Working on the continuous paddling has paid off somewhat. The last couple of outings to the Wey five mile course have been constructed to that end with the hope that it'll pay off on a faster overall time for the out and back, New Haw to Pyrford and return. I've kept the first mile to an easy warm up but paddled non-stop and it's become relatively easy to keep it going for that distance. After that I've switched on the Gymboss timer with three minute intervals which are at an increased pace but not by any means flat out. A one minute rest between efforts, and the whole repeated ten times takes me to the end of the five miles in just over the hour which is about the best I've done since restarting paddling.
The intention of course is to get a steady rhythm going which I can maintain. On the latest outings the effort and rest intervals are beginning to blend into a continuous session. Keeping concentration on the various aspects of the stroke or just counting strokes just seems to help take the mind off the automatic response to stop paddling every few hundred yards when I feel 'tired', so in that respect there is some improvement happening.
At the moment I'd be pleased if I could get the five miles done in under an hour. Currently I'm within a minute of it but haven't actually broken that time for the course. With that end in mind and hopefully to provide something of a psychological boost I'm planning on bringing one of the Hobbys down to the Wey to see if that'll do the trick. Then I'll know if I need a 'faster' boat. Outings from the club in the Hobby have gone quite well and I'm now quite used to its slightly less stable condition and I've been using the Gymboss for the three minute intervals there as well. Combined with it being a much lighter boat 'feels' as if it's going faster but I haven't yet put it to the stopwatch.
Back in the Laance for the July H&H and with some steady paddling behind me was hoping to make it another improvement on my time which would have been the third in a row. Unfortunately I was late stopping the watch at the finish so didn't record an accurate time and the timekeeper hasn't yet published the official times for that day, but as a rough calculation I think I'm about 20 seconds outside any improvement this time around.
Next time maybe.
Post Script
It turns out that my time for this H&H was 52:31. That's an improvement of 0:37sec. Not as good as I'd hoped,but it'll do.
Post Script
It turns out that my time for this H&H was 52:31. That's an improvement of 0:37sec. Not as good as I'd hoped,but it'll do.
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