I can finally sigh a breath of relief. I’ve just finished a gruelling three week block of training clocking up more than 45 hours of training. It’s a massive time commitment to fit this amount of training into my schedule, but the results are paying off! This week sees me having a slightly easier week before cranking into the volume and intensity again next week.

Over the weekend I was up in Wellington at the fifth and final NZ training camp. It was a full on weekend and we were put through our paces with intensive on and off the water sessions. Each camp we do fitness testing and I was stoked to clock a PB with my 6 lap fitness test. The weekend was a great success and it was fantastic to spend two solid days with my teammates. Unfortunately one of the team didn’t make it because her internal flight in Aussie was cancelled, but we had a group phone call to make up for her absence. The NZ Paddle Ferns is made up of an awesome bunch of girls and I’m really looking forward to heading away to Europe with them. I can only imagine the fun we’re going to have! 

“The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital.”– Joe Paterno

Preparation: prep.a.ra.ation n. the action or process of making something ready for use or service or of getting ready for some occasion, test, or duty.

Preparation is a key word in my vocabulary at the moment. It’s what I’m focusing on everyday. I’ve learnt over the years the importance of being prepared and I fully believe the harder I prepare and train the easier it will be to win. This year I’m throwing everything in the pot to be the best athlete I can be. In order to do that I realised I needed to focus a lot more on ‘recovery’ techniques so I could get the most out of my training sessions. Every session I am prescribed by my strength and conditioning coach, Andrew Abakhan, is physically and mentally demanding. So, to seek something that counteracted this I decided to try my hand at Yin Yoga.

Yin Yoga is “a meditative slow-paced class that explores long, deep stretching to enhance joint mobility and flexibility; this class is perfect for healing the body’s connective tissues. You will enjoy a deep stretch especially through the hips, pelvis and spine; a great antidote to running-related stiffness. This class is a therapeutic one and will complement the energetic ‘yang’ styles of yoga to help you to balance an active lifestyle; an excellent option for athletes.” 

Flow Hot Yoga Studio

Yin classes are run by the amazing folk at Flow Hot Yoga in Riccarton. They’ve been ever so generous and given me a 3 month membership so that I can reap the benefits of consistent yoga practice. I can’t speak highly enough of the teachers at Flow. They are all so lovely, kind and most importantly lead fantastic classes. My first week I went to 6 Yin Yoga classes and noticed a difference straight away. One of the teachers mentioned we hold a lot of our lifes tension and stresses in our hips and by releasing them we can feel a real sense of relief. I can vouch for this being true. After three weeks of consistent Yin Yoga practice I feel so much better both physically and mentally, it’s like a weights been lifted off my shoulders believe it or not! I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to stop now! It’s such a rewarding class in which you spend a full hour in a nice warm room allowing your mind to settle, focusing on your breathing and allowing your body to open up and heal. It’s the perfect counter activity to my highly demanding physical training. I only wish I had started much earlier. With just under five weeks till we leave for France I’m really looking forward to attending a lot more Yin classes and seeing how supple I can get my body and how settled I can get my mind. A big shout out and massive thanks to Flow Hot Yoga for letting me join their classes in my build up to the World Championships!

I’m going to enjoy this lighter week with a few extra yoga classes before hitting full speed again next week. I can’t believe how quickly time is flying! Soon enough we’ll be on our way to Europe! Exciting!

Thanks to everyone for all the awesome support! AND don’t forget my Quiz Night is on Sunday 10th August at the Bealey Ave Speights Ale House. Book your tickets by clicking HERE.

Liv x

There’s been a thing going around on Facebook where you have to post a list of 3 things that have made you happy. So that’s my theme this week! AND Wow, what an incredible week! It’s been one of those weeks where yesterday feels like ages ago! Jam packed!

The week started off with a happy bang! I received a super amazing email from the lovely Glenda at RASDEX. She saw my website, loved the effort I was putting into my World Champs campaign and has brought me on board as one of their sponsored athletes. I’m super humbled to be apart of their team and I’ll be wearing their spray deck at the World Champs with pride! She’s also kitted me out with some RASDEX pogies and they’ve been absolute lifesavers as winter finally starts to rear it’s ugly head.

Second bit of happiness: I booked in some massages for the coming weeks with John at Muscles Inc. He’s been tasked with getting my muscles loosened off and in tip top shape before I head away overseas. Good luck John!

My third slice of happiness this week was attending a talk by a very inspiring lady called Rowena “Rowie” McEvoy. At the age of 15 she ran away from home and didn’t finish high school, yet she’s the founder of the only Private Business College in the World and her business Max Fitness College was one of the top fastest growing companies in Australia for 2 years in a row, she’s been listed in the Top 20 Richest People list in Australia for 2 years in a row AND she’s the author of 3 best selling books! You can’t deny that she’s dedicated and hard working!

Rowie burst out in front of us declaring she’s a Powerful, Passionate, Positive woman and started with this little gem of advice to get us thinking: “be who you want to be before you are it”. She’s on a mission to help others love themselves and their lives. Her message was simple, she debunked the myth of the ‘magical bullet’, which we all know is codswollop any way, and gave it to us straight. She presented 5 principles that are based on 5 things no one, not mainstream doctors, nor specialists, nor alternative medical practitioners, nor phycologists or anyone else for that matter can argue against.

Number One: It’s about ATTITUDE. You’ve got choices in life. You can choose to be grumpy, negative, hate on the world OR you can choose to see a silver lining in unpleasant situations, to smile instead of frown, to be happy! Amazing huh, you can CHOOSE to be happy! It’s about the attitude you bring to each and every situation you encounter in your life.

Number Two: DRINK MORE WATER. It’s scientifically proven humans need water. Give or take you’ve probably got about 3 days before you fall down dead if you have no water. She wasn’t into technical mumbo jumbo like drink 8 glasses of water a day, or drink X amount of mls per kg of body weight. Nope, her message was simple…and she sung it to us “Drink more water till you’ve got clear weese, drink more water till you’ve got clear weese”. Now try getting that jingle out of your head! Water is so important for looking after your body and keeping it functioning, and your brain and mind feeling clear.

Number Three: EAT FRUIT & VEGETABLES. Another simple tip which she again sung while grooving her hips and arms around  in circles…”Eat more fruit and vegetables, eat more fruit and vegetables.” Not hard to do, yet so many of us don’t eat enough of them. And why so important?..basically because the fibre in them help you poop nice and easy twice a day! Simple!

Number Four: HUFF & PUFF. There’s no sugar coating here, you’ve got to get your heart rate up. You need to EXERCISE with INTENSITY. LSD=LSR…Long Slow Distance = Low Slow Results. She emphasised that if you haven’t exercised in a long time, or you’re over weight just run on the spot as fast as you can for 10 seconds. I challenge you to do it now!….you were puffing weren’t you! You successfully got your heart rate up! Do that 3 more times during the day and then continue it everyday. A little bit alot at a high intensity is the ticket.

Number Five: BE STRONG. Muscles are very important! We need them in our bodies to move and function. But they work on a use it or loose it mentality. When we’re in our 20’s we’re like fighter jet engines. We’re just peaking in our growing stage so we still have muscle. Then after that, well, we’re ageing and loosing muscle as each year passes if we don’t work to maintain it. If you do nothing to maintain your muscle mass by the time your 80 you’re running round with a little squeaky lawn mower for an engine and that doesn’t burn many calories nor help you move freely and functionally! So the final tip is get strong. You don’t have to go to the gym and pay an expensive gym membership and pump big weights like a body builder. You’ve got everything you need on you right this moment…it’s called body weight. Use your own body weight. Lift it, press it, push it, jump with it. Build and maintain your muscles so you can stay a “fat burning machine” who looks and mostly importantly FEELS fantastic!

Her final words of wisdom were be HARD.
be Happy and Healthy.
take Action
Respect yourself
Discipline (do what you should do even when you don’t feel like doing it).

Rowie was hands down one of the most incredible motivational speakers I’ve ever seen or heard. The most amazing thing about her talk was her energy and enthusiasm. She actually glows from the inside out and loves living life.

And I just have to sneak in one more chunk of happiness, cause that’s how I roll…YOGA! It’s amazing. The lovely Greta and her team at Flow Hot Yoga have sponsored me with a membership and I did 6 classes of Yin Yoga last week! It’s been so amazing to spend quality time on stretching out my weary body from all the physical training.

And that’s a wrap for the week. This week I’m head down butt up training. The light at the end of the tunnel(week) is our final New Zealand Training Camp being held this weekend in Wellington. After that, the next time I see the Paddle Ferns will be in Auckland on 2nd September, destination EUROPE!

Thanks to everyone so far for all your support with my campaign and my fundraising! Still lots more to go though!

Liv x

The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses – behind the lines, in the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights. – Muhammed Ali

With only 10 weeks to go till the World Champs my training is becoming even more focused and precise than ever before. As the quote by Muhammed Ali above points out, it’s the sweat and tears earned in the gym and out on the water that are happening now that matter the most. I’ve pretty much wound down my Photography and Design business to a low hum while I throw everything at my training and more so in the recent few weeks nutrition,mental training and recovery techniques. I’m really excited about the next 7 weeks I still have in NZ to really get the most out myself both physically and mentally.

Every year the White Water Canoe Club runs a freezing cold kayak race on the lower branches of the Waimakariri River known as the Brass Monkey Kayak Race. A 12km time trial in the middle of winter with what ever weather Mother Nature wants to throw at you is always an enticing concept. There are four races held over two weekends. With the level of training I’m doing at the moment I thought it would be a cool idea to test my ‘Polo’ fitness against the others who are training more specifically in longer race boats (approx 6 metres in length).

Brass Monkey Kayak Race. Photo by Kate Cambie

Thankfully Mother Nature was kind over the weekend and only blew up a slight easterly on Saturday’s race and produced a stunning warm winters morning on the Sunday. Having not paddled my race boat for some time it was exciting to get it out and onto the water again…and to clean off some of the dust it had been acquiring! Getting on the river was awesome, but it did take Saturday’s paddle for me to get my groove fully back into swing.

To put my Canoe Polo training verses this race into context…Canoe Polo is very much a strength/power/speed game. It’s short hard sprints, lots of turning and moving your kayak left, right and center. Our fitness sessions involve lots of short sharp sprints and turns and plenty of rest to remove the lactic from our muscles and a game only lasts for 20mins. Moving onto the river for a 12km time trial requires consistent speed and endurance, and you don’t get to rest! It’s 45mins of solid, lung busting paddling, no turning and definitely no resting. So I was intrigued to see how my training was going to play out in the race. Much as I thought I got to about 25mins and then really started to feel the burn both in the muscles and the lungs. It was such an amazing opportunity to put my mental skills into practise. When the burn really started to kick in I would start visualising myself playing in a final at the World Champs and feeling the burn, feeling exhausted but having to just keep pushing and pushing and pushing, knowing if I stop, or slow the pace down there’s a real possibility I could loose both in this race and in my visual game. It’s pressure like this that’s so hard to generate in training and by visualising myself in a Polo game I was able to use the pressure of a time trial kayak race to give me benefits for Canoe Polo. Plus I got awesome fitness benefits from pushing myself through and past that 25/30 min threshold at a super high intensity.

Coming over the finish line at the Brass Monkey

Results wise on day one I came in second just a mere 5 seconds behind Wendy Riach in a time of 45.56. Wendy’s a great paddler and off to compete in the Yukon 1000 next week. It’s a 1000 mile kayak race completed over a week! That’s some seriously long and fast paddling to be had. Good Luck Wendy!

Day two dawned much warmer and with a lot less head wind. I had my groove of the river back with me this time and I felt much stronger in the boat, albeit a little more fatigued from the day before’s race. Again I hit the pain barrier at the 25 minuteish mark and used visualisation to really make the most of the ‘hurt zone’ and build my mental skills for Canoe Polo. This time I again came in second, but this time I was 24 seconds behind World Adventure Racing Champion Sophie Hart and 26 seconds in front of Wendy in a time of 42.27. The river was rising slowly from rain in the hills hence why I was 3 and a half minutes quicker on day 2. Big thanks to Thule for the entry into the race and my little brother for driving for me both days! Super stars!

Well that’s another week of training under my belt. I’m feeling good and after today’s rest day I’ll be ready to dive into another big week starting on Tuesday! 7 weeks till we leave…BOOM let’s do this!

Au revoir
Liv x

Hi Everyone,

As many of you will know I’m off to the Canoe Polo World Championships in France in September with the New Zealand Paddle Ferns. In order to have all my friends, family and anyone else who wants to join come along on the journey with me I’ve created a website that you can check out. It’s full of information about what Canoe Polo is, about me, lots of photos and some great videos too. You’ll also be able to find out about my fundraising efforts and keep up to date with my journey through my blog.

Go check it out!! www.oliviaspencerbower.com

Olivia x