Category Archives: General

The year that was.

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It has been a while since updating so I thought it was time to re-cap 2013 and see how everything panned out.

Well, I started out with Several goals for the year – and some I hit, some I smashed and some, well, there is 2014!.

The first half of the year went quite well – and then things didn’t work out so well.  My favourite event -the HCC was  not so great this year for a lot of reasons.  My lead-up was pretty well a disaster – with a knee injury 13 weeks out that took out all of my training for 6 weeks.  Then, just as I started training again, being the victim of an un-provoked assault whilst on my way to work wiped out the mental preparation.

Yes, I did make it to the start-line, but only made it 31km down the River.  I was going reasonably close to my plan, but a combination of severe blisters and not really being mentally in the game put me out.  Then, with Car troubles costing a small fortune also put a damper on the Trip.  It was not a total waste, as I was able to see a couple of boat-builders and I hope that in the next month or so I will have a faster boat on order for this year.

The Christmas race was only 2 weeks after the HCC and I was in 2 minds as to even do it, but in the end, I got into the boat and did finish it.  It was not the greatest of conditions with the usual 20-40km/h headwinds for most of the 29km, I was just happy to have completed it – much slower than my previous year, in about 3H 53M or so.

I was hoping to have another crack at some of the MM, but it just didn’t work out this year and with their announcement of moving the race next year to be at the end of November, not sure if it is going to fit this year.

Lets see what 2014 will bring, but I hope that the Back2Back, RPM 200 and HCC are the minimum for me.  Almost time to set about putting my training schedule together for the rest of the year!

New year, new look

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Well, since it has been over a year I decided to do a small change to my site and swap out the header image.

The old image was from the 2012 RPM and the new Image is from the 2013 RPM.

paddlingThe original Header (with Boat # 5)

I was a bit un-decided about which image to choose this time, between 2

RPM-2013-2.jpgThe above one was on the morning of day 2.

cropped-RPM_20132.jpgI settled for using this one from Day 1.

Now for the astute, you will notice that this year, I have a different paddle, which I did discuss in another post and yes, It does make a bit of difference.  The astute would also notice that one of the things I did in my summer maintenance was to add the GPS mount to the boat.  Whilst it seems like only a small thing, it is in fact one of the best things I have done.  Previously, I just had my GPS sitting on my spray deck, which meant looking down or more often than not picking it up so I could read it.  Now, everything is right where I need it and yes, having this on display does help keep you honest!

And it Starts again.

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.. 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!

 

Provisional Results are in

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Well this weekend saw the Start of the Marathon Races for the year with the Back2Back at Murray Bridge.

Before I jump in, When I got home, one of the things I did was to check and see if the HCC entries had opened, and yes, Entries did in fact open over the weekend.  I wasted no time in submitting my Entry and was the first paddler to do so!  All support and sponsorship greatly appreciated  – HCC 2013 Profile

A quick summary –

  • Day 1 – 2:30:15 for 20.4km @ 8.1km/h
  • Day 2 – 2:25:03 for 20.1km @ 8.3km/h

The Conditions were pretty good with the Temperature between 10 and 20 both days.  Saturday afternoon saw just a little bit of wind from the South, and Sunday saw a good strong 25km/h+ North Easterly that was pretty harsh for part of the course.

20130504-B2B-Day1-Map

2013 Back2Back Day 1 Map

 

Above, Saturday course is (starting at the bottom) Start from the Swanport Sailing Club up to the Town Bridge, Back to the Southport Bridge, then back up to the Town bridge and finally back to the Sailing Club to finish.

20130504-B2B-Day1-Plot

2013 Back2Back Day 1 GPS Plot

 

I was pretty happy with a consistent speed for most of the day, the “dip” was when I stopped to see if a Capsized paddler required assistance, but with 3 other Paddlers already stopped, I could not really offer any more help than they already had.

On to day 2….

20130504-B2B-Day2-Map

2013 Back2Back Day 2 Map

 

Day 2 on Sunday Morning we again started at the Swanport Sailing Club but this time went upstream and turned around a Buoy near Avoca Dell, then back.

20130504-B2B-Day2-Plot

2013 Back2Back Day 2 GPS Plot

 

That Wind that I mentioned earlier, well my speed plot really shows what it was like! Yes, we had a reasonable head-wind for about 3.5km before turning around the buoy.  With an out and back, of course, this means a tail wind as soon as you do turn around!

If I look back at my post from earlier in the year my target was to be under 2:30:00 each day.  Well, 15 seconds out for day 1 is so close that I count this as a success, considering that I did stop to check on a capsized paddler and not ask for a reduction in time.

I just did look back and pull up my 2012 Results and note that I was about 10 minutes faster on day 1 and 13 Minutes faster on Day 2.  All things considered, a good weekend.

This weekend, I had the opportunity to try out a few new things as preparation for the RPM (as this is why the event was originally started).

I tried out some changes to clothing and seating.  Clothing, last year I suffered from Cramps in my legs from the cold – so I got some Long Neoprene pants to try.  Day 1, I wore just the neoprene and suffered for it – yep, got leg cramps during the night!  This was the first time in over 2 years that I had paddled without compression pants.  Day 2, added the compression pants as the bottom Layer – I will see how that works out and get it right before the RPM.  The Neoprene’s worked very well in so far as when getting into the boat, only my shoes got wet as the Neoprene kept my legs dry right from the start.

The Next thing was to grab a couple of sheepskins (Thanks to the generous donation of off-cuts saved from the bin from Pip) and add 1 to the seat.  As my seating has been very good to me, I didn’t really expect much from it – but I was surprised.  Yes, it was a very worthwhile addition and I will use one from now on!

Now, with only 4 more weeks of training until the RPM, it is a case of getting as much boat time as possible to sort out the last few little issues..

And the training begins

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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.