Practice Schedule

The flow's still up, so getting out in the boat looks unlikely for the next couple of days. The Winter Rowing League will be on the ergs at Millvale starting at 7 PM from Monday through Thursday.

So: you have a choice for your next practice this week. You can go down to Millvale tomorrow (Wednesday) at 6:15 or 6:30 for an uncoached practice, following the workout listed below.

Or you can show up at the Lambert Boathouse on Washington's Landing for a coached practice on Thursday evening at 7 PM. There will be no more Monday/Wednesday coached practices until the spring.

Next workout (praise-the-Lord, there are none of those dang get-ups in here!!!):

ERGS:
4 x (easy 3min, rest 30sec, hard 3min)
descending both easy & hard from 1-4

FLOOR:
2 x (20pushups, 30crunches, 20kayakers)

Political Paddlefish

Over a couple of beers and pizza last night a few of us Paddlefish gave an (unfortunately abrupted) interview on BBC Radio 5.

Getting all political n'at, we talked a little to the host of the "Up All Night" show about the upcoming Midterms.
You can listen to the audio at the following link (and fast-forwarding about 30 minutes into the show:

Listen Again

Aaarrrrggggh!

More pirate-like antics were to be heard at this morning's Paddlefish training as coach Ben put us through our paces...

The latterel leg-kill-your-abdominal-muscles-especially-if -you-have-thunder-thighs-like-me thingies that he had us do elicited particularly loud "arrrgh!"s, "eugh!"s and "Hargh!"s and in their hono(u)r the folowing link is provided for your edification :)

http://loadingreadyrun.com/showmovie.php?x=480&y=360&url=talklikepirate.mov

Here Be Dragons (and a Care Bear)

Grant (dragon) and Julia (Care Bear) dance with glee. (Mom Carolyn must be playing Abba in the background....)

Team Retreat: Spring 2007

For those of you who like to plan ahead: our team retreat will be held during the last weekend in April (Friday, April 27, till Sunday, April 29) up at Moraine State Park. We've reserved five cabins; cost will work out to about $30/person.

October Practice on Washington's Landing

The river didn't let us paddle over to Red Fin's last night, but it was a beautiful evening on the island and a great gathering of friends!

Central Catholic Biathlon

The Central Catholic Biathlon is about 8 weeks away: plenty of time to practice getting the erg splits down and to break in a new pair of running shoes! Event date is December 9th; registration deadline is December 2nd.

Men compete with the High School Varsity Boys in a 10,000 meter erg & 6 mile run.

Women compete with the High School Varsity Girls in a 7,500 meter erg & 6 mile run.

The erging takes place at the Lambert Boathouse on Washington's Landing; the run is from the boathouse down to PNC Park and back. For more on the biathlon this year, see http://www.threeriversrowing.org/r-CentralBiathlon.html.

For an insider's look at last year's biathlon (photos! inside scoop!), see http://pittbritt.typepad.com/beanz_meanz_heinz/2005/12/this_time_last_.html#more .

Reminder: Red Fin Blues

Tomorrow's practice is a paddle to Red Fin Blues on Washington's Landing: please dress warmly in layers.

The city is absolutely gorgeous from the water at night, so if you have a waterproof camera or are willing to live dangerously with your regular camera, this is a great chance to get some beautiful pictures on our paddle back to the docks!

If the water/weather conditions don't allow us to paddle over there, we'll meet and decide whether to run/walk over to the island or just get back in our cars and head directly over to the island! Right now (Tuesday morning), the flow is at 57K, and we would need to have it reduced considerably to take the boat out. So we'll get to Red Fin Blues somehow: by foot, by boat, by bike, by auto!

Stay tuned.....

It's not Breakfast at Tiffany's

But a classic nevertheless: post-practice breakfast at Pamela's in Millvale.

Wonder what Leslie Bonci would have to say about The Big Lincoln:

THANK YOU SO MUCH

Dear Pfish: Thanks very, very much for the wonderful food basket...which included excellent chocolate as well as other equally yummy treats! It was waiting for me when I returned from the hospital on Wednesday evening.

The surgery went well (although I had no idea that "mad cow" could be such a problem...I'll explain that later to any who want the full story) and I should be pain free...in fact I am already thanks to vicodin which has become my drug of choice!

I probably will have to forego practices for a bit, but will at least try to catch up with you at Pamela's on Saturday...call me when you head there.

Love to you all, Carolyn

Winter Training's Coming Up!

Laurie reminded us last night of the winter training schedule, which begins in November, after the Tale of the Channel. We will practice on the water on Saturday mornings in November, weather permitting.

Beginning on Tuesday, November 7th, practices during the week shift to Tuesday/Thursday at the Lambert Boathouse on Washington's Landing. We'll stick to this schedule until the spring (April). Note the new days, new times, new location.

• Tuesday 6:30-8:30PM at Washington's Landing



• Thursday 7:00-8:30PM at Washington's Landing

Practices on November Saturdays (4th, 11th, 18th) take place at Millvale on the water at 9 AM. The November 25th practice is tentative.

In December, beginning December 2nd, our Saturday practices will be indoors at 8:30AM at Millvale.

Winter training season competitions: While specific dates have not yet been set, the Central Catholic Biathlon is historically held in mid-December, the TRRA Indoor Rowing Sprints are usually held in early February , and the ERDBA Indoor Paddling Sprints are held in late March in New York City.

DC Dragon Boat Festival Dates Set for 2007

The 6th Annual Washington DC International Dragon Boat Festival will be
held on May 19-20, 2007 on the Potomac River in downtown Washington DC.
This two day event will include both 250 and 500 meter races, with
women's, mixed, men's, and BCS divisions. There will also be a special
challenge race- the National Capital Challenge. We invite teams from
other national capitals to join their sister team from Washington, the
DC Dragons, in a special race on both days to celebrate our communal
spirit. Last year we had teams from Ottawa, Canada and Taipei, Taiwan
join us for the event. We encourage everyone to come and enjoy our city
for the weekend. For more info, watch our website at
www.dragonboatdc.com

We also invite you to come paddle with our club if you happen to be in
town. We paddle from March through November each year, and you can find
out more about our paddling club at www.ncawpa.org

See you on the water!

Dave Winter
DC Dragons

Sports Nutrition: Eating to Win

Pizza: lunch of champions!

Leslie Bonci will give a talk on sports nutrition (free to all TRRA members) this Saturday, from 10 AM till 11:30 AM, at the Lambert Boathouse on Washington's Landing.

For more information, see http://www.threeriversrowing.org/SportsNutr.htm .

Catching Up: Post-Philly

OK, so it was a weeee bit chilly out there in the City of Brotherly Love, but the men had their very cool black watch caps and there was crazy-mad boogie-woogie warm-up dancing and all-out heartwarming Pfish paddling on the Schuykill. The team that shivers together wins together!

The Paddlefish competed in the A final, coming in 6th overall to a field of somewhere between 125 and 150 teams.

P.S. Happy Birthday, Chuck!

Bob Recognized for Service

Judge Rangos congratulates Bob on his years of service to the youth of Allegheny County.

Hoo-rah!

News from another festival

I'm terribly jealous to have missed the Philadelphia festival, and look forward to hearing all about it from my fellow Paddlefish.

In my search for news about Philly, though, I ran across this little piece from the Seattle Times about a dragon-boat race in China:

Talk about putting the drag into dragon-boat racing.

Several competitors were disqualified from the traditional women's race at China's annual Ethnic Minority Games after it was discovered they were cross-dressing men. It wasn't the wigs that gave them away per se, China's Xinhua news agency reported, but rather the startling sight of "big women with Adam's apples."

I bet the Paddlefish women are tough enough to beat a boat full of cross-dressing men. I say we invite them to the Pittsburgh festival next year!

Calendar Check

October 7: Philadelphia Dragon Boat Festival
October 7: Head of the Ohio

October 13: TRRA Happy Hour at the Sharp Edge

October 14: Sport Nutrition Lecture, Leslie Bonci, 11 AM, Lambert Boathouse

October 16: TRRA Safety Meeting, 6 AM, Lambert Boathouse 0r 7 PM at Millvale

October 16: Pfish Team Meeting, 6:45 PM, Lambert Boathouse (followed by birthday celebration!)

November 15: Paddlefish Team Dinner (yep, eating and drinking instead of sweating on the ergs tonight!) and Steering Committee Elections

Volunteers Needed at HOTO This Weekend

If you're going to be in Pittsburgh this weekend, there are still some great volunteer jobs open at the Head of the Ohio!

If you can tackle any of these, please contact Kristi at 412.231.8772.

Staffing Information Tent (North Shore, Saturday)

Directing Traffic in Parking Lot (North Shore, Friday day and night)

Installing Docks (Friday morning)

Removing Docks (Sunday morning)

Pulling Dragon Boat Out of the Water (Millvale, Saturday at 5:30)

Stuffing Postcards in Envelopes (Friday, day/afternoon)

Stuff 'Oars and Paddles' into HOTO programs (Friday, late afternoon)

Represent the best of TRRA (smile!) -- collecting tickets on Steward Ship (Saturday)

It was a damp and drizzly Saturday...

... which was, of course, perfect weather for sitting in a kayak in an inch of cold, goosebump-inducing river water.

Last Saturday, the dragon boats stayed dry in the boathouse while the Paddlefish had our first 500-meter time trials in the Sprinter kayaks. Personally, I found it odd to be floating on the Allegheny by myself, rather than in a boat with 20 other people... although Carolyn here seems to be doing just fine:



Hats off to those Pfish who managed to keep smiling throughout the morning. (Also, apologies to Rachel - we ALL made that face when we felt the chilly river water creep up our shorts. She was just the only one unlucky enough to do it while I had my camera handy...!)



Thanks to those of you who volunteered to help with the timing. It was a chilly day for sitting around with a radio and a stopwatch, but we couldn't have done it without you!