The venue was Chichester Canal, the challenge was canoeing and it lasted all weekend. Yes, you have guessed it, I have completed my canoe section of the challenge.
The weekend was with sea cadets, and involved canoes and kayaks and falling into the canal, both intentionally and not so intentionally!
As regular readers (and I know there are one or two of you) may have picked up, water is not one of my strong points. To say I approached this activity with a little bit of anticipation would have been an understatement. However, the staff were fantastic, the cadets were great and I have found that canoeing is great fun and very understated. At the end of the weekend I walked away with a BCU 1 star pass and think I have made a step towards being a little more confident in non swimming pool water. Photos may follow later, but probably not the one of me falling out the kayak when I was trying to get in the thing!
Its not as easy as it looks. Its not a case of just sticking a paddle in the water and paddling, there is so much more to it. After two days of this I now have muscles aching that I didn't know I had. Its all good aching, but I've had to cancel circuit training tonight to try and recover before my swimming lesson tomorrow! Despite the aches this was great fun, and I would urge everyone to try it.
I'm looking at the next activity to do and will keep you updated. 2 challenges down, 8 to go. Bring on the next challenge!
I am an instructor with the Sea Cadets at Worthing Unit and have seen how much the cadets get out of the activities they do. I have also seen how much these activities and all the surrounding admin costs. The sea cadets are a charity, and I felt this was a fantastic way of raising money for Worthing in particular and also to encourage some of the cadets to try something different. If I can do it, so can they!
The gold challenge is based on the sports in the Olympics. Some of these sports I can do with the sea cadets, and I have purposely chosen several of these to illustrate the variety of activities that can be done, whilst also doing something that I think will be fun.
My challenge is to do the following activities.
1. Swim - Learn to swim - again. For those that have seen my swimming style, it has recently been described by Mrs Lawrence as "directional panic in water". DONE
2. Canoe - Learn to canoe. I have canoed in the past, but again this was a long time ago and all the new stuff I have learnt has forced this skill out! DONE
3. Boxing – Learn to box. I needed another sport and someone I work with can train this! DONE
4. Weightlifting – For those that know me, they will know how therapeutic gym time can be for me. This is a great opportunity for me to focus some of my energy on something different in the gym. DONE
5. Triathlon. This is a personal goal, to do a half triathlon. I have never done one and this is the one element that I plan to do in 2012. This will link my swimming and gym work together. DONE
6. Athletics - sprints. I was given the oppertunity to race at the 100m olympic stadium. DONE
7. Wrestling - in the process of doing the Judo section I managed to also cover the wrestling challenge, so it seamed approapraite to include it - DONE
8. Cycling. Take part in a cycle ride or three. I'm training for a triathlon. This incorporates a cycle leg, so why not do a cycle challenge too? DONE
9. 1/2 Marathon. This is similar in theory behind the cycle ride. If I'm doing a triathlon I might as well develop it further and do a half marathon. I'm not expecting to be fast round the course, just finish and not die on the way round would be a bonus. DONE
10. Judo - Try judo. To be perfectly honest, I needed another sport, as its in multitudes of 5, and this was suggested by some one at work. DONE
The challenge is to do them by the end of 2012, but I am aiming to have most of them done by the end of 2011.
Please feel free to add comments of support to this blog, and please sponsor me at - http://www.justgiving.com/alan-lawrence-SCC
No comments:
Post a Comment