Am I ever horrible at keeping up with this Blog of mine.
But between working, going to school, and training, it does't leave much time in a day for a guy to update! I am going to be able to keep updating in Charlotte while I am gone and then once exams are done I'll be back at this.
Well the things that are newest in my life is the trip to San Marcos Texas. What a trip that was! It was a busy 10 days. With packing 23 sessions into 8 days of training it turned out to be a long week and making me happy to come home.
The course in Texas was a sweet spot for getting my sea legs back under me and trying out the new speed and fitness I have acquired from all the hard work I have been putting in in the passed few months.
A big thanks to Ben Kvanli for letting us crash at his club house that was a 5 minute paddle downstream from the course. This made it an optimal place to live!
Here is a link to the camp video that I made! http://vimeo.com/38119083
A big thanks to Sages mom, Stephanie Viselli, for taking all of the awesome pictures throughout the trip.
With a smooth and easy flight home from Texas, I cam back to the real world with working hard in school, in the gym, and on the erg. Despite the weather Mike and I were still able to squeeze in a couple whitewater sessions. He even paddled with me TWICE in one day. That's right folks, twice. I think he was probably pretty sore as he was working pretty hard to ensure his victory on each short course. I have might have won once but I can't quite remember.
The majority of my training in Calgary since the middle of February has been just Mike and I as Paul, Haley and Jessica (Check out Jessica's website here http://jessicagroeneveld.ca/) were training in Brazil to compete for Canada's olympic spots in London. It was a heart breaking weekend, watching my team mates, who I have witnessed work so hard come up just short. Granted, Jessica had come down with a stomach bug. I still look up to her as an athlete with the amount of hard work she has put in, I only hope I can match what she has accomplished in her years of dedicated training.
Don't worry though! We secured our k1 mens spot thanks to David Ford. Paul had a touch on his last run that put him out of first place, but thanks to David we were still able to take the spot.
The next big weekend for Canada is in approximately 4 weeks which is Olympic/Senior/U23 team selections in Charlotte, North Carolina. With this being my first trip to Charlotte, I find myself working harder then ever with the knowledge that it will be the most challenging course I have ever paddled on.
My goals for the race are of course to make the u23 team and compete in Wausau, Wisconsin for the Junior and u23 world championships. But beyond result goals, I want to try and replicate the feeling I had at last years team selections. After each race, I felt good about the race I had raced. I left everything on the course and was able to produced runs that I was satisfied with. In order to do that I just need to keep the pressure off and not worry about what everyone else is doing and worry about myself. Which is going to be impossible since it is Olympic team trials and I am more concerned about my team mates then myself.
But nevertheless I will do my best to worry about me.
Well, that is whats new with me. I am going to do my best with keeping this up to date so that no one loses track of me!
Staying off the radar has been a tough go, but I'm almost at summer vacation, then it's time for some fun filled racing! Whoop!!!
Hope every one is well
Aj
Photo credit to Stephanie Viselli
