1st Run Workout

Well I am off to a slow start. Tonight I decided (stupidly) to go run with the Cardio Core workout group at the track. When Amber said track, I should have clued in, but no. When we got to the track there was only one other person from the group there. So we did about three or four warm up walks around the track. Then the leader showed up, and announced that tonight workout was going to be a "speed" workout, I thought I was going to die.

We did four warm up laps and then 100m on, 100m off for two laps. Then 200m on, 200m off for three laps. Then for "fun" we did two 100m sprints. (can you so ouch!) Thank God it was over. Now it was just one cool down lap and stretching.

The first run workout was a hard but a rewarding one. Since I started running I might as well continue. Now it will be three times a week.

ICF Congress Update

The ICF held their annual congress in Rome Italy on November 28 – 29.

Here are some of the highlights from that meeting:

The 2009 Championships will now include a 4X100m sprint relay (male and female K1)– in an effort to make canoeing a more exciting sport for TV. This should be an interesting event, you can see a test event here.



At the 2010 Championships they will also include a 5000m long distance event for both male and female K1’s.

Flatwater Racing will now be known as Canoe Sprint, Slalom Racing is now known as Canoe Slalom, and Marathon Racing will be Canoe Marathon.

I really the really interesting thing was that they changed the events to make it again more TV friendly. So they dropped all of the womens 1000 meters events. As well as the mens C4 1000 meters, mens K4 500 meters, mens C4 500meters, mens K4 200 meters, womens K4 200 meters, and the mens C2 200 meters. See chart below.



Here is the "new" format for the World Championships.



As you can see the regatta is in two sections, the first being the "Olympic" events, and the non "Olympic" events.This should make the regattas next year quicker with having less events. That's if the local regattas follow the same outline as the ICF.

Unfortunately it is the women who will be getting cheated out of all of the 1000m events. It will be interesting to see if this happens at the local level. I certainly hope not. Well see.

B.C. Masters Day One

Today the first day of the B.C. Masters at Whonnock Lake in Maple Ridge. One of the first races to go was the masters K1 500 meters. I was in the first heat of two. The progression was going to be the first three to the final and the next three fastest times of the heats to the final. I was in lane five, just looking to get third place or better, so I could move on.

My start was a little shaky, but I recovered quickly, and soon found myself sitting in forth. So I started to pull harder to try and move up. as I was doing this I could hear the referee start yelling at boat two. He was telling him to move to the right, that he was out of his lane. Then I heard the guy on my right yell to him that he was in his lane, but there was no stopping him. He came flying across all of the lanes. Seeing this I knew that he was going to be disqualified, and I was heading to a third place finish.

Sure enough I managed to come in third and boat #2 was disqualified. I felt bad for him because two years earlier, I had done the exact same thing. If you look just a little to the left, it looks like your lane and you follow it. You don't realize that you are crossing lane, and the referee is yelling at “you”. After the second heat, and the times were posted, I checked to see if the DQ hadn't happen would I have still made the final. It turned out that my time would have gotten me in anyways.

Next up for me was the K4 500 meters. This was about an hour and a half away, so I had lots of time to relax and eat. Since it was cloudy and cold, I made sure that I was dressed warm. We got our boat setup, and headed out for a warm up. I was in seat four, which comes in handy. People can't see how badly I am paddling. So the order in the boat was Jeff, Dan, Hugh, and myself. We practised a couple of starts. Six hard slow power strokes , and then smoothly building the stroke rate up.

Our start was a little rocky , but after about 50 meters we got into sync. We held our own, but could not catch Victoria, and came in second. It was a good race. After thanking everyone for a good race, it was off to the beach, and some warm clothes. Another hour plus wait before the 500 meter final. The sun actually managed to come out, and the warmth was appreciated after a cold morning.

I managed to get some sleep before the final. For the final, I switched the high seat for the low seat in the Super Lancer, which would help me put more power on the blade without having to deal with balance. I was in lane two, for the final. After a brief warm up, I headed for the start line. I looked down my lane and made sure that I had the correct colour of buoy on my right side. That way I would not cross into the other lanes.

My start was ok, but still needs work. Right from the get go, I was about four boats down on the start. For some reason I could not concentrate on technique and was basically flailing around. This does not make for speed in the boat. I think I came in sixth or seventh.

So I managed to make my goal of making it into the finals of the K1, but I was hoping to be closer to the front at the end. Being that regattas and racing against guys that are faster than you, helps you determine how much training you need to do. In this case, a lot. Also you get to observe the technique that makes a boat go fast. By watching the younger and faster paddlers, you can see what works and what does not, in terms of boat speed. It is helpful just to sit back and watch.

Next up was the 2000 meter race. I was number 10, but the order really doesn't make I difference. No one really line up in order on these races. The starter tries to get it right, but the paddlers are not really helpful, by lining up before being called to the line. My self included.I moved over to the middle of the start line, to get a better line to the turn at the end of the course.

The start was fast, with Jaden and Garth blasting off. By the time I was almost at the turn, I think I was sitting in 8th or 9th. The whole time I just kept concentrating on putting the blade in vertically and pulling hard. I was behind Karol the whole 2000 meters, and could not get any closer than about three boat lengths. I did manage to keep other people behind me from passing. I could hear Steve behind me, and it acted like a motivation thing, to keep pushing.

It was a good hard race, and I am happy with my performance.

Bad Regatta, Frustration Level High

Today turned out to be one very bad regatta for me. Right off the bat when I got there at 7:15 no one had a schedule of races. After a while I figured that the regatta did not start until 9am , and not the usual 8am start.

Then I found out that the entire regatta would be one day. I had planned on two days, so tomorrow I will be going back to the lake for a training session before driving back to Vancouver.

Anyways back to the racing part of today. My first race was not going to be for an hour so I had time to chat with Keith, who I had not seen since last year at a Deep Cove race. There were not many masters so we were group with either the juniors or the open class. Our 1000 meters race had only 5 people in it. This would be the theme for the rest of the day, every race was a final.

The wind was not at the famous Shomway speed yet this morning, so it was just at a light breeze for this race.(that would change later in the day) Keith and I cruised down to the start line, Keith in his SRS Vulcan, and me in my Think Super Lancer.

The referee called us to line, and handed the race over to the starter. The lanes for the races were actually rowing lanes, which are really wide, so there were going to be two boats per lane. I lucked out and got lane #1, with no one in lane #2, so I had the whole lane to myself. This is were my luck ended. Right from the start, I was doomed. I had a slow start, but a smooth one, and managed to go about 100 meters before I was bagged. Gee only 900 meters to go. This was a race of pure survival and pain. I have no endurance what's so ever. So needless to say a came dead last.

Next up was the K2 1000 meters with Keith as my partner. This was good, because I have always had good races with Keith , and today would be no different. (it was the only good part about today) We had a little shaky start, but soon recovered and had a decent race.

Next was a long wait until our next race. This is normal for a regatta. You can have a huge gap between races, sometimes 6 hrs can go between races, but that would be the extreme, the average is about 1-1/2 to 2 hours. The opposite is also true. You can have no time between races and they hold the race for you.Which they do not like doing, and tell you so at the start line.

Well we got to chatting, and lost track of time. The regatta was behind schedule and when we finally got to the start line the referee was not happy with us and warned us that this was the last time we would be late. We tried to use the excuse that we were old, but he was not buying it.

This K2 race was even better than the 1000m before. We had a good start, and were in sync for most of the race. We were smooth, and in time, and managed to finish not far behind the juniors.

The next race was suppose to be an exhibition K4 1000 meters race, since we were not all from the same team. Since this regatta counted towards nationals, the boat had to consist of members from your team, hence the exhibition status of the boat. I don't think there was a single member of the boat that really wanted to do this race, and I know I was glad when we found out the there were four teams and only three K4s. So we scratched from the race and rested for the K1 500 meters.

It was a 2 hour wait for the K1 500 meters. We got up at the scheduled time and started to take our boats to the launch area, when we found out that they were really behind schedule now, but Keith and I decided to go anyways. When we got to the start area, there was a line up of different classes waiting to race, so I headed over to the shore and got out of my boat and went swimming. the heat here in Kamloops is higher than what I am used to on the coast. It was 31 / 32 degree, and a little cooling down was in order, since I had time before our race.

It was another 15 - 20 minutes before they called us to the line. This race was the same as my 1000m race, pathetic. This was just increasing my frustration level, by preforming so poorly.

Back to waiting for the next race. This fortunately was going to be a shorter wait than before only about 20 minutes. Once they switch to 200 meters the schedule goes really fast. When we got to the start line they were behind schedule again. This time we had to wait about 20 minutes in the famous Shomway wind. There was steady wind blowing up the course, with some really go gusts, that blew my boat back quite a ways, and almost sent my hat to the other end of the lake.

Now the waves were starting to get larger, and the wind just a little harder. One group went, and then nothing. The officials weren't calling us to the line or anything. It was about 5 minutes before a bunch of K1 juvenile girls showed up and started to line up. Apparently they decided to hold the race for them. This wouldn't be so bad, except for the wind and waves.

What can I say about my 200 meter race. Well let's say three strikes you're out. it was so bad, I just gave up with 20 meters to go, and just cruised over the finish line, totally pissed with myself.

It was a crappy end to my day. Now it was time to make a list of what went right and what went wrong at this regatta. Even though it was not a very good regatta, there are still things you can learn from and work on to fix. So that it what I am doing over the next couple of days. The stuff that I had no control over does not get on the list. Things like the heat, wind, waves, and the schedule are things that I just have to forget and move on.

Things that I actually can control will be on the list. i.e. endurance, speed, power. I will have to evaluate which of the elements gets priority, and to what level, to get ready for September and the BC Masters, which is the next and last sprint regatta of the year.