Training Program

Well, I've been thinking about it for a while, and finally got off my butt to do something about it. A few weeks ago I approached Lyle Mead from Winning Ways Kayak Coaching, to see if he would consider writing a training program for me. I filled him in on my history and the very limited amount of time I could devote to training. However, he didn't hesitate to take me on board. Now, most coaches wouldn't even bother helping someone like me. After all, I can only do 2 on-water sessions a week. Most coaches wouldn't even think it would be worth their (and my) time. But Lyle was immediately willing to work with me (even with the limited time I have available), has taken this challenge on board and I consider myself very lucky that he would do this for me.
For the last week there has been numerous emails and phone calls back and forth between Lyle and me, trying to work out the best way to approach my challenging situation. Each reply and question has been answered by him very quickly, with honesty, thoughtfulness and good humour. I must say I've been very impressed all the way through. And within days of me deciding to get him to go ahead and write a program, it arrived in my email inbox today. Now that's fast!
I've just taken a look through the program and it's awesome! It's exactly what I was after, and I can't wait to get stuck into it. This is soooo exciting.

Here's a link to Lyle's website. It's really cool, and there's so much excellent information and so many great services he can offer. It's definately worth checking out.

http://www.winningwayskayakcoaching.com.au/

Running with the Forerunner

Now that's a rude awakening! First of all, this Forerunner is amazing! It is so easy to use and does so many amazing things. But it's a reality check. No more kidding myself that I'm running faster or further than I really am. My legs were still sore and fatigued from Monday's start back into running, but I was so excited to be trying out the new toy, that I didn't even really notice. I had a great (if slow) jog, and played around on the computer with all the graphs and data afterwards. UNREAL!!!

Garmin Forerunner 305 - my very early birthday present

It's arrived!!!! I only ordered it yesterday at 3:30pm (from GPS-R-Us)and it arrived from Queensland before 10am today. Now that's service! My birthday isn't until 8th September, but I convinced Chris and Mum to let me have it now so I can get the most out of it before the Masters. They were more than happy to do this...I'm sooooo lucky and thankful!

It is UNREAL!!!!! I"m so excited. I've spent the morning reading through the manual and installing the computer software. I can't wait to try it out on my run tonight.

Check it out...https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=142&pID=349#featureTab

Back into running again

Well, after the last crappy month, I started back running tonight. Connor can't ride his bike at the moment (because of an injured tooth...long story), and the boys are too heavy to push together in the double pram now. So as soon as Chris got home from work tonight I drove to the lake and went for a run.

It was sunset and it was beautiful across the lake. I felt better than I thought, and as it got darker there were some spooky noises starting and I increased my speed further. It was completely dark by the time I neared the finish and I was starting to become a little nervous, so I finished off running pretty quickly. I ended up doing 19:50 min which is pretty close to my best time. Pretty good for my first run back.

Another great paddling session

It was just me and Anton this morning, and damn it was cold. We started off heading towards the lake with the hope that by the time we got to the part where the sun normally blinds us for ages, it would have risen higher in the sky and wouldn't be such a problem. It worked.


Anton had the idea of doing some increased efforts, so we played around with different speeds and heart rates . It seems I can paddle comfortably at 170bpm, at my 'natural' paddling speed and effort. And we increased it to around 190pbm for a while.


I had a bit of trouble with my neck and back...not pain, but they were very tight and fatigued, probably after my great paddle yesterday. But a quick stop and a few stretches seemed to alleviate it. Paddling back down towards the bridge, my neck and shoulders felt really tight and fatigued again, so I stopped again to stretch, and again it worked. Cool!

I decided that I wanted to do an effort/time trial from the bridge back to the boat ramp. So as I neared the start I said to Anton "I want to do an effort...what's the time?" He said 44min and we were off. I eased into it, but gradually increased my speed until I was going as fast as I could (without falling in). I pushed it even harder for the last 400m and knew I was going fast. I felt strong and knew I was going to beat my last time. As we got to the boat ramp, I felt sick and had nothing left and said to Anton, "What time did we do?" to which he replied "It's 52min 20 sec". I was initially dissapointed because I thought we'd gone over the 8 min, but quickly realised that he'd just looked at the minutes at the start and not the seconds. So basically we could have done any time from 7:19 to 8:20. He didn't realise that I meant to time me. My fault really, I should have been more specific in my instructions. Damn!

I thought I could work it out on my heart rate monitor, by looking at the time my heart rate increased and then slowed again...but my watch had run out of memory and hadn't recorded it. Double Damn! I reckon I did a personal best (under 7:50), and the odds are that I did, but I have no way of knowing for sure.

Anway, we finished off and did a heap of sprints and starts. Anton beat me in every one, but I got better each time and by the end was going great. I'm really happy with how I'm paddling the K1 at the moment. So all in all, it was an excellent training session and I achieved a lot.

Sydney International Regatta Centre

I have always wanted to paddle at the Sydney International Regatta Centre at Penrith. Initially I planned to do the sprint races there today, but after seeing my Physio about an ongoing neck problem (that I finally got around to doing something about), I decided that I probably wasn't ready physically for it.

So after some dicussion with Chris, I decided to get up and leave mega-early (5am) to get down to Penrith by 7am, with the plan to train for an hour or so before the sprints started and then hang around to watch them.

I got there just before 7am and couldn't resist taking a photo of the view up the competition course. Unreal! The sun was just rising, there was still mist over the water. Beautiful!.

I quickly got onto the water on the warm-up lake and paddled up to the competition course. I paddled moderately hard for the full length of the course (2km) and then turned around, paddled back up to the start and did it again. Then I paddled back around to the warm up lake and finished near the pontoon closest to my car. All up, I did about 11km.

It was fantastic. I paddled in the gutter lanes which are bordered by a shallow rocky wall. So I was only a couple of metres away from the edge (and possible re-entry spots) the whole time. This enabled me to relax and have a really good, confident paddle. At one point there was a sign saying "Swimming training lane", but I figured that if anyone told me I shouldn't be paddling there, I would just tell them that I had a high chance of swimming anyway, heheheheh!

Because of the design, I was never paddling looking into the sun for very long, the water was as smooth as glass, and it was great to paddle in a straight line for so long. The facilities were great too. Toilets, showers, boat wash down facilities. In the warm up lake there are pontoons every 100m or so, and at each of these is a pressurised hose to wash down your craft. Soooo cool. I absolutely loved it, had a great paddle, and can't wait to do it again.

After my session I stayed around and watched the sprint races. There wasn't a very big turnout, but there were some excellent paddlers there. Actually, there was a huge range of craft, and paddling abilities. It was exciting to watch and has now given me the confidence to do the next races. I'll definately be there.

So, all in all, it was definatlly worth the trip down, and I look forward to paddling there again.

A Winner's Creed

I bought this card when I was in my late teens to early 20's, so it's been around for a while. I haven't seen it for years but came across it the other day.

A Winner's Creed

If you think you are beaten,
you are;
If you think you dare not,
you don't;
If you'd like to win, but think
you can't
it's almost a cinch you won't.

If you think you'll lose, you're lost;
For out in the world we find
success begins with a person's will
It's all in the state of mind.

Lif'e's battles don't always go
To the stronger or faster hand;
But sooner or later
The person who wins
Is the one who thinks "I can".

Author Unknown

This is insane!

I'm sick of the darkness from preventing me from training, so I had a bright (not) idea....I would use a head lamp and try to paddle in the dark. Now I have trouble paddling the Mirage in the dark, and really struggled last time I tried to paddle a K1 at dusk, but I thought that if I could get some light on the water it would help.

One main problem is my balance. Without the water, trees and other objects as visual clues, I find it extremely difficult to balance in the K1 (more so than usual LOL). The other problem is that I don't have grip finders on my paddle and I also find it difficult to keep the proper position of the blade in the water. I figured that the light from a head lamp could help with both these things.

I figured that I'd better have someone with me for safety reasons, and I convinced Anton to come along. As we were standing in the cold darkness we both agreed that "This is insane". Anyway, we paddled about a km up the river and headed back to the boat ramp. My headlamp was as good as useless, but I thought I could play around with it and maybe improve it. But after a few more attempts at paddling it was now pitch black and I was struggling too much to continue. Bummer! I think if we could have started even 15 minutes earlier I would have had enough light to do a decent paddle. I have not given up yet...maybe a light taped right at the bow would be better, I'll keep trying a few more ideas over the next few weeks.

I convinced Anton to keep paddling off into the dark. In his Flyer, stability wasn't a problem and I reasoned with him that 2km was not worth the effort, so he may as well do some more. So off he went, with me taking some photo's just to show how insane he was.

Sick of being sick..and a paddle at Penrith

Well, it's one thing after another at the moment. After beating my first cold, then feeling decent again after the food poisoning, now I have another head cold. I'm sick of being sick! Nothing serious, but enough to make jogging a silly idea, and enough so that I'm just tired, irritable and not quite up to training.

Anyway, I've been down in Sydney since Wednesday and had wanted to go for a paddle at the Regatta Centre. Unfortunately there was this huge rowing event on there all week, and it was off limits for training. So, even with the head cold still lurking, I decided to do a paddle at the river. I did a bit of a warm up, measured a 200m course with my GPS, and then did some sprints.

For most of them I felt great for the first 50m, good for the next 50m, getting pretty tired for the next 50m, and nothing left for the last 50m. I guess I need to do a lot more training (especially intervals and sprint training). My times were around the 1min mark which is ok I guess. I would have liked to go faster though.

And unfortunately training won't be possible tomorrow either. Hopefully I can get some more regular training happening in the school holidays....YES!!! I'm on Holidays!!!!

3 of us for a Sunday paddle

It was me (K1), Graham (TK1) and Anton (Horizon Flyer) for an early morning paddle today. We met up at 7:30am and it was great to see Graham paddling with us again...though I now joke that he is my "bad luck charm" as everytime he paddles with me I fall in (eventhough he's normally no-where near me and has never had anything at all to do with me falling in)....still, everytime he's paddled with me lately I HAVE fallen in.

Anway, Anton had his latest purchase with him...a beautiful Horizon Flyer. Lovely paint job, great looking kayak, and I spent a while admiring it. Then we were on the water paddling our usual lap. I deliberately eased off a bit today as I was still a bit weak from the food poisoning episode. But as we reached the lake I realised that we were still doing a pretty reasonable pace. Graham is definately getting faster as he kept up easily today, and it still amazes me how Anton can keep up with K1's no matter what craft he is paddling...he's a machine.

We got back to the boat ramp and had some time to spare, so we decided to do some sprints. Anton beat me in all of them today, and definately paddles sprints better in the flyer. I think I beat Graham in most of the sprints and I was very happy with how confident I felt, and how well I paddled as well. I'm starting to really enjoy sprints now.

Maybe tomorrow..

Well, we had Nanna's funeral yesterday. It was lovely...well as lovely as funerals can be. Chris worked today, as we needed the extra money after him having yesterday off. Unfortunately it has turned out to be a full day and he will be getting home around 4:30pm. I wouldn't be able to get on the river before dark. Oh well....maybe tomorrow.

The best excuse ever!

I knew Chris was going to be home early today, so earlier in the week I had planned that I would paddle sprints with the guys this afternoon....but.....something happened....

The SMS message I sent to Anton later in the day read... "Was going to go today but arm is very sore after tetanus inection I had to have this morning. I stabbed my thumb cleaning dog poo off Connor's shoe with a wooden skewer. Ouch". Instantly he called me, laughing his head off saying "That has to be the best excuse ever".

What had happened was that last night Connor had somehow gotten dog poo on his shoe. So I had the bright idea of using a wooden skewer (like you use to make kebabs), to clean it out of the deep groves. It worked great...until it slipped and kebabbed by thumb. Pretty deep too. Damn it hurt. A couple of hours later it was very sore, swollen, red and hot. Not looking good. I googled tetanus and discovered that it was at high risk for it...and of course couldn't remember my last injection. So off I went to the Doctors this morning and got jabbed in the arm. It felt fine for a couple of hours, but started getting progressively sorer, and now I can't lift my hand above my shoulder. And looking at my thumb, I probably couldn't grip a paddle anyway.
So there you have it. Turning out to be a crap week.