Well here I am! In some ways it feels like it is a long time coming. I have been thinking about getting into the blog-sphere for a while now. I was thinking that now would be a interesting time to start. A time when I am going through a transition in life from rowing to not rowing full time. Also, this is a very reflective period in my life. Almost everyday I think of a moment in my training and racing and it becomes a nugget to remember; either an emotion a lesson or simply a fact.
One of the first things that I am doing as a retired rower is looking to learn more about healthy eating and diet. As a full time athlete I ate well, but I didn't confidently know the "why" behind my choices and I am now curious about what small changes and tweaks I could make on how I feel with food and supplements. I have seen many athletes struggle and balloon after coming off their athletic career and I would like to avoid that speed hump completely (if you know what I mean).
I am not doing this alone. I have reached out and I am getting some solid advice and guidance from a professional friend here in Vancouver. We hope to learn and grow as a power team of knowledge and experience and my testimonial will be your reason to give him a call as well. His latest blog speaks to the idea of change.
http://www.swimupstreamlife.com/2012/09/change.html?utm_source=feedburner&ut
My nugget of last night was about the "comfort zone". Especially, while I was training in the last 2 years I was out of my comfort zone probably 85% (maybe more) of the time. This then became my NEW comfort zone. I really believe that this period of time was when I made the biggest gains! I think that we, including myself, tend to get attached to our habits and this makes it challenging to make necessary changes. As an adult, you can say " I have figured out what works for me" or " you can't teach and old dog new tricks" to ward off the challenge to change. These are (in my opinion and from what I learned about myself when I was getting pushed to make change) a classic defence mechanism that are a hidden display of fear. Change and risk, albeit ever so slight, is scary. Like Richard said though: why not?! At the LTC one of our many mottos was always to try new things that might make us faster or better or stronger and not be afraid of change. If we didn't like the result, we could scrap it and there would be no loss from trying and crossing it off the list. We believed we were turning over rocks to find inches of boat run. I truly believe that mentality was one of the many keys to our success. So why don't we all go and turn over some rocks and look underneath! You never know what we might find!
One of the first things that I am doing as a retired rower is looking to learn more about healthy eating and diet. As a full time athlete I ate well, but I didn't confidently know the "why" behind my choices and I am now curious about what small changes and tweaks I could make on how I feel with food and supplements. I have seen many athletes struggle and balloon after coming off their athletic career and I would like to avoid that speed hump completely (if you know what I mean).
I am not doing this alone. I have reached out and I am getting some solid advice and guidance from a professional friend here in Vancouver. We hope to learn and grow as a power team of knowledge and experience and my testimonial will be your reason to give him a call as well. His latest blog speaks to the idea of change.
http://www.swimupstreamlife.com/2012/09/change.html?utm_source=feedburner&ut
My nugget of last night was about the "comfort zone". Especially, while I was training in the last 2 years I was out of my comfort zone probably 85% (maybe more) of the time. This then became my NEW comfort zone. I really believe that this period of time was when I made the biggest gains! I think that we, including myself, tend to get attached to our habits and this makes it challenging to make necessary changes. As an adult, you can say " I have figured out what works for me" or " you can't teach and old dog new tricks" to ward off the challenge to change. These are (in my opinion and from what I learned about myself when I was getting pushed to make change) a classic defence mechanism that are a hidden display of fear. Change and risk, albeit ever so slight, is scary. Like Richard said though: why not?! At the LTC one of our many mottos was always to try new things that might make us faster or better or stronger and not be afraid of change. If we didn't like the result, we could scrap it and there would be no loss from trying and crossing it off the list. We believed we were turning over rocks to find inches of boat run. I truly believe that mentality was one of the many keys to our success. So why don't we all go and turn over some rocks and look underneath! You never know what we might find!
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