Catching Crabs and Making New Friends...

Some people catch crabs from new friends. But this post is not about those kinds of crabs. Or those kinds of friends ;-)

"Keep the oars in front of you!" 

is what a good friend used to shout whenever I shoved off the dock to head out for a race. 

Here's why...

This video is an extreme example...the athlete is not often ejected from the boat, 

but the speed of the boat is nearly always significantly negatively affected.

If the crab occurs in a race leading to a loss, the athlete's teammates may well wish to eject him or her on their own.

Crabs are usually the result of bad form which can be brought on by exhaustion, faulty rigging, crappy conditions (choppy water, floating or fixed detritus), or an oarsman's inherently poor technique. Also daydreaming or distraction.

Many rowing terms can be analogous to life situations. I am sure we have all caught a crab or two in the course of living life. What is important is how quickly we are able to recover from our crabs. In the past month or so, I've caught quite a few crabs. I've been exhausted and distracted. And I am just not the most socially adept person around to begin with...I'll be the first to admit that. I think my gaffes have hit every area of my life...training, parenting, relationship, blogging, friends... sheesh... everything.

What do I do when this happens?

Recognize, refocus, apologize, and rest up so that I am better prepared to handle the adverse conditions the next time. Then I figure out what went wrong and where so that I can improve my 'technique' and 'conditioning' in an attempt to not catch a crab for that reason again!

The other piece of this post is:  my new friend!

I have a running buddy! Yay! I have been running with her most weekends since September. She is fun and funny and energetic. She pulls me along when my old lady butt is dragging. She pushes me just the right amount :) She is @sarahlouwou who has a blog on which she hasn't been posting for months...which pretty much makes her even more supercool in my eyes.

Here is what we did yesterday...

While this looks Himalaya-esque, the only really hard parts are that hill in the middle and that very long uphill portion from 4.5 to about 6 miles...mostly it's just rolling and beautiful. We ran these 8.2 miles after running 2 other miles that are not on this elevation profile. They were the pre-bathroom miles. 10.23 miles in 1:43:29 which is 10:05 avg pace. It was a perfect morning for running :) If you would like to see pictures of where we ran... and it is lovely... click here. 

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This will also be the course for my Jingle Bell Hell 1/3 Marathon (or a little less!) on December 17th. I'll be posting more details about this race/fun-run in the very near future, so if you're local or planning to be in town (could be a great destination race...hahahahahahaha) put it on your calendar!

And I am assembling a super fun giveaway package in celebration of suckering in winning over my 500th follower... so be on the lookout!

Have you made new friends or caught crabs lately?