Hi guys,
I've recently discovered the new Southeast Region Paddlesport Championship Series. As a response to the paddling series happening in the Northeast (www.nesurfski.net) a couple of the best race organizers, John and Rick, have put together a point series for all of those water lovers and crazy paddlers living in the southern states. If you're in the area, come checkout some of the up coming races. I've been to 2 so far and both have been great events with awesome people. Great job to everybody at the Charleston Patriot Challenge and the River City Challenge. Special thanks to EpicKayaks for everything they do in support of these races!
http://www.paddlebender.net/id17.html
Epic Kayaks
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Each Stroke, Each Wave
In sprint, winners are those who miss the fewest
strokes. Each stroke must be perfectly positioned,
strongly executed, and quickly exited to move onto the subsequent stroke. As a
racer gets tired, he might blow a stroke or find himself using less than
perfect technique. In such a small race
as a sprint, each stroke matters.
In comparison: on the ocean, in a down-winder, we say that
the person who wins is the person who misses the fewest waves. We know that each small swell heading with us
is something to gain lift and speed from.
The best of the best ocean paddlers can pick up each bump, ride it to
the next, and jump over to the new front face.
In longer races, we do well by keeping our speed as fast as possible
through picking up the force of each swell.
In such competitive fields as some of the top races like Molokai, each
wave matters.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Week of Workouts 2.0
Weather in GA – Clowdy and rainy, temps of 60s-70s all week
Training focus – I’ve been thinking about some upcoming marathon worlds try outs. This week, I wanted to get some distance paddling in during a week of light paddling for the rest of the team. With this, I focused on mentally being in a good place during these long paddles. It was awesome remembering how to turn the mind off and just paddle. An important skill of marathoning: knowing how to shut up and paddle. One of the things I enjoy about marathon is put less thought into each stroke. I tend to trust my arms more in distance paddling; I know that they know what to do: Vs sprint where every stroke must be precise and strong. Also I appreciate the grind of long continuous paddling; I feel like a monster in the boat. Workouts in K1 unless otherwise stated.
Monday – Morning: Run longer distances about 40 mins, Afternoon: paddle, 10k of long continuous paddling (about an hour on the water).
Tuesday - Morning: Run 20 mins, Afternoon: paddle, 8x 200m pieces – focusing on having a powerful stroke rate throughout all of each piece
Wednesday - Morning: Run about 50 mins, paddle: 2hours of LSD (long slow distance). Here again I was working on mental strength, keeping small thoughts throughout the whole paddle, and focusing only on what needed to be focused on. Afternoon: OFF, rest
Thursday - Morning: pull ups and abs, paddle: 1 hour easy, Afternoon: 5k running time control
Friday - Morning: pull ups and abs, paddle: interval work (4 mins on, 1 min off) for 1 hour, Afternoon: starts! 20sec pieces; working on fast stroke rates.
Saturday – Paddle: 2 x 4k in team boats. Distance race situations.
Sunday – Sleep, OFF
Training focus – I’ve been thinking about some upcoming marathon worlds try outs. This week, I wanted to get some distance paddling in during a week of light paddling for the rest of the team. With this, I focused on mentally being in a good place during these long paddles. It was awesome remembering how to turn the mind off and just paddle. An important skill of marathoning: knowing how to shut up and paddle. One of the things I enjoy about marathon is put less thought into each stroke. I tend to trust my arms more in distance paddling; I know that they know what to do: Vs sprint where every stroke must be precise and strong. Also I appreciate the grind of long continuous paddling; I feel like a monster in the boat. Workouts in K1 unless otherwise stated.
Monday – Morning: Run longer distances about 40 mins, Afternoon: paddle, 10k of long continuous paddling (about an hour on the water).
Tuesday - Morning: Run 20 mins, Afternoon: paddle, 8x 200m pieces – focusing on having a powerful stroke rate throughout all of each piece
Wednesday - Morning: Run about 50 mins, paddle: 2hours of LSD (long slow distance). Here again I was working on mental strength, keeping small thoughts throughout the whole paddle, and focusing only on what needed to be focused on. Afternoon: OFF, rest
Thursday - Morning: pull ups and abs, paddle: 1 hour easy, Afternoon: 5k running time control
Friday - Morning: pull ups and abs, paddle: interval work (4 mins on, 1 min off) for 1 hour, Afternoon: starts! 20sec pieces; working on fast stroke rates.
Saturday – Paddle: 2 x 4k in team boats. Distance race situations.
Sunday – Sleep, OFF
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Week of Workouts
Weather in GA - Sunny all week, 60-80 temp wise. Love the south!
Training focus - preparing for a summer of flat water sprints, developing fast stroke rates; running wise: long distance building endourance through runs; lift wise: lots of pull ups! Workouts in K1 unless otherwise stated
Monday – Morning: Run and Lift, Afternoon: paddle, 1000m pieces - focusing on race plan
Tuesday - Morning: Run and Lift, Afternoon: paddle, 250m pieces – focusing on high stroke rate
Wednesday - Morning: Run and Lift, Afternoon: OFF, rest
Thursday - Morning: Run and Lift, Afternoon: paddle, 1 min pieces in team boats (K4 day) – focus on connecting within the boat
Friday - Morning: Run and Lift, Afternoon: paddle, starts (15sec pieces) – focusing on getting the stroke rate up quickly
Saturday – Time controls: 1000m, 500m, 200m - lots of rest in between races, treating these as real races
Sunday – Sleep, OFF
Training focus - preparing for a summer of flat water sprints, developing fast stroke rates; running wise: long distance building endourance through runs; lift wise: lots of pull ups! Workouts in K1 unless otherwise stated
Monday – Morning: Run and Lift, Afternoon: paddle, 1000m pieces - focusing on race plan
Tuesday - Morning: Run and Lift, Afternoon: paddle, 250m pieces – focusing on high stroke rate
Wednesday - Morning: Run and Lift, Afternoon: OFF, rest
Thursday - Morning: Run and Lift, Afternoon: paddle, 1 min pieces in team boats (K4 day) – focus on connecting within the boat
Friday - Morning: Run and Lift, Afternoon: paddle, starts (15sec pieces) – focusing on getting the stroke rate up quickly
Saturday – Time controls: 1000m, 500m, 200m - lots of rest in between races, treating these as real races
Sunday – Sleep, OFF
Stability
Secondary stability: it’s a phrase I’ve heard many racers throw around while out on group paddles or boat demos or any time a racing buddy purchases a new ski. “One thing I love about the new boat is its secondary stability.” It seems to be a quality that’s important in any new boat purchase. As a young racer who always grew up in surfskis, stability was a quality that came naturally with age. Early on in my paddling educations, there were never different types of stability; I either could or could not keep myself up right in the boat. For any new paddler, stability means simply: are you comfortable paddling that boat? Can you take strokes without bracing? And eventually, can you use good technique without bracing?
However, as I grew up within the paddling world, stability grew too be more complicated than just a vague idea of comfort level. Every experienced paddler can hop into a boat on flat water and either feel immediately solid or uneasy: that wobbliness. This is what I would call that whole initial stability thing. We as surfski paddlers then take it to the next level, and test our stability in waves, winds, troughs, roughs, rains, currents, swells, and surges. We push ourselves to see how that innate stable comfort changes in the boat as we paddle on any/all forms of water. How does the boat respond here? Does it pick up the swell and run with it? A paddler can be happy to have a ski eager to hop on waves. We need a boat that naturally wants to sit upright and stick to the front face of the groundswell; a ski with good attitude: good secondary stability.
Since switching to the flat water game, there are a few things I’ve discovered about this whole initial/secondary stability logic. Surfski’s have good initial stability (Relatively): if you are paddling out on a mellow day, the boat will naturally sit up right. A solid ski will also be smart in the waves: it will pick up the bumps. However when it comes to flat water boats, all bets are off. These boats prefer to be on their sides and prefer to bust through swells instead of onto them. Of course this is a result of the shape of the hull and their “purpose” on the water: flat water boats were never designed with big wave conditions in mind. However, what has fascinated me about the two genres of boats, is how much you must change (and train) your stability to match the boat. Flat water and ocean paddling are truly different sports. They require different focuses, goals, techniques, and, as I’ve just begun to understand, different types of stability.
However, as I grew up within the paddling world, stability grew too be more complicated than just a vague idea of comfort level. Every experienced paddler can hop into a boat on flat water and either feel immediately solid or uneasy: that wobbliness. This is what I would call that whole initial stability thing. We as surfski paddlers then take it to the next level, and test our stability in waves, winds, troughs, roughs, rains, currents, swells, and surges. We push ourselves to see how that innate stable comfort changes in the boat as we paddle on any/all forms of water. How does the boat respond here? Does it pick up the swell and run with it? A paddler can be happy to have a ski eager to hop on waves. We need a boat that naturally wants to sit upright and stick to the front face of the groundswell; a ski with good attitude: good secondary stability.
Since switching to the flat water game, there are a few things I’ve discovered about this whole initial/secondary stability logic. Surfski’s have good initial stability (Relatively): if you are paddling out on a mellow day, the boat will naturally sit up right. A solid ski will also be smart in the waves: it will pick up the bumps. However when it comes to flat water boats, all bets are off. These boats prefer to be on their sides and prefer to bust through swells instead of onto them. Of course this is a result of the shape of the hull and their “purpose” on the water: flat water boats were never designed with big wave conditions in mind. However, what has fascinated me about the two genres of boats, is how much you must change (and train) your stability to match the boat. Flat water and ocean paddling are truly different sports. They require different focuses, goals, techniques, and, as I’ve just begun to understand, different types of stability.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Summer season, done!
Hi guys!
Tired hellos from training in the south. I have officially made it through a summer season of sprint training. We just completed 3 months of 2 paddles a day, runs, lifts, circuits, and a paddler’s version of what can somewhat be recognized as “soccer.” This is what we do for practice in the event of thunderstorms. It’s just as competitive as any water workout, and it tends to be a hilarious sight for any bystander as they watch a bunch of upperbody-dominant athletes trying to play a foot sport. There tends to be a lot of hand-balls, and I trust any team of skilled 2nd graders would give us a good run.
Anyway, I feel stronger. In past summers, I’ve always committed months of tireless miles to surfski training, but this new sprint/flatwater training makes me feel more versatile, agile, efficient, and stronger as an all-types-of-water paddler. We take multiple sprint workouts and make large workloads for each day which builds both strength and endurance helping both sprint and marathon paddling. I’m hoping it will also help me make huge gains in my ski and I will soon find that out with surfski champs this weekend. I can’t wait to see the ocean!
We had national sprint championships this past weekend which allowed us to see how much our progress has hurt or helped us. I unfortunately felt tired and past my peak at these races. My times have gotten a bit slower than earlier this summer; this seems to be a crude awakening and tough lesson in over training. I think my body is still getting use to the intensity of this new life style, but even if the hard training didn’t benefit me for these nationals, I need to realize that my commitment from the past season will only help me grow stronger for the upcoming years. This sport requires long term commitment, long term gains, and long term planning. I’m patient.
Ahead for this fall, I am extremely excited that I have been awarded the opportunity to compete in Marathon Flatwater Worlds which will be in Singapore in October. I will be competing in a K2 with my partner Anne Blanchard. Marathon trials were last June in North Carolina. Together in our boat, we had an amazing first 18k; then with about 8k to go, one of our rudder cables broke. We finished the race the way most crazy, relentless marathon paddlers would in that situation: by rapping the rudder cable around the heel of a foot, and leaning the boat for buoy turns. It’s exciting how rudder trouble can completely take your mind of the little body aches during a race. It was really fun. Anyway, Marathon Worlds will be my first opportunity representing the USA in flatwater paddling. Our training from here through October will be more marathon focused.
We have about two weeks off now and a month off in the winter, but we are otherwise training year round. Bellow, I’ve attached a clip from a 15k time trial I did last week with two teammates (both of which will also be heading to marathon worlds). You can see me leading with my two teammates on either side of my wake, and our coach following us in a john-boat. I think trading off wake can be an extremely helpful part of training. We practice sprinting when we’re pulling and efficiently resting while on a wake. This will be a huge skill to gain for Singapore.
Tired hellos from training in the south. I have officially made it through a summer season of sprint training. We just completed 3 months of 2 paddles a day, runs, lifts, circuits, and a paddler’s version of what can somewhat be recognized as “soccer.” This is what we do for practice in the event of thunderstorms. It’s just as competitive as any water workout, and it tends to be a hilarious sight for any bystander as they watch a bunch of upperbody-dominant athletes trying to play a foot sport. There tends to be a lot of hand-balls, and I trust any team of skilled 2nd graders would give us a good run.
Anyway, I feel stronger. In past summers, I’ve always committed months of tireless miles to surfski training, but this new sprint/flatwater training makes me feel more versatile, agile, efficient, and stronger as an all-types-of-water paddler. We take multiple sprint workouts and make large workloads for each day which builds both strength and endurance helping both sprint and marathon paddling. I’m hoping it will also help me make huge gains in my ski and I will soon find that out with surfski champs this weekend. I can’t wait to see the ocean!
We had national sprint championships this past weekend which allowed us to see how much our progress has hurt or helped us. I unfortunately felt tired and past my peak at these races. My times have gotten a bit slower than earlier this summer; this seems to be a crude awakening and tough lesson in over training. I think my body is still getting use to the intensity of this new life style, but even if the hard training didn’t benefit me for these nationals, I need to realize that my commitment from the past season will only help me grow stronger for the upcoming years. This sport requires long term commitment, long term gains, and long term planning. I’m patient.
Ahead for this fall, I am extremely excited that I have been awarded the opportunity to compete in Marathon Flatwater Worlds which will be in Singapore in October. I will be competing in a K2 with my partner Anne Blanchard. Marathon trials were last June in North Carolina. Together in our boat, we had an amazing first 18k; then with about 8k to go, one of our rudder cables broke. We finished the race the way most crazy, relentless marathon paddlers would in that situation: by rapping the rudder cable around the heel of a foot, and leaning the boat for buoy turns. It’s exciting how rudder trouble can completely take your mind of the little body aches during a race. It was really fun. Anyway, Marathon Worlds will be my first opportunity representing the USA in flatwater paddling. Our training from here through October will be more marathon focused.
We have about two weeks off now and a month off in the winter, but we are otherwise training year round. Bellow, I’ve attached a clip from a 15k time trial I did last week with two teammates (both of which will also be heading to marathon worlds). You can see me leading with my two teammates on either side of my wake, and our coach following us in a john-boat. I think trading off wake can be an extremely helpful part of training. We practice sprinting when we’re pulling and efficiently resting while on a wake. This will be a huge skill to gain for Singapore.
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