December went quite well all things considered. It was a bit of a struggle with the weather in the last week when it turned cold and on a couple of occasions I had to break through ice in the canal cuts. But as the cold snap extended the ice got more established and on the third occasion I had to turn back at Newark because it was just too thick to break through and I had to content myself with pratting up and down the five mile stretch that was clear.
By this time I had done away with the bungee and the interval sessions and was just trying to rack up miles. I got the monthly 100 miles in which brought the overall total for the year to just under 900 miles which I suppose I should be pleased with, but they are not bringing about any measurable performance improvement. What is missing from the schedule is the longer sustained paddles which I was hoping to start putting in the new year. And that's where it's all going wrong. The other DW hopefuls in the club are already busy paddling long stretches of the K&A and the Thames in their pairs and there doesn't seem to be any room for a singleton to be an uninvited guest at the party.
The new year came and went and I had a few days away from paddling. That also seems to have been something of a mistake. Having clocked 900 miles it all felt like something of an anticlimax as I reluctantly hauled my body out to the canal more than a week later and with the bungee in place had one of the worst and most unpleasant sessions ever. Cold, wet and miserable I was just dead in the water, stopping and starting much the same as I was doing this time last year. Nothing felt right about it and I laboured back to the start in an all-round worst time of 1:23 for the five miles. After that I didn't feel like going anywhere near the boat again until near the end of January when I unenthusiastically dragged it out again to do the same trip, this time in 1:08.
So... The total miles for the six weeks of this year is all of twenty miles. Instead I've been putting in a bit of jogging in the local 5k Park Run to see if I can improve the overall fitness. I've done four weekends now and clipped my original time down by 5 minutes. Although it's still a slow time I think I can still do better with a bit more mileage. I'm certainly having better results at jogging than paddling. Nevertheless, the fourth paddle of the year this morning, showed no improvement and a time of 1:12. So, all in all, I think that with only seven weeks left to go I've rather screwed my chances with the DW.
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