What's been going on lately

My training activity has been light in recent weeks, and as a result the blogging here has been light as well.  I apologize to anybody who's been looking in vain here for new thoughts from me.

Since my last race in mid-October, I've been paddling twice a week, usually with Joe on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Typically we do a lap of the harbor (paddling easy, it takes us 70 to 80 minutes) and talk about every topic under the sun.  In terms of training value, I look at these sessions as a way to maintain muscle memory and practice stroke technique while giving my body a break from the intensity of being in race form.

For the last three weeks I've been doing four simple core exercises three times a week.  Two of them can be found in this video featuring Chinese slalom racer Jing Jing Li that I've shared here many times in the past.  Another one is an exercise I learned years ago at a slalom training camp where U.S. world champion and Olympian Rebecca Giddens shared some yoga-inspired exercises she'd been doing.  The fourth is a static position I think most people can visualize.

Specifically, my exercise routine is as follows:

1.  Static exercise shown at 1:03 of the Jing Jing Li video.

2.  A plank exercise that involved lying face-down on the floor and lifting the head and the legs in a "Superman" pose.  This is the exercise I learned from Rebecca Giddens.  I hold the position for 20 seconds, then rest for 20 seconds, and so on until I've done a set of five.

3.  Exercise shown at 2:55 of the Jing Jing Li video.  This exercise always hurts bad the first time and leaves me wicked sore for several days, so I always ease into it.  When I first did it several weeks ago I did sets of ten reps; since then I have worked up to 20 reps in a set.

4.  An exercise where I hang from my gymnast's rings and raise my legs up to horizontal in front of me (i.e., my body is in an "L" shape).  Each time I count "One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, Three Mississippi" and so on until I reach Twenty, and I do this two twice per set.



So, there you go.  This is how I'm spending my break from training this offseason.  Some of the aches and pains I was dealing with in the late summer have had a chance to subside while I carry on a minimum level of stuff in and out of the boat.  I'll probably continue this laid-back routine until after Christmas, and then I'll start putting on a more serious face for the 2016 season.