It's just as well we have a whole year before the next DW. Tonight was my first paddle in a while. A long while. It was a filthy night and I probably should have waited until the wind had dropped and for daylight, but hey, I'm a seasoned campaigner. It's nothing I can't cope with.
I was on the water for 25 minutes which was plenty enough. It was just about getting some feeling for the water and getting into a boat again. The llance felt unusually twitchy with the wind controlling my blades more than I was. I kept my stroke rate slow and focussed on spearing my feet. Just like old times. :-/
Some more of my thoughts for fellow MAMILs / MAWILS training for the DW.
5. Get Stable. I have found stability an odd thing to get my head around; sometimes I feel terribly twitchy in a boat, even ones that are supposedly high up the wobble factor scale. I have found that there is a simple correlation between the amount of paddling I do and the more stable I become, but other than that, if you are struggling, how do you improve your stability? Well, these are the points that have helped me;
i. Bracing. Bracing is basically a support stroke that is used to help you recover if you tip too far. Practise bracing. The more confident I was in my ability to brace the better I paddled. Practice bracing in shallow water and find out how far you can tip the boat over before capsizing.
This guy's just showing off, but you get the idea. ;-)
ii. Keep your head up. Don't look down at the boat but look up ahead or at the horizon.
iii. Start off in a stable boat* that you can handle, get your technique nailed and then gradually move to a more tippy kayak. It's more important that you can go out and paddle comfortably on the river for an hour and have a good training session than spending that hour trying to stay upright, so don't waste months trying to master a boat when you probably don't need to.
Start stable and paddle!
iv. There are other stability exercises that you can do in the boat. E.G. sitting in the boat and do the paddling action without the paddle. I find that this helps you to think about your hip position and how this effects the boat. I am sure there are others. Again, a coach will have exercises and drill to help you.
v. Do core exercises. You core muscles are not only essential in helping you power the boat through the water but a strong core also helps with stability. When you first start paddling you will probably find your back aching like never before; this is because your lower back, hips and hamstrings are doing an awful lot of work keeping you upright. I would advise you to do a core session or two per week, using a Swiss Ball or some other similar device of torture.
There are plenty of core exercises and videos for you to develop a simply programme. I usually did a 30 minute session twice a week. Start gently. If you have back problems, take advice.
These are the 2 main exercises I focussed on;
* More Stable boats;
K1 - Marsport Laance or Hobby, Kirton Tor (Mid-range stability boat)
It's been the usual story with outside pressures meaning that training has had to be fitted in and around work and family commitments. Work's been mental (but enjoyable, I should hasten to add) while Mrs Wheezy has had a lot of stuff on also, meaning that it has not been as easy for me to head out the door and train. I am very lucky; without her I wouldn't stand a hope of doing half the shenanigans that I get up to in the name of sport and when she has stuff to do (because she has a life too) it rather puts into focus what I am able to do with her support. <3
My legs have also been feeling very achy from the 10km race last Sunday and all this stuff has led to a relatively quiet week. Something had to give and that something was my 2 turbo sessions. I valiantly plugged away at getting my runs done and once again I have the Marathon Talk's Jantastic Spring motivation challenge to thank for getting me out the door when all I wanted to do was sit on the sofa and eat crisps. Actually, that's a lie. I did sit on the sofa and eat crisps (while marking piles of books) but I then went out for my runs when Mrs Wheezy got home. So there I was running around the streets at 10.30 at night, eyelids barely open, running on stiff stumps for legs. I did the runs but I can't say that I enjoyed them.
I've had 2 paddles so far this week. The first was in the mystere with Adam on Monday night. A really good fun, 2 hr paddle with lots going on. The rowing club was out in force and the wash that the support boats threw up around Raven's Ait had us bouncing around but we were relaxed and once through it all we did 6 x 3 minutes with 2 minutes recovery, and then it was a slow DW paced effort for the rest of the paddle. Just after portaging Molesey we saw another DW crew training, heading the other way and exchanged greetings which was cool. We were meant to meet up again on Friday night but Adam couldn't make it so there I was heading out at 9pm on my own. For once, the ergo seemed tempting but by the time I got to the club I had regained my senses enough to get a laance out of the shed. I headed up to Kingston and did an interval session of 8 x 2 minutes hard with a 90 second recovery. I was working really hard and the laance took a bit of a battering as my technique began to disintegrate andI started smacking the deck of the boat with my paddles, so over the last 2 reps I slowed it down a touch and tried to get some semblance of technique back. After 50 minutes I plodded back to the club feeling like I'd had a pretty good workout.
As I look out the window now, cold rain's falling and we've got a long paddle scheduled for tonight, so we probably will not be off the water until gone 11pm. I suppose starting a training session tired, at night in the cold and dark is good DW acclimatisation, but then again, it'll probably be 30 degrees Celsius again this Easter.
Onwards.
Replies
Hodge; Thanks mate. Glad that your training seems to be going well. Still haven't decided about Snowdonia yet.
You may have gathered that my last post was written in a bit of a sulk. I apologise. I'm over it now. It was written on the back of 2 rubbish paddles (the other one was me in a K1, just not on it at all) and a feeling that it's all getting too close and we haven't put in enough long miles. That last K2 paddle was meant to be all about miles in the bank and it wasn't and it seemed that in the course of a 2 hour paddle we had regressed 6 months.
But of course, we hadn't. After a few days we got back into the mystere. Originally we were going to K1 but we decided that we needed to do another K2 paddle so we headed out on Sunday night. The aim was to do a solid 90 minute paddle and include some good quality reps. After a warm up to Teddington lock we turned back and started doing our 4 minute reps but really trying to nail our technique. For me, it's all about the catch and setting up the stroke at the beginning as I seem to have developed a tendency to slap the water when tired so I've really been trying to get the paddle vertical and spear the water. I am better at this when I slow the stroke down so while the reps were about increasing our speed and aerobic workrate we were not going so fast as to become ragged. We were on our seventh rep when I felt what I thought was something hitting my BA and I saw someone running after us along the towpath. I assumed that it was someone throwing stones at us only for Ad to tell me that we'd snagged a fishing line. The fisherman wasn't particularly happy that we'd dragged his brand new, £120 carbon fibre rod into the water. Adam politely pointed out that we had 3 lights on the boat and he was practically invisible. Thankfully after a few minutes we were able to unhook us from his line and after a bit of gentle persuasion, his fishing rod appeared from the deep. No harm done. Anyway, 10 miles done with the best part of 28 minutes bouncing along at a tempo pace. If nothing else it was enjoyable. Last night we were back out again, this time in the laances doing more technique work. We were both clattered so after an hour we called it quits.
Last week was very nearly a complete write-off; by Thursday evening my foot had swollen considerably and I could barely stand on it, let alone walk or run. But I hit the rehab as hard as I could and by the weekend I was able to do a couple of short runs on the Saturday (15 mins max) and then two more short ones on the Sunday. Being involved with the rest of the Tritalk team helped to get me out the door, which is precisely what the #Jantastic challenge is all about. Yesterday and today I increased the duration again and it seems that everything is back to normal, although I will wait until next week before starting some serious speedwork.
The focus is now firmly on our DW preparation and I am getting that excited feeling you get with an impending big event. We were due to do the Luzmore Race from Elmbridge to the Royal but with my foot playing silly beggars it seemed highly unlikely that we'd get on the start line. As it was, we could have ended up doing it but on Saturday night Adam and I paddled up to Hampton Court for the first time this year. A solid 8 mile paddle in the Laances, again focusing on technique. That was backed up with another short paddle on Monday night; a quick 45 minute paddle to Raven's Ait and back and on Friday night we will be finally paddling the Mystere down to the Royal from Walton. I think both of us are going to try to paddle more independently in order to get hopefully, three paddles in per week.
Unlike last year where we did quite a few tempo and interval sessions, I think it'll be better to focus much more on steady, DW paced paddles. I think that will help us to learn to paddle properly with the most efficient technique possible, rather than paddling like madmen with rubbish technique. Bob has offered to help us with a training schedule so we can discuss that with him and see what he has to say about that. Paddling fast(er) is more fun but it might not actually help us to get to Westminster.
We're hoping to do a few races in preparation, but I know that Adam is not as keen as I am to have another go, but I really do think that we should. It's just actually fitting it all in. We should be able to do either the Waterside B and/or C and the Runnymede to Royal race in March. Ad's not around for the Waterside D, so we are going to have to do that on our own. We are both keen to paddle the nighttime section again in training runs, i.e. Marsport to Shepperton and I think that is going to involve some very late night Friday paddles. We just can't see a way to fit them in at any other time at the moment. There is however one other big stumbling block; we found out a couple of weeks ago that we do not have any support as Phil will not be available. That's a pretty big headache that we have to resolve but I am sure that we can find someone who can throw the odd hot cross bun at us.
I spent an hour yesterday sorting out my paddles. I was galvanised into action by Adam receiving his shiny new blades a couple of weeks ago and I realised that I had never set my blades up properly. I had been given some basic advice along the lines of "You should be able to grip the top of the paddle when they are standing up, but make them shorter than that for marathon paddling" and "reduce the feather angle" (from what, to what I wasn't exactly sure) . So, I stripped them down and started to muck about with them. I had always felt that they were rather too short, almost stopping me from getting my hands high enough, particularly the lead hand and I believed that extending them would allow me to ensure that I got my hands placed on the paddle correctly and I ended up extending them by 30mm. In order to help my rotation I increased the feather to 60 degrees as I had them set to a very shallow angle. My paddles had a large plastic locknut which had jammed on very tightly, this being one of the reasons why I had never reset them, so a copious amount of WD40 and a hefty pair of mole grips got it off, to be replaced by a jubilee clip that will now let me adjust them more easily and allow me to break them down for transportation instead of the kids having to climb over them in the car. My Kynysa paddles had a grip on them which I had been told by more than one experienced paddler I should get rid of, so a couple of minutes hacking at them with a stanley knife removed that, then to be followed by the addition of electrical tape on the shaft to show my optimum hand position (then to be covered up with pogees; doh.) At least now I can make some quick changes to them and find out if it will help my technique.
With that in mind, Adam and I went out in a couple of club Laances with Bob and we were joined by Laurence and Lesley who will also be doing the DW next year. It was the first time in the two and a half years that I have been paddling that someone has paddled alongside me and coached me on my technique and it made such a difference getting some simultaneous feedback from Bob. The main point that came of it was that I was leaning forward too much and not getting my torso upright. My lower back was quite tight and interestingly Bob asked me if I had problems with my hamstrings. Yep, they're a mess, so that's something I need to continue to work on. I worked on the catch again, doing the 3 stroke pause drill Bob had shown us on the ergos and I even had a go at a one sided drill to develop the catch further. I was a bit wobbly for that one but if I can master it then it will help me be more attacking during the catch and pull.
My paddles felt a lot better. I just felt like I was gripping the water more and applying more force and impulse to the boat; my hands were higher, although I still tend to cross the centreline, particularly with my right hand.
Adam looked so much better and more confident and we both probably got more out of that one hour of paddling than doing another 20 on our own. Despite it being a very cold night, paddling with others and genuinely feeling that we had made some real progress meant we came off the water happy and quite excited about the next few months training. Bob's being a star and is keen to keep paddling with us which is fantastic and will only help and improve our chances of success.
Ad and I were out for a quick paddle and run last night, going out in a couple of Laances from the Royal. It was proper woolly hat and pogee cold, but we had neither. Adam did however have his new shiny paddles, Canoesport 4's. Very nice they are to. Westminster is now a certainty.
After our trials and tribulations in the mystere over the last couple of weeks, we have finally had something good to report. On Wednesday last week we tried the Stratos; it's even more unstable than the mystere so after sitting in it for approximately 30 seconds we got out and went for a short paddle in the Laances. I was feeling pretty shaky still and did not relax until we were almost back home after 30 minutes. We had both decided that we needed to get out in daylight so this morning we headed out for an easy paddle up to Hampton Court. It took 2 hours, so it was pretty slow but it was just about re-building some confidence. The fact that the temperature was a dizzyingly high 5 degrees also helped and while I had a poor first 20 minutes it was what we needed to log some paddle time. Ad was feeling it a bit in the last 20 minutes with his back protesting but with work and a lot more paddling that will sort itself out. It was the first time in quite a while that I was enjoying being on the river.
Other good news; I have been running, pain free a couple of times. Only for 25 minutes but with no reaction at all so the stretching I am doing must be working and I am looking forward to maintaining this over the next few weeks. Turboing has been patchy and hard work and swimming has dropped off the radar altogether. On Friday I will be cycling outside for the first time in a long time, as long as no more snow arrives.
