Catch-up post

Ok, yeh,yeh, I know I've been slack with the blog. I've been so busy (and not at home) that I've let it slide. Anyway, the thought of doing several posts to catch up was not appealing, so I've decided to do one post to cover the last 2 weeks.

Saturday 4th April
With a very kindly borrowed Flash from Jack (for me), Carol in my Mirage, Jack and Jen in a borrowed Supersonic, Anton in his own Mirage, and briefly Mal in a K1, we headed off from Davistown to paddle in Brisbane Waters. As it was a day before the end of Daylight Savings, our 5:30am wake up was in the dark and 7am on the water start was at sunrise. It was beautiful. As this was Carol's first paddle in 15 years we did a cruisy pace and it was lovely just enjoying the scenery, until the storm came across. The last half hour was tough, but all in all it was a lovely paddle.

Running
I've been very slowly getting back into running again after my back injury. I've done a couple of 10-15 minute runs (with 5 min warm-up and cool-down). It still feels very hard and I'm hanging out to start feeling like I did before the injury. It's such a bummer to go back to feeling like this again and having to work my way up again.

Kayaking at Penrith
Whilst staying down in Sydney I took the Van Dusen to my old training home at Penrith. I was too nervous to go too far up the river (due to a lack of re-entry points), but I felt MUCH better. There were some other paddlers there too, and they commented that I looked VERY comfortable, so that was reassuring.

Australian Canoe Polo Championships
Whilst still down in Sydney I went along to have a look at the Australian Canoe Polo Championships at the Whitewater Centre at Penrith. It was soooo interesting. I've always wanted to see a game of that level. The paddlers are incredible. They are so talented, versatile and skilled. It is a brutal game and it just blows me away how good these guys were.

Kayaking back on the Central Coast
I met up with Mark late one afternoon/night for a quick paddle and to give him back his Van Dusen (he needed it for a race). I paddled the VD and he paddled the club K1 and as soon as we started I felt like I was so unfit. He was having no trouble keeping up with me and I was puffing the whole way. However, when we met up with Greg up at the lake and he paddled back with us, he was finding it challenging to keep up with us in his TK1, so that made me feel better. Once back at the put-in spot (and in the dark) I asked Mark about how fast he thought we were going. His comment was that he was "having a go". Thank goodness...I thought I was just paddling really bad.

Saturday 18th April
Went for a paddle with Anton in the afternoon. I'd been having stomach cramps (and other gut related issues) since Friday and was feeling a bit nauseous, but thought I'd be alright. Bad move. I felt really crap the whole way. Paddling the club K1 was NOT fun and I felt so slow. Luckily (for me) Anton was unwell too, so we both felt like crap together. We ended up paddling alright, but it didn't feel alright.

Today
So after a couple of days recovering from whatever I had, I'm now feeling like I can start training again this week. Tonight is the information session for the World Masters Games and I'm looking forward to this. I'm sure I'll know most of it, but it's nice to go along and maybe respark the motivation.

Ok...now I'm all back and up to date. Look forward to more regular blog entries now. :)