Yukon Ho!

I’ve found that probably the most irritating thing for me during my training has been just how hard it is for me to put on weight. Key to this, logically should be my diet. Mixing the correct diet with the correct training programme has been a really difficult balance to strike. So far my approach has been:

* To aim for large gains in weight and strength; therefore to train during the week with almost exclusively resistance training (weights, core strength exercises)

* To keep my cardio up at the weekends on our long paddles

* To concentrate on protein intake, and hope for weight gain

Actually, what I’ve found is:

* My weight has stayed static, or increased only very slightly. I’m now at 92.7kg; an increase of just 4kg since I started training in December.

* The weights I’m lifting have increased week-on-week; generally I’m finding I can lift far bigger weights than previously

* My core strength has improved

* High protein intake has left me feeling tired, and bloated.

* Reducing the protein, and upping the Carb intake has proved really useful; I’ve started feeling much more awake and energetic all the way through the gym session.

So here are some of the things I’m eating to try to put on weight:

* Sandwiches before or immediately after the gym - such as peanut butter, with lots of carbs and protein

* Pasta with egg and bacon (no rind) sauce

* Tuna steak with veg stir fry and a mound of rice (thanks for the marinade recipe Dad :-))

* Scrambled Eggs in the morning, on toast

* Porridge. In the morning. Just to make sure you have a bit of excitement in your life….

So I’m not sure how else to get many more calories in to my diet; I’ll be looking out for hints and tips from friends and family! Answers on a postcard to the usual address…

Further to my post about LSD. I’ve done a bit of research on the purpose of LSD.  We got our training program from a nice trainer at Marsports and I thought that LSD was a term he used.  It turns out that it’s a recognised training practice.

I found this site which looks like a school project but it includes

LONG SLOW DISTANCE TRAINING (LSD)

This is any work continued for long periods at a steady rate. It will improve aerobic fitness. 3 times weekly for 30 minutes at 70% of maximum heart rate will yield the most effective improvement.

So I think we should probably just continue with the LSD but set a strict heart zone for the 1.5 hours and aim to be in the aerobic zone for 90% of the session.  I’m going to try it tonight irrespective of how much Ed tries to encourage me to race =).

We did an LSD on Sunday. It stands for “long steady distance”, not the hallucinogenic drug preferred by Prog Rock bands. It’s not exactly long in respect to the Yukon, clocking in at a meagre 90 minutes. I have been a little suspicious of these paddles as we don’t leave the river shattered like our sprint sessions and I started to question the value of our mellow trip down to the river on Sunday.

From polarpersonaltrainer.com

We’re monitoring our heart rate so I was surprised by the results from Sunday. My new polar watch reassured me that it is doing some good.  I burnt almost 1000 calories during the paddle, which was at a pace above race speed but is an indication of how many calories we are going to need over the course of the three days.  It also showed I operated in a good aerobic zone during the trip.

I do feel that if I’m not in the top 5% of my heart rate then I’m not working but realistically we need to increase our training for longer durations at the lower levels. It was pretty much evenly split between aerobic exercise(green) and light training(blue). Maybe we should consider adding a few increases of pace into the session to increase our anerobic work and move more of the exercise out of light training, but for now I’m a reassured it’s doing some good.

Results from a sprint session

For comparison I’ve also included the results from our sprint session on friday night.

As you can see my heart was in the red for the majority of the time.

We were doing 1 minute sprints with a 1 minute break.  3 sets of 6.

I remember enjoying the 18 seconds of relaxing grey.

I’ve finally managed to find my GTD notebook of some of the things I jotted down straight after the Marsport session.

• Measure from your bum to the footrest, make sure it stays a constant, so when we get to Canada it will be easier to set up a new boat.
• Try a practice run in Poole harbour, get some experience of open water for when we paddle the Lake.
• Put some tape on the blade to show where the limit of your hands should be.  When you’re tired it’s easy to lose your grip position.
• Method for paddling
  - Plant Blade
  - Push down on blade with upper hand on plant.
  - Bring shoulder through
  - Push with legs
  - Keep head up (Pete that includes when you’re working really hard)
  - Relax neck
  - Don’t grind your teeth and relax jaw.
  - Relax hands
  - Hand moves out from the ear and forward
  -Twist shoulders using Lats
• “Get some lats” as a matter of urgency.
• If your heart rate is < 140 during training, go home and watch tv as it’ll do you as much good.
• Pack the boat light, every kilo will be felt over that distance.
• Make the seat comfortable, supposedly some paddlers use sheepskin rugs on seat.  Most atlantic rowers paddle naked with just a rug underneath them.  I’ve suggested this to Pete and he’s not keen.

1) No-one who doesn’t paddle understands them

2) They keep your hands lovely and warm

3) They help prevent horrible ecxema-like dryness on knuckles

4) They stop you wimping out on a cold, windy Thames

5) They confuse rowers, being not made of Lycra

6) They are a key rite-of-passage into the arcane world of distance paddlers

7) They come with Fleecey linings

They look particularly fetching when wearing a Buff

Toons: Any others?

Pete: This weekend was our first proper introduction to the training schedule laid out by the trainers at Marsports. I was pretty aprehensive anyway, having started on the core stability work down in the gym over the week. I put together a gym schedule that details what I think I need to be doing over the next month. A part of that is intensive work over the weekends (and Friday nights) in the boats so that we get the important tone, speed and cardio work as well as a chance to practice technique.

Click to read more …

River levels have dropped, and Marsport have let me know that coaching is back on this weekend. Hopefully this week we’ll have details of our training regime as advised by experts…

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.

Toons: Our first proper training run on Saturday.  A planned trip to Marsport was cancelled due to the river being too high.   The boat was from sunny Scunthorpe and just lifting it to the river, show what great suspension Pete’s car has.

The great British weather meant that the temperature was just above zero and the container/changing room meant for a fast change.  Already I’m looking forward to the summer.

The training went well apart from our inability to keep the damn thing straight.  Every time we thought we’d got the nack we’d end up swerving into the bank. We didn’t use the rudder so we could keep up a better speed.  The wing paddles worked well but once we got into a good flow the boat tended to want to climb up the bank.

A three hour paddle to Richmond Bridge and another session planned for tomorrow, let’s hope we can steer.

Pete: I think we both realise even on our first outing just how difficult it’s going to be to keep morale high. Mood swings from taking verbal potshots at rowers (”Pond Life”) to getting checked out by good-looking female rowers. This always provides a highlight - the pace quickens etc. Sometimes this is less than ideal - especially when heading for a tree…