Choose Your Attitude!

I’m sorry Petumbukan Frangipani (what a lovely unusual name you have!) that I haven’t written for a while but I didn’t want to write again until I had something positive to talk about and today I feel like I have climbed a foot hill of a mountain which feels like an amazing accomplishment.

Last week Antonia and I decided to go for an especially long paddle on the Huntspil, it was a lovely fresh Autumn day with the sun high and the sky was blue as ever. We set off to kayak the whole stretch of the Huntspil and back. On the way we greeted by a friendly fisherman who told us to ‘get off the river’ so we kind of just ignored him and paddled on. The Huntspil is very straight and as it was such a clear day we could see the end from miles away. After 2 days had gone past we finally got there . . . ok 1.5 hours. We turned our boats around reasonably easily in the 2pmh winds so we were now in a head wind which is easier to paddle in. I felt quite confident and said to Ant ‘we will fly back now it feels so stable’ then a few well spirited strokes later and I fell in. It was FREEZING, another friendly fisherman packed up his stuff and moved a few metres down as I clearly must had disturbed the fish (sorry Mr fisherman, don’t you mind me, I only could die of hypothermia!)

I quickly climbed on my boat and paddled to the side but the banks were so high I couldn’t get out so ended up paddling (lying on the boat) for quite away then spent a good 20 mins getting back into the boat. By this time the sun was going down, we quickly paddled on but I was getting cold and colder so we stopped and Antonia gave me her dry top (see mum we do love each other!). We paddled further but with the sun down I didn’t last long until I felt so stiff with coldness I couldn’t paddle any further. That sounds very weak of me but I’m not one for giving up and I just thought if I fall in now, we are still so far away from the car I might just die on the river bank (a bit dramatic but that’s how I felt at the time) so we both got out our boats in a random field.

It was now very dimpsy dark and as soon as a got out I felt dizzy (I think I had a major sugar low) so Ant said we had to run and leave our boats. So we did, through fields, over hedges, dodging an evil looking bull then crossing the M5 in our lycra in the dark. We eventually got back to the car got changed and drove to the nearest garage to get vital food supplies - food always comes first something we both feel strongly about so no arguments there! Then of course we had to find the boats which meant taking Granny’s car for a little off road adventure (sorry Granny). We couldn’t find the boats – I had visions of a cow fancying a quick paddle (still delirious from the cold) Antonia thought they had rolled in the water! No we were just looking in the wrong place but as it was pitch black and we only had the light from my glowing heart rate monitor so it was very hard to see. They were still in one piece so we loaded them up and went home.

My next outing in the K1 I actually felt slightly more stable which is the first signs of a considerable improvement I have had ever since we got them. Then this morning we had a usual early morning session in the gym and my weights went up. So finally all the ground work we have been putting in since we left Nottingham is finally paying off.

I just read the most inspirational book by Debra Searle which has really helped me: The Journey, How to achieve against the odds. One thing that especially stood out was when you wake up in the morning you have to make a decision. What attitude am I going to choose. You can either choose to battle through the day and feel sorry for your self or you can choose to be positive and optimistic, what ever the day has in store for you, this makes you far more in control of the situation/training session, choosing to fight it instead of it fighting you if you know what I mean. So quote of the day ‘choose your attitude’.

p.s. Sorry Uncle David I didn’t get to the hedges in time and Mum got the hedge trimmer out and cut through the lead! No more hedge trimmer, I better get the old secateurs out!

Huntspil River

The best river I have paddled on and it's only 30 mins from home. This has meant Ant and I have been able to go paddling every day to make sure we are staying upright well and truly before winter sets in. I think this river is also a rowers dream. Maybe City of Bristol should have a training day here! No ferries, no barges, no speed boats, only 1 or 2 swans, the odd leaf, the odd fisherman. All that is there is flat wide river - fantastic!

These are photos taken yesterday where we had our longest session in our K1's yet.

A swans nest saved my life! (kind of)

Training as everyone knows has it’s up’s and downs. A couple of weeks ago was a particular low point for me, with the trees shedding leaves like they are in a hurry for winter to come and constantly getting caught on the stern of my boat and an obvious drop in temperature, falling out of our K1’s has become even more unpleasant than it was before.

We were doing a sprint session and for the first four efforts my boat had been picking up leaves like it was designed for it, producing a sluggish pace rather than a flat out one minute sprint, and to top it off Antonia’s boat didn’t appear to be collecting half as much debris. By the fifth effort this was more than testing my patience and a few too many aggressive strokes in my unforgiving Nelo, landed me in the cold water, gasping.

We were on a more flat scenic part of the river rather than the busy docs and there wasn’t anywhere obvious to get out. Luckily I spotted a swans nest and swam over to it. The angry swan to whom we had the delight of meeting earlier was no where to be seen but even so Antonia was on vicious Swan watch while I hauled myself onto the bed of grass. As you might be able to imagine it’s quite hard to boat from a nest and it took 2 attempts to finely leave the unusual landing stage. That was the end of that session even though we had quite a while to paddle home I couldn’t get warm which infuriated me even more as I hate cutting any training session short but made up for it in a weights session later. At the time I was not amused, Antonia was trying to have her concerned voice on but actually thought it was hilarious.

Swans will always be a pain to paddlers because of their territorial nature but for just that session I was extremely grateful.

Endeavour's Canoe Challenge

This weekend Antonia and I competed in our first k2 race in the Endeavour's Canoe Challenge. It’s a grueling 50 mile relay-style competition from Market Drayton to Great Haywood in Shropshire. Twelve teams of consisting of 6-10 people entered the event.

The Canoe Challenge is a fund-raising event, aiming to raise valuable funds for Endeavour's youth development projects throughout the
country.

Teams of all levels of experience take part in this unique team-building event. Each section of the canal is taken in turns by team members to paddle as hard as they can, usually until a portage is reached then have to jump out, run with the boat and hand over to the next canoeists in the team. A vital support crew follow in a mini bus driving as fast as the speed limits allows to ensure they meet the paddlers racing at the decided point and swap team members as quickly as possible.

Not only did Bristol come away with first prize but all the teams together also raised over £13,000 to support Endeavour's work with young people.

First Class Gym/Cider Cellar

Here is a sample of some of our weights!

Chins

Bench Pull

High Pulls
Bench Press

A Woman is not finished when she’s deflated; she’s finished when she quits

If ever there was a true test so see if you can push your self on your own for me that is now. In the beautiful surrounds of Somerset which use to be associated with a place of relaxation and eating lots it’s now a training zone.

Coming back from Nottingham without a boat, paddle, gym, a coach and more importantly an accessible river close by, the decision to carry on Kayaking and training to eventually compete at such a high level was quite a challenge to say the least. But with such good people in the world we now have all of the above and we couldn’t have got this far without:

Andy Maycock: New coach (previously competed at the Worlds, loads of experience, drive and actually trains with us instead of shouting from a car through a megaphone) He also found us our wonderful speedy racing boats.

Granny: For letting us turn her Cider Cellar into a 1^st class gym (my sister has had to get over her spider phobia, as they come back as fast as we get rid of them!)

Dad: For having a rugby pitch right opposite our house to do circuit training on but has yet to join us for a session (Dad, just because you scored a fluke try last week doesn’t mean that training is obviously not needed, we know you just don’t want to be 5 laps behind your two daughters!)

Mum: For reminding us to stretch all the time, cooking and doing 4 loads of washing a day! (Mum I will cut the hedges very soon I promise!)

Simon: For building us a chin up bar in the Garden.

Last but not least thank you very much to Jihan, Sarah, Alisdair, Neil, Diego, Dee, Gidas and Lauren for your letting us stay over in Bristol so we can get all the water sessions we can on one tank of petrol. Jimmy, Christi and others who I have not approached yet can we stay at yours at some point?

So training has taken a turn but for the better, we can run and cycle in one of the most beautiful parts of England, actually meet other canoeists instead of being refined to Holm Pirrepont and Antonia can work for Dad at the Farm, one of her dreams come true . . . not quite, but it has it’s pluses - free Chicken, wuhoo.

Kayaking World Championships Video by Naomi, Viki and Julia