young, fresh-faced guy. I've only seen him once before, but I'm apparently quite familiar to him.

"Dragon boating again?"
"Yes sir!"
"Are you going to end up in the Olympics or what?"
"Hell yeah! My team won at worlds last year and I just made the US National Team!"
"Get OUUUUUUUTTTT!.... I was just kidding. For real?? Seriously?"
"Yeah! Why else would I do this back and forth shit so much? Oops, sorry..."
"Oh that's fine, I say shit all the time."
[chuckling]
"REALLY?" he continues. "National team?"
"Yup. We're competing in Hungary next month."
"Wow."

And thus, suitably impressed and enlightened that this is not just a cute little hobby but a kickass, serious sport, he gave me a big smile and wave and sent me on my way. I should have tried to recruit him for our club. Next time I'll have my poster and "come try dragonboating" flyers ready.. (I wonder if there are any laws against trying to solicit government personnel ... )

OC Training - Hungry Dragons style!

So, we have this incredible friend who let us use her OC1 to train on. She lives a little off the beaten path, so her crazy-amazing-inventor husband rigged up their golf cart with a hitch, crafted a trailer, and devised the most fun way in the world to move the thing around.

Here are G and I coming back from our first session with this whole getup. Not sure what we enjoyed the most... the paddling or the zipping around with the cart!

Made the cut for TEAM USA!

OMG so much has been happening!! So, we trained like mad, went to Tampa to check out and paddle with members of past USA national teams and other hopefuls like ourselves, then had our own crew's training camp in Myrtle Beach, then trained some more back in Montreal... and then did qualifying time trials on an OC1 (outrigger canoe) to see if any of it had paid off. 

IT HAD.

We BOTH made the cut for Team USA.

I was in the garden, doing a bit of weeding and whatnot, when my teenager ran out of the house yelling.

"Mommmm!! Aunty G is on the phone. She's crying. I think something's wrong!"

I bolted out of the bushes and grabbed the phone with my grubby, dirt-caked hands. G was SOBBING uncontrollably.

"Breathe, woman, I can't understand a word you're saying!" I said. "WTF is going on?"

"Did.. you.. sniff.. get.. sniff... an email... hic hic sniff...?"

"No, I'm in the garden.. what happened.."

"OMG L... I made it. I made T-sniff-E-sniff-A-sniff-M USA!" (more wailing and sniffing)

"HOLY SHIT, we just tested yesterday!"

We hung up, I checked my messages, and called her back.

"MEEEE TOOOOO!! And apparently I need to go to freakin' Philly and retest because my time was close to what they're looking for for Premier. Double Holy Shit!"

Blah blah blah, lots of yelling, sniffing, choking, laughing, disbelief, etc. Hard to believe that when we first decided to set out on this journey we were told not to kid ourselves, that we weren't athletes. Just goes to show - if you believe in something, and want it bad enough, you can DO ANYTHING.

But you can't do it alone. Look what a couple of our biggest supporters did for us! Flowers, hair pieces, a paper towel banner, flags to wave and guide us all up their driveway... you'd think we brokered world peace or something. So awesome to have people behind us and to share each accomplishment with us :)

L & G's amazing adventure is about to pick up speed

Serious Speed.

But more about that later.

This week we decided to have fun. All week long. Coach A gave me a cool new book of exercises and I've been making up our weight routines. Our bodies hurt in a whole new dimension!! And we're having a blast. And to cap it all off - today our friend Adam was in the gym at the same time, and put us through some incredible ab work to finish off our workout. That was awesome.

Life is sooooo good.

How to do assisted pullups properly

In this month's program, we have, surprise surprise, pullups. No matter how many of them you do, they're still hard and not much fun. Luckily, coach said we can use assistance to get back up this week. So we decided on this method. Efficient (both of us in one shot) and damn cool to boot! Bet no one else has a super-awesome-strong gym friend like us :)

Less than 2 weeks to another fit test

We've got another fit test on the horizon, and then training camp, and we've been working our you-know-what's off to be ready.

So this morning when I saw this cartoon as I was trying to motivate myself to ignore my throbbing head and instead get it together and go train, I was instantly reminded why we do what we do :)

Off to the gym I go then!

best border crossing ever

Ok so maybe it's just the best one of 2013 - so far. But it was hilarious nonetheless.

I drive up to the booth. New (to me) guy greets me and we go through the preliminaries.

"Where are you going?"
"Home, to Burlington."
"Where are you coming from?"
"Montreal."
"What were you doing there?"
"Dragon boat training."

He does a visible double take, turns to look at me closely, eyebrows raised.
"Dragon boat? Do you ever sink?"
"No!" I say, adding a little indignance (and maybe just a tad of "you idiot") to my tone. I'm about to tell him I paddle with a world championship team thank you very much, when he cuts in.
"No? Aren't they made of cardboard?"
"Cardboard? No way!" I don't know who is more surprised at this point - him or me.
"Ok, well what IS a dragon boat then?" Keep it simple girl.
"A 40-foot, fiberglass war canoe."
"OH COOL! I thought they were made of cardboard."

There's a first for everything right?

Missing my twin :(

G is in sunny Miami (while I am stuck in this stupid deep freeze in VT) to run her annual half in the marathon.... And I am a wreck without my bff, training partner, sister, twin. Weird. Is it a full moon or something? Good luck G!!!!!! I know you can beat your previous time and then some, you little rhino!

Our debut appearance on TV!

Psyched to share this fun piece with you highlighting our amazing journey, our awesome sport and our beloved team... check it out, we're featured just a few minutes in. Thank you Vermont Public Television!!

Watch Episode 3 on PBS. See more from Out & About.

What do we have in common with The Biggest Loser?

Bob's workout!! For a little variety we decided to model our circuit on Bob Harper's deck of cards workout this week. My daughter M joined us. Halfway through as we were sweating hard we all thought "shit, if 400lb people can get through this without dying so can we." And we did. Then for good measure we did it again!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Well we worked hard in 2012 and rewarded ourselves with a good party New Year's eve. We gathered at G's, flashing 2013 glasses and hats and noisemakers - the whole nine yards. R rewarded all our work with a big bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label - which we polished off very happily. It was an event planned to the last detail. G's mom made a big steaming pot of that Latin classic, Sancocho and I was charged with dessert.

"Make flan," A said.
"Yeah riiiight," quipped I. "I'm going to make flan for the Puerto Ricans. That's suicide!!"

So I texted G.
What do you want for dessert?
Flan.
You're as crazy as A! You're gonna rip me apart!
And make it properly. With condensed milk and everything.
Fine. You're on.

And on she was. I laughed in the face of danger (her AND her mother) and went for it. A, bless his heart, helped.

Our first crack at caramelizing the sugar was a bust. The recipe I found called for regular white sugar. Well, that liquified, then solidified and turned back into sugar again. And stayed bright white. BUST.

yay, success!

"Try brown sugar" he said, citing a Filipino recipe. So after wiping up the mess, we tried again - with the brown. We'd figured out the ideal temperature to simmer it at by this time, and it worked beautifully.

I mixed up some condensed milk, eggs, vanilla and a few other secret things, and poured it into a pie plate, on top of the waiting caramelized sugar. Just to make sure i didn't create some awful tasting disaster, I made extra in a few custard cups. Into a pan of water and into the oven the entire thing went - with a small prayer to the kitchen goddess that my oven would actually burn at the temperature it was supposed to.

40 minutes later - out it came, looking fabulous. And it tasted pretty good too. I sent a picture to G.

OMG. OMG. OMG you dared and it looks AMAZING. I am glad M is not coming. I am going to eat her piece.

Of course I decided I needed to bring it on a fancy platter - which was too big and caused the thing to slide all over the place. But A, balancing it on his knees the whole ride over, took it all in his regular, relaxed stride. Me on the other hand, had tasted so much sugary gooey-ness in the making of this masterpiece that I had a fashion/body meltdown and went on a closet rampage minutes before we had to leave. I'm very thankful nobody trussed me up and threw me INTO the closet. Boy was I ugly there for a moment.

Anyway, I found an outfit, fixed my hair, breathed in and out a few times. We all got into the car and headed over to G's.

yup, she ate it all. with a big-a** spoon

She dove into it the minute we stepped inside. Her mom too. Great - I didn't even get to have a first drink to settle my nerves.

"OMG, that's so good," was G's verdict.
It was her mom's opinion I was afraid of though. I barely dared look her in the eye as she went in for a taste. She took her time. She swirled it around, then swallowed, then opened her mouth to speak. I was a nervous wreck (thank goodness for the nice big glass of Blue Label right now).

"It's good!" Phew. "A little too much.." oh crap, what!? What!? "vanilla. But otherwise very good."

Quick as a flash, A came to my rescue.
"It's Filipino leche flan, that's why there's vanilla." Dude, I can't wait to marry this man. I fair fell on the floor with relief and gratitude.

"Ah, Filipino flan..." mom muttered. And that was that, vanilla explained. (For the record, I didn't think there WAS all that heady a vanilla-ing, but what do I know, I've never made this stuff before nor do I eat it on a regular basis. In fact, I think I've had it twice in my still young life.)

Tastes completed, we danced, ate the sancocho, digested a few seconds and dished up proper servings of flan. And then waited for the glittery ball to drop and announce 2013. Toot toot!

How to survive a fitness test

New season, new attitude. Tomorrow we are going into the first fit test of our new season confident, calm and ready. We are not stressing about any of the numbers (scale, bench weight, chinups, erg time, etc). We're  just gonna go in, do our job, and get out. It's about winning the mental game now.

(We'll see how that works out. Stay tuned!)

Also we found the light switch for the sauna. No more scaring little children with our nudity!

While some trained, others ate

We skipped our Montreal weekly session tonight, and feasted instead. Sometimes family, friends and laughs are exactly what a body needs...especially right before the first fit test of the season. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Training hard without breaking

The regulars at the gym have been taking notice of our workouts of late. 

"Wow, you girls are really hitting it hard lately!"

"I love to see you two in here lifting every day."

"So I hear you had a really great summer. What's next?"

Ahhh...  I could fall asleep in here
(not recommended!)

What's next indeed? Hopefully representing the USA in Hungary come summer that's what. And making sure we hold onto our spots with our Montreal team - because nothing is a given. Five new girls are trying out - and coach is going to be making some cuts in the next few weeks already. Why? There's no way to keep 28-30 of us on the roster: we don't all fit in the paddling tank and we have to switch out constantly - which makes it tough when coach is trying to put us through an endurance, multiple-set workout. Don't get me wrong - we manage, but it's not ideal. For us or for our coach. Neither do we fit into our circuit room. Especially when we're benching with regulation-size bars. One of those in the thigh or head is not pleasant! And when you're doubled over in pain trying to suck in all the air you can - but it's all sweaty, hot, polluted air.. well, you tend to keel over ;-)

So anyway, back to the story. We've upped our game already, this early in winter training - simply because we have to. We have to hold onto our seats. We have our first fit test Thanksgiving weekend. We are going to be competing against women from across the country for the US national team next spring. And after a really welcome almost 2-month break (from paddling, not training!) - we're re-energized and ready to go.

We have a new, 2nd assistant coach who is already not hesitating to kick our butts. He did that this morning, and then coach P alleviated all the pain Coach Y inflicted upon us with stretches that made us scream and squeal ... After a hot shower all I wanted was a looong nap. Til at least Tuesday. But I can't, because tomorrow G and I have a date to go get some wet heat therapy... splishy fun in the hot tub followed by languid stretching in the sauna. Heaven! And not just fun - but important. So we can keep coming back and working hard... [and getting noticed.. yeah, we sorta dig that :) ]

We're Back and We're Naked

Big workout today. MONSTER. So big in fact that a gentleman who'd been valiantly working away on an elliptical machine for an interminable time before he decided to go hit something heavyish came up to us as we were axe-chopping our way through a stack of weights on the cable machine.

"Man, I can't wait to do shoulder exercises like you."
Hmm...okay....
"I saw you hitting it hard over there.."
"Yeah," I laughed, "today's a big shoulder day!"
 "I had rotator cuff surgery six weeks ago, and one pound hurts like mad."
Aaaah.... the post injury workout attempt. I understand that one. It sucks.

Interesting mix of folks in there with us today. An especially memorable pair were two 20-something  hot tamales, in full make-up and pricey-looking outfits. I think they worked out their mouths and eyes more than any other parts of their bodies - though I did see them do two gym-lengths of walking squats with a 5lb dumbell in each hand. Afterward they plopped on the mat and "stretched." Chuckling, we left them there to their social event. They reminded me of me, twenty years ago, when all I had at home were 2lb, 5lb and 8lb pretty pink dumbbells and I thought my Billy Blanks Tae Bo VHS set was badass. Is it wrong to channel an old Virginia Slims ad? Ah to hell with it - WE'VE COME A LOOOOOOONG WAY BABY!

Anyway...spent, we hit the sauna. Naked of course. We laid towels down to protect our cheeks and plopped our bums down on the top bench. G looked right, I looked left, our eyes connected and.... we dissolved into fits of giggles.

"Here we go again.. we're back! Winter training has begun."
"Did you even SEE the summer? It was like zoom zoom zoom HONG KONG zoom zoom zoom END OF SEASON."
"Yeah, I have no idea where it went. It just whizzed right on by."
"Yup we're back. And we're naked."
"Hey G.. could you build a sauna please? So we can enjoy this with our men?"
She squinted at me. "So you can hang it out with my husband?"

More giggles.

"Oh right, yeah, probably not," I said when I could breathe again.
"Actually, he wouldn't care. He'd be down with it." Hmmm.. would A? I'll have to ask him later.

The sauna door is glass, and looks out onto a hallway that leads to the sinks, toilet stalls, lockers and the pool. It's a heavy traffic area. Right on the inside of the door is a lamp. It has a very bright bulb in it. So bright, that if you are sitting on the top bench inside, which we do, you are illuminated brilliantly and, your nakedness is, shall we say, not hideable. Not that we give an iota. We stopped caring a loooong time ago. So we're hanging out, chatting, laughing, glistening all over as the heat melts away all our aches and tension... and suddenly we see the pretty girls approach the door. And turn abruptly away right before reaching it.

Yet more giggles.

But within 2 minutes they were back, tightly toweled and hiding behind their still-fresh-from-the-laundry sport bras. We did the only thing we could do. Clamped our knees and draped the corners of our towels over the tops of our thighs. Courage summoned, but keeping their eyes averted, pretty girls came in, slunk over to the corner, and carried on the same conversation they'd been having in the weight room. We eavesdropped for a while, trying desperately not to laugh too obviously.

G turned to me, eyes wet with contained tears. "So, L, that pumpkin K carved..."
"What? Is it rotting now?"
"Well yeah, but it was soo funny..." and she collapsed into a fit of giggles. Which was contagious and seeing as i was ready to bust at the seams anyway I joined in. The pumpkin actually wasn't the real joke - because if you've seen it you will see it is the ultimate in coolness.
"I just needed to say something so I could laugh," G mouthed at me. "Yeah pumpkin!" she said louder, and we dissolved into laughter again.

I think they spent about 10 minutes with us in there, consoling themselves about a multitude of inane things, and departed to study and eat. Ha.

We flung off our towels, relaxed our knees, let our shoulders drop a little bit more, and laughed and snorted until we could snort no more.

Yeah. We're back. And we're staying naked!!

Happy Halloween

Monkey Arms and Rhino. Two of our lesser known nicknames... well, G's is pretty well known now, since she officially adopted hers (bestowed upon her by one of our northern pals). The little latina rhino that charges into everything with immense gusto, sometimes without really thinking it through and then having a good laugh about it later.

And monkey arms? Where does that one come from you ask? That one came from Ms. K - her attempt at complimenting me on my sculpted shoulders and arms... I think she was going more for the powerful gorilla visual but instead the first image I got was of a spindly lemur leaping about tree to tree vine to vine stopping every once in a while to delicately peel a banana and stuff its sweet little cheeks. Still, it stuck, and that's pretty much that.

All the same, I think it's damn awesome. Especially when you consider K carved us into this jack-o-lantern for all eternity. Ok well maybe just a week or two - the poor thing is already starting to rot and cave a little... but the image, memory and wonder of it will last much much longer. Some people have bobblehead dolls. Or lunch boxes. Or hand towels. We got the coolest, one-of-a-kind, hand-crafted, tribute ever. Love it.

First fit test is coming up in less than a month. Crap. Guess I better put that candy BACK in the jar and walk away. Fast. Straight to the gym.