This was originally a series of posts, from October 2016 through to March 2017. They are collected below.
Intro
I've decided I want to do the Devizes to Westminster Canoe Race (DW) next year (2017) and thought it might be interesting to document the training and preparation. The plan at the moment is to do it K1, and therefore it will be the four day stage race, but if the option of a K2 came up then who knows... For anyone who doesn’t know, it’s a 125 mile race with 77 portages done either in one go for doubles or as a four day stage race for singles and juniors (more info on the DW site).
Obviously there are other sites around where people have blogged their DW tales, but there's always room for more! And hopefully I can provide some useful information or at least motivation for others who want to race. There’s also the fact that posting will keep me accountable... if I post that I didn't train for a week that's not going to look good!
So, brief intro and then next week I'll post a catch up of the last month or so of training and then start posting about training and other other DW, paddling or training related musings. This isn't going to be full length articles like the main blog.
I paddled a little bit as a kid, stopped for a while, and then restarted in 2006 and I got into racing pretty full on. By the time I went to uni I was training two or three times a day, six days a week. I raced DW as a junior once, a hard fought race where we were fighting for second for three days but ultimately came third, less than three minutes off second after 16+ hours racing. The next year I raced K2 with my coach in the endeavour category (the only category we fitted in). It was less closely fought but equally eventful and memorable (getting knocked in by your support crew is hard to forget, as is a horrendous headwind down the Henley straight). In 2013 I got ill, at that point I was Mens A / Div 1, and the illness knocked me off my stride and I wasn't right for a couple of years. Since then I haven't really trained properly. Point being I can paddle; some people come at the race never having been in a kayak but I don't have that, in fact I'm sat writing this wearing my 2008 DW T-Shirt. That obviously affects how I'll train for it and what will be the bigger hurdles.
I have always trained at Wey Kayak Club, but I'm living in Newcastle at the moment and (as far as I know!) there's no one else here paddling so, for the moment at least, all of my training is on my own, which will affect the types of training I’ll do as well.
Getting back into training, recap of the last two months
As I said earlier this week in the intro post, I haven’t been training much for a while (certainly not consistently), so the last 6-8 weeks were really just aimed at getting back to training. Also, I started off weighing about 91 kg so I need to drop a few kgs: when I was racing, most of my best performances were at a bodyweight of about 87 kg and I was focussing more on sprint at that point so it probably makes sense to be a bit lighter for DW… hopefully low 80's by the time of the race.
I didn't have anywhere to keep my boat to begin with [Read more…] so it was living on my car, which is in a multi storey car park whose roof is pretty low so you can’t drive in and out with a boat on; you have to take it off, drive in, park, run back and get the boat, and put it back on the roof. Add in that there’s nowhere sensible nearby to get on the river and I didn’t paddle for a few weeks.
I started off trying to get one session a day Monday – Friday of gym or running. Fortunately there’s a commercial gym less than 10 minutes walk away that isn't too bad (they have three racks and plenty of weights, what more do you need!). I wasn't worrying about trying hard and was actually making the sessions deliberately easy: in the gym weights were 10-20% lower than I could have lifted and runs were really jogs looking at the scenery. I did that for three weeks, upping weights a bit but not much and keeping runs at 20-30 minutes. The real aim was to get used to training every day, once the habit is built upping the difficulty of each individual session is relatively easy.
My new home water on the Tyne
Once I sorted a place to keep my boat, at a rowing club, (who says paddlers and rows can't get along, they have been very nice!) I started paddling twice a week. So a typical week was then something like:
Monday: Gym: bench press, 1 arm row, overhead press, curls, plank
Tuesday: Run, 6km / 25 mins OR paddle e.g. 6*6 mins on 3 off
Wednesday: Gym: Squats, deadlifts, sit ups
Thursday: Paddle e.g. 5*8 mins
Friday: rest
Saturday: Paddle e.g. 45 min steady
Sunday: rest
Last week was an easy / deload week and this week I have been back into normal training so I’ll start posting up my training properly at the end of the week (I’ll post training at the end of each week, so it’ll be a recap rather than a plan, and I’ll probably group each month’s training into one post which I’ll update each week rather than having loads of small posts clogging the place up).
October
Week 17th - 23rd October 2016
This week was the first after an easy week so in theory should be back up to normal training volume, actually I will try and up it a bit over the next week or two. I didn't get a run in which I want to next week (running hasn't traditionally been my strong point and there's lots of it on DW so I need to work on it). Bodyweight was down to low 88s, so moving in the right direction.
Monday, Gym
Row 10 mins. I have been doing this each week and beating the time each week but should stop doing this before gym, it made sense when I was restarting training to up my volume of work. I was just regaining lost strength before which is easy but now it's going to start interfering with the gym unless I take it easier.
Bench Press, 4*6: 95*6,6,6,6 hard but okay, will up next week
1 Arm Row, 4*8: 40*8,8,8,8 (40 is heaviest dumbbell, might need to change exercises before the end of this cycle)
Skull crushers, 4*8-10: 40*8,5,5,5 was too heavy
Curls, 3*15: 10kg
Face pulls, 3*12-15
Plank, 60"/30"*3 quite hard, keep same for now
Tuesday, Paddle
10,8,6,4,6,8,10 with minute rests
Wednesday, Gym
Squat, 4*8: 50*5,65*5, 75*8,8,8,8
1 leg rear foot elevated split squats ,3*6-10: 40*6,6,6.Should really have lower back exercise as well but 2 leg exercises is hard enough for me at the moment. I felt like back raises helped my lower back endurance for paddling when I have done for extended periods before.
Incline sit-ups3*10-15: 5kg 10,10,8
Thursday, Paddle
8/1*7 felt decent. Tried to keep pace reasonably fast
Friday, Gym
Cycle 10 mins, legs were still quite sore from Wednesday (clichéd paddler can't cope with a few squats!)
OH press, 4*6: 40*6, 50*6,
Seated row machine, 4*8-10: 52*10,10,10,10
DB incline press, 4*10:26*10,30*9,9,
Skull crushers,3*10-12: 20*12,13,
Face pulls, 3*10-15 I love face pulls, they make my shoulders feel so much better
Saturday, Paddle
4/1*10
Was nice to paddle a bit faster rather than the mostly 8-10 minute efforts I was doing the rest of the week, the run of the boat feels nice at this pace
Sunday, rest
There isn't much detail about the paddles which is kind of annoying, it would be nice to have effort splits or something - I'm playing around with various phone apps which might be nice but we will see (if anyone has recommendations please let me know...). I did GPS my paddles, and total paddling distance was 33 km this week.
Week 24th - 30th October 2016
Monday, Gym
Bench Press, 4*6: 95*6 97.5*6,6,6
1 Arm Row, 4*8: 40*10,10,10,
I really like 1 arm row. I feel like it caries over better to paddling than most exercises so would like to keep it for another week or two even though there aren't enough dumbbells to be able to to keep increasing the weight.
Skull crushers, 4*8-10: 25*8,8,8,8
Curls, light, 3*15: 10kg
Face pulls, 3*12-15: were no pulley machines free, so I did some band pull aparts at home later
Plank, 60"30"*3
Tuesday, Run
Ran along by the river, 5.6km, 23:55 PB I think
Paddle
10,8,6,4,6,8,10 with one minute rests
Felt decent, drifting off a bit some efforts but technique decent when I thought about it
Wed, Gym
Cycle 5 mins
Squats, 4*8: 75*8
1LRFESS ,3*6-8: 40*6,6,6
Incline sit ups, 3*10-15: 5kg , 10,10,10
Was harder than last week! Probably because I ran yesterday but also I had a sore throat Tuesday evening, I wasn't feeling great during this session, I did it anyway but I felt fairly ill later in the day, probably wasn't sensible.
Thursday
day off because ill/cold
Friday
Off
Saturday, Paddle
4/1 * 8
Only gentle, still feel a bit of a cold but will be gone by Monday.
Too much gym?
As you may have spotted, I’m probably doing about as much gym as I am paddling. Given that my main focus is on DW, very definitely an endurance paddling race, is it wise to do so much gym? Perhaps not, I’m sure lots of people would tell me it’s stupid, but here’s my reasoning/justification.
I enjoy it and the monotony of paddling every session would drive me crazy eventually. I might be able to train hard for a few weeks or a few months but I know I couldn’t do it for an entire winter, and I definitely can’t while training on my own. In the run up to the race I'll spend a higher proportion of time on the water but for now the real aim is just to get as fit as possible and be able to take a higher amount of weekly training load. I think being really fit is probably more important than having a huge paddling base (though having both will be best), gym isn't as aerobic a paddling but you're still building up your tolerance to training.
It’s convenient, the gym is close to home so it doesn’t take as much time to get there, train, and get back. Running is obviously even better for this, put kit on, walk out the door, run. If it takes less time out of my day per session then I can get more sessions in per week, upping my training load like I said I wanted to.
Similar to convenience is that it’s a bit less draining mentally to go to a warm dry place with other people in than going to a cold river bank on my own and getting changed in a boat shed because the club house is locked. You could say toughen up and deal with it (and you’d have a point to a degree) but I think there’s value in constructing the training to make it less brutal some days, therefore making it achievable. My motivation will be higher, so I’ll work harder and get more done overall. Even if I turned up and did all the sessions on the water I won’t be getting as much out of them as I should if my head is not in the right place and I'm not focused - just because it looks better on paper it doesn't mean it will translate to real world results.
I like that it’s easily measured, which paddling isn’t really, and that keeps my motivation high. Sure I can track sessions on GPS, but the wind changes, the flow changes, the water and air temperatures change, the tide changes… you can’t realistically track paddling progress without time trials in similar conditions (unless you’re making big improvements). On the other hand, the weights never lie. I can look at my old training diaries and compare what I did two weeks ago or a year ago to what I’m doing now. Watching training lead to improvements is motivating. Also, I quite like having analysable numbers, it just appeals to me.
All of that said, I could still be doing gym, but high rep sessions instead of the 5-15 range I've been doing. People may disagree but I just don’t think that they are that valuable, whenever I have done high rep gym work my improvements plateau quickly and then I’m just spinning my wheels and not improving. Conversely, working in a more standard S&C program and rep range focusing on a mix of strength and some hypertrophy gives me long term improvements which will transfer over to strength endurance reasonably easily (after all you can't have strength endurance if you have no strength). I think I will add some strength endurance in for one or two 2-3 week blocks close to DW but that will be all, and I think it will be enough to get a decent transfer from the strength work. Also, I think if you want to do strength endurance style training for paddling then you’re probably better off doing bungee sessions with lots of resistance than gym sessions anyway. Saying that, there are people who are quicker than I have ever been, who do little to no heavy strength work…
To wrap up: I like doing it, it’s an easier way to get a higher volume of training in and I don’t think it damages paddling during the off season.
Week 31st October - 6th November
Another week much the same a the last couple, there's no need for any big changes, I just need to keep ticking the sessions off.
Monday, Gym
Press, 4*6: 95*6, ,97.5*6,7,6
1 Arm Row, 4*8: 40*12,12,12,12
Skull crushers, 4*8-10: 25*10,30*10,10,8,8
Curls, light, 3*15: 10kg I suck at curls so I’m just adding some each week and keeping it at a light weight for now
Face pulls, 3*12-15
Plank, 60"30"*3 quite hard, I don’t like plank (it just isn’t fun, I prefer exercises like weighted sit ups, landmines and medicine ball throws) but I suck at it so I figure I should try to improve.
Tuesday,
a.m. Run
20 minutes, just steady. As I was ill last week I want to make any extra sessions I'm adding in pretty easy for now
p.m. Paddle
6/1 * 8 lovely clear (cold) evening paddling at sunset, felt good but it's easy to feel good when the water is perfectly smooth and lovely
Wednesday, Gym
Squats, 4*8: 75*6, 80*6,6,8 got confused and thought I was meant to be doing 6s not 8s , but I wouldn't have got all sets on 8 with that weight anyway(up from 75 last week), I'll aim for all 4*8 on 80 next week
1 Leg rear foot elevated split squats , 3*6-8: 40*8,6,6 remarkably hard
Incline sit ups, 3*10-15: 5kg , 13,12,12
Thursday, Paddle
10km time trial
I want to make sure I don’t get in the habit of going really easy and forgetting what it is like to try hard, because I’m paddling on my own the whole time. So I think it is a good idea to have a few set time trials that I do reasonably regularly. Competition makes you better, I’m just going to have to compete against myself! 10 km is a classic distance, and long enough to be a session in its own right, so I worked out a route on Google Maps and GPSd it to measure. There aren’t any bridges at a good distance so the turn point is a jetty, not ideal but workable. Also, the course might change length a bit when the tide is out because half the river disappears so the insides of the corners are longer. But, as a marker, I did 10.14 km in 50:30, with the first 10km 49.45.
Friday, Gym
OH press, 4*6: 50*6,6,7 52.5*6
Seated row machine, 4*8-10: 59*8,8,8,8 upped from last time but a bit heavy really, not staying smooth, so keep same weight next week
DB incline press, 4*10: 30*10,10,10,10
Skull crushers,3*10-12: 20*12,12,12
Plank, 3/1*3
Saturday, paddle
6,5,4,3,2,1,2,3,4,5,6 i.e. 6 down to 1 and back up. An absolute staple! I must have done this session well over a hundred times… It’s nice to do some shorter faster efforts, and good to keep a feel for it, I don’t want to get too much into a slogging away slowly mindset. Also, there was a lot of rowers around and I needed to make sure they don’t start thinking I’m slow!
Sunday, rest
Week 7th - 13th November
Monday, gym
Press, 4*6: 95*6, 100*6,6,6 right on the limit of being able to do the last two sets
1AR, 4*8: 40*9,10,10
My right forearm felt very tired (and maybe a bit pumped from press) and I felt empty, so I just did the face pulls and went home. Perhaps I should have pushed through but I don't think it would have been worth it. I'm not sure why I was tired but I felt fine the rest of the week so it was probably worth cutting this session short (and I still got the main exercise in so I got most of the benefit of the session)
Tuesday,
a.m run
5.6km, standard run route along the river, 24:18
p.m. paddle, 10,8,6,4,6,8,10
I was just setting my watch to start the session and who popped up next to me, a seal! Poking its head up and looking over at me, it seemed quite interested, floated over a bit closer to see me and the thrashed around a swam off. Being out on the river great.
Wednesday, gym
Squats, 4*8: 75*8, 80*8,8,8 hard!
1 leg rear foot elevated split squats ,3*6-8: 40*8,8,8 pretty gassed from squats but happy with that
Incline sit ups, 3*10-15: 10kg 8,8,8
Thursday, paddle
8/1*7
I went a bit later than planned and it was pretty dark by the end, it was a bit cold, a bit windy, a bit flowy, a bit rainy, but I loved it, I wouldn't have wanted to do anything else. I lost track of the time on a couple of efforts and did a couple of extra minutes, but if in doubt always do more, never leave yourself the mental option of stopping early, if there's a choice: work harder, go further, soak it up.
Friday, gym
Overhead press, 4*6: 52.5*6,6,6,6 could maybe up next week, maybe do extra reps or do last set or two on higher weight
Seated row machine, 4*8-10: 59*9,9,9,8
DB incline press, 4*10: 30*12,12,12,10
Skull crushers,3*10-12: 20*15,13,13
Face pulls, 3*10-15:
Plank, in between face pulls, 1 mins *3
Felt a bit tight and achy before, so happy with getting increases
Saturday, paddle
I was planning on doing a slightly faster threshold type session but I had an urge to do a longer paddle, so I paddled down to the town centre and back. I will probably start adding in a longer paddle every week or two, increasing the distance gradually to get some extra distance in and get used to the sort of distance I'll need to do on the DW stages.
19.5 km, 1:43:00
Sunday, rest
Week 14th - 20th November
Monday, Gym
Press, 4*6: 95*6, 100*6,6 102.5*6 The third set was really hard but I really wanted to get more than last week so I put the weight up on the last set and managed to get it
back off set 90*5, no wraps , I could do more but it's just to add some volume and to do a set without wrist wraps
1 Arm Row, 4*8: 40*12,12,12,12 back up to 2 weeks ago after last week's drop, happy enough for now
Skull crushers, 4*8-10: 30*10,10,10,7
Curls, light, 3*15: 10kg
Plank, 60"30"*3
Face pulls, 3*12-15, there was no machine free so I skipped them
Tuesday
a.m. run, 5.6 km along river, 23:58
p.m. paddle, 6-1-6 (6 down to 1 and back up)
Wednesday, Gym
Squats, 4*8: 80*8,8,8,8 definitely easier than last week strength wise, but felt tired and un natural
1 leg rear foot elevated split squats,3*6-8: 40*10,8,8
Incline sit ups, 3*10-15: 10kg 10,10,8
Thursday, Paddle
8/1*5
Friday, Gym
Overhead press, 4*6:50*6, 55*6,6,6
Seated row machine, 4*8-10: 59*8,8,8,8
same weight next week
DB incline press, 4*10: 32*10,10,10,8
Skull crushers,3*10-12: 20*15,15,13 going slow to make it hard
Face pulls, 3*10-15
Plank, in between face pulls, 1 mins *3
Saturday, rest
Sunday, rest
I was hoping to wait to have having an easy week until the end of the month (28th - 4th) because I'm going away for four days and won't be training, but it's not going to happen. I've been feeling quite tired this week and doing stupid things (pouring orange juice on cereal instead of milk type stupid, nothing serious) which is generally a sign I need a few days easy. My gym has mostly still been improved this week compared to last week so I'm not that tired! but this week is five weeks into training regularly again so it's reasonable to have an easy week, I'd normally do four weeks hard the one easy as a guideline.
I started taking creatine again this week, 5g per day. I used to take it pretty regularly but haven’t taken it for years now. The research is good for improving performance, particularly on short stuff and gym, and its cheap so it's a bit of a no-brainer. It might have some neurological benefits as well which is a nice bonus and I've been loosing weight slowly but pretty consistently so I'm not worried about any possible (but unlikely) weight increase. Check out examine.com lots of info on creatine, they are generally good at reviewing studies of all sorts of supplements.
I also started doing 20 reps of band pull aparts each day. More upper back and rotator cuff work should keep my shoulders rounding forward, from bench pressing etc. Also, I spend a fair bit of time at a desk which adds to the rounding so anything to counter act it is good. I'll work up to a lot more than 20 reps over time but I just wanted to make it easy to do for now so that I start the habit. I've got pile of bands next to my desk and a reminder on my phone so there's no excuse!
Week 21st - 27th November
This week is an easy week so some of the sessions are shorter than normal.
Monday, Gym
A, bench press from pins, 5*5, 90,100,100,100*3+failed on 4th rep
Pins were ~4-5 cm off my chest which is lower than I would like but the next height up is too high so I'll do this height this for this cycle and then use the higher pins again later in year
B, seated cable row, neutral grip handle, 4*10-12: 39*13, 45*12, 52*12, 52*12
My grip finds it harder than upper back even with a lovely grippy handle...
C, DB overhead press, 3*8-10: 14*8, 16*10,10
D1, curls, 3*10-12, 10kg 10,12,12
D2, cross body triceps extensions, 3*8-12, 10kg *10;10,10
E1, face pulls, 3*10-15 at home
E2, plank, 3*75 secs, at home
This is going to be one of my gym sessions for the next cycle so this week was really just going through it and finding what weights to use and taking it a bit easy as it's meant to be an easy week.
A, B.., D1, D2 etc means do all of A, then B... then D1 and D2 are done alternating between the two as a superset.
Tuesday, Paddle
4/1*8
conditions weren’t great, lots of flow and gusty wind, so it wasn't the prettiest session ever, just getting some more miles under my belt.
Wednesday, Gym
I went in the evening so the gym was really busy so I just did what I felt like and there was space to do.
Deadlift 3*3, 120,130,130
Seated row machine, 5*8
Weighted press ups (25kg plate on back), 4*10
Thursday, Paddle
45 minutes steady, taking it fairly easy
Friday, Run
5.6km, standard run route along the river, 25 minutes
Saturday, Paddle
4/1*10
I was planning on doing a 10 km time trail, but there was a rowing race on downstream. I didn't fancy dodging around fours and eights all morning, and as it was low tide so there is only 1500 m of usable river up stream so four minute efforts seemed the most sensible thing to do.
Sunday, Rest
Week 28th November - 4th December
Monday, Gym
A, bench press from pins, 5*5,lowest pins: 60,80, 90,95,95,100,100 (just)
B, seated cable row, neutral grip handle, 4*10-12: 39*10 52*12,12,12
C, DB overhead press, 3*8-10: 18*10,9,7
D1, curls, 3*10-12, 12kg 12,12,12
D2, cross body triceps extensions, 3*8-12, 12kg *9,9,9 tiny tweaks in arm position make a big difference to which bit of muscle works and how hard the exercise is,so weight is irrelevant really, it's just useful to remember roughly what weight I need next week
E1, face pulls, 3*10-15
E2, plank, 3*75 secs
Tuesday
a.m. paddle
10 km time trial (actually 10.24 km) 49:20. PB on this course.
I paddled at 8 and it was still pretty cold, the car said -4 I arrived and it was still -2 when I was leaving. Also, it was low tide which is generally not so nice and I felt stiff and the water felt thick but you don't always feel good. The last (only) time I did this course on October 3rd I did 50:30, so I'm happy with improving while feeling slow.
p.m run, just a gentle one, 23 minutes
Wednesday, Gym
I went to Berlin for a weekend (Thursday - Sunday) so wasn’t going to be training for a few days, so I did a full body session. I should have done more but I ran out of time... bad planning.
Squat, 70*6,80*6,85*6,6
Bench press, 90*8,8 95*8,6
Chin ups, 10,5,6,5
1st - 11th December
Thursday (1st December), paddle
6-1-6 managed to squeeze a paddle in before going away for the weekend.
Friday & Saturday
No training
Sunday
Flew back from Berlin. Easy run in the evening, 25 mins 5.5 km.
Monday (5th), Gym
A, bench press from pins, 5*5, lowest pins: 90,95,100,100,102.5 got all 5 but last very slow
Back off set, 90*5
B, seated cable row, neutral handle, 4*10-12: 52*12,12 59*10,10
slow/controlled reps and slight pause at chest
C, DB overhead press, 3*8-10: 18*10,10,10
D1, curls, 3*10-12, 12kg 12,12,12 could probably go up but I'm not bothered by wasting energy on curls, they will come up slowly without worrying if I just keep doing a few
D2, cross body triceps extensions, 3*8-12: 12kg *10,9,10
E1, face pulls, 3*10-15
E2, plank, 3*75 secs
Tuesday, Paddle
8/1*6
Started off taking it a bit too gentle and wasn't really trying, but pushed on more in the second half.
Wednesday, Gym
Squat, 4*5r: 85,85,90 hard, 90*4 (failed on 5th)
1 leg rear foot elevated split squats, 3*8-10: 40*10,10,10 up to 45 next week
RDL, 3*6-8: too dead from squats to add RDLs this week
Side bends, holding a dumbbell in one hand, 3*12-15, 34*10,10,10 quite hard. Going slow. Same weight next week and up the reps.
Thursday, Paddle
8* 1km every 7 minutes(first one wasn't really an effort, was just measuring the course). I should really have done a couple more efforts, we used to do 10 back in the day. Doing some efforts where I could time them and aim to match the time on the next effort was good, helped me to push harder and not just go through the motions.
Friday, Gym
A, bench press, 4*10-12: 80*12,12,10,10
B, chest supported row machine, 4*10: 52:10,10 struggling. 45*10,10
C, Skull crushers 4*8: 35*8,8,10,10
up to 37/40 next week
D1, straight arm pulldowns, 3-4*8-12:25*10,10;10 quite like them. Haven't done for ages . Similar pattern to paddling. Also anti extension core ex.
D2, rear delt flyes, 3-4*8-12:4*12,12,12 use 5s next week
E, core circuit. meant to be 3 circuits, 10-15 reps each, 3-4 exercises, v sits / hip ups / toe touches / sit ups or similar
Did v sits, cycling sit ups, crunches. All *10*2 not as many as planned ... but I need to work up to it, it killed me instantly!
Really quite sore from Wednesday leg session, glad I didn't do the RDLs that I had down as optional!
I feel a bit tired, and feel weak and sore in gym, its the end of the week so no big deal.
Saturday
rest (working)
Sunday,
a.m. paddle
6,5,4,3,2,1,2,3,4,5,6
love this session, raced a few rowing boats to make it more fun.
p.m. run
Standard 5.6 km along the river. 23:27 (PB by 30 seconds)
Monday,
a.m. Paddle
8/1*6
The seal was back again, I looked behind me between efforts and it was swimming along directly in line with me in my wash! Nice gentle session to leave myself energy for the gym later.
p.m. Gym, Max upper
A, bench press from pins, 5*5,lowest pins: 90,95,100,102.5,105*4 90*5 back off set
B, seated cable row, neutral handle: 4*10-12: 52*12,12 59*12,12
C, DB overhead press, 3*8-10: 20*10,10,8
D1, curls, 3*10-12: 12kg 12,12,12
D2, cross body triceps extensions, 3*8-12: 12kg *10,10,8
E1, face pulls, 3*10-15
E2, plank, 3*75 secs
Tuesday, Paddle
4/2*10
Wednesday
a.m. Gym, lower
Squat, 4*5r: 40,60,80. 85,95,90(hard),90 last rep messy, 60*5 back off set
1 leg RFESS, 3*8-10: 40*8 45*8,8. 45 didn't feel much harder than 40
Side bends, heavy, 3*12-15, 34*12*3. Going slow. Same weight next week and up the reps
p.m. Run
22 mins steady, not going particularly hard
Thursday, Paddle
10,8,6,4,6,8,10
Friday, Gym
A, bench press, 4*10-12: 80*12,12,13,12
B, chest supported row machine, 4*10: 52*10,10,10,10
C, Skull crushers 4*8: 35*8 40*8,8 35*8
D1, straight arm pulldowns, 3-4*8-12:27*8,8,8,8
D2, rear delt flyes, 3-4*8-12:5*8,8,8,8
Saturday
Rest
Sunday, Paddle
10/1*7
Monday, Paddle
48 mins CAP
no rest and then straight to gym
Gym
A, bench press, not from pins as at Wey and gym busy, 5*5, 100,100,105,105,107.5
B, seated row machine, neutral handle: 4*10-12: 10,10,10,10
C, DB overhead press, 3*8-10: 20*10,10,7
D1, curls, 3*10-12: 12.5kg 12,10,8
D2, cross body triceps extensions, 3*8-12: 12.5 kg *10,8,3
E, incline sit ups, 15,12,10
Tuesday - Friday
I was at Wey for the week, so training was a bit altered. Monday I trained on my own but them Tuesday to Friday I joined in with other people's sessions. I won't write out all of the exact sessions as I didn't ask them if I could. Roughly, I did two sessions a day which were a mix of paddling and gym. I haven't done so much training for years and by Friday I was pretty tired. It was the first time I've paddled with anyone else for three months and it was really good to be able to compare my speed and it was great motivation to get a good kicking from people faster than me.
Saturday, run
30 min steady
Wednesday, Paddle
10/1*6
I got heart rate monitor for Christmas so might mention HR some times if I think it is useful or interesting, my average Heart rate was 153 for what it's worth. Mainly I got it to help me push myself on harder sessions.
Thursday, Gym
This week is an easy week so I wasn't sticking to the program really, also I hadn't done gym for a few days. So I just did a general while body session then I'll restart on the regular program on Monday
Press, 3*3: 110, 110, 115*3
90*3 back off
Deadlift, 3*5r: 100*5,5,5, straps are in the wash and grip felt terrible (hands got quite cold paddling without pogies yesterday)
I'm not very good at deadlifts! I think I'll make them my main leg exercise for the next cycle
C1, rollouts, 6,6,6,6 Not too hard but I haven't done them for ages and I know they make me sore so kept it easy today
C2, seated row neutral grip, 52*8, 59*8, 66*8, 66*8
D1, curls, 3*12, 12 kg, should up reps or change to cable curls next cycle to vary,maybe both
D2, cross body triceps extension, 3*10: 12*10,12,12
seem to be improving a bit at these now, always takes a while as they only use light weight
Two sets of face pulls
Run, max heart rate test
4 mins easy , 3 moderate , 3 hard
Hit 185, test gave an estimated max of 199
Friday, paddle
3/2 *10 (4 min rest at half way)
Saturday, Paddle
I was planning on doing 30 km but my phone died before then, so I did two and a half hours which should be about the same (maybe a bit short). I felt a lot better after it (not particularly tired) than I did after the 20 km I did a few weeks ago which is very encouraging. That long without a portage is horrible though, next time I'll work out somewhere to to a few portages.
Sunday, Rest
January 2017
Monday (2nd Jan),
a.m. gym
A, bench press, narrow grip, 5*5 (fingers just onto the smooth part of the bar so not really narrow) 80,90,90,90,80
B, seated cable row, neutral handle: 4*10-12: 52*10, 59*10,11,11
C, DB overhead press, 3*8-10: 20*10,9,10
D1, curls, 3*10-12: 12kg 15,15,15
D2, cross body triceps extensions, 3*8-12: 12 kg *10,10,9
E1, face pulls, 3*10-15
E2, supine hold with 1 arm DB press 12kg, 3*8. Core exercises can be so boring, but this is reasonably isn't too bad.
p.m. run 25 minutes
Alternating four minutes steady one hard to break it up and make me work (I was going to go for an easy one but Joe convinced me to put a bit of effort in and adding the hard minutes was good for stopping me being lazy!)
I was planning to paddle but it was really quite windy. There were white horses on the river near home which tends to be similar / marginally worse conditions to the stretch I paddle on. When I did the long paddle on Saturday just gone it was similar and I was fine but it's probably a silly risk; I'm on my own, there's frequently no one around at all even on the bank, I don't have a buoyancy aid (really need to get one before DW) and I can just paddle another day. So I ran instead.
Tuesday
I was hoping the wind would have died down by the morning but no such luck. So I did a spin class in the evening. I haven't done one before so it was a nice change, and pretty hard.
Wednesday, paddle
1000m every 7 mins *8
Finally back on the water but my head wasn't really in it for some reason, but I got it done.
Thursday
a.m. paddle, 10,8,6,4,6,8,10 CAP
Nice morning and felt good
p.m. gym,
Deadlift 4*5R: 100*5 , 120*4,4, 100*5
Should probably do 110 next time, 120 was too heavy to do well.
1 leg rear foot elevated split squats, 3*8-10: 40*8 45*8, 50*8
RDL, 3*6-8: 60*8,8,8 not especially hard but will up next week
Side bends, 3*12-15: 34*15*3. next week up the weight
Friday, gym
A, bench press, 4*10-12: 80*12 85*12,12,7. Rests 120 secs
B, chest supported row machine, 4*10: 52*10,10,10,10
C, Skull crushers 4*8: 35*8 40*8,8,7
D1, straight arm pulldowns, 3-4*8-12: 25*12,12,12
D2, reverse flyes, 3-4*8-12: 6*8,8,6
Cut the core circuit and did it at home in the afternoon
10-15 reps each x 4
v sits
band good mornings
hip ups
cycling sit ups
Saturday, paddle
10/2 *7
Sunday, rest
Monday, gym
A, bench press, narrow grip, 5*5: 80, 90, 90, 90, 90, back off set 80*3
B, seated cable row, neutral handle: 4*10-12: 52*10, 59*10,12,12
C, DB overhead press, 3*8-10: 22*8,9,8
D1, curls, 3*10-12: 12kg 15,15,15
D2, cross body triceps extensions, 3*8-12: 12 kg *11,11, 10
E1, face pulls, 3*10-15
E2, supine hold with 1 arm DB press 12 kg *8,8,8
Tuesday
Paddle, was going to do 4/2*10 but it was windy. I did the first 3 then it became a battle to not sink. I turned around and paddled back, only out for 30 mins in the end.
Run 3/2*5
Wednesday, gym
Deadlift 4*5r: 100*5, 110*5,5,5
1 leg rear foot elevated split squats, 3*8-10: 45*8, 50*8,8
RDL, 3*6-8: 60*8, 70*8,8
Side bends, 3*12-15: 36*15,15,15
Thursday
I managed to slip while cutting food and cut my hand... so I'm out of action for now....
So much for staying healthy and uninjured! Last week I slipped while using a kitchen knife and sliced open the side of my finger. The long and the short of it is that I went a third of the way though a tendon and my left index finger is going to be splinted for six weeks. (Update: When I went back to get stitches out and talked to the nurse and physio they said that when the surgeon said I cut a third of it he meant the tendon splits in to three bits around the knuckle and I cut the bit on one side completely through. Also, they said four weeks in a splint not six.) The general guidelines say no sport for 10 weeks. It doesn’t look great for DW given that it is in just over 12 weeks, but I’m not going to rule it out yet. I didn’t go all the way through and it’s an extensor tendon so it’s not actively used to hold a paddle. Plus I’m generally fit and healthy so recovery times should be on the lower end of the estimates, hopefully.
I cut right in line with the first knuckle (PIPJ). It was fairly deep. I was just going to steri-strip it together, but thought maybe some stitches would stop me ripping it open paddling so I went off to A&E not expecting to be there too long. They took one look at it and said “there’s a tendon there, go down to the hand unit and they’ll squeeze you in to have a look”. The hand guys had a look and said “probably got the tendon, can’t tell until we get it into theatres though”. So, I was off to a ward to wait and see if I could get on the end of the list. By 16:30 (having come in at 09:00 ish) I was in. They did it all under local anaesthetic, much nicer than general! Apparently the knife opened up the edge of the joint… lovely.. but didn’t damage it. So the only damage is the tendon. I was impressed being fixed up and sent home the same day I went in.
The tendon comes down the back of the finger and splits to go either side of the knuckle, so the half on the other side of the finger is fine. That must bode well for recovering full function. Also, it's the extensor not the flexor, which I think tends to be more likely to recover well. I detached a flexor tendon on the same hand years ago playing rugby and it is near perfect now. They do take a long time to heal though.
If I do still do DW then it will be a last minute entry. Then I’ll organise all the logistics in a rush in the two weeks before the race. I’ll have minimal support crew without many feeds etc because we won’t have had time to practice, I’m not going to spend loads of time planning when I don’t know if I can race or not. I’ve got old plans from before with maps and directions so we’ll just use them and improvise a bit. I’d rather leave the mental energy for focusing on recovery, physio, and training however I can.
It was interesting talking to paddlers vs non paddlers. The non paddlers said “I assume you won’t race then?” while the paddlers said things like “if you stay fit and get lots of other training in, you might be okay”. If I can’t race I’ll just have to pick new targets later in the year. DW will still be there next year. It’s still given me a good push to get back into training so the effort will be far from wasted. Enjoying the journey is the point anyway, so there's no point getting put off by a detour. I’ll just have to switch focus from racing to improving recovery for a few weeks, whether that’s doing physio, eating well, or something else.
Going forwards training is going to be very different for a while. I can still use my right arm so I’ll do single sided machine exercises (it won’t be long enough to develop imbalances and training one side helps the rested side stay strong too). After a couple of weeks I’ll do things like pec deck or lat pullover machine that don’t need you to hold anything with your hands. And obviously I can do leg press and other leg machines. “Cardio” will have to be bikes at the gym, then running once it’s healed enough that swinging it around doesn’t make it bleed and risk damaging the wound. There’s lots of core stuff that doesn’t need your hands too. I should be able to maintain quite a lot of strength and fitness, just not paddling fitness.
Basically I can't use it for two about two months, so I'll have to train around it.
Friday & Saturday off
Sunday
Three of four easy sets of chest press machine, shoulder press machine, chest supported row. All right hand only. Plus leg press
Week 16th - 22nd
Monday, off
Tuesday
30 mins on bike
15 mins core: legs raises, sit ups, back extension machine, 1 arm press ups
Wednesday
A, leg press machine, 5*8
B1, leg extension, 4*12
B2, chest press machine, right arm, 4*12
C1, shoulder pres machine, right arm, 4*12
C2, leg curl machine, 4*12
D1, chest supported row, right arm, 4*15
D2, incline sit ups, 3*15
Only the legs press was heavy ish, the rest was just slow and controlled.
Thursday
30 min cycle on spin bike
20 minutes of sit ups, leg raises, back extensions
Friday
A1: Leg press, 4*8: 86*8, 93*8,8,8
A2: One arm press ups: 4,3,3,3
B1: one arm DB press, 3*8: 26kg, not hard but don't want to risk a bad rep with my left hand not able to help
B2: 1 leg rear foot elevated split squats, 3*10: 26 kg db in right hand
C: chest supported row machine right arm , 4*12, 36 kg
Saturday, off
Sunday
30 mins of core bits a pieces at home
I haven't really done that much this week, most of it can't really be considered training! It's just been to do something rather than sit around all day. Hopefully next week I'll be able to do a bit more.
Week 23rd - 29th
Monday,
A1: Leg press, 4*8: 93
A2: One arm press ups, 4*3+: 4,4,4,4
B1: one arm DB press, 3*8: 28kg
B2: 1 leg rear foot elevated split squats, 28 kg db in right hand: 3*10
C: chest supported row machine right arm , 4*12 , 41 kg
Same session as I did on Friday but I wasn't sore after it, I liked it, and there aren’t too many good options at the moment
Tuesday
55 min on a bike
Wednesday
Tabata session on bike
10 min warm up then 20"/10" *8
Core: leg raises 3*15-20, twisting sit ups 10 each side *3, back extension machine 15*3
I'm getting very bored of sitting on a bike in the gym!
Thursday
never got around to going ...
Friday
bike, 3mins hard 2 mins easy *8
Saturday
Smith Machine squats 90*5,5,5,5,7
Can manage to do without tensing my left arm. But they aren't as good as a proper squat
B1: 1 leg rear foot elevated split squats, 3*10, 28 kg
B2: 1 arm dumbbell press, 3*12, 28 kg
C1: one armed seated row machine, 3*13, 44 kg
C2: leg press, 2*20
I did more cycling this week than gym because I figured getting strong legs at the expense of trying to keep some fitness wasn't good for DW but stationary bikes in a gym are just too boring. I think by next week I'll try and do some running, getting outside is so much more enjoyable. And I'm either going to keep the cycling really short, probably Tabata intervals, or long and slow and just listen to podcasts to keep myself entertained.
Update on the finger:
When I went to get my stitches out this week I asked the physio if I could start doing something earlier than normal because I had only gone part way through the tendon. Turns out that when the surgeon said I cut a third of it he meant the tendon splits in to three bits around the knuckle (two either side and a bit over the top) and I cut the bit on one side completely through. So it's worse than I thought. The physio used to paddle a bit though and said DW might be okay depending on how everything progresses.
Monday 30th
bike, 10 min warm up then 20"/10" *8
Tuesday 31st
Smith Machine squats 90*5, 95*5,5,5
B1: 1 leg rear foot elevated split squats, 3*10, 28 kg not too hard but was really dead after last time I did this session so kept the same for this only up on the squats
B2: 1 arm dumbbell press, 3*12, 28 kg
C1: one armed seated row machine, 44*12
C2: leg press, 45*20,20 just going slowly rather than heavy weight
February
Wednesday 1st
Bike, 30 secs on /30 off *5*2
Thursday
Smith Machine squats 90*5, 95*5, 100*5,4,4
B1: leg press, 3*15
B2: one armed seated row machine, 44*12,12,12
finger was throbbing a bit so didn't do any more
Friday
Bike, 3 mins on 2 off *4
Saturday
run 20 min steady with 1 min walk at half way. First run since I cut my finger. Legs felt pretty useless! But finger was fine.
Sunday, gym
A, Smith machine squats, 5*5, 100 quite slow on the last two sets
B1, chest supported row, right arm, 4*15
B2, leg press, 4*15
Week 6th - 12th February 2017
Monday - Thursday
Away at a trade show so did no training, just lots of walking!
Friday
lazy / tired and did no training
First physio session for my finger
I can now start to get the finger moving again. It has to be splinted straight at night but I have a springy splint to wear during the day. The exercises I've got are; make a fist ten times (I can't get anywhere near yet), and put the splint on and try to bend just the tip ten times. All four times per day, plus scar massage four times.
It's getting rather close to DW and I can't make a fist or pick anything heavier than my phone up with my left hand. Not promising to be frank. I'll just have to keep up the physio and see how it goes for a few more weeks. I did have a little look at the Cheshire Ring though, maybe that could be an option.
Saturday
Run, 5.5 km along river, 26:05, wasn't trying too hard (PB is 23:27) because I was thinking of relaxing my finger rather than trying hard. I feel so much better after training outside than in the gym!
Week 1st - 5th February 2017
Wednesday 1st
Bike, 30 secs on /30 off *5*2
Thursday
Smith Machine squats 90*5, 95*5, 100*5,4,4
B1: leg press, 3*15
B2: one armed seated row machine, 44*12,12,12
finger was throbbing a bit so didn't do any more
Friday
Bike, 3 mins on 2 off *4
Saturday
run 20 min steady with 1 min walk at half way. First run since I cut my finger. Legs felt pretty useless! But finger was fine.
Sunday, gym
A, Smith machine squats, 5*5, 100 quite slow on the last two sets
B1, chest supported row, right arm, 4*15
B2, leg press, 4*15
Week 6th - 12th February 2017
Monday - Thursday
Away at a trade show so did no training, just lots of walking!
Friday
lazy / tired and did no training
First physio session for my finger
I can now start to get the finger moving again. It has to be splinted straight at night but I have a springy splint to wear during the day. The exercises I've got are; make a fist ten times (I can't get anywhere near yet), and put the splint on and try to bend just the tip ten times. All four times per day, plus scar massage four times.
It's getting rather close to DW and I can't make a fist or pick anything heavier than my phone up with my left hand. Not promising to be frank. I'll just have to keep up the physio and see how it goes for a few more weeks. I did have a little look at the Cheshire Ring though, maybe that could be an option.
Saturday
Run, 5.5 km along river, 26:05, wasn't trying too hard (PB is 23:27) because I was thinking of relaxing my finger rather than trying hard. I feel so much better after training outside than in the gym!
Sunday, gym
A1, smith machine squats , 90*5 95*5, 100*5, 5
A2, one arm press ups, hand on bench, 5,5,5,5
B1, leg extensions (leg press was busy) 15*3
B2: one arm cable row 15*3
C1: leg raises 10*3
C2: cycling sit ups, 15 each side *3
Week 13th - 19th
Monday, bike
3 on 1 off x5
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Ill, couldn't train
Friday
Run, 25 mins steady
Saturday, off
Sunday, gym
A bit of a random mix based on what was free, including front squats (if I use a crossed grip then I can avoid using my hand), one arm press ups, one arm cable rows, sit ups.
Monday, bike
2 on 1 off x6
I had my second physio appointment for my finger today. Essentially I just have to keep doing the same exercises and massage for another two weeks. I still can't use it much, certainly no gym or paddling. To be honest DW looks pretty unlikely at this point.
1st March:
After I cut my finger I said I'd keep the training blog going until I decided if I would race or not. I'm not going to race.
Having been doing physio for a couple of weeks it is obvious that it is going to take a while to recover. I can't do much upper body exercise, let alone paddle, for several weeks. I'll probably be able to paddle by the time it gets to DW but I won't be paddling well. I won't be going any where near as fast as I could which would be frustrating. Not to mention the cost and time taken to feel like I'm not doing myself justice.
I don't think it is worth continuing the training blog. I'm not really training properly at the moment. It is more like I'm trying to get some general exercise and do whatever exercise I can fit around it than actually training for something, so it is unlikely to be useful or especially interesting.
Hopefully next year I can have a good crack at it.
Good luck to everyone else.
