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Pan Am Games

The 2015 Pan American Games team for Sprint Canoe/Kayak has been announced.
I will compete at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in the k2 500m and K1 200m. The sprint competition will take place July 11-14 at the Welland Pan Am Flatwater Center.
I am very excited to compete at the Pan Am Games it is fun event with good competition and this time there is the added bonus that I will be competing relatively close to home. This means that friends and family will be coming up to watch the event!

World Cup 1

The first World Cup just finished up in Portugal yesterday afternoon. It was a solid few days of racing with plenty of ups and downs. Overall I think progress was made in both events I competed in. The b-final in the k2 was a tight race while the end result may not have been what we were looking for it felt significantly better then the previous race and we were close to the top in time.
My K1 200m was a lot of fun while I am bummed I missed out on the A final I had the chance at least to line up again in the B-final. My time put me in the mix so I am looking forward to working on a few things this week then getting out there again to race in Duisburg next weekend.

Live stream World Cups

Watch the live stream of World Cup 1 on the Planetcanoe YouTube channel !

Portugal

We arrived at the Nelo training center in Portugal on Friday night just after dark. Driving in though we could tell it was going to be a fantastic place to train! We were right. We woke up to sunny sky's warm weather and perfect water. The past few days have Ben great training both in the single and double. I Am really looking forward to the races coming up this Fri-sun!

RallyMe

Please join my RallyMe Campaign

Exercise

Making exercise a priority is good for your overall wellness and your businesses bottom line! Why Exercising Is a Higher Priority Than My Business by Josh Steimle entm.ag/1OIS4vo 

US Team Trials

Last weekend the boathouse district hosted the 2015 US national sprint kayak/canoe team trials. I competed in three events the k1 500m, k2 500m and k1 200m . The k1 500m turned into a rough day at the office for me after about 300m but I hung in there for a 2nd place finish. The k2 felt a bit better then the individual race and Maggie and I won with a strong margin. The next day was my favorite event the 200m. The day was sunny and warm with a bit of a head wind verses a strong quartering head wind and doom and cloom in the sky. The final in the 200m went well and I got off the line strong and kept a decent pace throughout the race and came up with the win.
Next week I leave for Europe to start the World Cup season in Portugal.

N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor-Mediated Chronic Pain: New Approaches to Fibromyalgia Syndrome Etiology and Therapy, Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain, Informa Healthcare

N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor-Mediated Chronic Pain: New Approaches to Fibromyalgia Syndrome Etiology and Therapy, Journal of Musculoskeletal Pain, Informa Healthcare

USA-CANOE-KAYAK-job opening CEO

http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Canoe-Kayak/About-Us/Employment

World Cup 2. 2014 Racice

Racing starts for Maggie and I tomorrow morning with the K2 500m heats. Check it out at http://www.racice2014.com/ 

Pull ups

I have seen a lot of pull up videos going around so I figured I would add my own to the mix.

Poetry at its best.

Poetry at its best. An expression of life, of change and of courage. May we all be able to face our demons, our hopes and our dreams with this conviction and courage.

Sports nutrition

This is an interesting read on sports nutrition check it out.  http://fasterskier.com/article/seasonal-nutrition-focus-not-getting-sick-during-peak-season/

Great Read on Coaching

http://www.outsports.com/2013/10/17/4847566/charley-sullivan-rowing-coach-award-gay-michigan

High Performance Pyramid - the corporate athlete

A few years ago the Harvard Business review (HBR) put out an article on The Making of a Corporate Athlete. I came across this article while I was creating a presentation on workplace resiliency. This presentation was to discuss  how I as an athlete work to keep a positive mindset when faced with challenges such as poor race performance or the difficulty of working through a high volume training cycle and then connect how my strategy is applicable to a corporate setting. Additionally the presentation was supposed to weave in the concept of resiliency. Luckily these are all linked, positive mindset, and physical activity are essential parts of what makes a person resilient. These same things make an elite athlete effective on the playing field. If you look at a high level athlete, physical fitness is obviously a critical to performance, yet nutrition, sleep, and positive mindset are equally as fundamental to their ability to preform, and to their ability to bounce back after stressful situations-including the physical and mental stress of training (American Psychological Association).
This started me thinking about a term I heard my aunt talking about last summer the corporate athlete. So in this day and age what do you do with a term you vaguely remember....Google it. One of the first things I came across was this article by the HBR, in it they had the High Performance Pyramid, this diagram perfectly sums up what makes a person resilient. I believe that resiliency boosts performance, whether you are an Olympic athlete or a CEO. The more resistant you are to stress, the more capacity you have to perform at ever increasing levels. The HBR makes an excellent point that both high performing athletes and CEO's need to sustain high performance in the face of constant pressure and rapidly changing environments. As a kayaker this may mean adapting to changing race conditions or training loads, as a corporate athlete it may mean adapting to rapidly changing business climates and product demands, either way there is an element of stress.
If you look at the pyramid you can quickly build a case for why its really a pyramid of the fundamentals of resiliency.

 Lets take a look at physical capacity. The benefits of physical activity, healthy nutrition, and proper sleep have been shown to help promote physical, and mental/brain health. It helps improve memory, and overall energy allowing a person to stay focused and get more things done with fewer errors. Each of these components fall under the umbrella of self care, which serve as the foundation for resilience. Building emotional capacity include such things as positive mindset, emotional intelligence, emotional awareness or mindfulness, self control and self esteem. A concrete way to help build emotional capacity is to create a positive social network( The Psychological Foundation of Canada, APA).  Mental capacity includes a persons ability to focus energy. Mental capacity can be developed through such practices as meditation, visualization, and creating a work-life balance or a balance between energy expenditure and recovery (Leohr & Shwartz, 2001). I think that in addition to these things a persons general competence in their area of work is their ability to set SMART goals then carry out a plan to achieve them. Spiritual capacity, while less defined, is shown to be an important component of resilience. Research has indicated that people with higher levels of spirituality tend to have higher scores on tests for resilience.
Overall I believe that resilience is part of the foundation for increased performance.

Exercise Science

Some interesting info on the latest sport science research on fasterskier including a brief mention of an article where scientists tested coaches stress response to competition. I think it would be really interesting to do some research looking at the relationship between coaches stress levels and those of the athletes. http://fasterskier.com/article/this-month-in-journals-managing-risks-from-sun-and-extreme-diets-more-inhaler-fights/

Robert Smith Reveals Struggle With Alcoholism

This is a great piece regarding mental health and alcoholism that was broadcast on ESPN. Broadcasting on this topic on a well known network can help take the stigma out of these issues and encourage people to seek help.
http://www.youtube.com/v/1nFl8D_iEFw?version=3&autohide=1&autohide=1&feature=share&showinfo=1&autoplay=1&attribution_tag=DvIK05LndEQecnyu2uJ8sA

The Beginners Guide to Canoe Sprint

SPRINT! Life's Too Short to Cruise - Part One