I started all my specialty trainings on Saturday, the morning was spent canoeing and the afternoon was spent on archery. As someone who has canoed on many occasions, even canoeing up the Itchetucknee in a solo canoe, I expected this to be a pretty simple class. WRONG. The beginning of the class was spent learning the different strokes you have to do depending on whether you're seated in the bow or the stern (front or back), and when there was a stroke more complicated than the regular forward motion one or a forwards or reverse sweep, I was LOST. Although, you might be surprised to learn that wasn't the most difficult part at all. Nope, the most difficult part was having to jump out of the canoe, into the lake, and having to rock the canoe back and forth with your partner so you could climb back into it. This sounds easy, right? Nope! It was literally the most physically exhausting thing I have ever done in my life (and I've run 5Ks). After four tries, I finally was able to make it in (totally prepared to puke, I'll add, so don't be too impressed) but not unscathed...
The nice top bruise is on the inside of my upper arm and the shiner on the bottom is on the inside of my right thigh...really attractive, right? Later we practiced reflipping and emptying a tipped canoe without flipping out own, which was difficult, but definitely not as challenging as the task before!
After Canoeing was over for the day, there was an hour and a half lunch break and then Archery! This course was much less strenuous than Canoeing was, and in my opinion a lot more fun. I now know most of the parts of the bow (recurve and compact) and arrow. I can restring a bow, which was definitely the hardest part, especially when you feel like you're going to break the bow from all of the tugging. After that, I learned the proper posture and technique for shooting a bow and arrow and how to teach younger people especially the process and safety precautions involved (don't go collect your bows until the range has been declared "cold", don't start shooting until you're allowed to, etc.) As it turns out, I shot the best when using a left handed bow (I'm right handed and right eyed) some weird way--I hit the target less than 1/10th of a centimeter outside of the bullseye! I wasn't too bad using the correct/right handed bow, I hit the target almost every time. After taking and passing a written exam, I got this:
If you don't know what that means, I am now a certified archery instructor and can teach you the basics of shooting a bow an arrow for the next three years, which I feel is a pretty cool skill to have right now since The Hunger Games has exploded in popularity since the movie release a couple of months ago. Watch out, Katniss Everdeen, I'm certified now!
Day Two:
Since Archery training got done a day early, the only training I had was the last day of Canoeing in the morning. Class was just taking a canoe trip up the Black Creek. I sat in the bow (the front) the entire trip, so needless to say, my arms and shoulders and back were killing me when we got done! For those of you who don't know, the person in the back of the canoe is responsible for steering and the person in the front (in this case, me) is the "powerhouse." It was definitely a workout. I got home, showered, and took a nap on the couch and pretty much didn't move for hours. It was great.
Oh, if you didn't know, you don't realize how starving you are after an intensive workout, I guess you could say, until you're finished and start eating. Then you can't stop. I kid you not, I ate two pizza lunchables and two snack-pack cookies. Then a couple hours later, I ate two more slices of pizza and while I wasn't still hungry, I definitely could have eaten for probably an hour and put Takeru Kobayashi to shame.
To be clear, I still have no idea if I got canoe certified. The instructor didn't tell us, but then I got a mass email from my boss that said everyone did great, so I'm assuming I did, but I'm not too sure, so I just plan on staying away from canoes for a while because I pretty much got my fill of them this weekend.
Day Three:
Today, I started lifeguard training. I mentioned earlier that climbing into that canoe was the most physically exhausting thing I've ever done in my life. Well, I think everything I did today in lifeguarding just completely outdid that. Let's start with the pretest, shall we?
First, I had to swim 1000 meters. You don't even realize how far 1000 meters is until you have to swim it. I watch Michael Phelps swim in the Olympics every four years and he can probably swim that in a minute and a half, so I thought it'd be maybe 5 or 10 minutes for me to do. Definitely not the case because, in case you missed it, Michael Phelps is not human. 1000 meters in the pool is 20 laps/40 lengths. By lap 3, I felt like I was going to die, but somehow, I will never know how, I was able to finish it (with three people behind me!) in probably about 20 or 30 minutes. I honestly have no idea how accurate I am because when I got out of the pool with my jello legs (did anyone know your legs can be jello and stiff at the same time? Because I didn't.) I was just concerned with getting my water bottle without falling over, let alone looking at the clock.
As if that wasn't enough, five minutes later I was back in the pool to do the brick retrieval test. If the title I just came up with isn't clear enough for you, let me explain: for this test, I had to swim 25 meters from the shallow end of the pool to the deep end, dive 7 feet down, grab a 10 pound brick from the bottom, bring it up onto my chest and swim back on my back only using my legs...in one minute and fifty seconds. Yes, you read that right: 1 minute, 50 seconds. I was the most concerned about this test, but somehow I completed it with 40 seconds to spare. Let me tell you though, the second I tried lifting that brick, I was like, "How will this be possible? This is NOT ten pounds!!" But I ended up finishing it, thank goodness.
The next test was swimming to the deep end from the shallow end and picking up three tiny ring/hoops from the bottom of the pool and getting out of the pool in one minute. Of course since this is the test I thought I'd do the best on, I completely bombed it. The first attempt I got water in my nose and couldn't complete it. So I had to go back and do it again, this time the instructor accidentally threw the third ring too far, so I had to redo it (I was so confused as to why I couldn't find it!) By the third go around, I was just exhausted and frustrated that I hadn't finished it already, so I got to the deep end (again) and got the hoops one by one, coming up for breath after each one, which you aren't supposed to do, but it was totally necessary. I got told that I passed, but the fact that I'm blind and buoyant was my problem. The last test was treading water for five minutes, which was a piece of cake.
After all that, we all got our manuals and these totally cool fanny packs!
I learned the proper way to tread water, enter the pool depending on the situation and where the victim is in the pool (I did great at those, than goodness), and how to rescue someone based on how they're drowning. That was exhausting! I basically rescued 8-9 people in the pool today, it was really challenging, especially when the instructor I had to rescue over half the time turned "drowning" into an artform. Once you grabbed him and got him on the lifeguard float, he would take off in the other direction and you'd have to rescue him again, meaning I probably actually did closer to 20 rescues today. Which definitely explains why I'm so tired right now!
Well, that sums up the last three days, sorry for this being so long, but since I'm all caught up they should be about the third of this length from now on, depending on how exciting or boring my days are.
Well, off to work on my lifeguarding homework--I have to read two chapters and come up with two questions about the reading for each chapter. Tomorrow's going to be mostly in the pool, so hopefully that'll go well!
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