Waterside A

I really don't know where to begin with this because we really were rubbish. As I said in the last post our aims for this were;

1. Portage efficiently and have really good push aways. - No, not really
2. Not get in anyone's way. In the main, yes
3. Enjoy it.- Absolutely not.

I guess I should deal with point 3 first. It's pretty hard to enjoy a race of this kind when you capsize 4 times. Yes, that's right, 4 times. Apparently not a record  but I would think pretty damn close. There's no point micro-analysing each one and why they happened, but suffice to say that it highlighted our lack of confidence and stability when the water is not smooth. Let's face it, if you're capsizing 4 times on a canal then you are most definitely not in the right boat and there's no point in pretending otherwise. The real low point came when we capsized 20 metres from the finish line in front of absolutely EVERYONE. Apparently people in the canalside restaurant were standing up and having a good look at the muppets drowning a few metres from them while they ate their rocket and pesto starters.
It's also pretty hard to enjoy a race when someone drops a boat on your head. Yes, I know that you are 'racing' but I'm not quite sure that gives you the right to take my head off with your rudder while we are still trying to get into the boat. Fair enough, it might have slipped, but have the frickin' manners to say sorry.
Our portaging was 'workmanlike'. My steering up to the bank left a lot to be desired and Ad struggled getting out the boat, although we gradually sussed out the fact that we either found a spot where Adam could use a tie post to help him get some leverage or try to find a lower bank, usually much closer to the lock.
We started out too fast, which was completely my fault and I was running through the portages too quickly, which meant all the stuff we had practised went straight out the window in a peak of Adrenalin. On the longer pounds we were more relaxed and would gradually pull in a few crews only for them to stretch out again as they would portage faster than us. Unfortunately our regular capsize practise meant that we never really got settled like we had been in training on the Wey.
As we forlornly got the boat onto the car Adam said "We're not going to do the DW." That's the first time in all the crap that we've gone through in the last 6 months that Adam has been anything less than positive and I've got to say at the time I was agreeing with him. 4 capsizes in 13 miles; it doesn't take a genius in maths to extrapolate that out to work out that you'd be looking at 40 capsizes for the DW.  :-0 OK, I know it doesn't quite work like that but at that moment, as we stood shivering in the Newbury car park, the chances of us finishing the DW seemed extremely remote; if we're honest, they still do.
We walked back to the Waterside building to get changed and as we got our free snack bag Adam realised that his wedding ring had come off in the last capsize. :-( We trudged back to the car and passed two sixth form paddlers looking stupidly fresh, laughing about 'the two guys who went in at the finish...'
Our day was complete.

The elephant in the room

We had our first proper, long paddle yesterday from Old Windsor to Teddington and while it was great to get some solid miles under our belts it highlighted our major weakness, again. Core strength.

The weather wasn't great with a pretty strong headwind at times. Ad hadn't been in a boat for a week and he never really settled into the paddle properly although there were many good patches along the way. We walked through all the portages (during the race last year Jamie and I were not running by the time we got to this section anymore anyway) so we took our time and fed and drank. I was using a new camelbac bladder that had a very bad case of incontenence as it emptied its contents all over me and the boat whenever I bent down, so I need to get a valve thingy to go on the end for next time. We had two particulalry high portages to contend with at Sunbury and Shepperton but they were fine although we almost took a swim at Penton Hook as we pushed off with a lot of swell. We both had our hands completely underwater on the support stroke but we were able to keep the right way.

So, the elephant in the room? Or should that be the kayak? It's this core problem that causes us to lose our form. We are really stable in the mystere now but we loose our stability as Ad's core strength fades. The situation is getting better in that we did our longest ever paddle together yesterday and for the vast majority of it we were fine. Compare that to just a couple of weeks ago when we were struggling with this after 90 minutes. But when the lean comes on it's really difficult for us both to paddle efficiently and it just feels like were are going to tip in all the time. Not a good situation for us to be in only 8 weeks out from the race and we just don't know whether 8 weeks will give us enough time to sort it out.

So, it seems that after conquering the mystere our final hope is to get back into a discovery and see if the little bit of extra stability from it will be enough to take some of the pressure off Ad's core. To be honest, I'm not sure that it will and that what we'll just need to ensure that we are getting out onto the water 3 times a week and that Ad can keep hammering his swiss ball.

Sunday is the Waterside A. Our aims are;
1. Portage efficiently and have really good push aways.
2. Not get in anyone's way.
3. Enjoy it.

It's been nice doing some bike work recently and got a decent 1 hour run in last week. On sunday I did a 4.40 hr ride and ended up getting lost around Ewehurst but found some new lanes and old ones I had forgotten about. I'm even thinking about taking the Van Nic off the turbo and getting my tri-bars back on...

Replies
Hodge - Come and say hello on Sunday. Have a good race. :-)

Let's just do it

A relaxed portage at Pyrford Lock

After a really good 6 weeks where we had been regularly getting on the water 3 to 4 times a week, our confidence was sky high, but it only took one so-so paddle on Sunday for us to start getting doubts in our minds about our ability. The problem was, was that we actually paddled damn well on Sunday but we just didn't realise it at the time. We were not fast, but it was a blustery evening with quite a bit of chop on the water and we were paddling late at night when we were pretty tired. I really tensed up again as we went through by Kingston Bridge where there are no easy get-outs if we take a swim and Adam's back started to play up again. All we could see was the negatives because it was not as good as it had been for quite a while. We had a couple of occasions where we had to put a support stroke down, for example when I didn't see an outlet pipe spewing out a jet of water until it was pushing the nose of the Mystere well off course; so of course we thought about the fact we'd put down some support strokes. What we failed to see, until yesterday was that actually, we needed to put those strokes down and we did it without fuss and carried on paddling. We stayed upright and never looked like we were going to roll. It was one of those paddles that without us realising at the time has probably helped to make us better paddlers; not faster, but better. We have also become so focussed on every paddle being great and achieving what we needed in 'The Plan' that we forgot to enjoy what we were doing, because that's why we should be doing this, right?

So last night we met up for another paddle. Again, it was very dark but generally conditions were much better, but we set out simply to paddle for an hour, stay relaxed and enjoy it. Within two minutes of pushing off we encountered 2 rowing eights and a support boat moving really fast the other way. :-(  Okay, let's see how relaxed we can stay faced with this little lot. So as I turned in, took a deep breath and started saying 'footbar' to anyone who would listen, namely Ad who's a captive audience anyway, we were greeted with the two biggest waves that we have had to ride so far. I wasn't initially hopeful but we got through them ok with a support stroke or two and we then proceeded to Kingston Bridge with the water bumping us around badly and, even though I say so myself, we rode the bumps really well and never felt like we were going to roll at all. The rest of the paddle was great and we even paddled through the bridges on the way home with some semblence of confidence.

So Ad and I chatted and I felt that we should commit to starting the DW. Up until now we've always hedged our bets and alluded to the fact that we might not be good enough to start; a sort of relaxed 'let's just see how we go.' Well, I believe that we are good enough and it's important that we focus on our ultimate goal. Don't get me wrong; we still have a way to go yet but when I consider our last two paddles and how we've coped with the conditions then as long as we keep training consistently and effectively then there shuld be no reason why we shouldn't make the start in good shape.

Because of this rather non-commital attitude to the start of the DW we have also not really worried about sorting out our support crew, with us just wanting to focus on what we were doing in the boat. The support crew is obviously vital, as this excellent post describes and I really wanted to make sure that we have some experience in our crew to give us the best chance of finishing. Ad and I are really pleased that Alan S is going to support for us; a man who knows all things DW and probably singlehandely saved our race last year at Dreadnaught and I still have the cable-ties attached to my spraydeck that he put on so we could open and close them quicker . His experience and knowledge is a great thing for us to have; a bit like turning up at your local go-kart track to find that Ross Brawn has set up you car. We still need to sort out a second team and a few friends have kindly offered so we are going to have to start organising some training paddles with them.

Ad's away for a few days but next week is a bit of a biggie; paddle Tuesday, long paddle Wednesday and the Waterside A on Sunday. Our first big test before the DW. Exciting times.

Paddle ugly

A 1 hour 40 minute paddle from Teddington to Molesey and back. A pretty filthy night but it had to be done and pretty tough going at times, although completed without any major mishaps. We have come to the conclusion that we are not as good at paddling slowly and we find the longer paddles harder to complete successfully. Pretty stupid training for the DW then. Doh. We can only get one paddle in together next week so I am going to have to do a K1 session or two on my own.

Tired

This week's been scheduled as a rest week for us both and I really think that we need it. Last night was a relatively easy 1 hour, out and back from Teddington and we were both pretty wiped. We put in 4 fartlek efforts of about 3-4 minutes duration and the paddle went well but we were both glad to finish. We're just basically tired. So Sunday evening will be an easy 2 hours at DW effort. Hopefully I can fit in a long swim on Friday and a longish bike as well. Oh, and some core and a run in my new trainers...........

The ticker says 70 days to go. Eeek...

Probably...

our best paddle yet.  :-)

It was going to be a fartlek session but as the temperature had dropped a lot again, we decided to do the 1 hour paddle as 2 x 30 minute efforts with us trying to really nail the portages. It was great. The canal was glassy smooth as the wind had all but gone and we were particularly pleased with how well we got back up to speed at the put ins.

Back on the river on Wednesday and a long paddle on Sunday evening. Everything's still going to plan, so I am obviously wondering when and how the wheels Will fall off.

Replies
Hodge - Great. It's good to get advice from a coach as that'll really help. I think that good technique eradicates an awful lot of the potential reasons why competitors don't make it to the end of the DW

Practising to eat

Last night was a 2 hour turbo which was pretty difficult but it was nice to do a 'long bike' and while staring at the back of my garage door is hardly the same as pedaling on the lava fields of Kona (never likely to do that anyway) it was great to try to push a big gear for a long time, and still made it in bed by 10. Result.

This morning was a long paddle which ended up being 2hrs 20 mins. The 2 really nice things about it was that it was very stress free; just a good, solid paddle on the Wey Navigation at DW effort, out and back with a few portages thrown in and Adam's core held up. Normally after 90 minutes we start twitching all over the place. Gee, who'd have thought core exercises would work? ;-) It was very blustery in places which slowed us a lot but we were able to practice in these tricky conditions in a relatively easy environment. The other thing we started experimenting with was food, mainly to get Adam used to eating during aerobic exercise. I just kept it simple, taking along some cheese and marmite sandwiches cut into small squares and some nuts and raisins. We'll introduce gels at a later date. I know which ones I like but they can take a lot of getting used to.

Replies
Hodge - It's really worth spending the time getting your core fully engaged in the stroke. Like you, I tend to switch off and during a slower paddle revert back to arms only. That's where the tempo paddles we are doing where we have a 1 hour paddle that consists of 3 x 15 minutes with 5 mins rest really help because in a 1 hour paddle  we are  doing 45 minutes where we really focus on our technique. On each rep I'll focus on one thing e.g. rep 1, pressing fully against the footrest / rep 2, getting my lead shoulder forward / rep 3, hands high and fully extended. Gradually it begins to become more natural.

Paddling Technique; what not to do.

As it was blowing a gale last night, so Ad and I did an ergo / core session for an hour, alternating every 5 minutes between the ergo and doing swiss ball exercises to work on our main weaknesses at the moment. I've never actually really looked at how I paddle so we took a little bit of video to see what's going on.

In terms of what I am doing well (which isn't much!) I seem to have some good rotation and I am most pleased about the fact that I have got my stroke further away from my body. I know that last year I had my lead arm far too bent, which drastically shortened my stroke. The thing that's really odd is that I could have sworn that my lead arm was high enough but while it starts off in the correct position by the time I have full extension it has dropped significantly below my chin level. It looks more like I am trying to chop wood than paddle a kayak. I really need to try to keep it up more (Ooh err Mrs). Also, when you look at my stroke head on it just doesn't look right. It's too.......swingy. I think I need to bend my recovery arm more aggressively. Not sure about that, I might need to take further advice.

Adam's main problem seems to be that his lead arm stays out too wide rather than coming into a central position which means he's inhibiting his rotation. Anyway, it gives us plenty to work on.

Long paddle on the Wey tomorrow as it's more sheltered than the Thames.

In other news...
Lots of cycling done although no long rides, but really beasting myself on my commute and my first swim of the year on Wednesday. Really enjoyed it but it was like swimming in treacle/ Just did as many 200m reps with 20 secs rest as I could fit into my lunchbreak.

River rage and other events

On sunday we went out for our first long paddle on the river in a very long time. We decided to keep it at 2 hours so after the usual mucking about with cars we got the mystere in the water at Shepperton to make our way back down river to the clubhouse at Teddington. While we had had 2 really good weeks on the Wey I was still nervous; all our paddles on the Thames had been pretty bad in one way or another and I just felt that this would be the same. Was it? Well yes; and no.

It took us a little while to settle but we were soon crunching out a fairly easy cadence at DW effort as we made our way down to Sunbury. We had an easy portage and then it was the pound to Molesey. As we progressed along the reach, the wind started to get more blustery and and a definite chop on the water started to throw our stroke off. It was not that we were unstable but the bumps in the water were causing us to either catch too much or skim the top, catching very little. As usual, my steering started to go to pot as I was fighting the rudder, the currents and trying to keep my stroke together. I was finding it really hard and had to  stop a couple of times to get my head round it.  I had told Ad before hand that if I started to back off then he had to encourage me to keep a good length stroke and I really focussed on pressing firmly on the footrest to get the boat as stable as possible. It worked, but I had to overcome the screaming voice in my head telling me to slow down.

In the meantime we had overtaken a group of rowers as they rested after a pound and as Adam and I started up again they began to gain on us really fast. A ladies 4 went by and then all of a sudden we heard another crew shouting at us so we kept our line, not at all understanding what they were saying. I should point out that we were not blocking them, or zig zaging or anything stupid but I just thought, 'hold this course and let them go by.' They couldn't see us, they go backwards for crying out loud, and we couldn't see them; it seemed like far the safest option to me. It was at that point that one of the female 4 decided to say something along the lines of 'They are ignoring us.' It was at that point I lost it. How the hell was I supposed to ignore them while they were bumping and jostling to get round, inches from us? Words were exchanged and black looks given. Picking a fight with a load of big rowers was not something I'd normally do but I was stressed and hacked off and in no mood to be talked at like I was on someone else's water.

Things improved as we portaged Molesey, with more black looks exchanged as we went past the rowing crews as they got their boats out.  The inevitable happened as we approached Kingston and Adam's back started to give out so it was a steady plod for the last 20 minutes with a few twitches. It was a pretty stressy paddle but we didn't feel unstable so that was a massive improvement over all our other river paddles. I think for the first time we could see ourselves actually racing in the mystere.

Last night was our tempo paddle session with 3 x 15 minute efforts. we overcooked it on the first one and we were fighting a very stiff headwind that had our paddles waving in the wind but it felt really great. As Ad said, "If only we could bottle that one..." The second one was rubbish and we were just trying too hard, so we decided to have an easy paddle for 15 minutes before our final effort. This coincided with us having to go back under Kingston bridge which we have a real mental block about so we had a little wobble as we went under. When we got back, the Royal's club captain was there and it was really nice to have a chat to him. He was really positive about what we were doing and while we told him all that had been going wrong he gave us a few pointers and some good things to think about.

I read someone's twitter post yesterday, 'Being an overnight success takes time.' It's hard not to get caught up in the hear and now and focus on every twitch, support stroke and rubbish paddle, but we've come a really long way in a relatively short space of time. We are just not sure if we can get to where we need to be in the next 3 months.

Stick to the plan; have faith.