Road Trip

I have been on the road for the past few weeks. Hayley and I did an awesome tour of the country, a full circle never driving the same road twice. So I had the opportunity train in some of the most picturesque venues in the country. The dam in the pic above is high in the mountains of the Cedarberg, definitely one of my favorite spots! Its always cool to be able to drink the water you are paddling on.

Things are going really fast with with the whole move to Cape Town, but at the same time a lot of exciting things have happened. I have been put on to SASCOC's Operation Excellence program, physio Julia has been accepted for her masters in sports science under Prof. Tim Noakes (she will be doing the research on Shaun and me) and I have begun my first 10 week training cycle under Dr. Ross and Prof. Tim.

Return to the Blue Lagoon

While in Durban I am training on a piece of water known as Blue Lagoon. It is where the Umgeni River meets the Indian Ocean, awesome place. Over the past two weeks Durban has experienced a huge amount of rain and the lagoon is now the furtherest thing from blue. The high water has just made me realize how badly we are treating our water systems, by the time KZN's source of drinking water reaches the ocean its literally an open sewer. I have my suspicions that factories along the banks of the river take advantage of the high water and release there waste directly into the river because they know it's almost impossible to pin point where it comes from. On Friday I had to skip a session due to the fact that I did not want to wade through the slimey/oily gelatinous mass that had been deposited all along the banks of the river as well as paddle through oil, litter and hyacinth that is thriving on the CO2 rich polluted water. I checked out the E coli levels in the river last week before the river even filled and they were sitting at 2300 colonies per 100ml almost 20 times higher than safe. (Water is considered safe to swim in at a max of 130 colonies per 100ml.) I am affected by water systems everyday and this has made me very aware of the problems surrounding our most precious resource, we need to do something.

Soccer Fever!

With 2010 just round the corner SA's gone soccer mad. I was fortunate enough to watch the Durban World Cup stadium opener with my wife on Sunday. The game was a bit disappointing with Ama Zulu losing 1-0 but the stadium is really awesome and if the vibe at the game is anything to go by the world cup is going to be mind blowing especially when the let the other 50 000 fans in. I vote keep the vuvuzela!

Christmas has come early

Shaun and my new NELO K2 has just arrived in the country from Portugal. This the only view I've had of it but it looks really cool, I'm going to have to wait another month before i get to paddle it. Hopefully I'll be fast enough by then!

I learnt a really cool fact from our Physio Julia this morning. You know the feeling of being completely broken after running/cycling/paddling for a good number of hours and you still have an hour to go to the finish? At this point you usually pull out a GU or something similar and are provided with renewed energy immediately? I just found out how it is that you get this energy even though there's no chance that anything has even been absorbed. It's all in the taste, that flavor of high concentration of glucose in you mouth causes your brain to tell your muscles they can work as hard as they want cause it knows that its only a matter of time before energy reserves are replenished (In simple terms). Its all about creating favorable conditions! There are so many tricks but unfortunately I'll only be able to share them after the Olympics.

Cape Town

I have just finished my 1st training camp of the season. 2 weeks in Cape Town. I spent the time paddling on Marina Da Gama, swimming and doing gym at the Sports Science Institute of South Africa. I even managed to fit in a cross country skiing session. The training venues look really good and the team of professionals we'll be working with next year are world class, I really believe we are giving ourselves the best possible training opportunity for the next few years. Our team is made up of:

Shaun and I (Athletes)

Marcus (coach)

Julia(manager/physio)

Ross Tucker (Strategist/Sports Science)

Tim Noakes (mastermind)

Dr. Jeroen Swart (Exercise Physiologist)

Dr. Clinton Gähwiler (Psychologist)

Shelly Meltze (Nutritionist)

Johann Pretorius (Strength & Conditioning)

It was definitely the busiest training camp i have been on but the venue we stayed at just seemed to help ease the stress, our rooms were literally 5m from the waters edge. It is awesome to be back in Durban with my wife, catching up with friends...

New Blades

Back in training and have to say that it's rather awesome! I’ve just finished my first week of specialized 200m training; it is great to be back on the water and I’m loving the fact that this seasons base training phase does not include much swimming. I woke this morning to the exciting news that CSA has increased my residential allowance by 100% this is a definite training motivator and I am very grateful for the support. I have finally decided on my paddle for the next 3 years and thanks to my wife it’s definitely the coolest looking on earth right now, ‘put your orders in fast to avoid the Christmas rush!’

Out and About

Just been relaxing catching up on work and enjoying all the free time that comes with not having to train 5 hrs a day. I still can't seem to keep myself out of a boat though. Took physio Julia's kayak for a bit of a spin yesterday, lots of fun, have to say I was pretty impressed by the way Julia handled being worked by the four foot surf.

There's No Place Like Home!

It is great to be back home with my wife. I have the added bonus of being off rigid training for the next month or so. Hayley and I spent the weekend up in Underberg, (sharp contrast from the green of Canada) it was awesome. My next few weeks will be spent sorting out all the admin and planning for next season. Shaun and I are looking at moving down to Cape Town to work closely with SSISA (Sports Science Institute of South Africa). It is also rather important for us to spend time in the K2 together, this past season we only managed to spend 7 weeks in the boat together which was not ideal. I am really looking forward to this next seasons specific 200m training. A whole lot is going to change in our sport and we are going to have to do a whole lot to change with it.

World Champs Final Day

6^th fastest boat in the world! We have exactly three years left till our London 2012 race and it is awesome to know that we are on the right track. Looking forward we are only 3 places away from a potential medal. It’s so exciting to race at the top level of any sport. How often does one get to line up against 4 Olympic champions (Beijing ’08), 7 World Champions, and 2 World Champs silver medalists all trying their utmost to beat you, and all of this in front of a massive crowd?

World Champs Day 3

How awesome, my first world champs A-Final. We had a really good afteroon getting a second in our heat and then third in the quickist semi of the day. Amazingly blessed to be racing for a medal tomorrow and will take the oppotunity with both hands.

We are 3 years away from London 2012 and tomorrow determines how many places we need to make up in order to be on that big podium. To top off all this excitement I'll soon be on my way home to my gorgeous wife!