Yukon Ho!

Pete and I are currently working out what to eat during the time.  Carb levels and sugar levels, weight.. it’s all quite confusing and any bad decisions will have to be lived with until at least Carmacks when we meet our support crew.  Pete has the metabolism of a humming bird so is looking at 700-1000 calories an hour, I’m probably at the lower end of that scale. No real conclusions yet but after our 10 hour practice run on Monday we should be able to draft out a eating plan. Here are two good links we found for anyone who’s interested in endurance and food.
http://www.ultrunr.com/food_energy.html

http://www.nswseakayaker.asn.au/mag/44/foodforthought.html

Here’s a picture from a few weeks ago.  A warm spell meant that had an early and massive ice break up on the Yukon, causing some flooding in downtown whitehorse.

Not sure whether that’ll mean more or less flow for the actual race. More pictures can be found here

Ahhh Yukon Ho! I’ve been neglecting you.  I must admit training, my job and just general admin has been getting a little bit out of control over the last few weeks.  At the same time as my work has became really intense, my motivation levels have taken a real beating.  Not sure what it is when I’m this close to the event that suddenly getting out of bed is harder than when the event is 6 months away.  But I’ve pulled myself together, caught up with my admin and hit the treadmill hard for the last couple of weeks.

Just as I was picking up pace, I caught a cold.  It’s on the wane now but it’s been interesting following the advice from trainharder.  I’ve been carrying on training.  Been interesting, my cold has definitely not been as bad, though I’m not plagued at the moment by a cough so made running easier.  The thames training run on Wednesday was fun, a dose of day nurse, I worked at about 80-90% of my heart rate for over an hour and half, which under usual circumstances would mean vomiting but I felt fine.  Not sure if this is bad or good, just felt rather ‘trippy’

Last week was a bad week for both of us.  Work commitments and just general tiredness really took its toll on our training.  I hit this during my DW training and never really managed to gain the same intensity I had previously achieved after the dip.  So the symptoms are ..

• The voice that says stay in bed, don’t go to the gym are louder.
• My diet has gone to pot, with an increase in refined sugar and ‘just a little treat’ becoming more common.
• My sessions are scaled down a bit, not been quite as high on the weights or running speed.
• Loads of late nights, this is a major problem and has to do with working on a project too late. It affects every element of my training.

After a weekend off.  This week has been declared “Get Your Act Together Week”, punishment rations, early nights and no excuses.  We will fill you in on Monday how the week went.

Interesting article on the use of caffeine as a stimulant.  At my current rate of two double shot coffees a day, with a diet coke in the mix, my tolerance is quite high.  Might consider ditching it with a month to go so I can use it to stay awake during the race.  The article is from trainharder.com, which I highly recommend checking out.

Thoughts on long Tideway paddle, aiming for 6 hours on the water: The timing throws up some interesting conundrums.
Given a following tide and a reasonable pace I’d expect you could get as far as the QE2 bridge or Tilbury area in 3 hours. Of course this could be an over estimate as conditions that far down could be choppy and slow you down, but your super tanker should cut through with ease!  Anyway there’s a tide timing point at Tilbury to get an idea of the timing.
so using Sat 4th April as an example
Leave Barn Elms midday 12.00 (11:00 GMT)
paddle 3 hours down river aiming to arrive at Tilbury for Low tide at 14:52 (13:52 GMT)
turn and come back on the flood tide 3 hours to Barn Elms

However, Low Tide at Barn Elms (Hammersmith Bridge) will be 17:30 (16:30 GMT), 2hrs after London Bridge at 15:30 (14:30 GMT). So you will be paddling back on the slack between tides - heavy and slow, so could take an extra 30 minutes or more. On a like for like 3 hour each way you would think you’d get back by 17:52, but I reckon that could be 18:30 or later because of the slack water affect - over that distance it could even add an hour, so total paddling time is now 7 hours, 1 hour more than intended - the last drag back would certainly test the stamina and resolve!!
Alternative would be to set out an hour later - downside would be the last section downriver will be against the tide in order to get far enough down to give a 3 hour return leg with the tide. As paddling time is the objective rather than absolute distance paddled, this should not be an issue and could help the mental side to have a mid session fight against the tide. So, leave Barns at 1pm and paddle for 3 hours. This should give you 2 hours with the tide and then the last hour against it, so you may only get as far as Woolwich/Thamesmead, rather than Tilbury, but you need to keep going until at least 4 pm and a bit. Then turn at say 4.30 pm (not forgetting to cross to the other bank!) and you should then get 2.5 hours with the tide coming back to arrive at 7 pm.

As the return should be quicker overall, you need to keep paddling out until at least 4:15 or 4:30 - the further out you go the faster the return as the tide will have built up speed and you shouldn’t catch up with the slack lo tide as LT Hammersmith is 5.30 pm so you’ll be 1.5 hours after that.
so choose a weekend with a middle of day low tide and off you go!
My head now hurts with all this black art calculation, so I’m off to lunch!
NB there may be a deliberate mistake in the calculations so do double check
NBB  you should check with PLA about transiting the Barrier

My parents are going to be providing support.  Found a useful post at the yukon river forum on their ‘duties’.  Sounds a gruelling couple of days for them too..

Vsupport writes….

Actually being the support person on the race can be a lot of fun. I’ve been part of the support crew for one of the voyageur teams for many years now and every race has been fun and very tiring.
Things to do to make it a good experience;

1. Show up for the pre-race check in and meetings and the get together the day before the race.
2. Everyone one needs a bit of extra help down on the launching site before the start of the race, so be ready to help not just your crew but others.
3. Once the racers are off get in your vehicle and drive too just past the Tahkni River Bridge and watch the teams paddle by.
4. After that take a leisurely drive to the Carmacks checkpoint/stop and if you are tenting find a good site.
5. The racers will start arriving in Carmacks early the next day and if you want to help at the landing site, volunteers are always needed, put have a lifejacket with you if you are going to be helping on the dock. Carmacks checkpoint is crowded during the day so getting things ready for your race can be a bit of an organizing nightmare. Lots of people from all over the world here so its interesting wandering around talking to people if you like doing that sort of thing. It can be very hot or very wet and cold in Carmacks so come prepared with adequate clothing.
6. Once your team leaves, you can break camp and easily be at Five Finger rapids in time to see them come through and if you still have the energy to drive to Minto landing you can watch them go by there as well. Minto landing is the last place until Dawson that you will be able to see the teams past by. If you have made it this, far you are probably dead tired and I would suggest sleeping here and then taking a leisurely drive to Dawson the next day were you could then catch some more sleep.
7. In Dawson, you wait and check times at the finish line, but you can also be down at the landing area helping teams get their boats and gear out of the water.
8. Once your team arrives, they will need your help so you will be very busy taking care of them.

It is all a matter of what you want to make of the experience, but if you do it, right you are as much of the race as the racers themselves. By the way it’s a balmy -29c here in the Yukon where I live.

Found this linked to from Surfskibc’s Weblog.  A trainer has put up his coaching videos dissecting paddle strokes of top paddlers and some beginners.  It’s a great resource.  A list of his videos can be found here.  Here’s one of my favs with a good sound track and some rather nice paddlers.