If you think to yourself "I'm going to capsize" the chances are that you will. As I pushed away from the jetty early yesterday morning that was all that I was thinking to myself. I had gone early in the hope that I would be on my own because the day before I had had a bad time in the Ranger, capsizing twice and not settling down at all. So to turn up at the Royal and see Tim Brabants, the current K1 1000m metre Olympic Champion going through his paces was a tad off putting. The contrast between an athlete absolutely at the top of his game and me was particularly stark, especially when I decided to show him how well I could roll a boat and end up upside down in the water, sucking goose poo through my teeth like a blue whale eats plankton. I was not sure that he had seen how well I could capsize so I decided to do it again some 5 metres later. Boy, I was on fire. I've got this capsize thing absolutely nailed.
So last week I paddled 5 times, which for me is an all time record in consistency. That fact that I got consistently worse as the week progressed is vexing. I'm trying to get a handle on what I am doing wrong. It maybe core strength but I actually think that's one thing that I've got a lot of. I think that I have to get my legs cycling more and use my hips while keeping them relaxed. It might be that I have to increase my leg drive in order to become more stable because I'm too tense which means that a roll to one side is not conteracted with a fluid roll to the other. I don't know. Mybe it's just a lot more time in the boat is required.
In other good news, Simon did the Outlaw Triathlon yesterday and took an hour off of his time from the Forestman last year, coming home in 11:15hrs. A great performance and I am convinced that if he sticks together a solid block of training he can get down to sub 10:30. I hope that at some time in the near future I can join him.
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