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Saturday, May 13, 2006
Time and Distance
To those of you who anxiously await the next entry on this blog, my apologies for the lag since my last missive....and, please, see someone soon for counseling.
I'm astounded - and to some degree daunted - by the recent surge in pledges. My early fear of having each mile represent such a material increment to a good cause (thus compelling me to pull harder and longer than might be good for this aging frame)is materializing...yet I'm delighted at the spirit of support behind this endeavour. To be honest, the seminal motive for this trip was not to raise money, but I couldn't be happier at the notion that what will be good for me will bring some good to someone else as well. To those of you making Kathy fret about having to recalibrate the scale of that thermometer-oar thing, thank you. Way cool. Groovy, even.
While I'd like to report that the training program is well underway, I'm woefully behind in my prep. Other than cavorting each day with my 8th grade lacrosse team - an activity that gives me much joy but little tangible benefit - my only preparation last week was the acquisition of an $89 GPS unit that will enable me to track my location, speed over the ground (or bottom), average speed enroute...all the time/distance stuff that a GPS magically does. The device is the size of a large wristwatch, and I've played with it in calibrating the distances I walk to the usual places around the neighborhood: the 7-11, the dry cleaners, the liquor store, Regi's, Cross Street Market, Peg's office. This captivating tool will enable me to track my pace and give me a sense of what I'll need to do to complete this trip in the 14-16 days I'm allocating to it, yet I can see that it will also be the equivalent of having a barking coxswain in the stern of the boat. I'll need to average 30 mile days to bring it on home in time for school in August, and this electronic Jiminey Cricket will be a relentless taskmaster indeed.
On the training front, I got some sage advice from my good friend Peter, a Dartmouth colleague and former competitive rower. His counsel is that there are two bodily elements that I'll need to bring up to speed before departure: my hands and my derriere. This advice corresponds to my experience at long distance days on the water last summer. I think I can handle the hand thing; there are all kinds of ways to build up hand strength and tissue resliance...but the endurance of one's backside for a venture like this is probably only augmented by the doing of it...and in-the-boat training will be scarce until July. Some have opined that if you drive a Mini (a stiff suspension) within the Baltimore City limits (a lunar-esque landscape) as I do, one's posterior is already pretty resilient. But I suspect that I'll need to better simulate the experience...soon...and often. Informed advice in the "comments" column will be welcomed and appreciated; just keep it PG, OK?
Peter's other observation was that I'll be wise to discipline myself to the "30 mile day" objective and not get too carried away by favorable weather or the vodka tonic just around the next bend. He suggests that I get out of the boat whenever I get to 30 miles, even if it's well before dusk...the epiphany being that having adequate recuperative time OUT of the boat will be as important in sustaining the pace on the water.
Now I ask you, is that good advice or what? Peter, you get a pledge pin even though you haven't yet answered the bell on the fundraising.
So the net of it all is that the time and distance so coldly and accurately calculated my my new GPS doodad will need to be complemented by my own sense of "time until" the trip starts and my "distance to" fitness...and while I know I'm behind the curve, it's not as if I'm starting from a point of complete physical degradation. I'll be good to go. You can count on it.
Kathy, as always, thanks for your electronic stewardship of this gig in my absence this week and Peg, just, as always,...thanks. :)
And to you, Gentle Reader, stay aboard. This trip is already more fun with you in the boat.
Latah!
Mr. Frei
I'm astounded - and to some degree daunted - by the recent surge in pledges. My early fear of having each mile represent such a material increment to a good cause (thus compelling me to pull harder and longer than might be good for this aging frame)is materializing...yet I'm delighted at the spirit of support behind this endeavour. To be honest, the seminal motive for this trip was not to raise money, but I couldn't be happier at the notion that what will be good for me will bring some good to someone else as well. To those of you making Kathy fret about having to recalibrate the scale of that thermometer-oar thing, thank you. Way cool. Groovy, even.
While I'd like to report that the training program is well underway, I'm woefully behind in my prep. Other than cavorting each day with my 8th grade lacrosse team - an activity that gives me much joy but little tangible benefit - my only preparation last week was the acquisition of an $89 GPS unit that will enable me to track my location, speed over the ground (or bottom), average speed enroute...all the time/distance stuff that a GPS magically does. The device is the size of a large wristwatch, and I've played with it in calibrating the distances I walk to the usual places around the neighborhood: the 7-11, the dry cleaners, the liquor store, Regi's, Cross Street Market, Peg's office. This captivating tool will enable me to track my pace and give me a sense of what I'll need to do to complete this trip in the 14-16 days I'm allocating to it, yet I can see that it will also be the equivalent of having a barking coxswain in the stern of the boat. I'll need to average 30 mile days to bring it on home in time for school in August, and this electronic Jiminey Cricket will be a relentless taskmaster indeed.
On the training front, I got some sage advice from my good friend Peter, a Dartmouth colleague and former competitive rower. His counsel is that there are two bodily elements that I'll need to bring up to speed before departure: my hands and my derriere. This advice corresponds to my experience at long distance days on the water last summer. I think I can handle the hand thing; there are all kinds of ways to build up hand strength and tissue resliance...but the endurance of one's backside for a venture like this is probably only augmented by the doing of it...and in-the-boat training will be scarce until July. Some have opined that if you drive a Mini (a stiff suspension) within the Baltimore City limits (a lunar-esque landscape) as I do, one's posterior is already pretty resilient. But I suspect that I'll need to better simulate the experience...soon...and often. Informed advice in the "comments" column will be welcomed and appreciated; just keep it PG, OK?
Peter's other observation was that I'll be wise to discipline myself to the "30 mile day" objective and not get too carried away by favorable weather or the vodka tonic just around the next bend. He suggests that I get out of the boat whenever I get to 30 miles, even if it's well before dusk...the epiphany being that having adequate recuperative time OUT of the boat will be as important in sustaining the pace on the water.
Now I ask you, is that good advice or what? Peter, you get a pledge pin even though you haven't yet answered the bell on the fundraising.
So the net of it all is that the time and distance so coldly and accurately calculated my my new GPS doodad will need to be complemented by my own sense of "time until" the trip starts and my "distance to" fitness...and while I know I'm behind the curve, it's not as if I'm starting from a point of complete physical degradation. I'll be good to go. You can count on it.
Kathy, as always, thanks for your electronic stewardship of this gig in my absence this week and Peg, just, as always,...thanks. :)
And to you, Gentle Reader, stay aboard. This trip is already more fun with you in the boat.
Latah!
Mr. Frei
