New adventure in working out

So normally I do my daily gym workout on my lunch hour. But on Tuesdays, I have a standing lunch date with thread_walker. So on Tuesdays I do my workout after work. But due to miscellaneous logistics, this means that it makes more sense to drive on Tuesdays rather than take BART/bike. This also gives me an opportunity to do weekly grocery shopping at Berkeley Bowl without having to schlep the results on BART/bike. This is the context in which I was wandering around the Cultural Celebration at work last Wednesday and fell in to chatting with the guy manning the dragon boat table in the Asian booth. I knew -- vaguely -- that the Big B has a dragon boat team, but I assumed that some sort of serious commitment was required to participate. He assured me that it was ok to just show up for practices as I pleased and participate in races if it was convenient. (The Big B team gets filled out by members of another club, evidently.) And lo and behold, one of the regular practices is on Tuesdays after work. At the Berkeley Marina, which is right there half a mile from work.

So today I turned out for my first practice. I actually didn't recognize any other Big B people there. (Mind you, I'd probably only recognize about 20% of fellow employees by sight.) It's evidently a completely open practice -- any random people who show up. They're fairly laid back about newcomers. I had to emphasize several times that it was my first time and I needed some help knowing what to do. On the other hand, I think I was roughly in the middle of the pack in terms of ability. (Did I mention this is a random, just-for-fun, pick-up type situation?) So we did an hour of energetic rowing, with a light amount of technique coaching. It wasn't quite as much of a workout as I'd get at the gym, but it worked different muscles and it was a nice change-up. I think I'll keep doing it. It's fun getting out in the water ... even if it is just doing circuits of the marina.