Thomas Hall

It’s been a busy time since my last post; not busy enough to excuse the time between posts, but busy nonetheless. I’ve been to Florida, Halifax, Quebec City, Ottawa and, of course, home. I’m heading down to Florida again next week and I can’t wait to get back in my boat. I’m in a great space training wise and having coach Mike back has been a real help in terms of focus and consistency, two areas I believe are keys to success. This isn’t a journey one takes alone and apart from friends, family, coaches and loved ones (my girls in Florida I shall see shortly!) there are a few companies under the sponsorship tab above that I don’t thank enough, and I’m thrilled to be able to add Lasik MD to my list of sponsors.

Through a serendipitous meeting at a CTV function in the fall I met a team of professionals that were ready to help. I had the procedure yesterday, performed by The Dr. Cohen, and it was painless (I experienced only mild discomfort), speedy and well worth it. A day later I’m seeing 20/20 and feeling almost 100%. I’ll provide a few updates along the way but the improvement was almost instantaneous and should only progress from here. Thank you to Lasik MD for no more dry contacts while training and racing and brining me into your family.

I’ve also had a recent stint in the public health care world courtesy of the CHUM hospital network and I received excellent service and care.

This litany of thanks isn’t a regular feature on my blog, at least when it’s updated, but my inner cynic has been sorely tried in the past few months. Whether in the private or public health care system or simply in meeting and working with great people (I’m looking at you AthletesCAN) I’m in a great space leading up to this important summer and couldn’t ask for more.

I’ll be posting more often as I don’t have as much on my plate for the next few months, other than that three times a day hobby called training.

Once again thanks to everyone at Lasik MD.

Till next time!

Tomorrow I get turned into a human book….hence the Charlton Heston esque title of this post. If you get it you do, if not don’t worry.

I’ll be at the Pointe-Claire Public Library participating in the Human Library. A human Library is just like a normal library but with people. I’ll be signed out “read” and returned. The idea was formed in Denmark in the early 1990s by a group call “Stop the Violence” and they say what it’s all about better than I can, so head over to www.humanlibrary.org to find out more.

I’m not the only book available, you may have seen the article in the WI section of the Gazette this Wednesday but if not i’ll be joined by my Ma who is there talking about PCCC, a World War Two vet (who I will loan as soon as I get a chance) and a whole bunch of other amazing people with fascinating stories to tell about themselves and Pointe-Claire.

Anyway come check us out (that was to easy)!

Tom

Once again I get to start a blog with a mea culpa. I left my updates at a rather critical time and I’m sorry. I’ll briefly sum up the World Cup I neglected to finish writing about: It was good. Ben and I raced our first international C2 to a very strong fourth place, and had we not been as timid during the first half of the race I think we could have nailed down and bronze and been fighting for second. Nonetheless it was a good showing and we’re excited to be racing for the world championship spot later on this summer.

As i write this, I’m on my way home from a beautiful (seriously, it was nice) week in Dartmouth Nova Scotia having just finished a week of C2 work with Ben on lake Banook. Prior to this mini camp, for the two weeks in the middle of June, we (the canoe team en masse) were in a two week training camp in Ottawa sweating and working hard reestablishing a strong aerobic base from which we can build on later in the summer. This means hard work and suffering, but it’s also satisfying to finish a good hard training camp.

In Montreal Ben and I will be back at it in C2 once again enjoying the basin and training with Tamas and Mike. The goal for the next two weeks is simply fine tuning and prepping to race well at trials in July.

Check out my twitter @tomhallcanoe for more frequent updates!

I’ve redone my site and added in a facebook widget for my new fan page. Check it out!

Florida camp is a wrap…almost. I’ve got one last paddle this afternoon and then tomorrow I’m on the road with some sci-fi on tape to keep me going during the long long night.

This training camp was a great one. All the boys in the canoe group are on their A game and as fit as I’ve ever seen them.  I think we’ll be near the top of the pack come world cups in May. Personally, the camp went really well. I had some ups and downs, as always, but for the most part I feel like I made some serious technical and fitness improvements.

I also made a few rookie mistakes and over trained my ass off for a week and then died like a newbie before that cycle ended. It’s a funny thing how fine a balance it is between a maintainable load and a training load that you can’t handle. Literally just a few extra paddles and I was toast.

In the end though I’m better off for having made some mistakes. It was a good reminder of how well one can train as long as one stays in the appropriate zones and recovers adequately.

Anyway, I’m excited to be heading home to Montreal despite the miserable training that will happen on the cold, grey Olympic basin. It’ll be nice to work with Coach Mike and spend some time focusing on the final touches need for trials in may.

Cheers,

T