well now

hmm, lionel asked me to write about my first training experience and how i joined canoeing so i guess i shall cos ive got nothing to do now anyway.

lets begin with how i joined canoeing. i didnt want to join canoeing at first i guess. well, maybe i did, in sec 4 cos we would talk about rj canoeing and how its damn xiong and i wanted to try it out cos i liked the idea of dying and bleeding and overcoming the odds. however, my true interest lay in adventure racing, stuff like mountain biking, rock climbing, ironmans etc etc so when i got into rj the first thing i did was check out the ODAC peeps (OutDoors Activity Club)and i found out that there were loads of politics and bullshit in there. like u really had to suck up to get in cos there were too many ppl and they were gonna cut them down. this was bad news.

incidentally, one of my friends decided to go for canoeing training that day and i wanted someone to go home with so he sort of persuaded me to join him for the traiing session. after all, we were trying out the ecas for fun, just like everyone else. i was actually in recreational badminton and the school's newsletter at that point.

so i went for fun i guess.

this was out first training.
warm ups 50 pushups
then
20 pull ups
50 pushups
50 situps
40 dips

run one round around the track. that was one set. do 6 sets. time limit was about 2 and a half hours, whether u completed or not nobody gave a shit. but there were male egos and we were enthusiastic (cos ri what) so we chionged. and i died on the second set. but i never gave up. we did it in partners and i remember watching the secondary school canoeists (leslie, ming, jinghao, alvin) doing dips and pushups and pull ups like free likethat. den i thought "basket. theyre bloody kicking my ass, must show them whos boss"

yea so well, only managed to complete 4 sets out of 6. that was the only time i wasnt able to fnish sets.

after the sets, we had a 6km cadence run. those who could run (like me) had to push those who couldnt run. the seniors didnt really give a shit about us. they trained by themselves after telling us that "this was our team and we better get to know everyone and love everyone" so we pushed ppl (literally) and i was damn shagged cos it was always the big guys who couldnt run properly and so i had to push them. ran up and down trying to keep the line together. its not easy. the next day i had arm problems as well. but i liked it. cos there was no bullshit. everyone was simple, everything was clear cut and easy. if u were a wuss, others had to take your shit, so u better not be a wuss. like i said, life was easy and i liked it.

so i stayed.