Yukon Ho!

Ok, so I admit we’ve not been very good at posting our updates on what we’re doing well, or badly. And we’ve not exactly been going through the process with ritual precision during our sessions either. But we’ve only missed a few, and I can give a high level summary of how things feel to me.

Things that are going well:

* Speed - we’ve really come a long way, and we’re fairly racing up and down the tideway now

* Diet - having ditched the very high levels of protein I’m feeling better, and getting more out of my training

* Weight - Going into the endurance bit of our training I’m at about the right weight, although I need to maintain it to stay in good shape

Things that have been going badly:

* Work/Gym balance - I would call this a work/life balance but that would be a lie. My hours have creeped up a bit recently, and the key point is that I’ve not been going to the gym in the morning. I would have liked to have been doing two sessions a day throughout my training, but realistically I think I just need to make sure that the session in the evening is a really good quality slog.

* Logistics - We’re a bit wayward in logistics, and perhaps to clued up on the detail of training at the moment. We need to take a step back next weekend and make sure there’s nothing we’ve missed

Puzzles:

* We still need to look at what happens in Canada - accommodation etc, and make sure that doesn’t prove an issue

* Navigation - we need to ensure that our GPS knowledge is good enough to get us there

* Kit - There are a number of items of kit we still need to source including:

1) Spare Paddles

2) Long Distance BAs

3) Maps

4) Toon’s hydration system

5) A padding system for the boat

6) Thermal protection (sun and cold) inc. hats, warm jackets etc

7) Err……Bear spray? Suggestions welcome!

So we’ve come through the mid-season slump and got back together for our first endurance paddle yesterday; two 2hr sessions interspersed with a 2 hr break. As a first taste of the distance we’ll have to cover it was really useful to get introduced to the kind of sessions we’ll be doing over the next few weeks/months. It also provides a nifty comparison with previous sessions…

We watched some folks training for the Devises to Westminster race yesterday; they were cruising along the tideway seemingly effortlessly in boats that were almost submersible they were so sleek and low-volume. It was pretty agonising to get into the plastic tub and stare at the huge bow wave formed as we push our Necky through the water. I am really looking forwards to getting into the Canadian boat; hopefully it’ll be fast enough to make us feel a bit more positive when we get there about the distance.

As you may have guessed, I’ve bought the same heart rate monitor as Toons, and my colleagues can now tell I’m bored when they hear a high pitched squeaking as I sync up my watch to my PC. Over the past few weeks I’ve tried to use it for most of my exercise sessions, and it shows some really interesting stuff. It seems that I’m able to keep my heart rate higher, for longer, than previously.

Two weeks ago we went for a 2 hr paddle, and my HR looked like this:

I realised last week that I wasn’t doing enough Cardio during the week; I’ve done a couple of sessions this week of sprints. This, combined with a general improvement in my fitness through training has led to my doing two 2hr sessions this weekend at a higher heart rate as below: