Fall has finally hit the Pacific Northwest. It smells like Fall (since I moved back from Hong Kong last year, smells are a big deal to me -- you can only take so many years of smelling concrete and garbage, and Oregon has some of the best smells in the world -- guarantee it).
Wasabi Burn (the premier mixed team) got back on the water last night after about 12 days off. The weird thing about the sport of dragon boating is that even after a two week break, each movement felt labored, strange and odd. And this was a sentiment shared by several others on the boat, including those who made the Team USA this year, as well as those who raced San Diego last weekend. We paddlers spend so much time on the water because there is so much that is muscle memory. During a race, when we are digging our deepest and there could be numerous distractions -- being 2 feet from a boat, trying to retake a lead, pushing yourself past your limits of exhaustion -- muscle memory will allow our bodies to perform and apply as much power as possible.
Last Thursday, I went out with the outrigger paddlers (an aside: when dragon boaters are introduced to an established OC team, there is a chuckle that rises up. Why is that? Is it that we're not supposed to be able to handle long distance regimen? I just didn't get that). It was a good run. And I used to OC in Asia, with the South China Sea Outrigger Club, for quite a long time, so I'm used to it. One of the main reasons I paddle is for the thrill of racing, but we just didn't train for races when we OC'd. We would just go out. For months. So, it lost its luster.
However, the thing that is glaringly clear when attending dragon boat races, is that the outrigger teams are not just better, but dominant. In Portand, Kai Ikaika is THE team to beat. In the Portland race in 2009, Burn lost to Kai by 'only' a boat length, and we considered it an enourmous victory (but this was compounded by beating the Portland Fire Dragons convincingly after they took us in Tacoma in May). Lanakila kicked in San Diego, both days. (I should qualify this: their open team for the 250m won by 3.19 seconds -- a drubbing, but their mixed team, which also utilized 4 strong Wasabi women, beat LARD by only fifteen hundredths of a second.)
With this in mind, but also taking into consideration that I may just need to change things up on the water, I'm going to really give OCing a try this winter. The change will be nice, of course, but I don't want to slide too far back in my fitness because I want to try out for World's next year. Time trialing is seriously my drug. My carrot.
So, my question for you all, is how are you attacking this off season? What do you want to accomplish? What are you doing as a team? Individually?
For example, I started off last week thinking that I could just run all winter. Training for the Portland Marathon last year, I dropped quite a bit of weight, but that included a loss in muscle mass as well - I didn't lift, I only ran and did leg and core exercises. Then, as things would have it, I had a calf injury, so it's back to lifting. Then my left elbow burstitis started acting up. So then it's..... what do I do next??
So what are you all doing?
No comments:
Post a Comment