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
Epic Kayaks
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
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.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Hi guys!
Life has been good in the South. I’ve been training down in Georgia for the past three weeks with the Lanier sprint canoe and kayak team. We’re hosting a bunch of races this year which is a lot of fun! My sprint times are finally starting to drop seconds, but it’s a hard-knock life for a surfski-to-sprint paddler.
It tends to be a cool 75 degrees at 6:15am when I walk to the car with a protein bar in one hand and tennis shoes in the other. I tend to be groggy after 8 hours of sleep which isn’t enough to compensate for these high intensity workouts. I’ve been staying with very kind host families down here who are unbelievably welcoming and contain at least one son or daughter who is on the team. Everyone is eager to show that southern hospitality. The orangey sun is usually just coming up as I and the aforementioned son or daughter drive the short distance to the boat house.
The morning workout is always high-intensity, short-sprint work. We usually practice on the 1996 Atlanta Olympic course, which is a convenient 1k warm-up paddle from the boathouse. This gives us extra practice in a course like setting and will hopefully give us even more of an advantage with that whole “home court advantage” thing as we host nationals in August. I’ve been paddling my new Epic Legacy M which I’m in love with. It has a similar feel to the V12… if there is any way for an ICF boat to have a surfski feel. I guess Epic siblings share a lot of genes.
In the mornings, we usually do workouts consisting of 8-10 pieces of any 200m-1000m distances. We frequent a lot of pyramids as well. We favor the early hours of the morning because the motor-boaters do not (although I always enjoyed a little wake/chop). However, the glassy water is pretty nice for a new ICF paddler who is trying to completely change my technique to fit in with all of those flatwater-ers. Hints for anyone going from the surfski world to sprint: straighten your top arm before the catch; don’t let your top hand cross in front of your body; exit quickly; exit closer to the boat; angle your paddle more for the exit; USE THE LEGS; and pause…. Who knew there’s supposed to be a pause in your stroke???
Morning paddles are followed closely by morning runs. These consist of 30-40 minutes of short sprints on a circular track; why not tired the legs out too? This is followed closely by breakfast #1 and breakfast #2, a 2-3h nap, lunches #1 and #2, and then afternoon practice. At this point the temp is at a steady 92ish.
Afternoons usually consist of longer paddles with longer pieces. I value these workouts for a more focused opportunity to work on my new found sprint stroke. These are also often used for team boat practice: another foreign subject to me. It’s an interesting shift going from lone paddles on an icy river in a Maine college town - to workouts in bath water with up to 3 extra people IN MY BOAT. If there is anything to be said on this learning experience it’s timing.... also, sometimes you just have to shut up and paddle. Afternoon paddles are followed closely by afternoon weight circuits; might as well empty out anything else left in the muscles. Then that finally brings us to dinners #1, #2, and #3, maybe a quick movie, and bed.
It’s a crazy day to day life, but I’m so grateful to be doing it. We next have a lake placid regatta in a couple weeks, which should be very telling on how these workouts have either improved us or tired us out too much. I’m planning to continue to do sprint workouts until August, where I’ll switch back to my first love, surfski racing, for August and maybe a few races in the fall. Every time I hop back in a ski it feels like home again. Hope everything’s great up north! I’ve been checking the results each weekend. Drop a line or two back; it’d be great to hear from y’all!
Alex
Life has been good in the South. I’ve been training down in Georgia for the past three weeks with the Lanier sprint canoe and kayak team. We’re hosting a bunch of races this year which is a lot of fun! My sprint times are finally starting to drop seconds, but it’s a hard-knock life for a surfski-to-sprint paddler.
It tends to be a cool 75 degrees at 6:15am when I walk to the car with a protein bar in one hand and tennis shoes in the other. I tend to be groggy after 8 hours of sleep which isn’t enough to compensate for these high intensity workouts. I’ve been staying with very kind host families down here who are unbelievably welcoming and contain at least one son or daughter who is on the team. Everyone is eager to show that southern hospitality. The orangey sun is usually just coming up as I and the aforementioned son or daughter drive the short distance to the boat house.
The morning workout is always high-intensity, short-sprint work. We usually practice on the 1996 Atlanta Olympic course, which is a convenient 1k warm-up paddle from the boathouse. This gives us extra practice in a course like setting and will hopefully give us even more of an advantage with that whole “home court advantage” thing as we host nationals in August. I’ve been paddling my new Epic Legacy M which I’m in love with. It has a similar feel to the V12… if there is any way for an ICF boat to have a surfski feel. I guess Epic siblings share a lot of genes.
In the mornings, we usually do workouts consisting of 8-10 pieces of any 200m-1000m distances. We frequent a lot of pyramids as well. We favor the early hours of the morning because the motor-boaters do not (although I always enjoyed a little wake/chop). However, the glassy water is pretty nice for a new ICF paddler who is trying to completely change my technique to fit in with all of those flatwater-ers. Hints for anyone going from the surfski world to sprint: straighten your top arm before the catch; don’t let your top hand cross in front of your body; exit quickly; exit closer to the boat; angle your paddle more for the exit; USE THE LEGS; and pause…. Who knew there’s supposed to be a pause in your stroke???
Morning paddles are followed closely by morning runs. These consist of 30-40 minutes of short sprints on a circular track; why not tired the legs out too? This is followed closely by breakfast #1 and breakfast #2, a 2-3h nap, lunches #1 and #2, and then afternoon practice. At this point the temp is at a steady 92ish.
Afternoons usually consist of longer paddles with longer pieces. I value these workouts for a more focused opportunity to work on my new found sprint stroke. These are also often used for team boat practice: another foreign subject to me. It’s an interesting shift going from lone paddles on an icy river in a Maine college town - to workouts in bath water with up to 3 extra people IN MY BOAT. If there is anything to be said on this learning experience it’s timing.... also, sometimes you just have to shut up and paddle. Afternoon paddles are followed closely by afternoon weight circuits; might as well empty out anything else left in the muscles. Then that finally brings us to dinners #1, #2, and #3, maybe a quick movie, and bed.
It’s a crazy day to day life, but I’m so grateful to be doing it. We next have a lake placid regatta in a couple weeks, which should be very telling on how these workouts have either improved us or tired us out too much. I’m planning to continue to do sprint workouts until August, where I’ll switch back to my first love, surfski racing, for August and maybe a few races in the fall. Every time I hop back in a ski it feels like home again. Hope everything’s great up north! I’ve been checking the results each weekend. Drop a line or two back; it’d be great to hear from y’all!
Alex
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