Finding solace in excel



Jamie prepping for a snowy paddle.



About a week ago I looked on the DW website, just to see if there was anything worth looking at. Helpfully, there is a little ticker across the top telling you, to the minute, how many days there are until the start. My mouth dropped when I saw the number '99' skidding across the screen. 99 days seems far too close and with the problems that Ad and I had been having paddling in a K2 together, impossibly close would probably be more accurate.

After getting over the shock, it was time to fire up an excel spreadsheet and begin the process of trying to plan out a schedule that could possibly get us to the start line of the DW in some form of shape. Last year, most of the paddling that Jamie and I did was done at DW pace and we just tried to ensure that every time we went out, we were on the water for at least 90 minutes, usually more. We put in the odd interval and fartlek effort, but the vast majority of it was 'DW pace', i.e. slow. Also, we actually only averaged a paddle a week, mainly due to the fact that last winter was extremely wet so we lost approximately 7 weeks due to the river being on red boards and flowing too fast for novices like us. It was not until the last month of our training that we discovered the Wey Navigation Canal where we could train when the river was inaccessible. Despite all this, we got through and finished the race. We went into it very undercooked as far as our training was concerned, but we also went into it having trained in every type of weather imaginable, prepared to endure and with faith in each other's ability. And we finished; just.

This time, I want to approach it with a bit more forethought, particularly as I have the benefit of last year's experience to draw on, hence turning to excel. I won't bore you with the details but it seemed wise to bring some basic periodisation into play.

I guess you would call the last three months as 'The preparation phase'. I.e. trying to stay upright. :-/

So, the next three months have been split into four distinct periods with period goals to achieve. Our weekly aim is to paddle three times per week, preferably four, with one long paddle, one interval paddle, one tempo paddle and an ergo/fartlek / core session. The faster work is aimed primarily at getting us paddling technically better rather than trying to go faster (although going faster is a nice by-product). Rotating, getting  high hands and recovery elbow and cycling our legs on the footbar is relatively easy in a 15 minute tempo effort, but then transferring that to our 2 hour long paddle takes a very high level of concentration which is much more difficult to achieve. ("Ooh, look, a heron. Ooh, look, a boat. Ooh, look..." You get the idea)

Anyway, we have a plan, in Adam's case it's even laminated and on the fridge door. Saddo. And, so far, it's working.

The plan for the Forestman is a little more organic. :-/  Today I did my first ride outside this year. And my second when I cycled back home from work. The only thing I have set myself is to get on my bike everyday for the next four weeks in an effort to get some semblance of bike fitness back. Swimming will have to wait.

Fab

Three paddles this week which have all gone far better than we could have hoped after the problems of the last couple of months. Sunday was or long paddle which I mentioned in the last post. Monday was an interval session involving 10 x 3 mins on / 3 mins off and tonight was a tempo session with 3 x 15 mins with 5 minutes recovery. It seems that rather than being two wobbly blokes trying to stay upright, that we have miraculously become a crew. Just need to shift this damn cough.

An improved state of mind

It's hard to believe but the incessant rainfall that we have experienced in the last couple of weeks has really worked in our favour. The Thames is up on red boards and it looks like it could be for a while so Adam and I have sorted out some V bars and for the time being we'll be paddling on the Wey Navigation, which Jamie and I discovered last year in the last month or so of our preperation for the DW. This morning was our first paddle on it and therefore we had to get back into the mystere which had become our nemesis in recent weeks. The fact is, we had no other choice, but if we couldn't paddle it on a canal then we were not going to be able to paddle it at all and I was hoping that it would restore some of our shattered confidence. Adam had proved last week that he had good stability on his own and therefore I had to relax and have some confidence in him.

As it turned out, we had a fantastic paddle. It was quite blustery but  being warm, with no boats, sculls, rowing eights, wash or current to contend with, we could just get on with the business of paddling. And you know what? We could do it pretty well. For the first time in a long time we smiled and enjoyed the session. On the way out we put in a few fartlek efforts which left me feeling hot ( I'm still coughing, although it seems on the way out at last) and with a few locks to contend with we were able to break the paddle up with a little bit of portaging. The main thing that we both have to work on is our core strength. By the end of the two hours we both had aches in various points of our lower backs but this is something that we can keep working on. The fact is, we proved to ourselves that we've got the stability but we need to work now on our muscular endurance. GAME. ON.

Wheezy by name....

wheezy by nature :-(

The last two weeks have been very frustrating. I have been itching to get on with some training and preparation but my weak lungs have not been letting me. Last week was completely written off; headaches, snot, coughing, high temperature, more snot and more coughing. I really had the full works. But trying to adpot a positive attitude I thought about doing the right things to bring it to an end as quickly as possible, so I ate as healthily as I could, took out shares in Beechams and consumed vats of day nurse and night nurse and most importantly, slept. I have now entered the dry, hacking cough stage this week and I am caught between really wanting to be doing something and knowing that do anything too strenuous will probably end up with me being worse off. Grrr.... Monday, Adam and I were due to paddle but the river was up on yellow boards and so we decided to scrub and go for a run instead. I did a very easy 20 minutes with Ad and felt ok, pleased to be doing my first training of 2011, but an hour later I was feeling hot and dizzy. Not a good sign. We were due to paddle again last night but I just knew it would be foolhardy, I am just not over my cold enough yet, so once again, my 'training' consisted of being in bed by 9 o' clock.

Adam, on the other hand, has been going great guns. He did 4 paddles last week and on sunday ran 8 miles; his longest ever run. At least he is getting somewhere. Hopefully, I'll be back on the river and back on my bike tomorrow, but this was not the consistent training approach I was looking for.

It was always going to happen

After spending most of the Christmas period with two poorly children who spent most of their time coughing and sneezing all over me, I was always going to come down with it at some point. I am in fact, quite surprised that it had not happened sooner so I guess that my immune system is actually a bit more robust than usual. Anyway, I am making up for it now with plenty of coughing and snot and in a weird way it's helped me focus on doing some work and preparing to go back. Every cloud, and all that...
Before it came on though I had a lovely, relaxed 40 minute run that felt really smooth, pain free etc. That was a good day! On Friday, I got out for my first outdoor ride in over 5 weeks, meeting up with Simon and doing two Boxhill ballbuster loops at a very comfortable pace. Another good day.

Obviously with the end of the year, it's been a time to look back at the highs and low and all in all, it's actually been a pretty good one.

The Highs

A new half ironman pb at the Cowman Tri (5.15). Still some way off a sub-5, which is still a big future goal for me but my first triathlon in a very long time where I felt that I had done myself justice and also left me with a feeling that there is still a lot more to come.

Doing the Devizes to Westminster Canoe race. One of the best things I have ever done, ever. A truly fantastic, eccentric, typically British event that tested our endurance, almost, to breaking point. Spending a lot of time with my brother Jamie and doing something completely out of my comfort zone when there was a high chance of failure. It's the type of event that you end up wanting to do again and again and again........

Time trialling. I was meant to do this ages ago and never got around to it or it just seemed a bit intimidating, but it's such an accessible, cheap form of racing that really makes you push hard all the time and the crowd at Kingston Phoenix have been great. Just what I needed to get a bit stronger on the bike and one of the small building blocks that led to the Cowman race. This has also meant that I have done more events this year which has given me some great intermediate goals and I am really looking forward to knocking off some time off my 10 mile tt pb this season.

The lows.

Running. Just not being able to string together a decent amount of training. The fact I ran a 1.40 half marathon at the Cowman off very little training shows me what I could be capable of. The problem is I have to have the discipline to do the boring stuff, like stretching and strengthening to bring that about which historically I have not done well enough.

Swimming. I just have not done enough. End of.

Now at this point I should make a whole load of resolutions about what I am going to do so that I can then break them all by mid-January. So I am not going to do that. That said, I do need to be consistent in my training and overall, this year, I have improved, but I need to be more consistent, every week in order to get where I would like. Watch this space....