August 07, 2012

London 2012 - The View from Here

When I was Canada's Assistant Chef de Mission for the 2008 Olympic Games, I basically had the run of Beijing. With my "Ac" accreditation, there weren't very many places I couldn't go. I spent most of each day in various sporting venues, cheering on Canadians wherever they were in competition. I think I got to see, in person, 12 of Canada's 18 medal-winning performances.


I'm now in London for the 2012 Olympics, but in a much reduced … or maybe I should say, focussed capacity. This time, I have the privilege of an "IF" accreditation, provided to me by the International Canoe Federation. It actually gives me a very similar level of access -- but only to a single venue. Around London, I'm basically just an Olympic spectator; but at the Canoe Sprint venue at Eton Dorney, I could wander pretty much where I please.


One of the places I have access to is the "Olympic Family" lounge, which is a warm dry room with comfortable seats, where VIPs can get served food, coffee, and other beverages. I always thought that "Olympic Family" in this context is one of the most opaque euphemisms at the Games, since these lounges are in fact quite exclusive -- athletes and their coaches, for example, are not admitted.


The Olympic Family lounge at Eton Dorney is unique in my experience, because it provides a view of the actual competition. In most of the OF (invitation to insert your own acronym definition here) lounges, the sporting competition is visible only on the television, accompanied perhaps by the muted roar of the crowd. At Eton Dorney, however, the OF Lounge has perhaps the best of all views of the race course, offering ground-level picture windows right onto the water. I took this photo of Mark Oldershaw's semifinal through one of the windows.



The crowds for the first two days of racing (preliminary heats) have been fantastic, full, and loud. I am expecting even more noise and more spirit tomorrow. It will be a big day for Canada at Eton Dorney, with two athletes in the Canoe Sprint "A" finals. I'm looking forward to seeing our 2012 Chef de Mission, Mark Tewkesbury, on site. And I'm looking forward to big performances from our team. Go Canada Go!

August 01, 2012

Almost there ...

Back in January, a group of CanoeKayak Canada volunteers and members of the canoeing family committed to Get Excellent in 2012, inspired by our Olympic athletes.

I have not provided regular updates on my exercise program, but it has been even better than I expected. We are now 11 days from the completion of that challenge, and tonight I am heading to London!

From my perspective in front of the television, these have already been a fascinating Games. Those of you who know me will not be surprised to find out that I have some strong opinions about the events so far.

I'll try to provide updates on my perceptions (and a few o those opinions, no doubt) on this blog over the next couple of weeks. And I'll definitely keep up with the daily fitness challenge! For those of you out there who are still committed -- or want to recommit -- let's shoot for something special for workout #224 on August 12!

March 19, 2012

Let's Blog About ... Burpees!

Mixed in with the CKC Excellence 2012 challenge, it seems quite a few members of the paddling community have joined in with the 115 Royal Burpee Challenge, launched by CrossFit to honour Royal Huddleston Burpee and the exercise he made famous.

What? You've never heard of Royal Huddleston Burpee?? Well, neither had I. In fact, I find it delightful that the burpee is named after a person — who knew?

The challenge, in a nutshell, is to execute an arithmetic progression of burpees, to be precise, {1, 2, 3, ..., 114, 115} burpees; with the suggested optimal timing to execute one element in the sequence per calendar day.

In somewhat less mathematical terms …

Athletes from around the world are joining CrossFit Advanced in the 115 Royal Burpee Challenge to honor of the man who made the burpee a household name: Royal Huddleston Burpee. Those who join us in the challenge will start with a single burpee on Feb. 11. On Feb. 12, the second day, we will do two burpees. On Feb. 13, the third day, we will do three burpees. We will continue adding a burpee to our daily workout until June 4, when we will do 115 burpees in honor of what would be Royal H. Burpee’s 115th birthday. Over the course of the challenge, athletes will do a total of 6,670 burpees.

Now, if you don't know what a burpee is … well, then I am not sure how you happened to wander onto this blog! But burpees are a very common dryland training exercise in the canoe-kayak community.

A burpee, which is similar to a squat thrust, is an intense exercise that combines a squat, a push-up and jump.

Here's what that looks like at my house:

OK, seriously, here's a pro from CrossFit showing how it's supposed to be done:

If you want to join the 115 Royal Burpee Challenge, you can sign up for the event on Facebook. It's not too late … the rules of the challenge state that make-up days are allowed:

The burpees can be spread out over the day, but each day’s required burpees must be completed before moving on to the next day. So if an athlete fails to do 10 burpees on Day 10, they must do 10 burpees the following day, plus the 11 burpees owed for that new day.

Since today is day 38, that means you would need to make up … 703 burpees. And then do today's. But on the plus side, the vast majority of the burpees in the challenge are still ahead of you!

Here's the rest of the story on the challenge and the origin of the burpee:

In the 1930s, Royal H. Burpee created a test that used burpees to measure agility and coordination for the U.S. military. The test was included in his book, “Seven Quickly Administered Tests of Physical Activity.”

Burpee (1898-1987), a World War I veteran, served as the overseas program director for the United Service Organization (USO) during World War II. Between the wars, he earned a doctorate in physiology from Columbia University.

A lifelong advocate of physical fitness, Burpee was also the executive director of Bronx-Union Branch of the New York City Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) from 1946 to 1964. He continued to be involved with the Greater New York YMCA until his death in 1987 in Easton, Pa., home of CrossFit Advanced.

While it’s not clear whether Burpee invented the exercise, or just made it famous with his test, the move is still being done today. This June 4 marks Royal H. Burpee’s 115th birthday, and CrossFit Advanced, led by owner Greg Tymon, thought it would be fun to celebrate the day in a unique way.

“The burpee is the king of all exercises,” Tymon said. “It takes coordination. It takes strength. Do more than a handful, and it takes endurance.”

Yet the burpee is also an exercise that does not require special equipment, or even a lot of space, he said. It’s a staple of CrossFit workouts, and is one of the best conditioning exercises around, Tymon said. In addition to CrossFit, burpees are still favorites of football coaches and military trainers everywhere.

…“I like to think if Royal Burpee were alive today, he’d be a fan of CrossFit,” Tymon said. “We certainly are a big fan of his.”

Burpee’s grandson, Royal H. Burpee III, who lives in Easton, will be invited to attend the grand finale of the Royal Burpee Challenge on June 4th.

February 19, 2012

P90X and Hip Replacement Recovery: a Highly Unscientific Study

We just got back from a week's ski vacation in Sunday River, Maine. I took a week's hiatus from P09X, meaning I suspended the program for a week after Sunday's X-Stretch. I counted the day's skiing as a workout from Monday-Friday, did an extra Yoga-X on Saturday after our drive home, and then completed the AMW run tonight before supper. Tomorrow morning I'll start Week 7 of the program, picking up where I left off. I'm looking forward to it!

The week of family skiing was marred by a fairly serious accident, as my mother was injured on the slopes during a lesson on Monday morning. She ended up being evacuated by the ski patrol and taken by ambulance to the hospital in Norway, Maine. She was diagnosed with a broken hip, and on Tuesday morning she had a full hip replacement.

By Tuesday afternoon she was already feeling infinitely better. Thursday she was discharged from the hospital and had dinner with us in our condominium. Friday and Saturday my dad drove her and her newly installed hardware back to Nova Scotia, where she is now recovering at home.

This is somewhat faster than a normal recovery time from a hip replacement. My mother will be 64 in July, and has suffered from aggressive rheumatoid arthritis since she was in her 30s. There is no doubt that both of those factors contributed to the severity of the break. But the doctors agree that what facilitated her recovery was her exceptional fitness. She has remained very active througout her life, in spite of her arthritis, and has spent the last few months doing P90X with my dad in their basement gym. She has much stronger muscles than the average hip replacement patient, and that's allowed her to get back on her feet in record time.

So if you are collecting reasons for keeping up this challenge — and for continuing the committment way beyond these 224 days — you can add that to the list.

Here's hoping that metal joint doesn't slow you down too much, mom!

February 05, 2012

Week Five Recap


The home gym can get a little steamed up on a cold morning.

The CKC New Years Fitness Challenge continues, and we're still going strong. It's not too late to join in! From my perspective, there was a lot to feel good about this week.

Week 5 of P90X brings the return of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, a result of what the creators call "muscle confusion." In essence, the program introduces a whole collection of unfamiliar exercises in week 5. It's not nearly as painful as week one, but it hurts ... "in a good way," as Tony Horton likes to say. Monday was one-arm pushup day. Wednesday was corn-cob pull up day (also known as "pterodactyl day" for those who haven't put Tony on mute just yet). It was the first week I did all the workouts in my home "gym" instead of a hotel, the first week I could more or less match Tony's crew on Ab Ripper X, and the first week I did more than 100 pull ups during the Legs & Back routine. I see from the CKC challenge page that Kim Crumpton is looking for a chin-up challenge … not sure that is a fair fight Kim, but I'll put that marker out there for now :-)

This week also felt like the first week of "real winter" in Nova Scotia. Saturdays are running days for me (I always skip the P90X Kenpo routine) and this weekend we were all in the New Glasgow area for a hockey tournament. I did get out at 7 a.m. for a slow 10k in bitter, snow-covered conditions. I've put the route on the map. By the way, I want to encourage challengers to use the map — especially those of you who don't live in the Halifax area, or those of you who are working out and travelling. Let's represent the geography of CKC's fitness more accurately! If you want to do it but don't know how, leave a comment!

January 27, 2012

Tip of the Day: Engage!

Four weeks into this fitness challenge, I have to agree with Julia: this is starting to feel great!

Like Julia, I haven't found it easy. I've been on 15 airplanes this month. I've done 9 of my 29 workouts while on the road, in two different US states and three different Canadian provinces. I'll add to all of those totals in February, no doubt. But I feel good about the fact that a daily workout is my new default mode: early in the morning, late at night, adapting to the location and the equipment available.

Benefit number one is that I'm starting to feel fit again, and I love that. I'm already measurably stronger than I was on January 1. And even though I'm not running very much, today I ran a strong time on one of my standard courses — still a few minutes off my personal best, but significantly faster than anything I've been able to do so far in 2012.

Benefit number two is a more positive attitude in general. That's probably not entirely attributable to the exercise, but I firmly believe that it helps. I'm definitely more motivated and more engaged at work today than I was when the year ended. I've also seen a difference at the rink, where I've got more energy to keep up with my kids and a more enthusiastic and positive approach to coaching.

But maybe the most surprising benefit of the challenge has been the conversation. For me, working out is at heart an antisocial activity. Although I enjoy playing hockey and I enjoy socializing at the canoe club, I don't really like fitness classes or the gym, and I don't seek out running partners on a regular basis. I've done 29 workouts so far this year, and I've done 28 of them either alone or with Kate.

But in the meantime, I've realized that the CKC Fitness Challenge has created a small network of people to share my progress with — and there are many, many more out there. Kate has joined in. My parents (who are both over 60) are three weeks into P90X. By talking about the challenge with others, I've found two more colleagues at work who are also doing P90X, another who has qualified for the 2012 Boston marathon, another who was a spare for the Canadian taekwondo team at the 1996 Olympics, and still another who has a personal objective to work out every day, to improve his fitness and his running times.

So let's keep that conversation going!

January 25, 2012

January 20 Fail

I have a confession to make.

No, that is not me on the rowing machine. My confession is that on January 20 (last Friday) I had my first miss in this New Year's Challenge. I spent a very long day travelling from Maryland to Halifax, including two separate flights that departed from Montréal, and didn't make it home until midnight. I will confess that I snoozed through my 6 a.m. alarm that morning, thinking that I'd be able to work out at home, and thereby missing my opportunity.

I did make up my P90X workout for Friday, but that doesn't change the fact that I missed a day.

Speaking of P90X, this is Week 4 — Recovery Week — which means a change in routine. On the travel schedule, it's been more of the same, I'm afraid; a two-day offsite in Wakefield, and another two-day visit to headquarters in Ottawa. I've added the latest location to the map.

January 19, 2012

Tip of the Day: Clear Your Mind

From today until Friday, I'll be working out at the Hampton Inn in Lexington Park, Maryland. There's not much in Lexington Park to draw anybody outside at this time of year, and there's not a great gym at the hotel. It's one of those hotel gyms that just barely meets the minimum requirements. On the other hand, I'll give Hamption Inns credit: if you have to put your "fitness centre" in a cramped, ground-floor room and you are extremely limited in your equipment choices, you could do a lot worse than the Star Trac Instinct Dual Adjustable Pulley system. I was able to improvise almost everything from the P90X Shoulders & Arms program on this single machine.

I also have to give Hampton Inns credit for their gym decor. I love the message to "clear your mind," one of the primary benefits of exercise and coincidentally Tony Horton's Tip of the Day for Yoga-X … which happens to be on the program for tomorrow.

January 16, 2012

Tip of the Day: Pace Yourself

I started the day in a fairly miserable state. After a terrible night's sleep, I ignored my 5:50 alarm and snoozed through my designated exercise time. On the plus side, that meant I could do my workout (after the kids were in bed) with my favourite training partner. (And no ... I don't mean Tony Horton. He's very reliable and all, but frankly we're not entirely compatible). And today was (finally) the day when I started to feel like the workouts were paying off. At the start of week 3, I am getting measurably fitter. Onward and upward!


View CKC Excellence 2012 Fitness Challenge in a larger map

Also, I've created a Google Map for the CKC Excellence 2012 challenge, so that my fellow challengers and I can capture all the different places we are working out. Since the group includes people from all across Eastern Canada (nobody publicly declared from the West ... are you out there?), I thought a map might be a neat way to capture some of the challenge geographically. Julia has already joined in! If you want to be added to the list of collaborators so that you can add your own favourite workout locations, drop me a comment to this post and I will add you.

January 11, 2012

On the Road

Day 10 complete and I still haven't missed a day. Hooray!

I suspect that when I eventually do miss a day of working out, I will have my busy travel schedule to blame. Some travel days make a real workout impossible. However, I am in D.C this week for some meetings, and I've been able to adapt my routine for this trip. The best way to do that is to stay in a hotel that has a great gym. I can report that the Courtyard Crystal City has an excellent gym, especially for a middle-tier hotel. (Unfortunately the WiFi is not as excellent, but that's another story.)

In this fitness challenge I've made extensive use of the iPod Touch Kate gave me for Christmas. I'm quite enjoying the P90X App, which schedules the workouts for the "Classic" program, and includes a tracking feature for all the strength workouts so that I can record the weight and reps and view the history (so far) right on my iPod. You can also separately purchase "guided workouts" for each routine that include mini-videos for each exercise.

Yesterday before supper I did the P90X "Plyometrics" routine, which is driven by a set of timed intervals. For that one I used the Seconds Pro app, which I higly recommend if you need to do any kind of complicated interval training. The "Pro" version allows you to create and save completely customized interval timers that you can use to guide your favourite workout. I have a Timex Ironman watch with a variable interval timer that is almost as flexible … but wristwatches are just so 20th century, aren't they?

Hard interval training, by the way, was always my favourite kind of workout when I was a real athlete. I am reminded that coach K_____ used to name his favourite interval workouts a la "Piece of Cake" … always one of our favourites. When I trained alone on a regular basis after I moved to California, that Timex Ironman interval timer came in really handy for this one.

Piece of Cake

120 seconds ON, 20 seconds OFF
60 seconds ON, 15 seconds OFF
30 seconds ON, 10 seconds OFF
20 seconds ON, 5 seconds OFF
10 seconds ON, take a few minutes. Repeat.
All done at faster-than-1000 metre race pace.

Maybe I'll work my way up to that one in time for racing season this year!

January 09, 2012

KingDOMS

Technology is your friend. Or else it's your nagging conscience.

Well, that hurt.

Still hurts, actually, when I climb the stairs. Or sit down. But the worst part of the start-up suffering should be over, so maybe now is the right time to share a few perspectives on my new fitness challenge.

For 2012 I am joining Julia Rivard and 19 other members of the CanoeKayak Canada family in making a New Year's Fitness Resolution. My resolution is to work out every day from 1 January until the day of the 2012 Olympic Games closing ceremony. That's a total of 224 Workouts, as Julia has noted in her new blog about the experience.

Why are we doing this? I suspect that each of those 21 people had their own reasons for joining in. Julia's launch introduction is an eloquent statement about finding a way to reconnect with and pay tribute to the athletes on our Canadian team, and to join them in their quest for excellence. I also think that being an Olympian should come with a lifelong committment to physical fitness. And although I have not been entirely consistent in my own committment on that front, I'm looking forward to getting fit again. I did something like this once before, sticking to a once-a-day committment for 2008 and the first half of 2009. Perhaps not coincidentally, that was a great year and a half of my middle-aged life.

For days 2 through 91 of the challenge, I'll be doing the P90X "Classic" Program, with some minor customizations that I will probably mention at some point over the coming 13 weeks. This will be my fourth time through the drill with Tony Horton and friends, but the third time was quite a while ago. I start the program at 201.5 pounds, and (according to the black magic hidden in my wife's bathroom scale) a disheartening 20.5% body fat.

I am now safely through Week 1 without dropping the ball, although the week was not without its challenges. On January 4th, I departed for Ottawa at 7:15 a.m., worked until 5, worked out in the company gym, raced to the airport without showering, and arrived home just before midnight. Fortunately, I was upgraded to business class, so my neighbours didn't have to get too close. Jan 5th and 6th I started my workouts after 11 pm, for various reasons; that's not my favourite way to get this done, but sometimes it's unavoidable.

In case you are wondering what I did on Day 1, I executed my Alternative Minimum Workout (AMW), which is my own personal benchmark for whether I give myself a check in the workout box for any given day. Yes, I admit it: I find Julia's hour-a-day standard too strict. I am simply going to admit up front that I am not going to get that done every day. My personal AMW benchmark is a 4.5 km run that starts and ends at my house. On New Year's Day, in something less than peak physical condition, I ran that course in 21:30. By summer I will be doing it in under 19 (strenuous) minutes. I'm not going to shrink my daily exercise to that level, but I do think that counts as a workout.

The map for the AMW run can be seen here, courtesy of MapMyRun and my Garmin Forerunner 305. Since I tend to travel more than a little bit these days, I get to run in some interesting locations. I'll post some of my more unusual routes on this blog as I go. I'll also post here about the P90X program, my progress on the challenge, and some of the fitness technology I like. I know that this fitness venture is a bit of a change of direction for this blog, but then again it's been dormant for almost two years. I hope I can come up with a few interesting things to say. Who knows … maybe with my new fitness I'll find the energy to write a few things about Olympic and amateur sport again!

P.S. It turns out that today marks 200 days remaining in the countdown to the Opening of the 2012 Olympic Games. And a CanoeKayak Canada Olympian, Kristi Gauthier, was at the British Consulate in Ottawa to help the High Commissioner mark the occasion. Go Kristi Go!