Monday, July 21, 2008

Couch Potato, Part 2

In the middle of the big game yesterday (Justin Verlander, the best pitcher in baseball, and his Tigers were beating my Orioles), I had to get up and pee. I didn't have to go very badly, so I thought this might be another fitness opportunity.

Instead of just standing up and walking to the bathroom, I stretched my arms out in front of me (for balance) stood up and then slowly sat back down on the couch. When my butt touched the couch, I stood back up again. After repeating this "deep knee bend" a couple of times, my thighs were burning just like they do when I hike properly on my Laser.

Hmm...

So now when I get up from the couch, I don't stay up, but do a few "get ups" before walking away. It, too is starting to make a difference.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Training Pants

My wife got me some new hiking pants for my birthday. The first time I wore them and sat out to hike the boat down, I wanted to take them back as the battens weren't in the right place. The edge of the boat cut into my butt just above the battens.

After cursing the pants for a few minutes I thought I'd better experiment a little so I loosened the hiking strap and pushed myself out over the edge of the boat until the battens in the pants were over the edge of the boat.

After a few seconds my thighs began to burn and my stomach muscles began to quiver.

So that's what hiking hard means!

I did seem to go faster.

Couch Potato

One of the things that was painfully apparent when I started racing a Laser is that I needed to be fit, the fitter the better. The harder you hike, the faster you go.

I naively thought that because I am heavier than most of the Laser sailors in my local fleet that I could make up for my lack of fitness with my sheer bulk. I found that upwind in a very narrow set of conditions, my strategy would occasionally seem to work, although I would always get killed downwind.

I realized, after sailing in the Master’s Nationals in Buzzards Bay a few weeks ago where it blew 10-20 each day, that I must get fitter.

But how?

I am addicted to two things, watching the “Big Game”, and eating regularly and well.

The conventional wisdom says “get off the couch, turn off the TV and go get some exercise while you eat healthier and less”.

Bah, humbug! I don’t want to give up the “Big Game” and my wife is a terrific cook.

So here is my “Couch Potato Fitness Program”.

1. Position your couch in such a way that you can see the big game while laying on the couch (you’ve probably done this already)

2. Every 10 minutes or so, put your hands behind your head and raise your head and shoulders off the pillow. Lower your head back to the pillow. In order to keep your feet from rising off the couch, you may have to tuck them under a pillow. Repeat until your tummy starts to hurt.

3. Every 30 minutes or so, raise both legs off the couch and hold them there as long as you can.
If you are like me, you will find the big game goes by more quickly and you see more of it as you are not napping as much. The big thing is that you will quickly get those hiking muscles in much better shape.

I’ve been doing this now for only 2-3 weeks and I can already feel a major difference. I can now do 50 crunches without stopping and keep my legs in the air for at least a minute compared with 10 crunches and 10 seconds when I started. I’ve still got a long way to go before I can hike hard for the entire weather leg, but it is a good start.

I haven’t done much on the eating part yet, although my wife has a great idea. She said I should make a hiking bench with a tray on either side to hold my dinner plate and drink. The deal is that I can only eat for as long as I can hike. Stop hiking, stop eating.

It was a dark and windy night

The cold north wind on our port quarter had been blowing 20 plus all day, helping us on our sleigh-ride toward the Abacos. It was our first night at sea and we had just entered the Gulf Stream.

DIMITRI, Thanos’ Omega 36 was enjoying herself immensely, surfing the steep, breaking waves.
Her crew, not so much. It was early December, 2002 when Thanos, Bill and I left the quiet confines of the ICW at Beaufort, North Carolina, and went to sea just after major storm passed us on its way north and after a major refit of DIMITRI – new sails, new standing and running rigging, plus lots of new gear. Who knew if everything was all going to work and if the forecast strong northerlies were going to hold. We had checked everything as best we could and it all looked fine. It worked OK in the ICW, but still…


As DIMITRI zoomed down the face of a wave I sneaked a glance astern. The flattened wake was ablaze with phosphorescence, little stars twinkling into the depths of the black ocean. As I turned back to see the abyss into which we were certainly plunging, the breaking crest lit up in a blaze of white light far off to port. When my eyes finally focused on the bow again, DIMITRI had found the bottom of the wave and had smashed her bow into the back of the wave ahead. Glistening sheets of spray flew skyward as she struggled to climb the back of the wave ahead. The running lights reflected off the bow wave on either side of the racing boat with an eerie red and green glow. The cold wind tumbled around the new main and genoa, throwing off big billowing clouds of white steam ahead, rising from the warm water, illuminated by the blinking sea creatures all around us. A glance upward to check the sail trim revealed a star-filled sky that only a few get to see.

The night went on like this, a spectacular light show, wave after wave after wave.

The luminous sea and sky showed DIMITRI and her anxious crew the way south that night. By morning we knew that we were going to be fine and that DIMITRI was sound. We sailed into the Abaco Sound a few days later.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Making China safe for sport


I am fascinated by China's efforts to make itself safe for the Olympic games. They are restricting vehicle traffic, shutting down factories, and now are having to clean up a massive algae bloom in Qingdao, the site of the upcoming Olympic sailing events. Maybe their costly efforts will spur them to clean up up their act.

It is unconscionable that they allow themselves to so pollute their land and water and air that they can’t safely hold athletic competitions. I suspect that if they controlled their pollution as they should and their industries bore their fair share of the costs of doing so, they would no longer be the dominant economic force they are.

In the photo to the right, courtesy of ABC News, Australia's 470 men's crew, Nathan Wilmot and Malcolm Page, try to sail through immense algae bloom covering 30% of the sailing courses at Qingdao.

We used to try to sail International 14s up the Severn River on New Year’s day. If it was cold enough, a little slush would form near the edges of the river. If you didn’t see it and sailed into the slush, you slowed to a crawl. I’ll bet this Chinese stuff is worse than slush. No way can they race if it is on the race course.

Good luck, China.