Another Lapse in Time

Well...It's been pretty much a year since I wrote the last post.  I took a great big pause from this because I went down with an injury.  I was dealing with back and hip pain throughout december and January until one day in the gym I couldn't go any further.  I was carried to the Athletic Therapy clinic and was booked for an MRI.  Two weeks later in February of 2013, the results were in.  I had been diagnosed with a bulged disc in the L4-L5 and L5-S1.

This pretty much means that the two lowest vertebrae in the spine had a disc pro laps (the gel between each vertebrae was now sticking out impinging the nerves running along my back.  As well, the found an osteophyte formation along the S1 vertebrae which validated why they thought I may had early onset sciatica.

It was a long summer, one full of lots of sleep, physio and rehab.  It has been one year and I am back in the gym and on the bike.  I have no idea what will happen in the summer but right now getting my Varsity spot that I coveted so much is my goal again.  I've been constantly knocked down but it is how I get back up again that shows myself what I have the potential to do.

Exams again, better get back to it.

2k

I had to pull my 2k (2000m) test today on the erg.  I felt that I was mentally prepared and ready for this thing.  My training started off well going into the offseason but with exams around the corner and getting caught up on school work, I was still erging but not doing it enough.  The test today was probably the worst test I've done.  The first 1250m went exactly as I had envisioned and played out in my head for the last week.  But then disaster struck.  Getting into the last 750m, the lactic acid in my body just built up, and it was literally the hardest I've ever gone on a 2k.  I could barely push my body up and down the slides, it felt like my lungs were slowly coming out of my chest.  Then it was done.  All 6 mins and 39.9 seconds of it.  The same time that I had pulled in August for training camp after driving 10 days across the country to get to Kingston to show off all the hard work I had completed.  Today had felt like a failure.  While there were a few bright spots to the test, it either shows that I am still in the exact same shape as when I started this season, which is not a good sign, or I psyched myself out and pushed my body too hard when it is not ready for it yet.  All in all, it's demoralizing and something I need to figure out if I have any dreams of trying to make a national squad. Something like this will only push me harder, but it is times like this I wish I was still playing Basketball, and perhaps on a Varsity team if I had decided to keep working at that.  Who knows? For now, it's back to studying for exams.

My New Project

I know last time I said I would try to keep this more up to date.  That has not been happening at all.  Truly sorry.  The rowing season is over and now I am trying to get faster on the Erg (rowing machine). I pb'd so I am happy but I'm going to need to do a lot better if I have any shot of trying to get national training camp invites within the next couple of years.  With that being said, I have become involved in a  new program called RISE.  Check it out and like the page, I am pretty much in charge of some of the media.  This program is all about bridging the gap between high level athletes and lower level athlete's. We are sponsored by Athletes Canada and have the support of Football Canada as well.  It show's lots of promise.  The part of the program that I have the most control is the A.S.K - Athlete's Submitting Knowledge.  This is the actual blog where the athlete's post their words of advice and how they go to where they are.  It is really cool and lots of useful information.  That's all for now but please support me in helping this program RISE!

Things Have Changed

To whomever comes across my blog,

It's been some time since my last post.  Last December I believe and tons have changed.  My second year at University went well, I have switched majors, but Rowing has taken an even bigger role in my life.  Winter training didn't go as well as I had liked but progress was made none the less.  I ended up training with Howie Campbell and his UVIC team over the summer at Elk Lake.  His relentless training  has really paid off as I have met my goal and made Varsity crew in the heavyweight men's 4x man boat.  It was crazy to find out, as I have been working hard to meet this goal and to finally achieve it.  Moreover, the National team spent a portion of the finishing up their training at Elk Lake before heading to London, so it was amazing to watch them and makes that national dream seem much closer than ever before.  Will I ever make the national team, it's hard to say but it's with a try.

I am looking forward to this upcoming rowing season.  It will be full of surprises and challenges but it will push me further than I have gone before.  I plan to become on the top guys on the team within the upcoming years.  I am looking forward to becoming an active member of the RISE athlete organization.   Check it out and comment on the previous posts.  Anything you can add can only help future athletes.  That's all for now but I look forward to being more active with this blog

Exams, Victoria, Seattle, Oh My!

Sorry about the delay, its been a while since I last added a post.  Anyways, exams finally finished, and boy was that a stressful month, way too drawn out but hopefully my scores have improved and a got some good grades.  My training hasn't been stellar but I've been putting in work, anything helps.  Victoria is beautiful as usual, and I met with the UVic rowing coach, looks like I may be able to row with them this summer.  It will be intense training, some days will have three workouts and I'll be training with guys better than me, around my age as well.  I'm looking forward to that, but first I have step up the training, follow my offseason eating plan, and improve those RADAR erg scores drastically.  I'm currently in Seattle, and the city is amazing! Such amazing hospitality here, the restaurants Purple and Lola are incredible.  Moreover, Pikes Street Market is amazing, so cool to see the vendors just be in their element.  Anyways, thats all for now.  Just gotta' keep at it.

More Exams!!!

Well,

Two of my toughest exams have come and passed.  Spending about 8 hours in the Library here almost every day.  Just took a couple days off.  Getting to the gym is so hard, every morning so far I have tried to get up at 7 30 to go do some cardio, and it does not happen.  I hit snooze for at least 2 hours straight.  I guess it comes down to motivation and just doing it.  I met with a sports nutritionist today in Kingston, and it went well.  Above average on a lot of the body measurements.  Only negative thing that came out of it was that the idea of me being Celiac may have come back to haunt me.  I originally was thought to have it in Grade 12 but the symptoms weren't consistent.  It looks like now, its back to the drawing board and getting more testing done to prove once and for all.  This could greatly affect my offseason performance and results, so I need to get an appointment for that done.  So excited for exams to be over, and head back out West and continue my training.

Exams and Training...Oil and Milk

I am taking a short study break, only after doing a pathetic 40 minutes of Finance review...all right, more like 30 minutes.  Today and yesterday I have woken up early, 7 45-8ish with the mindset to get some cardio in.  When that dreaded alarm goes off, I hit snooze all the way till 945.  By then its too late, and it's time to go to the library.  This is much harder than I thought it was going to be!  I did weights last night, and went back to the library...IMPOSSIBLE.  I was so tired, all I did was look at my stats textbook and just wish it would teach me everything itself.  If only we could take a usb chip and plug it into our heads.  Meanwhile, I am trying my best to get some sort of workout in everyday, but finding time is hard. I am still learning how to properly master university education, still a lot of skills I need to learn, but its a process and I am slowly getting better.  Anyways, I give credit to all the athletes out there that can juggle sports and achieve +3.3 GPA's, this is going to a be lot harder than I thought