5 Races

Twenty in one boat. The remaining 8 people mixed with Lightwave in the HK boat.
Coach stayed with the BuK boat and worked the team pretty hard.
They raced a total of five race pieces with a few drills in between.
There is only one more on-water practice before the College Cup race.

TSF Letter Writing

Instead of a physical practice today, we spent the hour working on TSF letters and postcards. TSF is one source of our funding and it is important that we get them done. This quarter, we are responsible for writing 60 letters and 200 postcards.

Captain Shannon bought boba for us all, so it was a neat surprise. The undergrads took on the letter writing while the graduate students took on writing the postcards.

Third Timed Mile

We jogged 2 laps and stretched out for warm-ups.

Coach then got us to do wall-sits. Coach stated that everyone needed to at least hold the position for 30 seconds, and then that at least one person must hold it for 3 minutes. As the clocked started ticking, 30s, 1min, 1:30, 2mins passed by and not a single one of the 17 paddlers dropped. Everyone held strong position. At the 3 minute count, the majority of the team let out a huge sigh and stood up. Brian H. held on for about 10 more seconds before opting out. Mindy stayed for another 2 minutes, holding the wall-sit for a total of 5 minutes. SDB is getting undeniably stronger. We must keep working harder and harder.

Next, it was the usual core workout. Coach believes that a strong core is the basis for all other workouts and physical activities. Therefore, it is always a large part of the workout. Today, we held two sets of side bridges (L&R) and planks for 1 full minute and did 40 crunches.

The majority of the workout was the timed mile. Everyone started off together and Abaho was the one who took off from the start. He led the pack while Patrick and a few other of the speedy ones on the team tried to follow the trailblazer. The majority of the paddlers looped around at around 1:56, 3:56, 6:08, and finished at around 8:30.

The timed mile times were between 5:41 and 9:53. It is important to note that everyone is running on the third lane due to the blockers in the smaller lanes. Therefore, it's a significant distance more than 1600m.

To end practice, we did a sort of hand to elbow activity that required good timing.

Rotation! Finish it, NOW!

The focus of today's practice was on rotation and learning how to finish. There was also some tension about the one stroke "go" transition. Anyway, we had skits to start off practice. The white team and the red team each designed their own short skit based on a few constraints Coach created.

As usual, we took out an HK boat and a BuK boat. Paddlers are beginning to get used to the commands and techniques of dragonboating. Loading is still taking a bit of time, but no one is stumbling anymore. We had the assistance of Victor and Frank to steer the two boats, and we are very grateful. 

Both boats ran along side-by-side for the entire practice. We started off with a 15 minute warm-up. Then a technique session on practicing rotation. At this session, Coach emphasized the touching of the inside knees during the reach portion of the stroke. This way, the hips are opened and with derotation, transferring the energy into the boat to push it forward. 

stretching out before we hit the water

preparing the skits

team lunch at chipotle

We also did the push-pull drill to work on form as well as generating an explosive pop at the top of the stroke. Coach emphasized SNAP to action repeatedly. After a race with Lightwave in which the red team actually won by about a boat (Lightwave had half its members), both Stanford boats practiced finishes. The call was "Finish it, NOW!" Then the count goes, "Up, up, up, 4....10" and it repeats. The first few attempts at the finishes resulted in huge caterpillars as paddlers did not know how much to rate up by. By the end of the day, things got a bit better. The team is looking very promising for the upcoming college cup. 

Pushing VO2 Max

VO2 Max measures aerobic fitness and maximal oxygen uptake. This workout is pretty similar to workouts that pushes the lactic acid tolerance limit as well. Everybody gathered at the track and ran two laps for warm-up.

In addition to two laps and stretches, we also had the usual core workouts, which consisted of: side bridges (L&R), crunches, and planks. This evening, we held everything for 50 seconds.

Afterwards, we divided into four teams of 3 or 4. There was a total of 14 paddlers today. Each group sent two people to the line and we ran a lot of sprints.

Workout:
2 x 100m: times were between 11s - 16s
1 x 400m: times were between 1:12 - 2:15
1 x 800m: times were between 3:01 - 5:21

Everyone was exhausted after those bursts of runs. Coach Mike stopped by to share with us some dragonboating technique related to seating and rotation.

the usual core routine

the usual core routine

burpies for warm-up

small lesson from mike

Campus Loop

Everyone took a one-lap warm-up, stretched out the legs, and mentally prepared to run the campus loop.

However, we had a slight problem because only one out of the 14 paddlers knew the course. We grouped up a little bit and then started the run. The campus loop is about 4 miles around the Stanford campus.

The times were between 28:15 and 42:51.

Last Open on-water Practice

We had a small car shortage at 9:40 today. There were 11 first-time paddlers and 19 returners. We drove out in six cars to BIAC.

The weather was sunny and hot, despite the small drizzle that we had the evening prior. The returners all took out a BuK while Patrick and Tek briefed the first-time paddlers on the shore. The first-time paddlers actually started off with the HK boat. 

Today, we mostly worked on start pieces. The first-time paddlers really caught on quickly. Xin and Abaho stroked for the HK boat. Vicky and Anna stroked for the BuK boat. The race start was 5-10-10. It was great to have at least two boats running alongside each other, because it enabled instant feedback as to how fast the boats were going, relatively. At around 11, Lightwave came around to do a few start pieces with us too and clearly... they were smoking us. However, we will get to that level eventually. 

We only three more practices until the Nov 13 College Cup competition. 

Strength Training Circuit

Instead of meeting at the Track like the past two off-water practices, the team met at The Claw for a change. Upon arrival, some guys trying to break a world record needed to gather people to complete one minute's worth of jumping jacks.

Tonight, SDB took in 5 new members. The off-water practice today gained a bit of publicity as 23 paddlers  exercised at the grass area around The Claw. Bikers and walkers passed by wondering what kind of organization we were. After stretching out, we did two sets of side bridges, planks, and sit-ups. Last week, we held bridges and planks for 30s; today, we held them for 35s.

The bulk of the workout was the circuit. We all divided into groups of three and placed into one of five stations. Each group member received a number.
Station #1 - Wheelbarrow pushups
Station #2 - High-five sit-ups
Station #3 - Inverted push-ups
Station #4 - Dips
Station #5 - Piggyback squats
For one minute, both 1 and 2 exercised. The next minute, 2 and 3 worked. The final minute, 1 and 3 worked. After completing that station, everyone rotated to another station and it continued. When we finished one cycle, we did a lightning round where we only exercised for 30s instead of the minute.

To finish the workout, we did a chain sit-up. We all sat next to one another in a circle, linked arms, and then commenced to do sit-ups as a team. We went around the circle, each person counting 3 sit-ups. Coach saw that many people struggled and began to call for just 2 sit-ups and lastly, just 1 sit-up. As a team, we did a total of 35 sit-ups.

Coach said that on Thursday, we'll be running intervals at the Track: four 100m sprints, two 200m sprints, one 400m run, and one 800m run.