And it Starts again.

Posted on by

.. The training for the next event that is.

Well, it actually started a little while ago, but with now just 11 weeks to go, it is time to put together a program and stick to it as much as possible so that I can achieve the 13h 15m time for the HCC.

Last weekend was a reminder to me that I should not have stopped paddling over winter – with a trip down to paddle the 12km in the Onka Canoe Club.  It was not too cold, but it was windy! with a nice 40+km/h wind and the flow of an incoming tide at around 3km/h to contend with.  The 12km took me 1H48 – which I was not really very happy with!

After that horrible effort, it was back out again to do some paddling – and I put in a 18.5Km paddle in Westlakes.  Once again it was pretty slow and I only managed a speed of 7.6km/h (2h 27).  It was quite windy, and when I checked, I was putting up with 30-40km/h Northerly wind – which put the wind in my face for about 60% of the time slowing me down.

So, from here on, I need to be getting out and paddling as much as possible – and resuming my Thursday evenings.  I will be supplementing my paddling with a couple of cardio Sessions each week as well.  At the moment, I am doing a mixed session of Treadmill, Rowing Machine and Bike, with a typical session being:

  • Warm-up on the Treadmill  (15 minutes)
  • 3600M on the Rowing machine (21 minutes)
  • 6km on the bike (15 minutes)
  • 2200M on the rowing machine (13 minutes)
  • 4km in the bike (10 minutes)
  • A cool-down on the treadmill to finish (15 minutes)

During the Cardio Session I push pretty hard and keep my HR nice and high for the whole 1.5hrs.  Over the next few weeks, I will probably add an extra set of Rowing/Bike to the mix and try and get the time up to over 2 hours. Yep, when you can’t get to the water, you just have to have a plan for the alternatives.

Well,  the best laid plans can come un-stuck and this afternoon they did for me – at least for a little bit.  I took a tumble and caused a bit of damage to one of my knees – but hopefully it will only be a few days before I am back on my feet and can get back into it!