Back in the habit

No paddling this week; I think mentally Ad and I needed a break as the last paddle we did on sunday week ended up with us getting changed in silence, contemplating our up and down progress. In the Laances everything is fine but as soon as we get into the mystere it all turns to worms. Our paddle last week was one hour and it was ok (ish) but whenever we had to cross the flow we really tensed up, so I ended up sticking to the bank which meant when we came to the end of a run we couldn't get the boat aound. It was as we were faffing about trying to stern rudder the boat the right way that we went over. I tried as hard as I could to brace and keep us upright but I simply couldn't overcome the inertia. A very cold 5 minutes back to the clubhouse. Grim!  We had put in a few practice portages to try to break things up but really we should have just stayed in the cockpits; it was too cold for that shennanigans! Ad is getting really frustrated at not being able to progress as well as he was hoping and I am really frustrated that I cannot help him more. I think the appropriate phrase here is 'The blind leading the blind'. I think more K1 work, more ergo work and short paddles in the mystere until the air temperature gets back above 0 degress is the plan.

I've had 4 turbo sessions on the bike this week. The weather's been rubbish for running and I only have a very old and knackered set of running flats, not suitable for ice and snow. My main focus towards the Forestman is the bike; that's where I can make the most gains but at the moment I need to get back into the habit of training regularly in all three disciplines so that's what the next month or so is going to be about. Little and often.