I've just reached the end of a long winter training session. Main focus of the winter: endurance. But by endurance I mean something more than just the ability to paddle for miles and miles (although that came along with it). I mean the ability to endure brutally large amounts of work throughout the day. For the past month or so, a typical day has looked like: a 2-3h lift in the morning, breakfast, 10km paddle, lunch, nap, afternoon paddle, afternoon lift, sauna, dinner, sleep. It took my body a while before I was use to the physically draining workout schedules. I learned to let my body rest whenever I had a moment of down time. But with my training, I can now practice for hours and hours out of the day, and as we get closer to race season, I know I can handle big workouts. In the next two months that lead up to USA national team trials, it's all about transitioning that endurance into aggression and power on the water - through sprint workouts.
And it's all been worth it! Tomorrow I leave for a 4 week training camp in Mexico City. Reasons to go to Mexico for March: 1. ALTITUDE TRAINING! Mexico City is in crazy elevation (so I hear), which will be epic for cardio training. If you can do a fast time in altitude, you can go 5s faster at sea level. 2. WARM WEATHER! I really can't complain since moving to Georgia, but it has been a colder winter than most, even in the south. We've had a couple snow/ice storms (SnowJam 2014!) this year thanks to the 'polar vortex' or whatever were calling it these days. The weather has cut into workouts both on the water and in the weightroom (because our local gym closes at the first rumor of flurries). 3. BREAK THE MONOTONY! Winters are a long slow grind; there's nothing like a change of scenery to spark your fight to train hard. 4. TOUGH COMPETITION! There are some big names heading to Mexico this march. A lot of countries are preparing for their national team trials, which means a lot of the northern countries head south for spring training. I'll be training against some fo the best.
I can't wait to get started, and see what I can make of this trip. It's sure to be both an amazing experience, and the best training I can get as I get before the start of the race season. More to come!
Alex
