Windy weather

A group paddle was arranged for this morning, but I woke up this morning to 45+km/hr winds and pouring rain. I draw the line at 35km/hr winds in a K1. Of course after calling Anton, 15 minutes later the rain had eased, but the wind continued all day. I was so disappointed and kept thinking that I should have gone, but the decision had been made.
I hadn't yet done my blog for today, but Anton was just hanging out to comment, so he did it on the previous blog. However, I love it (and my reply) so I decided for today's blog to just copy it from there. I think it tells the story well...

anton said...
Saturday, 23rd may 2009
ITS RAINING AND WINDY HERE. NO WAY I'M GOING PADDLING IN THAT _ _ _ _!!!!
I checked its spelt "WUSS". Well the rest of us turned up for the saturday early morning paddle.
Geoff (mirage), Michael (mirage), Darren (flash), Jack n Jen (double) and myself (tk1).
Really nice relaxing 8km paddle with the two mirages setting the pace. A couple of spots of rain (nothing serious), and a really nice breeze to assist our trip back to the boat ramp. JnJ and Darren even went out around the third marker, I turned at the second, didn't feel like swimming (that water's really getting cold).
We also passed another bloke in a mirage 580 and Greg and a young wippersnapper in a k1 doing a bit of training. Really was a good paddle, shame you weren't there!!!!!!!!
On a serious side though I will admit that it probably would have been an extremely difficult paddle for anyone (except Mark) in a k1.
Just to top off this stirring comment I told Paul the runner that you didn't paddle this morning because of the weather and he said quote "tell her, real athletes get out there in any weather".
lol c ya

May 23, 2009 5:30 PM
Tigerkyra said...
Yes, fair comment. But in my defence, it's not actually the weather that's the problem..it's how the shoulder goes in the wind (and swimming) that's the problem. The rain doesn't bother me at all (and I probably would have been wet from swimming anyway), but to aggravate my shoulder in that wind...now I'm not that stupid. :) I did however go running in that weather...so I guess I'm still an athlete huh!

The rain strikes again

As I worked yesterday and couldn't paddle in the afternoon, I was going to go for my run when Chris got home last night. Well he got home at 5:30 and be darned it was already dark. What the *&%$ is going on there. How can it be already dark at 5:30pm? I think this winter is really going to frustrate me and play havoc with my training!!!
Anyway the plan was to get up this morning, feed the boys breakie and go for a nice early morning run down at the lake. Of course it started raining just as we were about to get in the car. Now this used to never worry me, as I like running in the rain and I just put a wet weather cover over the boys, but Connor is getting so tall now that he barely fits in the pram anymore and the rain cover hits him in the head now.
So I decided to go to the shops (which I was going to do afterwards), and hoped that on the way home the weather would be better and I'd get my run in. The thought had even occurred to me to go to the gym there and put the boys in the creche, but that would have turned out a bit expensive. Anyway after the shops the weather had cleared and I drove to the lake. It was looking a bit ominous as I started my warm-up walk, but I thought I'd be able to get back before it rained again. I was wrong. After a 5 min walk and 5 minutes into my run it started raining again. I turned around and ran back to the car (the boys thought the rain was fun and called out wheeeeeeeeeee, wheeeeeeeee the whole way back). Oh well at least I got a 10 minute run in.

A wet group paddle

I had thought that it was only going to be myself, Anton and Mark paddling this morning, especially in such miserable weather. What a lovely surprise is was to turn up at the put in spot to find Jack and Jen already there, with Mark, Ernie, and Anton arriving shortly afterwards. I always love paddling with a group. I paddled the club K1, Mark paddled his Van Dusen K1, Ernie and Anton paddled their respective Mirage 580's, and Jack and Jen paddled a double.
Most of us decided that we didn't need spray skirts but wore our wet weather gear 'just in case'. It was only sprinkling as we started, but not even 500m into it, it bucked down. Oh well - wrong decision. We headed to the bridge first and then up to the lake. It was pouring and windy at the point and I was not game enough to head out to the markers on the lake. Unbelievably Mark, Jack and Jen did and came back unscathed. Anyone who can paddle a K1 (and not fall in) in those conditions is amazing in my books.
We headed back and did a bit extra to make it 8km. I felt a bit wheezy the whole paddle (I'm battling a mild cold) and didn't feel flash, but we did the 8km in just over 50min. That's the fastest I've done yet.
The paddle was full of learning experiences. It was such a lovely group of people, and everyone was sharing their knowledge and experience with me on everything from wash riding to race tactics. Mark and Jack especially gave me so much information. I learnt so much - what a wealth of knowledge they have! We did some sprints and practiced wash riding and paddling through wash. It was a great paddle, with great company.
At the end I had a very short go in Mark's Van Dusen K1. This is my third attempt at it and first without falling in. Sooooooo tippy. Mark has generously offered to lend it to me to race in (for the State Marathon Championships) and to train in for the next month. What a legend. Though I don't think there's any way I will be ready to race in it in a months time. But if I can train in it, then racing in a more stable K1 will be easy. So the plan is to have a go in it this Wednesday and if I can paddle it well enough to do some decent training, then I'll persist for the month. But if I can't stay in it for the intervals and decent efforts, then there's no point in training in it for the moment. I need to be able to paddle it well enough to improve my fitness (not just to learn to balance).

A wet paddle

Not becuase of the rain, but because I was paddling with Anton - Heheheheheh. Just joking Anton. I always have a dig at him because he throws so much water off his paddle (no you can't blame it on the type of paddle you have Anton). Anyway, it was raining and I still wanted to train so he came along as well. By the time we met there it was raining pretty heavily so we put on our wet weather kit. For me it was cossie, tights, spray jacket, and Anton kindly lent me a spray skirt (which matched my kayak nicely). I think anyone who saw us thought we were nuts, but I was loving the paddle. We did the bridge lap and it was nice and calm with moderate rain, but then as we headed up towards the lake it started to bucket down. And for the last 1km before the lake the wind and chop picked up and it was pretty horrible. It's probably the worst weather I've ever paddled in. The K1's nose was going under the waves at each dip, but at least it was head on. I found a sheltered spot to turn around and we headed back, this time with the wind and waves behind us. We would have been flying, it was pretty cool. We took some photos when we were done and we look like drowned rats. The photos are a bit blurry because I couldn't stop the rain from getting on the lens. So sorry Anton, these were the best I got. I still have to look at the GPS data to see what our distance and speed was but I'm guessing around 7km with an average speed of 9.8km/hr.

A wet jog and a bit of philosophy

I knew the weather was going to be miserable today by the forcast of heavy rain and 40km/hr winds. Early this morning it was pouring and gusty, but I still told the boys we were going for a run and that Connor would have to sit in the pram today as it was too wet to ride his bike. I got us all dressed and ready (boys in warm trackies and me in sports tights and Chris's wet weather golf vest) and waited for a break in the weather. As soon as it was only a drizzle I drove us all to the lake. I set the boys up in the Mountain Buggy Double Pram with the rain cover on and I headed off along the lake. It was drizzling the whole way to the end of the path, but on the way back it was barely spitting. It was actually an enjoyable run. The boys were dry and toasty in the pram, and I was dry and toasty in Chris's golf top. The heart rate monitor didn't pick up my heart rate properly today, so no measurements there, but I completed the path run in 21:31 (min:sec) which is great for pushing the double pram. It's really quite a good workout pushing 30kg in the pram with the rain cover acting as a nice wind break.

It got me thinking though, at what point does it become unreasonable/stupid to keep training. For some people just the look of rain is enough to call a session off. Others train in absolutely horrendous weather. I try to find middle ground. I think that you could pretty much come up with an excuse to miss any session (too hot, cold, wet, windy, sunny, tired, hungry, thirsty, etc). I also think it's silly to jeapordise your health by taking it too far and training in weather that will likely make you end up sick. For some people it seems to be a measure of how tough/serious/dedicated/focused a person is. Sometimes it's something to brag about and almost becomes a competition. I'm interested to hear others thoughts on this, and at what point they decide to call a session off.