Water, Water Everywhere And Not A Drop To Drink
Hijinks On The High Seas… And Beyond
Category Archives: Ship Shape
Reacquainted.
Like riding a bike? Not so much. Maybe. A little.
Now, for some height.
Ship Shape: Reservoir Running
I’ve been in my new apartment for exactly a week now. It is not a block from the beach, but it is a couple of blocks from Central Park–I can’t very well complain. I obviously have not been surfing every day, so I’m back to gym-ing and the like.
This morning, I ran (ok, jogged) around the reservoir in the park (ok, just part of the way). I got to play the “funcomfortable” game of Nanny or Mommy? which definitely helped distract me from the actual act of running. I discovered that once you get to the top of the reservoir, there is a really excellent view of the mid- and downtown skyline. Finally, and most importantly, I realized that the reservoir runners, who are of all ages and skill levels, employ a fascinating array of techniques, postures, and demeanors. In short, I don’t know if I’ll ever feel self-conscious about my form again. Which is a huge relief. I think I might actually like running in the park.
World Cup and SUP (Dude?)
First things first: I watched the Australia – Germany game yesterday (DVR, I love you) and I’m only going to say that it left me sobbing. Ok, maybe not sobbing, but shaking my head, at least. 4-0? Unwarranted red cards? For shame.
Now that that’s out of the way, I can tell you that I SUPed for the first time yesterday, too. My roomie and I rented the boards from a guy in the harbor who gave me a quick lesson before sending me off into the strong westerly winds. I hit a docked boat. After that, all was good. If you haven’t tried it, SUPing is kind of a mix between canoeing and longboarding. It’s weird because you stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, side by side, so the stance is totally different than surfing, but once you get used to it, it’s actually so much fun. And a really great workout.
Dana Point
Ship Shape: Swimming. Finally.
Swimming is one of my favorite things, yet somehow it took me almost two semesters to muster up the courage to swim at Palladium. I don’t really have a good excuse. I also don’t have fancy swimming bathing suits, just bikinis, so I picked the one least likely to fall off and went for it.
I'd rather be in the ocean...
Ship Shape Part 2: RUNNING
I’m also not really a runner. Are you sensing a pattern here? I like to swim and ride my bike, sheesh! I don’t have a bicycle here because the idea of riding on the same streets as these crazy taxi drivers scares the scheiße out of me. And swimming is a venture yet to come, as soon as I purchase a non-bikini and figure out exactly why the Palladium pool intimidates me so much.
Anyway, despite the fact that I was on the high school track team, running has never been one of my strong points. My knees get sore, I wheeze, I get bored and start counting or repeating nonsense phrases in my head… it’s not pretty. Nonetheless, I believe that running is one of the most complete workouts and, hey, maybe it’s time running and I resolved our differences.
As it turns out, I’m not the worst runner, and I can even run farther than 2 miles. Astonishingly. All it takes is odd people to ogle and the promise of coffee at the next block to draw me along. Who knew?
Ship Shape Part 1: YOGA
Part of my mission as a surf-thirsty city-dweller is to stay in shape. Surfing is one of the few things capable of motivating me to exercise, so, fittingly for this site, I try to think about how each workout I do will affect my surfing.
I’m not a complete yoga neophyte, but I’m definitely not one of those people who do yoga twice a week, or even once every two weeks… well, you know what, I’ve done it before, let’s leave it at that. The point is, I hear that it’s good for surfers, and I decided that as part of my “training” (heh. I use that word extremely loosely) I would give this bendy thing another shot.
I’m not sure what I expected, exactly, from Yoga To The People, but after being buzzed into what felt like someone’s apartment building and spying the yoga room with lovely, calming hardwood floors and tranquil exposed brick, I thought, This shouldn’t be too bad. I paid $2 to rent a mat, set it out in uncomfortably close proximity to everyone around me, and before I knew it, I was sweating my ass off (literally, I hope). By the end of the 60-minute class, all of these little, forgotten muscles felt utterly exhausted. The next day, I’m almost as sore as that time I was crushed by a giant Australian. Each and every muscle in my body hurts, which I’ll take as an excellent sign. I plan to make this a semi-regular thing (at least once a month), so I’ll let you know how it affects my surfing, er, sometime soon, I hope.
Oh, P.S., did I mention it’s practically free?
Water, Water Everywhere And Not A Drop To Drink 