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It’s Been Some Time...

since I last blogged... so, to catch-up...

Back then, I was ensconced in a merry little round of paddling and jogging and twice a week helping out with the organisation of training sessions at the paddling club. The paddling in particular involved 40 mile round trips to the club, twice a week, for what amounted to an hours session, and then the jogging had to be fitted in around it. All this was all very well but neither jog/running nor paddling were being performed very well. The best I could manage was to just about scrape in a time in what turned out to be my last Hasler race, that got me to promotion to division 8. On the other hand it turned out that I didn’t win the Hare & Hounds cup this year. Unbeknown to me, thanks to the organisers never publishing a running total of the points gained by individuals, last year’s winner had been putting in appearances during the earlier races in the year and had gained an unassailable lead without any real opposition. To cut a long story short, and to ribbons, something had to give, and it was the paddling that had to go. I quit the job with the paddling club and haven’t been back to the club or on the water since. 

Instead I’ve been putting in some rather more serious training on the jogging front to see if I can get to the point where I can legitimately call myself a ‘runner’ again. At first it was quite pleasant just jogging around for the sake of it, but as usual the competitive element crept in and I found myself chasing the Parkrun age related list. I was placed at 39th on the Bushy Park list and 10th on the Richmond one without having done any real work to improve. Coming up to June last year I was about to make a bid for PB’s at both those venues as my age group was about to change up a notch. Instead I managed to pull a muscle that put jogging completely out of the question for over a month. Another birthday came, my age group creaked and groaned into action to change up a gear, and my name stayed in exactly the same place on the list. The only change it will now ever make in that age group will be in a downward direction as more able runners come along to leapfrog my placing. How sad is that?

Still, looking forward, I am now in a new, but 5 year older age grouping which is rather more exclusive with fewer members. It seems that running does take its toll. For Bushy I entered the new group in 8th place and at Richmond in 10th with my first runs. That was in June last year and I’ve been working on the place order since. After a few good runs including a couple of PB’s I’m currently  3rd at Bushy and 4th at Richmond. As usual the problem at Richmond is the hills in the last mile which add almost a minute to my time over the course. But I’m working on it.

One of the better ways of training is to do it with others who are just a bit better than you. For that I had in the early part of the year joined a small running group with a personal trainer. It was quite instructive and I got an insight into modern training methods. My methods are almost pre historic by comparison. Unfortunately it still didn’t stop me picking up injuries that took me out of training for a couple of weeks at a time. But it was also expensive, so in January this year I’ve rejoined the running club I was last a member of in 1989. They now run organised training sessions in ability groups which are well attended. There are about twelve of us in the intermediate group where I rank about halfway up the ability scale. Most of their racing during the winter is X-country and road during the summer. They also do a club age ranking which seems quite competitive. In a couple of weeks there are two club events that I’m looking to enter, just as long as I can keep the injuries at bay.

Into the Unknown

For the most part all my paddling has been confined to my own k1 kayak, the Laance. I’ve always played the safe game keeping to the devil I know rather than exploring the vagaries of the less stable, but usually faster racing thoroughbreds. My old bus with its stability factor of 9 has always served its purpose well. It’s kept me out of the water on many occasions when my own shortcomings in the ‘balancing’ department would have meant an unintended swim. Both of the club’s that I’ve belonged to have provided more exotic vehicles in their fleet, so satiating any curiosity I may have had has always been easily possible. Nevertheless, I’ve never felt the need to progress beyond the balance factor 8 of a Hobby, which is almost indistinguishable stability wise from my own boat.

My performance in the recent Hasler races and the club’s Hare & Hounds has not been outstanding by any means. Dragging in at the end of the finishers list and until recently being the club’s resident ‘Hare’ has been unsatisfactory in the ego development department to say the least. Having been given the job of helping to develop the current club’s Division 8 and 9 performances by organising the regular training sessions as helped to some extent. Doing two sessions of intervals each week has seemed to help as seen with the recent personal bests on the H&H’s. But it also does now seems to have plateaued out. It just seems that I’m into the realms of diminishing returns and cannot drive my old bus any faster without a considerable effort on either improving strength or getting technique honed to perfection.

One other course remains, which is to get a faster boat. Last year I finished off the last couple of H&H’s using the club’s carbon/Kevlar Laances and Hobbys. It seemed then to make a bit of difference as both were much lighter and easier to push along, but both were still approximately the same design and had very little advantage of speed. With these thoughts in mind I’ve borrowed my son’s Kirton Tor. It’s a much sleeker and lighter boat than mine and has a wobble factor of 6 which is about mid way in the stability range. But, and here’s the rub, it’s about the lowest wobble factor boat that I’m likely to be able to learn to use.

I took the Tor out for a test run yesterday. Setting it up to my dimensions was easy enough and so took it to NewHaw for the first run. Initially I simply sat it in the water, got in, wiggled about a bit, lost my handhold on the bank and fell out. There was obviously no quarter to be given here. Whereas my Laance would have accommodated shifting about to get comfy, the resistance just wasn’t there to any kind of heeling over to one side or the other. Having retrieved and drained the boat and collected my thoughts, I tried again. This time with a tighter grasp on the bank I progressed to balancing with the paddle, then without the paddle! Then using the paddle as a support in the water. 

Eventually I summoned enough confidence to push off and start moving forward. What this looked like from the bank I cannot say, but from my end it seemed like a skater on thin ice as I progressed slowly up the canal meandering from side to side depending where the last support stroke left me pointing. For a while it seemed like a hopeless task. A reduction of three points on the stability scale had reduced me to a rank beginner again. At last I blundered up to the M25 bridge and stopped under its arches which at least has a reasonable concrete bank as a get out.

After a breather and thought collecting session I turned the boat around on the bank. Not on the water as there was no way I was going to complete a 180 deg turn while staying in the boat. On the way back it went rather better. I picked up a bit of speed easily. The boat felt as if it just ran with hardly any effort on my part, but unless I kept perfect balance I kept losing it and needed a support stroke. At least there was fewer of them on the way back. That return run did provide a bit of hope that I can manage it with a bit more practice, but it was time to quit while I was ahead. I hadn’t actually fallen out while I was paddling.

Really the reality of the situation is that relying on the super stability of the Laance hasn’t done me any favours. I hope that I’m going to get to grips with this new situation, but to do so will probably take a fair bit of practice and an improvement in technique that the Laance let me off doing. The next session will have to be a bit longer and it looks as if I’m going to get wet.

Hare & Hounds, August

The final Hare & Hounds of the season took place on Saturday 18th August. For one reason and another I had missed six of them through the year so was keen to get this last one in as it would make my sixth event of the year and the final one to score. Although there is no running total published, I had an idea that the previous five results had put me into a good position to win the series if I could pull off a good placing on this last one.

From last month’s result my handicap had been increased by some four minutes putting at least two other contenders who had been on the last H&H on the start line before me. So as I lined up for my start four other crews had already departed at staggered intervals. I could just see in the distance the last one disappearing under the bridge about a quarter mile away. I have been practicing a fast start, with varying degrees of success. This one went off well by using short stabbing strokes to get moving from stationary, then increasing the depth of the paddle so that I was almost up to speed within the first ten strokes. 

I settled down to a faster pace than I was going to be able to maintain all the way, but by the first mile I had overtaken the paddler just in front of me and was wash hanging the next one. Just past the mile mark is a narrow bridge which I passed through just ahead making him have to slow up as he entered the span with my wash rebounding off the walls. That effectively gave me an extra ten yards and I was well on the way to the third target.

The three still ahead were still out of sight and I didn’t see them until they started coming back at me from the turn. I also had a good turn and made up a few seconds on that. Taking a slightly slower pace after the turn as I was running out of steam somewhat, I was still able to make ground on them until I passed number three while crossing Great Bottom Flash. The penultimate paddler was just a hundred yards or so further on and was taken just after the one-mile bridge.

I was now having to shorten the pace to rest a bit while keeping ahead. It was not until I came through the last but one bridge that I could see the leaders ahead of me by about a hundred yards. They were the Canadian pair crew that I had beaten last month, but this time they were paddling with a much more purposeful air about them. They had had a 15 minute start on me and we had passed by each other before the turn. My arithmetic had told me they had about five minutes of their start left at that point so it was likely that I could catch them. 

I eased off the pace a bit to rest then paced behind them until the canal began to take a long, slow curve to the right right up to the last bridge. I got the advantage of the bend and was able to take them on the inside and passing under the bridge in front of them, then giving it everything remaining up to the finish line and finishing 45 seconds ahead.

I felt that the whole race went well for me, including the couple of tactical moves I’d had to make. It ‘felt’ as if I’d gone a lot faster but it turned out that my time was somewhat slower than last month by 40 seconds, which was disappointing but I was pleased with the win which gives me another 10 points and a score of 51 points for the six events. Unfortunately I’ll have to wait to see if anyone else has scored higher to see if I get the trophy… or not.

British Canoeing August Challenge

British Canoeing, the organising body of all forms of canoeing in Britain, has issued a new ‘challenge’ for the month of August. In short, they are challenging individuals and groups to paddle a distance of either 30 miles, or 60miles in or on any compatible craft of your choice. Once  you’ve paddled the chosen distance all that you are required to do to claim your award is to provide basic details of the journeys that make up the distance and they’ll send a sticker on to you.. 

You could of course just total the mileage you log through the course of the month, and for many the target mileage would be only a fraction of what they would do in the normal course of events. But the challenge would be rather more difficult for those like myself whose monthly mileage is rather more limited. My monthly mileage this year averages out somewhere around 25 miles. Not a fantastic total by any means but most of it is at a fairly high work-rate.  I had thought that I’ll take up the 60 mile challenge Which seems a little more appropriate.

My club’s base is on the Basingstoke canal at Mytchett, which is coincidentally almost halfway along the length of the canal. From Mytchett in a westerly direction you eventually mcome to Greywell which is the start of the navigable canal. In fact the last mile can only be managed by paddlecraft as the depth of water isn’t sufficient for the deeper draughts of powered craft. The actual end of the canal is the partly collapsed Greywell tunnel which is now a Bat sanctuary. Going in the other direction from Mytchett the end of the Basingstoke canal empties into the Wey navigation at Woodham junction, just a half-mile upstream from my old favourite place, New Haw lock.

The distances are conveniently compatible with the challenge as the signpost tells. From Mytchett the return distance to Greywell is 36 miles while to Woodham it’s 26 miles making an overall 62 miles. But that’s only half the story. The ‘going’ towards Greywell is much more open even including views over a couple of lakes and open water stretches known locally as ‘flashes’, the most eccentrically named of which is ‘Great Bottom Flash’. The best feature though is that there is only one lock that would have to be portaged at Ash village.

On the other hand the canal going eastwards towards Woodham junction becomes much more closed in with overhanging vegetation and steep sided cuttings. In places it’s almost oppressive. The name ‘Deepcut’ just a couple of miles from Mytchett, should give a clue to the topography  It also runs through a lot more urban territory with properties backing onto the canal and towpath especially near Woking. The other thing on this side is locks. Lots of them, 28 in all, just like a mini DW. Some of them are close enough together to do in a single portage but still hard work for all that. The last time I did a trip along that part of the canal it was a weed infested pit that was hard to paddle through, so it could rightly be called a ‘challenge’.

The challenge that I originally envisaged though is to do the Greywell trip first in my canoe which would probably take a whole day. Then camping and recouping overnight and on to Woodham the following day but using one of the club’s lightweight kayaks. Even this is probably a bit too ambitious as the question really is whether I’ve got sufficient ‘go’ in the arms to do the whole trip in two days. Realistically I think it’s going to have to be split into two separate trips with a few days between for recuperation.

With all of this in mind I’d taken a club canoe out for a short trip on Tuesday evening doing about four miles in the hour. It was a double of about the same size as my own but being a composite construction weighed in nearly double. That’s the first time I’ve been out in a canoe since before Christmas and the four miles that I did were heavy going. At the finish of the 4 miles it didn’t stack up very well against the 30 that’s needed.

I need a bit more practice but I’ve got a Hare & Hounds to get out of the way first.

Hare & Hounds, July.

With only two club Hare & Hounds to go for the end of the season (July and August) it had begun to look that I might be in with a chance of actually winning the 4 mile event. The club scores each contestant’s best six results, Ten for being first home, nine for second and so on down to tenth and beyond 1 point.  Last year I came in second with only having completed five of the twelve monthly events. By the end of May, with nine of the twelve events over I had a total score of 

31 points from the four that I’d taken part in. So, with a couple of good results and a particularly good looking handicap, I seemed to be in with a bit of a chance.

However, June’s event fell on the same day as an anniversary do that we couldn’t miss, which left only two events to get the scores in. By the time of the July event I was more than six weeks into the twice weekly intervals sessions that I had been co-opted into by the club’s racing coach. The sessions certainly seemed to be making some sort of difference as I was now finding an increasing ability to keep going without stopping paddling for innumerable rests. 

On the Thursday before the H&H I decided to have my own time trial over my 5 mile course on the Wey. Starting out from NewHaw I completed the return trip to Pyrford in a very pleasing 57:41. This is the first time I’ve ever completed that course in under the hour. I may have managed a sub-hour five miles somewhere in one of the races I’ve completed but not that particular course. It’s always been a bit of a bug-bear getting below that time and I’ve come tantalisingly close on a few occasions but I’ve rarely dreamed of beating it by a couple of minutes. So, looking good for the H&H two days later. 

The H&H course is all of 4.6 miles. Based on Thursday’s performance my arithmetic told me that a sub fifty minutes was on the cards. I had a good handicap with two others starting off before me. The one immediately ahead of me, by about a minute and a half, was out of sight around the first bends of the course as I pulled away. On the longer straights I could see her ahead and it gave my something of a spur on as I gradually closed the gap down. I passed her less than a half mile from the turn-around and almost immediately passed the leading paddlers, a pair in a C2 canoe who are not renowned for their speed. Such was their handicap that they had already made the turn and were on their way back. Counting off my time to the turn and doubling it gave me the time I had to catch up. Just over five minutes. 

Ploughing my own little furrow I could eventually see them taking it quite easily across the large lake about two miles from home. I passed them somewhere after the exit from the lake to take the lead. All I had to do now was stay ahead of the faster paddlers behind. I was tiring now but the interval sessions were paying off insofar as I was still able to keep going. At last I finished ahead of the field to take the ten points for first home. My time of 50:27 was my best ever for the course but a tinge disappointing not to get in under 50 minutes. 

This time last year with two of the events to be completed, the club issued the current points status for the leaderboard. Then, I was able to work out that even if I scored maximum points I was at best only going to come second, which proved to be the case. This year no such information has been forthcoming so I’ve got absolutely no hint if I ever in the frame for this year’s prize or not. A lot will depend on the last event coming up this month especially the handicap I get  after this last result. Whatever the outcome I’ll be really pleased with myself if I can break the 50 minute barrier.

Busy, Busy, Busy.

The latest injury has forced me into an almost a complete cessation to running, anywhere. Instead I’ve been doing rather more paddling than I require, at least for a while. Strangely the injury doesn’t play up during or after canoeing, only after a jog. I suppose it’s something to do with the impact of the foot strike which takes the full body weight all at once on the hip. Gradually it’s receding but it’s always lurking in the background. Frankly I’m getting past caring and will just have to take it as I comes.

Altogether I’ve been kept rather busy with paddling matters this last few weeks, hence the dearth of entries in this blog. Running of any sort hasn’t had much of a look in lately which is probably just as well. Returning from a paddle on a Saturday morning nearly a couple of months ago now I was accosted by the club’s chief racing coach who had a bit of a problem. It seems that the organisation of training sessions for the lower ranks of the club has been somewhat lacking for the past couple of years. Coaches who have taken on the job have faded away after a few weeks partly due to the lack of response from those who have dipped a toe in the Hasler competitions and found it enjoyable, but haven’t had the commitment to progress onto regular coached, training sessions.  Basically, the ‘A’ team, that’s divisions 1.2 and 3, are fine and fully self motivated. The middle order, divisions 4 through to 7 come and go a bit, but are generally self motivated, but receive the attention of the chief coach. As for the remainder it’s been pot luck whether anyone turned up for them to take a ‘coached session’.

Last year’s overall club performance however, was good enough to get it into the Hasler final at Richmond, in which it came a creditable 9th. It was later recognised that over 50% of the season’s accrued points came from the lower order divisions. Consequently it was thought that if the club wanted to repeat the Hasler experience it might be a good idea to encourage the lesser lights by providing consistent and regular, organised training sessions. How that is to be done is by providing someone, (anyone), who is prepared to turn up regularly to lead the sessions.  Cue… well, me.

Two of us have been asked to help. The other guy now takes the Saturday morning session and I’m leading the Tuesday and Thursday evening sessions. We all play from the same hymn sheet which is the training sessions as laid down by the chief coach. Neither myself or Saturday’s leader are qualified coaches so we adhere strictly to the coaches plan. So far it’s had a mixed reception. Those that really want to commit to regular sessions have been few and far between. To my knowledge only a couple of those who have started out have carried on to doing more than three or four sessions. For the most part they tend to give it a try a couple of times then drift off. Although we are currently in the holiday season and the weather hasn’t really been conducive of expending a lot of energy, it’ll probably be some time yet before things start to coalesce and we get a ‘hard-core’ together.  

Or, then again, perhaps it’s just me.