Monday, June 29, 2009

Adventures Abound!

Yesterday Tyler and I drove up to Long Beach. On the way back to San Diego, we stopped to see our friend Thure, who is great for a lot of reasons, including the fruit orchard in his backyard!! Grapefruits, apricots, apples, avacados, persimmons, plums, and pears! I was so enamored by these fruit trees because all I've ever really seen in New York is apples and grapes. And now I have a bag of fresh apricots to eat!!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Saturday Night

I am so happy to be back in California! We just finished a killer week (weak?) of training. Getting back into the swing of things caused aches and pains, fatigue, and an unbelievable level of sore-ness... the kind you only feel, like, once a year. But we got through it, as we always do, and now the training week is over.

I am now sitting cross-legged on my bed in front of my open window, eating 4 different kinds of vegetables, and feeling just as content as can be. It was cloudy and cool today and we have tomorrow off.

America, after a long hiatus, is wonderful.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Just when I thought my globe-trotting had gone without a hitch....

I sat down on the plane from O'hare to San Diego, seated in the second-to-last row in the middle seat next to a large woman. We departed from the gate but the plane failed the safety check, and we wheeled back in to the gate for the maintenance crews to check it out.

I love that safe feeling you get when the fix-it man comes to put your airplane back together.

It was during this two hours of sitting in my seat in the stationary plane that I realized the strange whining, snorting, high-pitched squealing noise was coming not from a baby seated nearby.... but from the tiny lap dog stuffed into the bag which was at the feet of the large woman seated next to me. She unzipped the bag and the dog started sneezing and snot-ing all over my leg. It was then that I learned that the dog's name was "Boo Boo," and that its owner- this woman- was harboring particular concerns that the dog couldn't last this long without going to the bathroom again.

Remember, this was before the plane even got off the ground... before the four-hour, very turbulent flight on which that little monster cried, barked, wailed, squeaked, squealed, and generally broadcasted its gross, pathetic existence to the entire population of the airplane.

Disgusting.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Bra Cam!

So I have this camera from the awesome guys at GOPRO. I use it on my kayak, and it works great. But today I wanted to get some video from the 10k course at Mendon (one of my favorite runs.) GoPRo makes a couple different mounts, including a chest harness-type strap, but I didn't have one with me, and I don't know if I'd have wanted to run with that anyway because it was hot outside and I was only wearing a sports bra.

The solution??? BRA CAM!! I invented this all myself. All it took was an old bra and a pair of scissors. Works like a charm, and now I have all this interesting, exciting footage of me running the MPP 10k with ski poles!!!!


Thursday, June 11, 2009

Fem's Rules for Forest Running

No watches... run until you want to stop. Then stop.
No music! Love the trees and their lovely noisy leaves.
No heart-rate monitors or GPS of any kind. Go hard when you feel good. Go easy when you feel tired.

Nature has no intervals, perceived rates of exertion, pump up music, or sports drinks. These things do not belong here. Seize the opportunity for simplicity. Enjoy the forest.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Home!

I am spending this week at home with my family! This is a precious five days away from kayaking... but that doesn't mean time away from training. I am doing plenty of canoeing, trail running, and pull-ups. It's wonderful; I always feel so invigorated here in Fairport [Rochester], the place I love the most. I also love my mom's healthy cooking, the copious amounts of fruit and vegetables we have in the house, and my dad's pickup truck in which I get to drive around town. Tehe!!

Sunday, June 7, 2009

World Cup Tour in Review

At the last world cup in Szeged, Mickle and I failed to make it out of the semifinal of the k2 500. Our k4 was knocked out in the semifinal as well, giving all 4 of us girls top 20 [ish] results. These are glaringly and unapologetically not the top 12 results that we were looking for from this World Cup Tour. We're all feeling very disappointed. It's one thing to have one bad race. It's another to have good races... and be consistently in the bottom half.

We raced our hearts out. We are not fast enough. Now we go home.

But the bright side to disappointing results is the confidence in your ability to make them your lowest ever. Your springboard to greatness! The foundation of your Fortress!! Inspiration! Motivation! Desire!

My task: Identify the lessons learned; use as building blocks for my Fortress.
The goal: Never again earn results as low as these.

Simple! Beautiful. The next time I race internationally, I will be faster than I am today.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

In Szeged

We arrived in Szeged, Hungary late this morning after a vigorous night of travel. The third and final world cup of the year begins on Friday. Race website is here. I am racing the k4 500m, the k4 200m, and the k2 500m!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Laundry Ingenuity, by Emily and Emily

Not wanting to bring any dirty clothes with us on our last leg of the trip, Mickle and I did laundry yesterday. Laundry costs 5 zlotys (almost $2), so we got our money's worth by stuffing the machines full. They don't have dryers in Europe, so you have to line- dry everything: energy efficient, but not time-efficient. As we only have 30 hours until departure for Hungary, we devised a drying strategy: 40+ feet of rope strung up in a 5-part clothes-line. We used garden wire, 2 paddling resistors with tennis balls removed, 2 bungees, Mickle's paddling case, a chair, two open drawers, one paddle precariously balanced on the television, and two pieces of duct tape. We used force vectors to get the line to stay up.







Now there are lines full of clothes criss-crossed over the entire room. You have to go spleunking to get through... kind of like mission impossible.

When laundry calls, the Emilys answer.