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Hello!

Welcome to a special holiday edition of MastersCoaching. This issue contains tools and tips to help masters rowers like you successfully navigate the sometimes tricky waters of the holiday season. You’ll also find a truly unique gift idea for the rowers on your gift list!

As a rowing coach and a life coach, I’m convinced it’s possible to enjoy the holidays, stay sane and follow a training program that will set you up for a strong fresh start to the New Year. It takes a little finesse and a bit of mental reconditioning, but it can be done!

Warm best wishes for a healthy – and fun – holiday!

Mayrene

In this issue:

¶ Great Gift Idea! MastersCoaching Gift Certificate

¶ Holiday Challenges: Strategies for Success

¶ Mayrene’s Toolbox: Training Tips You Can Use

¶ Motivational Magic: Quotes to Inspire You

¶ From the Bookshelf: Recommended Reading

Special for the Holidays! MastersCoaching Gift Certificate

Surprise your friends and loved ones with the gift of a personal coach who’s dedicated to his or her success. Specially priced gift certificates good for a month (or more) of coaching are available now. You’ll receive an attractive color gift certificate and brochure. All packages include regular meetings by phone, unlimited e-mail backup, assessment tools and value-added extras. Every coaching package is custom-tailored to focus on the client’s needs, including rowing and fitness, motivation, time management or other life goals.

Coaching is recognized by athletes, motivational experts and business leaders as among the most powerful tools there is for success. To order your gift certificate now, or to learn more, contact me at mayrene@masterscoaching.com or (508) 896-0076.

Seasonal Challenges: Strategies for Success

Let’s face it, the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Years can be crazy. With all the festivities, seasonal demands and disruptions in routine, it can be hard to manage daily living, much less focus on your rowing program. It’s a perfect set-up for falling off the training wagon. Following are tactics for addressing three all-too-familiar holiday challenges.

Challenge #1: With so much to do, you miss a few days of your training program and end up abandoning it altogether. Maybe you say to yourself, “I’ll start again in the New Year,” though you know how lousy it feels to start from scratch.

Strategy: Create a realistic holiday schedule for yourself. If you need to, plan to take two days off from training each week or cut back your daily training time. Do make your holiday workouts efficient – 45 minutes to an hour of intense aerobic work. If nothing else, promise yourself you’ll do something physical every day, even if it’s a walk, a few sets of sit-ups or relaxing stretches.

Challenge #2: Holiday season is party season. It’s great fun, but those rich foods and drinks sure wreak havoc with your healthy eating plan – not to mention your waistline. At this rate, you're going to have to work really hard on those weighted erg tests.

Strategy: Give yourself permission to indulge and don’t worry about gaining a pound or two. At the same time, set guidelines for yourself. Do you need to go to every party you’re invited to? Do you have to sample every item? Try eating a small meal before going out so you’re not starving when the hors d’oeuvres are passed your way.

Challenge #3: You get so stressed out trying to create the perfect Martha Stewart holiday, that you neglect to take time for yourself, never mind fitting in your workouts.

Strategy: The fantasy of a perfect holiday is just that – a fantasy. Worse, it keeps you from fully experiencing the present. Practice accepting life just as it is by letting go of perfectionism and laughing at mishaps. When you do become overwhelmed, remember: working out is a great stress reducer.

Mayrene’s Toolbox: Training Tips You Can Use

¶ Sit tall. Many rowers place the erg monitor too low. This forces the athlete to look down at the display. Wherever the head goes, the body will follow. This causes you to slouch and row less efficiently. The solution? Raise the monitor so you have to look up at it. This will help you avoid slouching. You’ll see an immediate improvement in your splits!

¶ Row smoothly. Listen for the acceleration in the flywheel. Keep the chain at the same height during the recovery as it was on the drive. Placing a piece of electrical tape on the erg at the height of the chain during the drive gives you a visual cue for the proper hand height on the recovery. Accelerate the handle during the drive. Let your hands move away from your body at the same speed as when they came into your body. Be careful not to hit your body; that interrupts the rhythm.

Motivational Magic: Quotes to Inspire You

¶ “We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing." ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

¶ “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined. ~ Henry David Thoreau

¶ “Being inspired is fine for a week, and being motivated might work for a month or so, but to make any lifestyle change last a lifetime, you need dedication.” ~ John Bingham, running columnist

From the Bookshelf: Recommended Reading

The Challenge, by Devin Mahoney

This book by a former Harvard coxswain offers an in-depth look at the trials and tribulations of being a coxswain, and a woman, in the world of Harvard heavyweight rowing. It’s a great inspiration for coxswains and rowers alike.

Zoom, by Istvah Sanyai

This children's book is a thin volume whose 31 pages are all pictures. It's profound and eloquent in its simplicity. “Just when you think you know where you are, guess again. Nothing is as it seems – and there's nothing to do but hang on tight as this tilt-a-whirl world goes zooming by.”

Back to Wow! Lighting the Path Beyond Wellness, by Best, Crocker, Lowey, Meints, Petry

A practical and inspirational guide to freeing your vital life force in seven key areas of health – physical, spiritual, relational, social, vocational, financial and mental. MastersCoaching Special: Receive a free 30-minute phone coaching session when you purchase Back to Wow! direct from mayrene@masterscoaching.com. $15.95 plus $2.00 S & H

The Gift of the Present. Holidays create wonderful memories and our lives are richer for them. But be careful not to let nostalgic memories of the past keep you from enjoying the “present” of today. There is a treasure in every moment. Today is a gift! That's why it's called the present!

Mayrene T. Earle, M.Ed.

Rowing¶Life Coach

“Empowering individuals through the sport of rowing.”

Founder: masterscoaching.com

phone: 508-896-0076

email: mayrene@masterscoaching.com

Please forward this newsletter to friends, teammates and colleagues. Be assured, I will never sell, trade or give your information to anyone, at anytime, period! If you do not wish to receive future editions of MastersCoaching, send an email to mayrene@masterscoaching.com with “UNSUBSCRIBE” in the subject line.

MastersCoaching ¶ December 2002 ¶ Vol. I., No. 2