Well, it began a couple of weeks ago.

After taking much longer than I really wanted to, the repairs and re-painting (and all that sanding) have been finished and I have been back out on the water again trying to get ready for the rest of the year!

My first session after a whole 3 month’s of not paddling on the 29th March was just a nice 23km paddle from Morgan up to Cadell and back.  I picked a busy weekend on the River and was nearly wiped out a countless number of times by inconsiderate Power boats and Jetski’s.

Well, it was a slow trip with my speed being way down on what it was in my last Marathon (not counting the 4 Island wipeout) with me being only able to manage 7.2km/h on the trip up to Cadell and a slightly better 7.5km/h on the way back downstream.  It was not an un-eventful trip – I had to “give way” to a couple of Emu’s that were swimming across the river on the way up.

Next outing was not really much distance or time – it was more of a social outing and a bit of coaching on the Onka on the Monday Night (1st April).

With the constant reminder that I need to get out as much as possible, I hit west Lakes on Thursday Night (4th April) and did OK.  I was padding with someon else who is just starting for a fair bit of the time, so only watched my speed for the first 6km and it was about 7.5km/h.

Sunday saw me finally get a decent hit-out on Westlakes.  I managed to get in 2 laps (23km) in pretty good conditions – wind was only 20-30km/h from the South, so about 1/2 the distance was into the wind.  Managed to maintain a speed of 7.7km/h, which is already a step up from my speed the week before for a similar distance.  I did note at the 20.5km mark that my time was within 1-2minutes of my times for the B2B from 2012, so well on track.

Heading back out to Westlakes Tonight and hopefully get in another 12km+ paddle.

Knowning that I have not been out paddling much, I have been riding to work 2 days a week, while I am working in the City, so this adds in 80km a week of cycling into the Mix as well.

for the next 2 weekends leading up to the B2B, I will be upping the distance on the weekend – as it is really not that long until the RPM and I need to be paddle-fit to do ~ 75km each day.