Toons: Same trip with a 3 hour trip out to Richmond Bridge. We cut our time down, mainly thanks to our better steering. The day began with a 180 degree turn, but improved after that.
Despite being a plastic monster the ‘YukonHo’ is a lady that needs subtle handling on the turn. If you lean too much she ignores the turns or turns in the opposite direction to what’s required. The trip is already quite boring, though we zoned out for much of the return leg. Hopefully my new headphones and iPod case will arrive before next Saturday.
My body is sore and I’m pleased I won’t be sat in it till next Saturday. Back to the gym and the K1 for some weekday training.
Pete: Sunday was cold; getting into the boat is never an issue and whilst we were out on the water I was pretty warm. However, getting changed in the converted truck container was a rude awakening. Whilst I’d like to think that many years of outdoor sports had hardened me to all cold, the warm shower when I got back home was an absolute godsend.
On Sunday we swapped places - Toons took the opportunity to watch me paddle and comment on my technique. I found it really useful to have a critique when I was losing focus, and I definitely worked harder to keep up the pace. That said, I found the need to eat and drink difficult to manage. We’ve started our training with fairly long distances - 3hrs is a pretty long time to be doing exercise for - and avoiding dehydration and low blood sugar is going to be a real issue even at these durations. It’s clearly something we need to put a lot of thought into; I think it will probably be one of our greatest challenges on the race itself.
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