P&G Diner

Saturdays are made for post-workout pancakes!

Team Survey: Saturday

As noted in last week's update, Part I of the team survey ('Who are we? Who do we want to be?') will be administered at the beginning of practice this weekend. Here's a quick overview of the survey (below).

Please let me know by noon Friday (send me an email or call me at work) if you have things that you'd like to make sure are included in the survey that may not be captured within the outline described below. We've tried to develop something that will capture the full range of the team's thoughts, so this is not a streamlined instrument but an intentionally open one -- and your input would be valued.

The goal is to get a more solid sense of who we are and/or who we want to be as a team as we move ahead with plans to hire a new coach. This first part of the team survey will focus on that question. The next part of the survey, to be administered in mid-April, will focus on the qualities and characteristics we’re looking for in a coach.

No right or wrong answers here. The survey consists of basic demographic questions (age groups, number of years on the team), open-ended questions, and questions on a scale of 1-5.

Open-ended questions are in three areas: (1) team value: what's important to you about being on the team?; (2) growth/future: should we grow in size? what are your thoughts on having A (selected on basis of most-likely-to-win trials) and B (open to all team members) boats? role of youth team?; and (3) advantages or disadvantages to being under the TRRA umbrella.

Questions on a scale of 1-5 are in the team value and growth/future areas. For example, on a scale of 1 (not important) to 5 (essential), how important are the team's social activities to you? How important is the chance to get/stay fit? How important is winning? Traveling?

Don't think too hard about the scaled 1-5 questions: go with your gut. There are no trick questions!

Let me know if you have any questions about the survey or its purpose. If you have areas or issues about the team that you'd like to make sure the survey captures, please let me know.

If you will not be at practice on Saturday, I will send you a survey by email. Those surveys will need to be back to me on Tuesday. I'll collect the results and Sarah will include them in the April 13th update.

Our Dock

Hmmm..... Looks like it might be a while before we can launch the boat from the Millvale dock.

New York, New York!

Some very muscle-sore Paddlefish arrived back in Pittsburgh with a happy haul of medals from the New York Indoor Sprints this weekend...

22 in total, including some very impressive golds from our ladies :)
Pictures (and perhaps anecdotes) to follow.

One festival down, five to go - lots more medals to come!

Interesting comment of the week...

comes to us via The Dragon Boat Channel
On which, the latest update video quotes an "email from Judy in Pittsburgh"
who is "dying to get back out on the water"

Come on now, admit it. Which Judy was it? You can't hide forever in the obscurity of have two namesakes on the team!

Music in the boat

With the water looming ever-closer, I'm beginning to wonder whether everyone in the team appreciates my lusty singing of nonsense rhymes quite as much as I think they do...

Thankfully, I've found an alternative for those loooooooooooooong Saturday morning paddles.

The NPR Sh0wer Radio

"a shower radio with an identity crisis [...] water proof enough to take on a boat and can be under up to 1 meter of water for 30 minutes!!"

a nice bit of 'Weekend Edition' and 'Car Talk' from the lounge of the boat to help the pyramids pass with pleasure instead of pain :)

Paddling is Good for the Brain

We know that paddling makes us stronger. But according to this Newsweek article, our workouts may also be making us smarter:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17662246/site/newsweek/

Hmm. Maybe I'll attempt the New York Times Sunday crossword again...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Posting this photo as an homage to my hometown, where they dye the river green for St. Patrick's Day. Wouldn't you love to paddle on this??

Photo courtesy of Ken Ilio, one of my new favorite Flickr photographers.

P.S. I don't think Ken altered the color. It really is that green.

Getting to Practice Tomorrow

Rick Brown, TRRA Head Coach, sent out the following reminder about access to the island tomorrow (Saturday):

A quick reminder that the road access to the boathouse may be closed on Saturday. The latest we have heard is that it will depend on what the weather is like. So you can check and see if you can drive in, but you may have to use the path to get to/from the boathouse from 8:00 to 4:00 on Saturday.

Thanks,
Rick

Sorta looks like a good day to go cross-country skiing, doesn't it? Or some elbow-exercising in honor of St. Patrick's Day?

;-)

Practice Schedule Change THIS SATURDAY

Confused about that previous post regarding our return to water practices and Monday/Wednesday schedules?

Well, hold onto your paddles, because I'm about to throw you another curveball (sorry for the mixed metaphor). This Saturday, March 17, we will NOT be meeting at our usual 8:30am at our usual Millvale location. Here's the new plan:

SATURDAY, MARCH 17
11:30 AM - 2:00 PM
Washington's Landing

This schedule change is due to the "Sum of Our Hearts 2007 2k Team Challenge" happening at Millvale that morning. Big thanks to Bob for reserving the alternate practice time & location for us.

Let's wish "Glen's Girls" from The Ellis School good luck in this event, and enjoy sleeping in on Saturday morning.

REMINDER: Indoor Paddling Regatta Registration Forms

If you haven't yet completed your registration form & waiver for the indoor regatta, please complete the form and return it to Jeanne at practice tonight.

The forms were attached to the last two e-mail updates. If you need another copy, try this link.

Returning to the Water

The dragon boats have been sleeping at Millvale all winter. It's almost time to wake them up!

Our weekly practice schedule will switch back to Mondays and Wednesdays the week of April 9. Starting Monday, April 9, we will meet at the Millvale boathouse for ALL practices. Monday/Wednesday practices will begin at 6:30 PM and Saturdays will begin at 9:00 AM.

Until then, we will meet as usual. If the weather (and TRRA rules) let us go out on the water on a Tuesday/Thursday before April, then we will drive from Washington's Landing to Millvale to put the dragon boat in the water. Bring water clothes and gear to practices, just in case!

Confused? Try subscribing to our team calendar on Google Calendar:
http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=pghpfish%40gmail.com .

March 2007 Workout Schedule

The March workout schedule has been posted! Please see the "Training Information" section of the sidebar.

Bonus for the newbies: Ben has included a tab with the startup workout for people who are just getting started. Let him know if you have any suggestions or feedback for the startup workouts. The purpose is to simplify the training, allowing you to focus on technique more than intensity, and reduce injury.

Toronto: Best City for Dragon Boaters

If only because of this gym:

The intimate nature of the club allows for interactive classes that use audio and visual cues to simulate an actual activity. These aren't your standard studio classes. For example, Dragon Boat is where you use a body bar to simulate paddling in a dragon boat race.

Read more, and see pictures (sadly, no pics of the Dragon Boat class, but still) here.

Bowling, the Sequel

If anyone is interested in another field trip to Arsenal Lanes -- and would like to volunteer to organize the outing -- just say the word and I will happily circulate an invite in the next e-mail update.

Arsenal will take reservations for six or more people: (412) 683-5992. Thursdays are $48 for unlimited bowling for six people (not including shoe rental).

Working Out

When it comes to marking good use of limited space, we've really got it figured out! Just count the number of exercises in this single photo: weighted sit ups, bench press, shoulder raises...

See more at the group photo pool.

Bowling Photos

Bowling photos! See our Flickr pool for more: http://www.flickr.com/groups/paddlefish

And if you remember Jonathan snapping pictures at practice on Saturday, those photos are coming soon, too...

Share and Share Alike

Got any great photos of Paddlefish in action (or inaction... like this picture of Dick at Moraine)?

Help us gather our team's visual history in one place: our group photo pool at Flickr. Flickr accounts are free.

If you're new to Flickr, this Wikipedia article will give you an idea of what it's all about.

Already a Flickr member? Great! Just use the "Send to Group" feature to contribute your photos to the Pittsburgh Paddlefish Dragon Boat Team group photo pool. Please provide a caption and/or tags*, to provide some context for the photos.

Happy photo sharing!

*Tags are like keywords that help Flickr users find photos which have something in common. Feel free to invent your own tags. I'm studying folksonomies these days in library school... and will be interested to see how our photo pool develops!

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Jordan!

Newbies

Don't be lured in to a false sense off security - I don't have photos of you yet...

...

but rest assured, I will.

Oh yes,

I will.


mwahahahaa


Welcome to the team freshest Paddlefish, Mike Bellinger and Kristine Subasic Nichols!

PS - Rissa & Jacob, you're officially no longer the freshest pair o' p'fish :p

Was that 3x8? 3x15? Is somebody counting?

Happy Birthday...

to the lovely looking Mina :)
and also to the sadly-lacking-electronic-image-of-but-also-lovely-looking Pam!!

UPDATE: And, with thanks to Kit, no poor unsuspecting Paddlefish goes un-mentioned - so, Happy Birthday to one of our newest boys, Jacob, whose birthday was last week.
And now we've finally found a photo of Pam too - these fresh 'fish - :)

And Streeeetch....

The Millvale boathouse was quiet after our Saturday morning practice (where were all the young folk, anyway?). So, after we concluded our core, Ada suggested a round-robin stretching session... we each took turns selecting a stretch for the rest of the group to do. Memorable selections include Bob's martial-arts-inspired poses, and Carolyn's cobra stretch. Very soothing way to end a workout!

For more, check out this article at MayoClinic.com about the benefits of stretching.