Canberra – February 2014
Our training resumed as usual and there was much excited all
about our lead up now, buying new gear and booking our flights was first in.
While we currently trained within our club, Komodo Paddle club, there was
various other training building up to soon a full and heavy workload this
month. It was the middle of the season and our club was beginning to prepare
for the Australian National Dragonboat Championships held this year in sunny,
warm Queensland at Lake Kawana.
On top of this there was the beginning of the ACT selections
for their divisional state team to also compete at nationals. Adrian L and I
were a part of the first ever under 23’s team while Adrian A was going into his
second year representing state at premier level. This was just our regular commitments and now
we had auroras TK1 training and then our own gym programs on top of this, so
this lead to quite the workload and it was important to eat, rest, and take
care of our bodies not to get injured.
To prove that our fitness was not dropping down and prove it
was progressing, we would benchmark regularly with the help of Andrea Trappes,
who essentially took care of all the auroras in Canberra. She would organise TK1
sessions and benchmarking sessions to make sure we were all getting the right
things done. There are about 9 paddlers
within the entire squad that are from Canberra which made the benchmark
sessions short, everyone motivating and cheering each other on to perform their
best. Each time we would benchmark, we would improve and feel stronger each
session. During every exercise we would cheer, motivate and push each other on.
A memory that brought back to the very first trail camp,
during the beep test, it was so hot and I was struggling to keep up but at the
line was Adrian A yelling at me to continue. “Common! Keep Going! You’re going
to sprint the last run!” He would nearly yell to me as I would reach the line
and turn around, and using every effort to finish it strong.
Although the club season was in full force, balancing all
these trainings and benchmarks there was the annual Lake Jindabyne Festival
that was held at the end of February. Our benchmarking was put off for this
event as we all Canberra clubs drive up to participate in the event. There was
even another aurora team member who came down from Sydney to volunteer during
the regatta. This lead towards more bonding and a great ending to the month as
we drew closer to our next big event.
