Shaping Her Esteem (Not-for-profit) INFO SESSION - Nov 24th, 2-4pm

How time flies by!

It has been just over a month since my last post and I have some explaining to doJ.  First off, I need to give a huge congrats to all the amazing athletes who raced this past week-end at Head of the Charles in Boston (North America’s biggest fall rowing regatta).  The Toronto Sculling Club put together a strong masters women’s 8+ that won confidently (I am pretty darn lucky to have had a chance to row with them when they needed a spare), our Canadian lightweights came 3^rd and 5^th in a competitive field for the lightweight women’s single, Western University won the coxed 4+ event, and more.  Congrats!

I have been keeping busy with my spin classes, but mostly, I have been super busy with work.  This Fall alone I will have traveled to Indianapolis, Miami, Boston and Chicago.  Traveling has really made me appreciate “home”.  I always smile to myself when I am on the plane looking over Toronto – I feel so lucky to live here!  It’s also easier to be comfortable when you are home because you have everything you need at the tips of your fingers, but I’m happy to say that I’ve learned how to keep healthy while surrounded by the temptations of fast food and hotel bars.  When traveling, I make a point to practice what I preach: I dedicate 45 minutes each day to doing the exercises that I include in the Shaping Her Esteem fitness program (the not-for-profit organization I am heading up).  It not only helps me stay active, but it also helps me evaluate the exercises to see which ones work for girls aged 8 to 16 – I get to think like a teenage girl and I won’t lie, it’s pretty funJ.  I also make sure that I always have my Genuine Health proteins+ (protein powder) with me.  This is incredibly useful because I have protein readily available to me anytime and I can have a good recovery after working out.

That said, although I am busy, my passion in starting up Shaping Her Esteem is greater than ever!

I’ve already sent out a save the date for our first fundraiser, scheduled for Sunday January 13^th, 2013 (location and are TBD), but I am now writing to let you know that I will host an info session on Saturday November 24^th from 2-4pm.  If you are interested in attending, please message me and I will send you the details.  At this session I will go over the need for starting up this organization, what we want to achieve in our community, and how you can get involved!

Over the past 4 weeks I had the pleasure of working with my friend Robyn Henry to test out our fitness program at Earl Haig Secondary School.  We led a physical education class made up of 30 girls aged 13-17.  An anonymous questionnaire helped us conclude that 100% of the girls would want to continue with our fitness program, 83% had a more positive outlook on sports, 79% felt that they enjoyed general physical activity more, 75% felt our program boosted their confidence, and the list goes on...

Hopefully I’ll hear from some of you and together we can make a difference right here in our community!

Keep active and stay positiveJ

Life is what you make of it, and I guess I have chosen to make it a busy one, haha.

Although I stopped rowing competitively, I have been rowing here and there each week as a spare for a local women’s 8+ racing at the upcoming “Head of The Charles” (a big race held in Boston every October).  They are a very competitive crew so I have been very lucky to row with them.  Since it’s an 8+ (eight rowers and one coxie), each rower has one oar – the technique used is called “sweeping”, versus the “sculling” technique I did all summer with two oars.  The one oar used is heavier and your hands move somewhat differently...which is why my hands now look like I was burned – skin ripped and blisters as red as cherries, quite attractive if I say so myselfJ. 

Other than that, I am preparing for a lot of work travel in October – I’ll be going to Indianapolis, Miami and then Boston.  This is why I used all of my spare time this month to get things really going with the charity.

SAVE THE DATE: January 13^th, 2013!

On Sunday Jan 13^th, I will be partnering up with my friend’s AMAZING fitness studio called Work It Out Fitness Studios (http://www.workitoutfitness.ca/) to host our very first fundraiser for Shaping Her Esteem (SHE). 

SHE is the charity I will be starting with my amazing team (Carrie, Trang, Lauren, Robyn, Dan, the guidance of MaRS Discovery, and YOU!)J.  It is an organization dedicated to boosting the physical, mental and emotional self esteem of young women (12-20) through physical activity.  We will have two programs that we plan to launch in the early new year, soon after the fundraiser.

Money collected from the fundraiser will go towards covering rent for program space, equipment (medicine balls, bands, etc), and other start-up costs of the after-shcool programs.  Through donations and fundraising, the goal is to make the programs available for FREE to all girls aged 12 to 16.

All girls have the right to feel valued, confident and empowered!  I am hoping you can help me achieve this through Shaping Her EsteemJ.

Every year Work It Out Fitness Studios fundraises for a local charity.  It was a great success last year for "KidSport", and this year we hope to do the same for SHE.  The fundraiser will be SO MUCH FUN: 1 hour of muscle conditioning, followed by a break to socialize and snack, then 1 hour of ZUMBA!!  Robyn, founder and instructor, is very involved with the community - hosting fundraisers as well as running Corporate Wellness programs.  If you have or are looking to start a wellness program at your work, I strongly recommend Work It Out Fitness Studios, just contact Robyn at robyn@workitoutfitness.ca.

Thank you for following and for your amazing ideas/feedback with respect to the charity!  We are doing this together!

Laura

 

 

 

 

Back to "real life"

Time flies by when you’re having fun!

Coming back from Europe has not been a slow adjustment to say the least, but it’s been an exciting one.  I know I probably should have taken it a bit easier, but with no competitive training on my schedule, I found that I had more energy to burn.  I went back to the office (it will be busy this Fall), picked up spinning (which is SUPER fun and hard!), caught up with some family and friends, AND started on my charity.  As you can imagine, this is not the lightest of schedules, so I will be putting the whole “Ironman” training plan on hold for now – add to the bucket listJ.

The charity has been a lot more work than I initially thought, and rightfully so!  There are people out there who start charities for the wrong reasons, and so that’s why I believe there are many steps required to complete before getting a charity registered and approved.  All the extra requirements won’t stop me though because I truly believe in the mission of this charity, even if it means my brain keeps me up until 2am with one idea running after the other:S.  I’m being vague about the mission, but once I have finalized the name and details of the charity with the new Directors, I’ll update the blog and let ya know.  Trust me, we have a lot of milestones and activities coming up, some that you may even want to be a part ofJ.

Aside from the charity and returning back to work (I work with amazing people so it’s not hard to love what I do!), the other highlight of my new life that is activity-based has been my participation in spin classes! OMG!!  Have you done one before?  Below is a picture of the intensity I’ve been doing them at:

This required an average heart rate of 170bpm – and I wasn’t even racing or doing a fitness test.  Seriously, who does that?!  Of course that won’t be the case for every workout, but that’s what I think is so great about spinning.  You can do it all year round, workout in a safe indoor environment, and train at your own intensity level.  Next time I won’t sit beside the spin-junky who brought out the competitive side in me.  “I’ll catch you next time!” – impossible Laura, ha.

Now, although my goals have changed with respect to what I am training for, many of my training habits will remain the same.  Here are some things that I feel really make that difference for me:

-          “activfuel+” sports nutrition by Genuine Health (http://www.genuinehealth.com/activfuel.html): I started adding this flavourful powder in my water before and during training sessions back in London Ontario, and have continued to use it ever since.  It’s available without or with caffeine (it has a natural caffeine source), and the Black Raspberry Lemonade flavour is more natural than the fake flavours you find in competitive sports drinks.  I rely on this to get through my workouts!

-          Compression tights: I have tried a couple of different brands, and from my personal experience (everyone is different) I really like the Sugoi compression line as well as the 2XU calve sleeves.  I find that my legs recover more quickly when I use compression tight after a hard workout or race.

-          Breakfast, breakfast, breakfast...and more breakfastJ.  I have always loved food, and now that I’m not having to hit a certain weight, I can eat as much as I like, well almost haha.  Whether you workout or not, I strongly believe in having a good breakfast.  Breakfast gives you that energy needed to fuel your mind and body for the day ahead.  My daily breakfast consists of a home-made smoothie with “proteins+” (http://www.genuinehealth.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=proteins%2B).  I have been using the Vanilla flavour and REALLY like it with mango, banana and apple.

-          Mix of cold and hot showers after a hard workout...flush out that lactic acid and force the muscles to activate so that they can recover better.

-          Lemon: A teammate and physio in Bulgaria suggested I put lemon in my water bottle to help with the dryness of the air (I had “cotton mouth” every time we trained/raced).  This was new to me since I was used to humid air.  So I did this and it did wonders for me.  Of course being the nutty person that I am, I took it another level and got lemon flavoured fisher man’s friend.  WOW!  It was strong.  Although it did work, I do warn you: you may cough quite a bit after your event.  But let’s be honest, most of us have a dry chest and cough after racing hard anyways.  Another thing that worked for me here was to put a small piece of an electrolyte candy on my gums.  It helped me salivate during the race so that I wouldn’t get a dry mouth.  This one may also have added benefits if you are doing a long workout.

-          Positive encouragement.  I’ve been criticized before for being too “positive”, and although that bothered me at first, I’ve come to really appreciate and understand how important it is to surround myself with positivity.  I think that if you make an effort to look at the glass half full each time you face a challenge, then you will surprise yourself to find that you have more opportunities in front of you than you may have originally imagined.  Positive encouragement will be a big part of the charity I will be starting.

So there you have it.  I hope one of the habits can serve you well too!  And although my competitive athletic career has come to a close, I’m sure there will be more practices to be acquired;).

Have a great week-end!

 

Closing out the World Championships in Bulgaria

This is a long oneJ….

Whether it was in dance, sport or work, I have always found myself analyzing my performance to determine whether I gave it everything I could.

I can honestly say that at this regatta (the World Championships!!) I gave all of myself!  I felt the worst after the repechage where I think I went beyond my physical capabilities – my mind was forcing me to just keep pumping my legs until the finish line but my body was running on empty.  I had weighed in that morning very light (around 55.4kg) and so after the race I was quite fragile as I couldn’t drink or eat for a few hours – Andrew even said I looked like a skeleton:S Eek! 

However, the B Final race was a different story.  The race took place in the morning, so our crew didn’t have to wait around for a day before weighing-in.  We got to wake up, do what we needed to make weight, and then race (all before 9:30am) – this was perfect for our plan to eat our faces off for the rest of the dayJ.  Not only was this scenario better for my stomach but it also proved to be better for our performance – we went out hard and had just enough left in our tanks to do a solid finish!

Part of what also contributed to our strong race in the final was the fact that we had improved enormously as a crew over the course of the regatta.  Unlike most of the other crews, we were all rookies at the Senior level and so our learning curve was steep.  It’s intimidating to go up against World Cup Champions (Poland) and medalists (Denmark), Olympians (two athletes from the Korean boat were in the Lightweight Women’s 2x in London), and the rest of the experienced field.  As I said before, we were nervous in our heat, but as we got more racing under our belt, we became more confident (in ourselves, in each other and in our training that brought us to Bulgaria).  We deserved to race in this field and that was evident in the Final.  In the repechage we were about 2 seconds back from Sweden, and in our Final we were 0.56 seconds back.  If only there had been 10m more in that raceJ.  The conditions were also quite calm on Saturday, and so there was no change in weather from the B Final to the A Final.  We still would not have medaled, but we definitely would have been competitive in that A Final which is exciting to learn.

(Lindsay, Erin, me and Liz after finishing the 2km race in the B Final)

I’ve really appreciated “living in the present” - you can’t spend your life asking “what if” all the time.  There is a lot to be enjoyed in the here and now!  I was more present in that Final than ever before.  Partially because my mind and body were working as one with my crew, but also because I knew it would be my last race (although funny enough a recruiter from a random university in the US approached me and gave me his card…I’m a wee bit too old for that now, haha!).

I have been in competitive sport since I was 14 (when I did my first triathlon) and I have come to a point where I am truly happy with stopping here.  Of course I’ll ask “what if” (what if I committed to rowing full time, what if I moved to one of the training centers, etc), but the priority for me at this stage of my life is my family, friends and career.  Plus, rowing is in GREAT hands with the lightweight women who are committed to this amazingly beautiful sport!

I’ll definitely find myself competing at local regattas, but I’m really excited for this next chapter of my life where I will try new things…together with my friends and husband.  Spin classes, cross fit…maybe an Ironman?!

I say Ironman because I have set my eyes on a new goal…of course you have Laura! Haha.

Since my early 20’s I’ve wanted to do something at the grassroots in sport, specifically for young girls aged 12 to 16.  My goal would be to start a program as a charity (volunteer based) where the priority would be to build confidence in young girls through sport.  For me, my self image issues started and ended with Triathlon.  Having just read “Life without Limits” by Chrissie Wellington (Ironman multi-World Champion and record holder), I know I’m not the only one who has dealt with this.  Eating disorders are far too prevalent and so hopefully through this program I could catch girls at a young age to help them love themselves first.

This is where Ironman may be coming into the pictureJ.  The sport of triathlon is where I had low self esteem – at the age of 15/16 I was told by coaches that I was fat (I really wasn’t), I had child bearing hips, and that I shouldn’t set unrealistic expectations for myself to be a successful athlete.  I went out to prove them wrong when I set my eyes on the Long Course World Championships.  I made top 3 in my age-group in 2004 and qualified for the 2005 World Championships.  Unfortunately my eating disorder contributed to my failed attempt at completing the race in Denmark.  Through rowing I have learned to truly love myself (inside and out), and so by revisiting triathlon I think I will be demonstrating through action that “failures” can turn into “successes” – it would be more about the journey here and less about the result (although my competitive nature may come into play a bitJ).  I would like to see if I could set this program up as a charity so that I could raise money for it through the Ironman.  Money raised would go towards equipment such as bands, medicine balls, ropes, space etc.  Right now I have a head start with the support of Genuine Health products (pre, during and post workout snacks for the girls to use as fuel and recovery) – thank you Genuine Health!

Stay tuned for more on this.

For now, I’m off to Greece with my husband where I will recover from an amazing journey with rowing.  With no need to weigh in every morning I will truly get a chance to enjoy the treats that Greece has to offer, yum! 

Thank you all for joining me on this amazing ride!!  I truly believe that you can do anything you set your mind to, so hopefully I've helped motivate you to do the same and pursue your dreams.

I’ll post pictures and videos later:)

Some race recaps: heat and repechage

Imagine…

-          your throat feeling as if you took a razor to the inside of it

-          your body feeling so weak that it takes effort to speak, let alone eat a piece of bread

-          you feeling so nauseous that every breath you take makes you want to lean over and hurl

Well, welcome to the finish line of a 2km rowing race!

Yesterday we got our nerves out in our heat, and today we raced.  Both resulted in similar finish times but they were very different conditions and very different performances.

Our heat was the first race we had ever done as a crew.  It was also the first race for all of us at a Senior World Championship, so perhaps nerves got the better of us as we failed to advance straight through to the A Final (top 2 crews) and were put into the repechage.   As you may have learned while watching the Olympic rowing events, a repechage is held for the crews that don’t automatically advance to the A Final after the first round of heats, and so it’s a “second chance” for crews to make it to the A Final.  The remaining crews not advancing would be put into the B Final.

On the international stage crews are ranked, and so there is an A, B, C, D, etc Final.  A final is for ranking the top 6 crews, B final is used for ranking numbers 7 to 12, etc.

Today was quite the race.  I can honestly say that I have never emptied the tank as I did today.  I had absolutely nothing left and I’m not even sure I remember taking the last 10 strokes, ha!  Physically I did, but I was definitely going into another land.  I know I wasn’t the only one feeling this way.  Aside from our crew, I noticed other athletes from other countries demonstrating the same type of discomfort and agony.  Phew, at least we all worked hard and the race wasn’t a walk in the park for anyone!

In this repechage we were in one of the far outside lanes…as we later learned, it happened to be to our disadvantage as the wind was unfavorable and swirly.  But, that’s something you can’t control and it’s just the luck of the draw.  We had the lane and at the end of the day, there are no excuses.  Race with power, strategy, passion, heart, sweat and blood - Checkmark on all of those today!  Yes, there was blood (let’s just say my knuckle doesn’t look too prettyJ).  We led off the start and were top 2 with Australia until around the 1700m mark.  Then came the unexpected wind change and more fun with the water.  As hard as we all pushed, we couldn’t match the crews making their moves on the other side of the course, China and Sweden joined Australia to cross the finish line before us.

We will now have the B Final on Saturday morning around 9am Bulgarian time (that is WAY too early for Canada, so I’ll update you after the race).  We will be racing Sweden, Korea and Japan.

"Here is the test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: if you're alive, it isn't."

Let's see what Saturday brings:)

Update before race day

Now, I know I said I would try to give you a history lesson, but I have to admit that on our trip to the ruins I got a bit distracted….with shopping.  I do hope to go back to see the ruins and fairly learn about the history, but I have to tell you that I got some pretty wicked deals on shoes!  Shoes are SUPER cheap here and so I purchased many pairs (high heels of course)!  I don’t know why the prices are so good, but I’m not going to complain.  Shopping is great for releasing any stress.  My teammates and I have gone to the mall across the street from our hotel quite a bit, and even paid frequent (daily) visits to the grocery store just to plan what exciting snacks and meals we can eat.

The mall is a bit different than what you would find back home in Canada.  There are flat escalators (like the ones you find at the airport when you don’t feel like walking from terminal to terminal with your luggage), and there’s a café on every single floor.  Cafes are pretty big here in Plovdiv and you can find one on almost every block.  Each have great outdoor seating and probably really good parties at night…soon we’ll get our chance to enjoy the partying after racing!

However, back at the course there is no partying…there’s focus.  It’s interesting to note that although sports can be very different, the environments in which you compete can be very similar.

No matter what, you will most likely find yourself assessing your competition: how strong they look, what equipment they’re using, etc.  For lightweight rowing there’s the added dimensions of also assessing how much you think your competition weighs and how much they may have to sweat down.  But that’s all external and not what the focus will be on race day.  It’s all internal from here on in and tomorrow I’ll have my eyes glued to the back of my teammate sitting in front of me.  Focus.

The race venue is no joke.  The course is just over 2km (the distance of the race) and 7 lanes wide with a beautiful backdrop of mountains and greenery.  Along the course there’s a path that coaches bike down as their athletes are racing.  I’m prepared to hear voices yelling in all different languages during our race tomorrow, but the only one I will be focused on is Liz’s (our bow seat).

Since spectators can’t follow the race from beginning to end, there is a jumbotron (big tv) placed in front of the grand stands for spectators to watch until the crews racing down the course get closer.  The best seats in the house might be those of spectators watching from the eating area under umbrellas from the 1800-2000m mark.  Cheers will be loud at this point as families, friends and rowing fans will be encouraging their crews to cross the finish line first.  Across the grand stands is a long row of flags lining the side of the course – seeing so many countries represented here is exciting and reminds me just how big this event is!  With 991 athletes competing I know that there is bound to be many memorable races:).

Below is the link to the race website for those who want to follow and see our results.  We are racing on Wednesday August 15^th at 6:04pm Bulgarian time (11:04am EST, 8:04am PST).

You can see the schedule and maybe the races here:

http://www.worldrowing.com/events/2012-world-rowing-senior-and-jchampionships

Results will be posted here:

http://wrsjch2012plovdiv.com/

THANKS FOR ALL OF YOUR SUPPORT AND LOVE!!!

Until tomorrow