I had my first personal trainer experience at Parliament Hill Fields last week as I joined Sarah on her usual weekly proactive physical development regime. The down side of cycling up hill for 30 mins to get there and then doing numerous squat jumps only became apparent to me at the end of the hour as I stamped on my pedals hard to avoid being run over - and well, I was walking funny for a few days!
Sarah's back seems a bit better, at least it is when she is paddling, so I assume that means we need to be in the canoe more?
However, I've had a few thoughts about this training malarky and am planning changes. Firstly, I suggested getting up at stupid o'clock and paddling around our lovely basin before work as sometimes the rushing from work to get on the water as close to 6:30pm as possible and then not getting off till 9pm or home till after 10pm can be tiring.
Shadwell Basin, Tower Hamlets, London. 6 January 2006. Photographer: Fin Fahey
I don't like getting up out of my bed so that might not be a goer.
Secondly, we are getting close to Easter and the need to be paddling for longer. So, our weekends are organised from now until after the Race. But I need all these extra practice time to work out what to eat...no really I do.
I like strawberry jam (my Mom's) and strong cheddar cheese sandwiches but I savour the taste too much so while I eat one Sarah downs a flask of meatballs and sauce. So while quickly choking on a hard-boiled egg I successfully slow us down for 10 minutes. The Pakboat does jerk around if I have a coughing fit at the back.
Anyway, mainly I am procrastinating due to embarrassment from the event referred to in Sarah's comments on the previous post!
It was a dark and stormy night and the woman at the back shouted "brake". So the woman at the front paddled in reverse (action here...fast C2 heading at 45 degrees towards pontoon) and the woman at the back shouted "brake" while the woman at the front then paddled forward (action here...faster C2 heading towards pontoon). And if you can imagine, that dark night, that murky shiny water calling you and underneath you Fifty is ever charging on. To be fair, that's all I remember before I fell in, about 6 inches away from the pontoon and at the end of a 8.6mile paddle.
Downside of a C2, if one goes in the other pretty much has to fall in too. It's the camraderie of this training that I really appreciate although you'll have to ask Sarah for a more detailed tale of that. After all, she was at the back steering so could see every stroke or non-stroke I made!
Our next brave idea is to have some formal coaching on our technique and hopefully this happens on Saturday. I'm so looking forward to this but it'll be odd, learning how 'real' marathon canoeists go at it! Bet they don't have to worry about how fast they can eat cheese and jam sandwiches. (I'm in training for that too, just in case you were doubting my commitment to the Yukon River Quest...)
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