It's been a pretty cool couple of months of sailing and travel so far this spring. May brought around the launch of my boat, a run stopping injury and the return of many friends to the Newport area. The Volvo Round the World Ocean Race had a stop over in Newport which brought huge crowds of people into town to watch sailing! I love my sport but let's be honest, it's not exactly a spectator sport. Sail Newport and the VOR did an amazing job with the race village. With interactive simulators and a half hull of a Volvo 60 people could climb around and experience what life on a boat might be like. Having so many people excited about sailing was pretty neat.
The presence of the SCA sponsored team made up of women sailors has opened up some interesting conversations regarding bias in the sport. I've thought about this a lot and for the most part have kept my opinion off of the Internet but I'm pretty sure the only person that reads this is my Dad so I'm safe. After many conversations, articles read and drunk rantings and ramblings, I'm going to go with I don't think the issue is whether or not women as a whole are strong enough or good enough. I am concerned with wether or not I'm strong enough and good enough. I can't do anything about the lack of opportunities for women to race except try harder to get myself on race programs. Reality is that there are few positions that need to be filled and those positions are being sought after by everyone. Even if you get the job there is no guarantee that the program will last. Yachting and racing are recreations to the billionaire owners of the boats. That doesn't lead to a whole lot of security in the job field. Trust me, I've cried about how unfair it is and yelled at my teammates for not supporting girls in sailing but it comes down to the fact that it's an industry of sailors looking out for number 1. So thank you to my teammates who listened to my bitching and gave me the advice I needed. Sailing, like running, is a sport that will only carry you as far as you push yourself. Just because you have a gig doesn't mean it's going to last and just because you've run something before doesn't guarantee success a second time.
Now we can talk about running.
(See what I did there with the sailing is like running segway?)
Last week I ran my favorite loop in Palma that takes me gradually uphill to the Belver Castle along with some half mile repeats along the coast. Back in Newport on Monday I ran 10 around Ocean Drive on tired legs and I feel pretty good about my pacing. This weekend is the Bristol Half Marathon in Bristol RI. It's the first race of the RI Triple Crown event since I missed running Providence. Training has been pretty unfocused but it will be a good baseline for the other two races. I'm not looking at a PR this weekend, more using it as a long distance tempo training run.The hardest part of distance racing is the pacing and I struggle with keeping calm in the first few miles. My goal this weekend is to stay just over 8min/mile for the first 3 miles and crank it up slowly from there. I know that I can maintain a 7:40 pace for many miles but have yet to run negative splits for a distance race. I usually end up with an average pace of 8 and slower miles in the last third of the race. My friend Jillian always runs with a race plan and as yet I haven't really made one for any of my races. This is my first race this summer so as good a time as any to change some things up and see what happens.
My math teacher in high school always said, "if you alway do what you always did you will always get what you always got." This doesn't make a whole lot of sense in math teaching because I certinly never "got" math but for running it's pretty a propos. So get out there this weekend and make a change. Do something a little differently and see what happens. Also, if you know any biionaries looking for a way to spend money tell them to buy a race boat and hire me!
The presence of the SCA sponsored team made up of women sailors has opened up some interesting conversations regarding bias in the sport. I've thought about this a lot and for the most part have kept my opinion off of the Internet but I'm pretty sure the only person that reads this is my Dad so I'm safe. After many conversations, articles read and drunk rantings and ramblings, I'm going to go with I don't think the issue is whether or not women as a whole are strong enough or good enough. I am concerned with wether or not I'm strong enough and good enough. I can't do anything about the lack of opportunities for women to race except try harder to get myself on race programs. Reality is that there are few positions that need to be filled and those positions are being sought after by everyone. Even if you get the job there is no guarantee that the program will last. Yachting and racing are recreations to the billionaire owners of the boats. That doesn't lead to a whole lot of security in the job field. Trust me, I've cried about how unfair it is and yelled at my teammates for not supporting girls in sailing but it comes down to the fact that it's an industry of sailors looking out for number 1. So thank you to my teammates who listened to my bitching and gave me the advice I needed. Sailing, like running, is a sport that will only carry you as far as you push yourself. Just because you have a gig doesn't mean it's going to last and just because you've run something before doesn't guarantee success a second time.
Now we can talk about running.
(See what I did there with the sailing is like running segway?)
Last week I ran my favorite loop in Palma that takes me gradually uphill to the Belver Castle along with some half mile repeats along the coast. Back in Newport on Monday I ran 10 around Ocean Drive on tired legs and I feel pretty good about my pacing. This weekend is the Bristol Half Marathon in Bristol RI. It's the first race of the RI Triple Crown event since I missed running Providence. Training has been pretty unfocused but it will be a good baseline for the other two races. I'm not looking at a PR this weekend, more using it as a long distance tempo training run.The hardest part of distance racing is the pacing and I struggle with keeping calm in the first few miles. My goal this weekend is to stay just over 8min/mile for the first 3 miles and crank it up slowly from there. I know that I can maintain a 7:40 pace for many miles but have yet to run negative splits for a distance race. I usually end up with an average pace of 8 and slower miles in the last third of the race. My friend Jillian always runs with a race plan and as yet I haven't really made one for any of my races. This is my first race this summer so as good a time as any to change some things up and see what happens.
My math teacher in high school always said, "if you alway do what you always did you will always get what you always got." This doesn't make a whole lot of sense in math teaching because I certinly never "got" math but for running it's pretty a propos. So get out there this weekend and make a change. Do something a little differently and see what happens. Also, if you know any biionaries looking for a way to spend money tell them to buy a race boat and hire me!
Leaving Sardinia
It's always a good Tuesday night with the Avalanche V crew
12M Class start at NYYC Annual Regatta
Palma Windmill
Everyone needs a cannon
I usually have a plan... not sure I always stick to it ;-) can't wait to hear how it goes! Xo
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