The Killer Guppies Dragon Boat Team

Calling all Guppies, have you started working out yet? This week’s practice was pretty intense, but the more you work out on your own off the boat, the better endurance you’ll have on the boat. Besides, shedding some winter weight is good. So here’s this week’s fitness challenge:

Goal: 30 participants, 180 points
Earn:
1 point for 12-19 min cardio
2 points for 20+ min cardio
1 point for climbing 10+ flights of stairs
3 points for attending Wednesday practice
3 points for each gold boat challenge

Gold boat challenges:
- 30+ min hill-climbing workout (includes stairs or hill workouts on exercise machines)
- 3 x 1/2 mile run, with negative splits

Rest with 1/4 x (your best mile time this season) in between. Foul if any time gets slower. So aim for each set to be faster than the next. So if my mile time is 10 min, my rest time is 2min 30 sec.

Comments(0)

It’s been a while, but hey, memories are a good thing.  Check out the Tempe Race pictures, courtesy of our resident papparazzo in the Download page.

And P.S., are you keeping up with your workout?  You’d better be!

For this week, our goal is again 30 participants and 180 points.

Per day, earn:
- 1 point for 12-19 min cardio
- 2 points for 20+ min cardio
- 2 points for doing 300+ strokes of pool paddling
- 3 points for either of the gold boat challenges (or 2 points for the rec challenge: Tabata protocol - sprints)
- plus earn 3 points for attending Wednesday practice.

Comments(0)

24 Relay for Life Walkers/Runners,

Thank you so very much for your participation in the Relay for life, especially those who walked into the wee hours of the morning. I really appreciated your time and commitment to this important cause. I know Robin, Andi and Wilma were overwhelmed and touched by your support, but also the family members of their loved ones that were not there to tell their story.

Our goal was $1,200. Not only did we reach our goal, we exceeded it by raising over $1,500 dollars. Thank you very much for your generous donations and support.

I’m very proud of all of you for rising to the occasion and taking such an active role. Together we can find a cure for cancer. I am very proud to be a Guppy. I hope, together as a team and community we can continue to participate in other worthy causes and make an impact.

Again, thank you very much.

Sincerely,

Coach Gary

To make a donation online, visit my personal page

http://main.acsevents.org/site /TR/RelayForLife/RelayForLifeCa liforniaDivision?px=4959727&pg =personal&fr_id=4274

Comments(0)

Alright, just as Coach Gary said during the Spring Race, it’s only a rehersal. Time to put our game face on and let’s get psyched for the Long Beach race! In keeping with the spirit, let’s focus on this week’s Cardio Challenge with a goal of 30 Guppies particpating and 180 cardio points total. Here’s how you can earn points:

Per day, earn:
1 point for 12-19 min cardio
2 points for 20+ min cardio
1 point for 20+ reps of tricep exercises (chair dips, regular dips, weight exercises for triceps)
3 points for attending Wednesday practice
3 points for doing a gold boat challenge (see below)

Rebecca also has a video that you can watch on proper technique for chair dips see:
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=nx9gVDCnT84
(make sure you have sound, because he also shows the wrong way to do them)
And let’s not forget the Gold boat challenges:
- 3 mile run
- pushups in ‘Tabata’ intervals: max reps in 20 sec, rest 10 sec, repeat for 8 rounds, score only the LOWEST round.

Good luck Guppies!!

Comments(0)

Congrats Guppies to another exciting race weekend! I can’t believe the week is almost over. I am still getting chills from Sunday’s race! Here’s the recap:

The newbie boat was the first to test the sluggedy waters in Long Beach this weekend. That paddled with all their hearts and came in third in the race. Up next were veteran paddlers taking first in the first race and a small technically pushed us to 4th in the second race. But not to worry!! Our burning desire to win the gold earned us 1st in the Semi Final round for the 200m race. Coach Gary then decided to give the newbies another taste of the race as they set out to win second place in the final, in which was the most nerve wrecking, nail biting, photo finish. CONGRATS NEWBIES!!!

Also! The Guppies will be participating in the 24 Relay for Life to help find a cure for cancer. The event starts TONIGHT at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa. It’s not too late to donate. Please contact info@killerguppies.org !  Or send good vibes to the runners/walkers!

Comments(0)

Holy cow! Where has the time gone? It felt like it was just yesterday when we were departing for the Tempe Arizona race. I can’t believe it has been a month since then and we have another race coming up! I’m super excited because it’s going to be hosted in Long Beach!! So for all of you who are curious to see what a dragon boat festival or to see a real live dragon boat race, come down to Marine Stadium this Sunday, just next to Mother’s Beach! (see directions to our normal practice site here: http://killerguppies.org/blog/join-us#directions . Take the same route, but instead of turning right on Appian Way, make a left and head up towards Bay Shore Ave. You should see signs for festival parking).

And Guppies, what’s another week without another Fitness Challenge! It looks like the “Physical” points are really working out, since we surpassed our goal of 300 points last week by logging in a total of 330 points! Good job Guppies!! Keep up the STELLAR work! For this week’s challenge, here’s the break down:

“PHYSICAL” POINTS
————
Earn up to 2 points/day for cardio:
1 pt for 12-19 minutes
2 pts for 20+ minutes
Bonus: earn 3 points for attending Wednesday practiceEarn up to 1 point/day for strength by doing 20 reps or 1 min of any strength exercise (or any combination)
examples:
- 20 pushups
- 5 pullups, 5 pushups, 10 situps
- 1 min plank
- 30 sec plank, 30 sec wall sit
- 30 sec plank, 10 bicep curls
…”MENTAL” POINTS
———— ——— ———
Earn up to 1 point/day for race visualization
Earn up to 3 points (for the week) for listing “things I will work on in the race” (1 point each)

Since we have a race coming up this Sunday, we’re encouraging that you continue doing your cardio and workouts until Thursday. Also, don’t try new workout routines this week! We don’t want any Guppies injuring themselves before the big race! We’re also including some mental challenges to get us psyched up for the race. Remember, if you can do anything just so long as you put your mind to it!

Comments(0)

Teammates,
The official race results are available on the festival website:
http://www.azdba.com/Festival/festival_index.htm

We competed in the Mixed, Open and Womens division. For the gender races we combined with our new friends the L.A. Thunder Dragons and the local team Gila Dragons. The Mixed team advanced to the Comp A Semi-final where we placed third (only first place advanced). The Open (mens) team just missed advancing to the finals by .6 seconds. The womens team, however, advanced to the finals where they finished fourth against San Diego, Wasabi and B.A.D. Keep in mind this was a combined 3-team boat that had no practice time together. Way to go KG women! In the Collegiate division, USC finished third and has improved significantly over last year. Great job everyone!

As our first race of the season, Arizona was a valuable experience. The new team members got their first taste of racing, we had fun and made new friends and most importantly we saw how we measure up to our competition. Although the team did well, we still have work to do. Our competition has been training hard and it showed at Tempe.

We welcome the challenge that competition presents us. It will help push us to greater achievement. Already the team members who raced at Tempe want to get better and train more. I’m sure those who didn’t get to go to Tempe want to get in the game. Now is the time to get fired up and re-dedicate yourself to practice. Now begins the important training. We have the technique and we’ll develop the physical conditioning over the next four months. And we’ll race to gain experience and the confidence to achieve our goal: Comp A finals in San Francisco!

What can you do to help?

Attend as many practices as possible .

Participate in the team challenges and fitness tests .

Race, race, race! LB Spring May 11, Toronto June 21-22, Long Beach July 25-27, San Francisco October 4-5.

Recruit new members.

I hope this message gets you as excited about participating in KG as I am! The Killer Guppies are at the edge of something great this year. If we all do our best we will succeed. Anything less will give our competition the opportunity to pass us.

Comments(0)

Have you been doing your push ups? If so, please contribute them to our push up challenge. No real number goal has been set, but this should be a personal goal we want to hit. Want to achieve 500 push ups this week? Then set yourself up and get pumped! This is a perfect time to test yourself mentally and physically.

Comments(0)

Alright Guppies, this week’s challenge is jump roping. We’re shooting for a team goal of 2000 minutes. Same deal, if more Guppies contribute, the less you would have to jump, hypothetically. But that doesn’t mean it should stop you form doing more! Remember jump roping requires more than just legs, it can strengthen your mind by training it to stay focus. That focus is important when it comes to racing. Also it will definitely get your heart pumping which is what a good cardiovascular exercise should do.

Here are the guide lines. Any kind of jump roping activity is acceptible, just so long as it is continuous. Or as long as it adds up to a solid minute. If you don’t have a jump rope, jumping jacks can work in place of jump roping. And don’t forget to report your time to Rebecca!! So do your part and jump a little!

Comments(0)

Alright Guppies, this week’s Work Out challenge is the plank. No, not working the plank, but doing a solid plank. Our target goal is 600 minutes TOTAL!

So how do you go about doing a solid plank? Check out this link here: http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/abdominalcorestrength1/qt/plank.htm

Just think, if 40 members do 3 minutes, 7 days a week… well then we’ve well exceeded our goal. Plus it’s the road to tighter abs! So do your part today!

Comments(0)