It *is* the Fitness

Homme de Taller has nailed something I've been thinking about a lot lately. Fitness is highly important in this sailing pursuit. Of course, his perspective on it is much more detailed, holistic, and authoritative, since, despite his self-deprecation, he's quite a serious sailor and, I imagine, a little more successful than he lets on.

I think the story is somewhere in the other blog, but I'm always ready to retell a tale, even when the protestations are coming fast and furious from my children.

I was in auto accident four years ago and had a steady fall-off in fitness. At the time I was returning home from a surf shop in Hood River with a newly repaired board and a new board strapped to the roof of the Vanagon; from what I hear, they made quite a sight flying through the mid-morning sky, with the Rose Garden as backdrop.

I ended up selling the new one and the repaired one and, since, have surfed only on family vacations to Hawaii, using a couple of my older boards.

At the time of the wreck, I was signed up for the Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. I've done a lot of tris, mostly off-road, and had a very high level of fitness, completing a half-marathon in 1 1/2 hours.

My decline put me where I was this past christmas, nearly fifty pounds overweight. It didn't look too bad, since I'm 6'4 and can sort of hide it, but I certainly have looked better.

The sailing seems to have awakened me, however, and I've been at the gym regularly, mostly, I believe, in hopes of increasing endurance, strength, and general fitness to extend the sailing sessions as long as possible.

Six months ago, I would have guessed that the most attractive thing about the sailing was the martinis, or the Dark and Stormys.

Now, not so much.