20km Race Walk - 5/8/15

The race walk.  It's an interesting thing.  It's one of the oldest sports in the Olympics and used to be wildly popular to watch and bet on.  It sounds simple enough - walking as fast as possible, but such that one foot is always in contact with the ground.  It is crazy hard to actually put into practice.  The human body just isn't made to move that way!  We all gathered with a couple of extra folks who thought it sounded like a fun way to spend a morning (no, really!).  We had plotted out an out-and-back course along a local trail way to equal the 20km (12.43 miles) and then parked our cars at strategic places along the course, as emergency and bail-out options.  No one really knew what to expect from this event.  We had comfortable walking shoes, snacks, sunscreen and first aid kits for the trek.

When we started off, we all made some attempt to try the actual motion.  The body actually begs to just jog.  Admittedly, most of us gave up very quickly and decided we'd just walk it as quick as we could instead.  At different intervals, some of us did try to throw in the motion, but it was futile.

We made it to our turnaround point in pretty good time.  A few people broke out the first aid kit to tend to blisters and change socks and/or shoes.  We took a few minutes to use the restroom and refill our water bottles, then headed back.  It was at about the 10 mile mark when our bodies started to ask what the heck we were doing.  J had to drop out but she encouraged us to go on - luckily her husband was able to come pick her up at one of our predetermined bail-out points.

We made it back in just under 4 1/2 hours (the Olympic record is just under 2 hours!) and were already feeling like we needed help just getting to our cars.  A few of us took a couple of days to recover, but we were all proud of actually completing this distance!

At the start/finish line after a long morning - 20km race walk complete!

5000m - 4/4/15

On a lovely spring morning, a few of us decided to run the 5000m in a charity 5k that is near and dear to my heart - The Blast.  So this post will be a little more personal!  I've been walking in this event the last few years on behalf of a good friend's son who is a survivor of Neuroblastoma.  It raises a lot of money for a local hospital that researches this horrible childhood cancer.  Many of the survivors and their families, as well as the "angels'" families participate every year.  I had never had any interest in actually running it, but figured this would be a good time to complete my Olympic 5000m.  J and L1 decided to be my support system and run it with me, although they've both done of number of 5k events over the years.

I'm not a runner.  Never have been.  Playing sports?  Sure.  But running just to run?  No thanks.  In fact, I not only dislike it, it kind of terrifies me.  Of all the events we have to complete during this adventure, the ones that still create the biggest stomach upset are any of our runs.  I am so very grateful that my friends know this and support me in trying my best.  I managed to finish the event, half jogging, half walking, but so happy to have done it.  Will I run it again?  Nope.

L1, J and L2 at the finish line

Discus & Shot Put - 3/16/15

After taking some time off for J to welcome baby L into the world, we got back to business this spring.  A local high school coach agreed to work with us on the discus and shot put events.  None of us had ever done either of these before, so we started off just learning the basic moves so as to not hurt ourselves.

Both the discus and the shot have varying weights - we stuck with the high school girls versions.  First, we practiced "putting the shot".  Just holding it correctly was a bit awkward - you only use your fingers and thumb, down to the first knuckle.  The hand should never touch the shot.  Then you tuck it just behind your ear.  The footwork for both of these events is the hard part and the coach had us practice in just the beginner's form - either no steps, or very minimal.  For the shot, we took one big lunging step and "punched the giant" - his way of saying that our hands should punch outward and upward for the right trajectory - jumping and swiveling our hips to land with the opposite foot forward.

K and R practicing the shot put

After some practice shots, we did start from the actual circle.  It's truly amazing how far the "real" athletes can put these heavy things!!!

After our introduction to the shot, we moved over to the discus ring.  At first, we practicing bowling the discs into a fence - to get the motion right of them coming off of our pointer finger last.  Then we tossed them straight up in the air - again, to get the spinning in the right direction.  A couple of us had issues with wanting to release them with the spin in the opposite direction.  A couple of the coach's throwers were there to demonstrate the full motion, including the spin.  We simply took one large step again, for fear of damaging the nearby school or cars if a disc when spinning wildly outside of the safety cage.

L2 releasing the discus

Again, knowing the distances these things can fly was amazing.  These are definitely simple looking events that can take years and years to perfect.  The slightest off-motion can make the difference!

Shot put and discus complete!

Gymnastics - 10/13-12/1/14

Gymnastics.  ?  !  Yes, we were all a little perplexed by just how we would complete these events.  M took it upon herself to search until she found a local gym that was willing to hold classes for adults.  Apparently they used to have open hours for adults to come use equipment, but haven't in some time.  So we filled out our waivers and undertook an 8 week adventure into these events.

We started out in October, arriving at Sokol Gymnastics to meet the owner as well as our coach for the next couple of months.  They had taken the time to actually put together routines for us to do for all the events, so each week, we would practice two events, then have a grand finale night where we'd each complete each routine.  The routines were comparable to what they would teach non-competitive Level 1 gymnasts (5-6 year olds!).

Week 1 started off with different mats on the floor to teach us basic tumbling - somersaults, cartwheels, back rolls and handstands.  These were all easy as kids, but we found our now more aged bodies fought some of these simple moves!  I will say that the springs under the floor made things sooooo much easier.

Working on the beginning of our floor routine - simple somersaults

Okay, so we were getting the hang of tumbling, but how on earth would we actually be able to do a vault?  Or bars?  Our coach did a great job helping us slowly build up to actually do something of value on these apparatus.  The first day we went to the uneven bars, he helped us all do a backward roll from standing up onto the lower bar.  Just doing that was amazing enough to me!

L1 starting her uneven bar routine

Next we tried out the balance beam.  Luckily, we started on beams that were almost on the ground.  Balance wasn't easy for all of us, and the concept of jumping and landing back on the 4" wide beam was a bit terrifying.  Some, like M, really got the hang of it.  Others, like me, figured getting just enough height to see light under the feet was good enough.

K running through the beam routine

Level 1 gymnasts do not actually use a vault for safety reasons - only a springboard and a large landing pad.  Still, it was hard to imagine doing what we ended up doing dozens of times.  Run as fast as possible down the runway, hit the board square, place hands down on edge of mat, then spring arms straight to land flat on our backs.  We started in the piked position, then our coach explained how we should be able to kick our legs out to a fully open position.  Try as we might, no one got there.  In the infinitesimal amount of time we were in the air, we just couldn't get that signal to our legs to KICK!  It still looked good doing it - and was so much fun.

L2 on the vault

Our second to last week, we worked with the owner of the gym to learn Rhythmic Gymnastics.  She had competed when she was young, for an Eastern European country.  Some of us were familiar with the implements - ribbon, ball, hoop, rope and club - but had never seen competition.  We learned that, for the most part, the moves are the same regardless of the implement, so our coach gave us the basic moves, then let us practice with each implement and pick our favorite.  We then put together our own routine made up of the minimum required leaps, balances, pirouettes and movements of the implement.

M balancing during her ribbon routine

R throwing the ball and leaping during her routine

It was a long 8 weeks, but rewarding to actually complete each event, at least in my eyes, to a much higher degree than anticipated going in.  The final week, Sokol had a mini medal ceremony for us, complete with a REAL torch from a past Olympics to carry, our own medals and a make-shift podium.  All the little girls who had enjoyed the entertainment of watching us over the weeks cheered and we wrapped up this part of our adventure.

K holding the torch after receiving her medal

Gymnastics complete!

 

Field Hockey - 11/20/14

Another brand new sport for all of us!  Although field hockey has been played since the 1909 Olympics, it didn't become a women's event until 1980.  We met with a coach and some of her players after their season ended at a local high school on a beautiful fall day.  The rules of this game are constantly being updated, according to the coach - safety is paramount as a hard, softball sized and relatively heavy ball goes flying around at ever faster and faster speeds.  The rules are similar to soccer, but there is no off-sides and in order to take a shot on goal, you must control the ball for at least 5 yards.  This can be done by dribbling, passing or a combination thereof.  In other words, no stealing it from your opponent and blasting it at the goal.  This gives the defensive team some time to set and know that the ball may come hurtling at them.

We first got the feel of the sticks and how to dribble and pass with them, plus how to "lift" the ball. 

Practice passing

Then we took to shots on goal and "strokes" (like a penalty shot in soccer or hockey).  Generally you do not pull the stick back away from the ball to shoot, rather shove it with force.

K getting ready to shoot

J practicing her strokes

Finally, we attempted to put all that together in a quick 6 on 6 scrimmage with the girls.  What we really ended up doing was doing a lot of chasing - either the ball or the other team.

K & M chase the ball as L1 looks on.

I have much more respect for this came and its intricacies now.  Looking forward to watching some when the 2016 Olympics roll around!

Field hockey complete!

Synchronized Swimming - 10/18/14

We found a great coach from the Pirouettes of Texas who let us join her girls for a long practice one Saturday in the fall.  The amount of time they put in to make themselves as perfect as possible is astonishing - we got there at 7am and left around Noon, but they had another couple of hours left.  And that's only on Saturdays - most meet at least two other days a week!

We first got in the water to get some instruction on just HOW you are supposed to suspend yourself in the water while sticking arms, feet or legs out - and make it look effortless.  We donned our new PTX swim caps and nose plugs and jumped in.  The motion you make with your legs was described like an old school egg beater - legs bent at the hips and knees, then rotating in small circles opposite directions.  Hands simply flat, with fingers together, elbows bent and making "parade wave" motions forward and back in unison.  Some of us got the hang of it quickly while others fought the very unnatural motion for most of the day.  We worked on the timing with the coach tapping on the edge of the pool so we could hear while under the water then the basic staggered formation the six of us would try to keep in the water.

Next we moved on to the basic movements we'd be making - "sail" arms while on our side that would start from parallel to our bodies to sticking straight out of the water perpendicular to our bodies; "sinking twists" with our arms straight over head while we turned like a screw down into the water; backward somersaults; "splashy kicks" on our backs with legs straight out; "pinwheels" on our backs, knees bent and turned such that one foot rested on the other knee, but all parallel to the surface of the water; "ballet legs" on our backs with knees first bent but sticking out of the water, then legs straight up out of the water; "clamshells" where we'd lay on our back, then fold at the waist, closing like a clam; and "barracudas" where we'd be upside down in the water and push our legs straight up and out of the water, to exposed knees.  We all began to wonder just what we'd gotten ourselves into - it had already been a couple of hours!

We took a quick break for our coach to show us the routine she had put together and diagrammed on paper.

Coach L showing us our formations

We jumped back in and went through the routine slowly a few times.  Then we took another break to get ready for our show.  We wanted to really get into the moment, so the coach and a couple of moms "knoxed" our hair for us.  Yes, "knox" as in Knox gelatin.  Since synchronization also includes everyone looking as exactly the same as possible, they use gelatin to slick their hair back into motionless helmets.  It's smelly, uses a million hair pins and nearly impossible to get out, plus we looked like rejects from a Robert Palmer video, but we all were glad we took the time for this step.

L2 getting some last touches

Back into the water to do our routine for REAL!  First we went as a group, then divided up to do doubles.  We worked out how to start since some of us were comfortable with diving in while others weren't.  I'm going to attempt to get an actual video uploaded, but for now, picture us being perfectly synchronized while perusing a few pictures!

All the PTX girls watched and cheered - here we're doing our "pinwheels"

Our "sail" arms

L1 & L2 diving in for doubles

K & M had the best "ballet legs"

R & J doing their "clamshell"

After a long morning, we climbed out of the water one last time to an ovation from the PTX girls and their parents.  They were all so kind and welcoming - and rather amazed at how much we had accomplished in a few short hours.  We were all so proud of ourselves!!!

Our starting pose - Synchro Swimming complete!

Although the pictures do it much better justice, here is the group routine video.  Enjoy!



Rowing - 10/11-12/14

There are five different rowing events for the women at the Olympics:  single sculls, double sculls, quad sculls, coxless pairs and eights.  Sculling is when the athlete uses two oars, whereas in the pairs and eights, each athlete only has one oar.  All races are over a 2000m course.

We met bright and early on a Saturday morning at the Trinity River boathouse to work with two coaches from the Fort Worth Rowing Club.  We had reviewed some paperwork and videos ahead of time to give us an idea of the motion used for sculling.  We all did some work on the ergs first - a rowing machine that allows you to practice the motion.  It's quite an exact science to get the hang of in order to optimize your stroke.  A huge amount of the stroke is all in the legs, with the waist and arms following.  It should actually be rather relaxing once you really get it.  You start with legs bent and seat slid all of the way forward, leaning forward with hands/oars near your feet.  First, you push strongly with legs, staying bent forward at the waist.  At the end of the leg push, you continue the motion by leaning back, then bending elbows and bringing your hands to your chest.  Then you do it all in reverse.  The lean, both forward and back, should only be about 20 degrees either way. 

We headed out with our solo boats to try it on the water.  Sitting up high, rather than in the boat is a bit disconcerting at first, but once we started rowing, we forgot about that part.  It takes a while to get in a rhythm, but once you do, you can take a moment to see how it really propels you.  The harder part for me was getting the hand motion right - to make sure the oars were in the water at the right angle.  More than once, I would pull but not go anywhere because I had the oars feathered and gliding through the water instead of square and pulling.


L2 heading out to do solo sculls

After solos, some of us were able to go out in the quad boat on Sunday.  A nice round trip down the river and back.

Some of us still have the quad to finish, and we all have the doubles and eights to do.  Our coaches explained that doubles is extremely difficult, so we should focus on the other events first.  Hopefully by the time we finish the other events, we'll be confident enough to get into the doubles boats!

Carrying the quad boat to the water with one of the coaches

L2, M and J with one of the coaches, heading out in the quad

After day 2