My own K1

Oh yeh! As soon as I hopped into the K1 today it felt 'right'. It was a tight fit, but no tighter than the club K1, and it felt very comfortable.

I met Carole down at the boat ramp at 7am and had managed to fit both the Mirage and the K1 on the roof racks. After some fiddling around moving the Mirage foot rest back into Carole's position, we were soon off heading up towards the lake. Damn that K1 is fast. I just had to put my paddle in the water and it was effortlessly gliding through the water. I was just doing some balance drills and poor Carole was doing 3 strokes to my 1 just to keep up. So we paddled up to the lake doing a fast speed for her, and a very slow speed for me. Great balance practice and it let me get a good feel for the K1.

I was nervous turning around at the point because it was quite windy and a bit choppy by then, but managed it unscathed. We paddled back and saw Greg outside his house to which I called out "I'll have her, she's beautiful". We headed down towards the bridge and I felt nice and relaxed paddling...then I heard a boat coming up behind us. Silly me started feeling nervous, turned around to look and "man that water's cold!" In I went, and after a quick swim to shore, empty out, we were on our way again.

We did the rest of the paddle without any dramas and I just LOVED the feel of the K1. At one point I said to Carole..."This looks much better than a ring sitting in a drawer" (because I have sold my 1st marriage's engagment ring to buy it). She agreed and said "Definately, but the ring wouldn't have made you wet!" Indeed.

Well, I am excited and relieved to now have my very own K1. I went over to Greg's house this afternoon and paid him the money, so the Sladecraft "Stealth" K1 is officially mine. Yipee!!!!!

Tomorrow's Club Race

Well I'm all ready and excited about tomorrow's club race. I've only done one before in the Mirage and this will be my first race in the club K1 (that I'm still borrowing). It sounds like heaps of people are going to be there, including lots of the friends I regularly see whilst training. Chris and the boys are going to come along and watch the start and finish, and it will be nice for them to finally meet all the people I always talk about.

Race Plan/Thoughts/Hopes etc...
The distance is 11.35km. I completed it in 1:17 last time in the Mirage. I have told the handicapper that I think I might do around 1:10 in the K1. This would mean an average speed of 9.73km/hr which I think is achievable given my recent shoulder soreness. I know I need to race way faster than that by the Worlds, but I think this is a good starting point. If I can beat 1:10 I'll be stoked. Hopefully I've convinced Anton to come (are you reading this Anton?) and he'll have my GPS on his Mirage. That will make it a bit easier to pace myself if the handicapper lets us start close together. My only concern is my ability to go hard in the K1 for that long. I know I'm fit enough, but it will be a good test of my core stability.

Nearly swimming

This afternoon, Anton and I met up at the usual spot for a paddle. Finally my intentions worked and I got there in time to do a bridge lap before Anton arrived. My shoulder felt heaps better straight away, and I felt good in the K1. It was very gusty, and I was just thinking how much more confident I felt in these conditions now, when BAM, a gust of wind grabbed my paddle and I nearly lost it. Well, I was soooo nearly swimming. I did a serious couple of braces, nearly lost the paddle in the wind several times, not quite sure how I pulled it off, but managed to stay upright. Confidence...gone!
Anyway, when I got back to the boat ramp Anton was ready to paddle and we headed up to the point. At least if I fell in heading that way, I knew I had easy re-entry spots. Anton was in his TK1, so the pace was a bit faster than when he paddles the Mirage. It was a solid paddle up and back, and my shoulder was starting to niggle a bit by the end. The wind was really gusty and several times, I was caught off guard and had to brace, but I managed to complete the session without swimming, so I guess I am getting more stable in this K1. We decided to do another lap up to the powerlines and back, and then called it a day. In all I covered about 9km, and had a nice solid paddle. The shoulder held up better than I expected and I think it'll be right to do the club race on Sunday - my first club race in a K1.

Dodging boats and water bombs

Aaaaah, Australia Day. Chris kindly offered me the opportunity to go for a paddle this afternoon, so against the complaints of my shoulder I decided to go. Anton (in his Mirage) was also keen, so we met down at the usual spot around 3pm. He tells me that it's tradition on Australia day for eggs, flour bombs, and water bombs to be thrown at anyone passing along the river. It was chockers! There were soooo many motorboats, boats towing things, kids on boogey boards, waterbomb throwers and swimmers it was amazing. Trying to paddle a K1 amongst all that boat wash, with the occasional ambush by water bombs was great balance practice. One group even had a huge elastic slingshot they were using to launch them. A waterbomb even whizzed over our heads and hit the far side of the river! At another place there was a kid who saw us coming and started paddling towards me on his boogey board. He was about 1 metre away and was reaching out to tip me in...at which point I looked him in the eye and said "If you tip me in I'll smack you with my paddle" (which of course I would never do), but it worked and he obviously thought better of it. I can't believe we did a whole lap without falling in or getting hit by something!

My shoulder was very sore. At the start it hurt so much that I thought I wouldn't be able to paddle at all, but I paddled faster and altered my technique a bit and it was a lot better. The 1 lap was certainly enough for it today though. I gave Anton my GPS to put on his Mirage so that we could get an idea of our speed. Whenever he looked at it we were doing above 9km/h and often almost 10km/h. Though this is not fast enough for race speed, I was going very easy and I was amazed that we were going so fast for how easy it felt. I really am getting better in the K1. In fact, this is the best I have EVER felt in a K1.

Kayak training session - intervals

Tonights session almost didn't happen, with Chris unexpectedly having to work back. I had been looking forward to the session and had it all planned. The aim was to get down to the river early and get a nice long warm up in before Anton got there, and then to do some interval training. Anyway, poor Chris called and said that he had to stay back until something was completed. He was not happy, and either was I. Anyway I had reluctantly resigned myself to missing the session, when he called to say he was on his way home and would I still like to go for my paddle. What a trooper. I was tempted just to give it a miss since I had already told Anton I wouldn't be there. But I thought to myself..."This is the difference between being successful or not. It is the people who train in bad weather or when they don't feel like it, that are the best." So I went...and what a great session!!! We were there later than normal but it was still hot, windy, choppy, and not very inviting, but again...these are the sessions that make you better. This is what we did...
3 km warm up (bridge and back)
700m 'fast' (pontoon to powerlines), 700m recovery *decided it was too windy and glary so changed the interval location
400m 'fast'(pontoon to blue boat), 400m recovery,
400m fast, 400m recovery,
400m fast, 400m recovery,
3km cool down (bridge and back)
So it worked out to be about a 10km session all up. I felt strong in the intervals. Anton had a hard time keeping up in his Mirage (especially in that wind and heat). He said that I seem to be "getting faster in that thing", which I think I am. I can go hard now without having to stop my rhythm to regain balance or brace. There's still a long way to go, but I'm starting to see the improvements in the K1. At the end of the session I felt a great sense of achievement. I completed a hard interval session and felt strong. A great way to get the endorphins going.

Today's paddle

The plan was to get there a bit earlier and do a couple of 'bridge' laps before Anton got there. But that didn't work out (for various logistic reasons). I did manage to get one bridge lap in before he was ready on the water. So with 3km up my sleeve, we headed up to the point - me in the K1 and Anton in his Mirage. I felt pretty strong and balanced today - felt good. It was hard work for Anton to keep up with me in his Mirage, but he did a good job of it. By the end of the session I had completed 1.5 laps (about 11km) and felt like I'd had a good training session. With stretching stops it took about 1hr20 (I think). Today, I also set up an excel file where I can put in my distance and the time it took, and it tells me my average km/h and min/km, and what time it would take to do 200m, 500m etc. Great for planning training sessions and race plans.

A Crappy Run and A Windy Paddle

A Crappy Run
This morning I thought I'd attempt to do a modified run (shuffle). My 3.5yr old wanted to ride his bike, so I pushed my 2yr old in the pram. I thought I'd just do a short one and surely be able to keep pace with Connor on the bike. Well it pretty much ended up being a 5 min walk, 5 min shuffle, 1 min walk, 5 min shuffle, 2 min walk, 4 min shuffle, 5min walk and long sit down whilst the children played in the park. I guess it was probably too soon to start back running. It's so annoying though, just when I get my fitness back and start to feel ok running again, then I get sick and go backwards again. I might leave the running now until the weekend and make sure I'm fully well before I try again.

A Windy Paddle
Chris was kind enough to 'let' me go for a paddle again today. 2 weekdays is really a treat for me. When I say 'let' I mean that he looks after the boys, which really is quite a job. He has to cook dinner, feed them, bath them, and get them ready for bed, all the while I get to go paddle and come back to 2 clean, fed, and ready for bed boys, with a nice dinner ready for me too. It's a pretty good deal I've got going I reckon. And I'm just lucky I've got such a supportive husband.

Anyway, when Anton and I met down the river, the wind was getting interesting. Mark and Mick had just finished their paddle and said how windy it was up the point (where the river meets the lake). Now Anton and I had planned an interval paddle and he was going to paddle his Mirage with me in the K1, but he decided to bring his K1 instead. He's gamer than me I tell you. You wouldn't catch me paddling such a tippy kayak up to the point in such windy conditions. Really, it took me at least a year of paddling K1's before I would have paddled a tippy one in those conditions at all. Yet, off he goes, less than 10 sessions in a K1 and he's paddling a very tippy one up the river in windy conditions. Now, the chop on the water wasn't too bad considering the amount of wind. I expected it to be wavier (is that a word?). But it was the wind gusts that gave us such trouble. It would grab the paddle and put you off balance in a split second. I gave up on the idea of intervals, it just wasn't feasible in those conditions (well maybe for a better paddler than me, but not when I'm only just back into K1's). But we made it up to the point ok,had a quick rest and stretch and started heading back. Now we thought this would be easier considering we were heading with the wind (with it on our backs), but alas, we now had the sun in our eyes and it was glaring off the water right where we had to look. It makes you realise how important your vision is to your balance. And now the wind was throwing gusts from the side too. Without being able to see properly, it threw us both off (and Anton took a swim). Wow - he is human. I think I'm only 100 or so swims up on him now! Somehow I don't think he'll ever swim as much as I've done. Anyway, we did about 6km, which feels like nothing now. I can't wait to get some more distance under my belt. We're hoping to do a longer paddle in our Mirages on Saturday. But somehow, 8km in the K1 feels the same as 16 in the Mirage. I guess it's all that stabilising that wears me out.

Product Review - Sladecraft Comet

This morning I had the opportunity to paddle Mick's Comet (by Sladecraft). The craft I have previously paddled are TK1's, TK2's, K1's and my Mirage 580. I completed the 8.4km lap in around 52 minutes (around 10km/hr) which is an excellent time for me. For comparison, with the same effort (race pace) in the Mirage it takes me at least an hour. The Comet, which classifies as a LREC (Long Recreational) felt 'like' a Mirage, but much faster and with less stability. I felt very comfortable paddling it (no worry at all with stability) and enjoyed pushing it with proper technique and effort without the thought of falling in. It had a nice glide through the water and was easy to turn, and I must say I'm impressed. I would have flown if I had paddled this in the Hawkesbury Classic. It's definately something I would consider using when doing the Classic again.

And so it begins

Well, after the successful completion of the 2008 Hawkesbury Canoe Classic (see my other blog), I felt sad that I now had nothing concrete to aim for. Initially I thought I'd set my goal on the 2009 Winter Marathon series, and maybe do the State Marathon Championships in March 2009.

Earlier in the year I recieved an email about Early Bird entries for the 2009 World Masters Games to be held in Sydney in October 2009. My initial thought was - there's no way I'd be good enough, and immediately put the thought out of my mind. However, whilst surfing the net after the HCC I came across the World Masters web site and began exploring it. I discovered that the marathon kayaking events will be held at Penrith (my old training place), and little thoughts started entering my head. How can I pass up an opportunity of competing in a World Masters Games held at my old training ground, on a river I know very well! I then looked up past results of the World Masters and Australian Masters competitions and was pleasantly surprised - maybe I could do this and not embarrass myself too much. Since the HCC I competed in the State Sprint 5000m Championships as a last minute entry. I won the Open Female Long Rec class in my Mirage 580 in a time of 32:41. I was the only entry in that category, so I was always going to win it - but I was still happy with my time (being in the Mirage). I also competed in a TK2 with Mick, a guy from the club (who is an excellent paddler). We had never paddled together before but clicked straight away. We were the only mixed TK2 entry so we were put in the Mens TK2 class, and we won that (by 2 seconds) in a time of 27:31. That was pretty cool and definately gave me the bug for racing again.

So as I sat at the computer I came to the realisation that this was something that I wanted to do. After 5 years of paddling nothing tippier than my Mirage, I decided to borrow a club K1 to see if I could still stay upright somewhat in one. I hopped in and paddled off straight away - hmm that went rather well. Since then I've paddled the K1 a fair bit and have only fallen out once (when I stupidly looked over my shoulder whilst stationary and talking to another paddler - duh!). And today, I thought - why wait for New Years resolutions, lets start a blog today.....and so it begins, the log of my journey towards the 2009 World Masters Games.