the sticky stuff

Last night, I recruited my siblings to patch my C1. We used an epoxy putty to fill the many gaps between the hull and the deck. We also used globs of it to attach a new grab loop to the stern to make my boat race legal. The process was simple: mix the two compounds together and it will cure in 60 minutes. You are supposed to wet your fingers before kneeding it, which works quite well. The moment your fingers start to dry you are suddenly holding a seriously sticky mess. Doing anything with my siblings is guaranteed to involve some goofy fun. My sister happily exclaimed, it's like "playdough for adults!" Except the toxic bit, of course.



The big white patches don't make the already beat-up boat look any nicer -- but if it no longer leaks, I will be one happy girl. We also tried to move the seat forward in my kayak. This is long overdue; in videos of my first races my bow bobs up out of the water. But in the end, it was too complicated -- corroded and inaccessible bolts, in a system not meant to be altered. This project may take some penetrating fluid and a power drill later on.

Today I head up to run the St. Louis river and check out the race site!

opening doors, connecting dots

many REI stores use ice axes, encased in clear plastic, as door handles

This weekend was a conference with the leadership teams from all of the Midwest district stores, making sure everyone is on the same page with the new training programs we are rolling out.

Once again, I am so glad I decided to continue to work for REI. My new position has thrust me behind the scenes of the company, and I am getting a whirlwind education on how a large business is managed - from the buyers, to merchandising, to product assortment, and the gear & apparel testing labs. Perhaps most importantly, I am getting to watch and participate in the self-assessment process of a rapidly growing company -- what are our values? ok, what practices do those values translate to? how can our growth strengthen our commitment to our values? The training programs I will be facilitating in St. Louis are part of the answer to that question: we invest in our people.

If my passion boils up with challenge, it's overflowing now. I've been handed some pretty big responsibility, we've identified some large goals, and my notebook for brainstorming ideas is completely full. I can't wait to actually see these training programs live & breathe in St. Louis.

Press release on 2006 growth
More about REI

Going up?

While I had a very productive weekend at work, staying in a hotel and being out of town killed my routine. Besides a short run tonight, I haven't trained at all for about 4 days. That doesn't feel very good.

Riding in the hotel elevator last night, I was struck by a thought. I am not very good at self-discipline. It has always been a weak point for me. But I have been a very productive person in my life... so how does that work?

I do possess a lot of passion - it flows easily and quickly for me, bubbles up forcefully whenever I meet a challenge. Over the years, I have become very effective at leveraging my passion - whether for work, school, or sport - as a tool to combat any lapse in self-discipline. Passion keeps me focused and committed; it provides the drive to get through the tedious, boring parts. And it works quite well.

But, I think if I want to really achieve all that I am capable of (I'm thinking about paddling right now, but I'm sure this applies to anything) I need to get better at the self-discipline part. Passion is incredible, and perhaps harder to cultivate, but passion alone ain't going to cut it if I am going to reach my goals.

to the left, to the left

photo from mnorri.

I figured something out!

In track cycling, you are supposed to just keep turning left. It's joked about on bumper stickers and in friendly advice. No brakes & left left left. But in slalom kayaking, turning repeatedly to the left is, well, dumb.

But I seem to do just that on flatwater. My forward stroke pushes my nose a bit left, and my crossbow strokes don't do much to straighten me out.

When I do my off-side forward strokes, I am less stable than on my on-side. To compensate, I end up transferring weight to my left knee rather than keeping the weight even on both legs. This means I drop my left edge -- of course I am going to carve left!

After I realized this, I tried some off-side strokes focusing on keeping the boat level. Much more control & no more drifting off to the left! I'm also developing the habit of doing a mini j-stroke on each onside -- it is nice to have that control on a lake, but I wonder if it is the best habit for whitewater.

I need to work on separating my edge control from whatever my upper body is doing. Ideally, they can function totally independently. I'm nowhere close to that in a C1 yet.

Looed by the water

It's funny where you find your flow.

I crashed in Iowa last night, just south of Cedar Rapids. I didn't sleep well. My hip was aching from 4 hours sitting in the car. I kept tossing and turning, waking and looking out the window, waiting for the sky to lighten. Finally, at 8 am I got back on the road north.

Then I got lost in Waterloo. Not oh-crap-where-am-I lost, but simply misdirected. As I looped around to get back on the highway, I passed a sign for "public recreation area." This was followed by little icons of a snowmobile, ATV, dirt bike, and someone fishing. Fishing! That means water! Next thing you know I am on a gravel road, passing junk yards on my left and right, in search of any spot to get in my boat.

The pond wasn't much but I was thrilled. The dozen folks out drinking (aka fishing) already eyed my boat with skepticism but nodded back to a pleasant "good morning." The water was bordered by a small dirt levee on one side, apparently separating it from a wastewater treatment facility. But I figured the locals eat the fish so it couldn't be that bad. At least a dozen ATVs and dirt bikes were ripping it in circles around the small park. Good morning, Waterloo.

I felt flexible and powerful in my boat. My sprints were controlled and my hips and shoulders in sync. I just messed around for 30 minutes, but it made my day. That was the best I've felt in my boat in over a week.

Dropped off two slalom boats with Max in Cedar Falls, now there are just three riding above me. Onward!

All Iowa rest stops now have free wireless internet, by the way.

bear paw disaster

The Bear Paw whitewater resort, store & restaurant in northern wisconsin was leveled by a tornado a Thursday night. Everything is gone; thankfully no one was hurt. The buildings are just rubble, and a kayak ended up in a tree. I never made it up there, but I was looking forward to taking a clinic or racing there at somepoint. I hope their insurance is generous and they are able to completely rebuild, if that is what the owners decide to do.

News stories from Google

on the road again

In 595 miles I'll be in the twin cities! I'm looking forward to a productive district meeting for work, and anxious get on some moving water. Age group nationals are coming up in one short week.

Trying to practice in Missouri has been frustrating. The only spot with eddies and wavetrains also has a few healthy clumps of rebar in the water. On sunny afternoons, jet skis blast up and down the Meramec. Last week, I drove out to Creve Coeur, but the lake was closed to the public for dragon boat races. This week, I made the haul again, only to find the lake closed for drag boat races. Seriously. I'm ready for some whitewater again.

gross

Nothing tops off a frustrating workout like finding your can of DAP contact cement has exploded in your truck. When it rains it pours, I guess.

Fortunatly, paddlers don't mind rain so much.

supra... what?

supraspinatus. Sounds pretty cool, huh? Well, guess what – you’ve got two of those little tendons. As do I. And like any cool thing, you’d think I’d take care of them.

But if you know me at all, you're already thinking how notoriously hard I am on my gear. Favorite things don’t get taken care of, they get used hard & regularly until they fall apart. Then I get another one.

But I can’t do that with a tendon.

My right shoulder is protesting today; the joint grinds and pops when I roll my arm around. There is some daily swelling, but I don’t like taking advil each morning. I was told back in 1998 that I might need shoulder surgery if I wanted to keep swimming seriously. At the time, I moved on to other priorities, but now that shoulder-heavy athletics are back in my life, surgery may be back on the table. We'll have to see what my tendons did on their own over the last 8 years.

And then there is my lower half. A knee surgeon and a back surgeon, when asked about my right leg’s circulation issues in my C1, thought I may have inflicted some minor damage to my sciatic nerve. “While the nerve should recover fully, they seemed to think it would take on the order of 3-6 months, and of course they thought you shouldn't spend much time in the slalom boat.” Yeah, right.

I am not going to stop paddling. Even if my bursa sac bursts open, my teres major gets a major tear, and my scapula needs the scalpel. I am going to work with my body to get through this. Which means not ignoring my shoulder pain (the standard practice) but listening to it. Responding to it. And finally using my great health coverage for the first time and seeing a doc & PT.

Another anatomical drawing of a shoulder here
More rotator cuff tendonitis info here