Monday, March 10, 2008

How are you getting ready?

Are you stoked? Are you ready?

I'm stoked, very stoked. I think about this trip all the time. Probably to the point where Sue and Fred are getting sick of hearing about it. :-)

But am I ready? No, not really. My goal is to be able to paddle out into a monster swell on the first day there. Ambitious, but that's what goals are all about. To get there I need to get the muscles, lungs, and back into shape. The lungs should be doable; I love riding my roadbike and Sue got me some cold-weather gear for Christmas, so it's just a question of getting out there and doing it. We've switched the clocks so there's daylight available.

Getting the arms and lats back into shape, is going to be tougher but still doable. I've got a beat-up old universal gym in the garage that cost me all of $10 on craigslist; I guess I need to dust that thing off and get on it.

My back though, that's going to take some work. Riding my bike usually helps; that repetitive leg motion seems to help straighten things out. But I think I may need to get back to the chiropractor again. It has helped in the past, but I usually quit when things start feeling better. The problem is that it never really 'fixes' my back, just allevaites the pain after a while. Once I quit going, it gradually comes back again.

Would that have me ready? Probably. Modifying the grayish hue that my body takes on during the PNW winter would also be a good idea, but will have to wait for better weather. And even then I'll have to salve myself with SPF 100 to stay out in the surf very long.

So, again I ask... Are you stoked? Are you ready?

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