Shifting work for Training

It is official; I have handed in my letter of Resignation to Sooke Chiropractic Center, as of August 20th I will be finished with the commute to Sooke. In addition, I will also be shifting my work schedule at PISE Lifemark Clinic to be able to work around my "new" training schedule. The way it sounds, I will be roughly training with the National Team from 7:30am-9am and 2:30-4pm every day, with some weight training sessions mixed in. (no more 5am wake-ups!) This means that I can squeeze in a few hrs or work 10am-2pm on weekdays. I will re-asses the situation as the time moves along with it.

The Poster

This poster is what I have been looking at for the past 8months... through the dark and stormy winter months when training involves hours upon hours of Erg workouts.

This is an image to the piece of metal that hangs off it. A gracious gift from the hard work.

This was the silver medal I received from the Welland Canal Development Regatta May 28, 2011.

Invitation to the National Team

Last week, I was pleasantly surprised to recieve and email from "Zeus" - the Canadian Olympic Committee's organization network. It requested my personal information including educational history and family names, sport history, favorite quotes, etc... At first glance I thought it was a scam, something looking for my banking information. A few hours later I was still thinking about it while I was at work...something more serious was brooding. Two days later, I had a meeting with Paul Hawksworth, the Rowing Canada Development Coach, and he confirmed my suspicion; due to my results at the Welland Canal Regatta I was invited to compete for the Canadian National Rowing team at the Pan-Am games. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait - is this all true? I had made the Senior National team?
I could not believe my ears... I had a smile from ear to ear. I wanted to just jump up and give Paul a big hug. I maintained my composure and waited until I was within the soundproof area of my car doors before starting the yelling and fist-pumping! I danced the robot with MSTRCRAFT for the entire drive to Georgie's Cafe... serious. All the winter training effort payed off. The first person I called was my Dad, it was a bit hard to hold it in, but I thought he would be a good starting place to tell people the official invitation to the team.

"First ask yourself, what you want; then do what you have to do"

Results Welland May 28

The weekend in Welland turned out to be an eye opening experience. I feel it was a completely successful trip in all possibly ways.

Arriving into Toronto on the always lovely Red-eye flight from Victoria I was able to rent my car and pick up Coach Doug, all in 15minutes. We made a pit stop at Tim Hortons within 20min from Pearson International and were on the road making excellent time. Staying in the Niagara College dorms it was re-living college years, with my 64 yr old coach. The difference was that he was the one drinking all the booze...

Time trial Sat. AM I was third overall (that's including heavyweights) and 2nd lightweight. Semifinal heats were later Sat. afternoon and I ended up 3rd and continuing on to the "A" finals. In the Sunday morning finals I weighted in and was .4kg over... Another jog and pushups with all my clothes on. I passed with 73.96kg! .04 to spare.

The finals was a very close race and at 1000m to go I was just inches ahead in first place. Everyone had a strong push and I ended up 4th overall and 2nd Lightweight.

I was extremely happy with the results. I would like to have been first but another very quick lightweight, Travis King, was there to slide in ahead of me by just under 3 seconds.

This is all in hope to make the 2011 Senior National Team Canada for the Pan Am Games.