Return of the Wanna-Be Paddleboarder

This picture is of Greg "Suggs" Miller, my real surfer/paddleboarder friend who is gracious enough to let me, the wanna-be, tag along and paddle around on his 9:Fish 12-footer. He looks a lot better at this point than I do with my newbie stance.

Greg and I traded-off every 30 minutes, so I spent a little more time on the board this time. I thought I was doing a good job using my abs to generate most of the strength until my arms fatigued during my last lap and I ended up taking the plunge in the C & O Canal pond. I always did want to take a swim there, but doing so at it's currently low levels due to a breech in one of the locks isn't exactly what I had in mind.

I must have been doing something right, though, because I woke up today with a sore middle back and saw that my abs and obliques were a little more defined (here comes the six-pack!). This week the goal will be to strengthen my paddling muscles even more: dumbbell curls for my biceps, rear-delt pulls for my shoulders, and something to strengthen my forearm grip. There's hope for me yet!

Parunuweap - Training Time

I'm officially six weeks from the big backpacking trip in Parunuweap, Utah, and it's time to get this booty in shape!

I had LASIK surgery 4 weeks ago today and patiently, diligently, obediently, painstakingly (do you get the picture?) followed doctors orders and laid low for 3 weeks. Combine that respite with the 3 weeks prior when my running/volleyball playing was derailed by the broken pinkie toe, and you've got 6 weeks worth of mental case trainer on your hands. I would have had a relapse were it not for the gentle support of my own clients. Thanks for the TLC, everyone.

Call it a good rest, but it's over now and I'm ready to get back to business. My day was packed today, but I managed to squeeze in a few intense 30 minute bouts. What can be accomplished in 30 minutes, you ask? Plenty, if you do it right. This morning: some fast-paced walking followed by three different shoulder stabilizing exercises. Tonight: isometric quad stabilization, hip range of motion in all four planes, and my personal favorite, the medicine ball matrix.

Here's how you do a matrix of your own: take your favorite medicine ball - mine is a blue 6 pounder - and perform each exercise 12-15 times, to the beat of one rep per second. Catch your breath and do it again. And again. Here you go:

1. Squat with Overhead Press. Sit back into a squat with the ball at your chest and push the ball overhead as you stand up.
   
2. Chops with Rotating Reach. Holding the ball, reach for your left ankle, bending at the knees. Stand up and rotate, pushing the ball overhead and to your right.
   
3. Forward Lunge with a Windup. Step forward with your right leg and drop into a deep lunge, knees and ankles bent to 90 degrees, with the ball at your chest. As you stand up, bring the ball over your left shoulder. Switch legs and repeat.
   
4. Reverse Lunge with a Whip. Step backward with your left leg and drop into a deep lunge, knees and ankles bent to 90 degrees, bringing the ball behind your right shoulder. As you stand up bring the ball forward to your chest. Switch legs and repeat.

Alright, one workout down, only 36 more to go!

Urban Gardening

My friends are always asking how an adventurous westerner like me can stand living in such an urban, geographically flat, and might I add green, city like D.C.
Well, there are a lot of ways to cope, one of which is the urban garden plot I share with two of my fitness clients. My name was on a seemingly endless wait list to acquire my own plot, when, lucky me, Fritz and Kathlene told me they would be traveling this summer and needed some help in their Rock Creek Park garden.
I spend a lot of time puttering around, getting my hands dirty, picking basil and arugula. I even found some new, exciting trails to run nearby.
Who says D.C. isn't wild? I've seen foxes, deer, and shoot, some type of vermin actually ate my radishes by burrowing under them!
What makes the garden even more fun is being able to share it with the inner-city youth group that I work with. This week 12 year olds Chineyere and Jessica helped me water and harvest, and even learned about composting. The reward for their labor was a delicious, organic, home-grown meal that they prepared themselves.

Olympic Hopefuls

Did you see Olympic swimmer Dara Torres in the June 29 New York Times Magazine? If that picture doesn’t inspire you to make fitness your lifestyle, I don’t know what will. She looks incredible! The athlete in all of us has visualized an Olympic moment of some sort: the rush of the competition; the glory of the medal platform; the national pride.

I checked off one of my life list goals in 2002 when I attended the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Olympics, but the closest I’ll come to being in the Olympics happened last week, on a visit to Secretary Mike Leavitt’s office at the U.S. Health and Human Services. Leavitt was governor of Utah in 2002, and had an actual torch in his office. He was kind enough to let me borrow it for this picture. Now, if only I looked like Dara!

Dreaming of Dynamite

I couldn't fall asleep last night. I was too busy thinking about the logjam in Parunuweap, Utah, where I'm taking adventurous outdoor clients backpacking in August. The logjam had grown by at least 4 feet between my May and August, 2007 trips, forming a waterfall out of what used to be a simple rock chute dropping into a deep pool of water. Who knows how big the logjam is now, after the countless number of weather alert texts I've received in the past 4 months from weather.com, tipping me off to the probability of a flash flood in the Virgin River.
I remembered how we used to get rid of invasive beaver dams when I was a biologist - DYNAMITE! Someone should just blow that thing up.
I lost all interest in counting sheep at that point. The visual of what just one stick would do was fixed in my minds eye. One blast would dislodge those massive tree anchors, break up the cemented sand, and send the smaller debris drifting downstream. We would slide happily and easily down the little rock chute into a refreshing pool of teal green; nobody would be afraid, there would be no obstacle to overcome...
WAIT. Why did I choose Parunuweap? Isn't the whole idea to test myself, to expose others to fitness challenges that make their heart pound, focus dial-in and spirits soar? My own heart was beating faster just thinking about it. Besides, logjams and flash floods are the forces that formed this narrow slot canyon. Consider it a work in progress, a canyon in the making.
Alright, I thought, forget the dynamite. I'll settle for a 100 year flood event instead. That should do the trick. Finally, a visual to put me to sleep!