In last week's race I was not feeling it. It being that excitement and adrenaline rushing through the body right before a race and during the race. Last week was all about survival and getting through a long course full of more boat wakes and confused seas than I had been in since...the weekend before. Anyway, I was not feeling in top form and my buoy turns on the narrow 12-6 have sent me swimming many more times than I would like to admit so I re-evaluated my training program.
No more than 1 cross training program involving weights a week during the heavy race season. This summer I had been trying to sneak in 2 while trying to keep weight off and I think my body told me: "FU, jerk. I need better nourishment if you are going to put me through this." Westy, from Chicago Paddle Company and YOLO Board told me that his trainer demanded he eat more if he was going to train the way he does for the race season. The body needs at least the amount of calories you are losing if you want to get enough energy to compete at a top level, which makes sense when you think about it. To compete at a top level one has to up his or her training load as much as the body will allow and still be able to maintain strength, speed, and endurance when called upon depending on the situation. This weekend my body told me that I wasn't doing it right. So I said bring on the potatoes and Coronas!
This week I did a >5mile run on Sunday morning and a full body workout with TRX in the afternoon and ate PLENTY of food throughout the day. Monday was a double dose of paddling. Doing the trash pick up in the morning involved about 100 step ups getting on and off the board to grab trash off the lake bottom so I needed a stretchy fun paddle in the afternoon to try and work the kinks out. That second workout of the day, if you choose to do it, doesn't need to be anything more than getting your feet on the board and working on feeling even more comfortable on your SUP than you already are. I went narrow on my custom MHL and I am having to work a lot harder than I expected or really wanted to this summer, which brings me to today's workout post.
Buoy turns are crushing my spirit this summer. They have always been one of my favorite aspects of racing since I first got into SUP but now, on a narrow 12-6, they are dunking me. Last week during a training session I went out to do 20 buoy turns and fell on at least 16 of them. The Lake Max Challenge was a lot of buoy turns and I was hesitant and lacked confidence at almost every one over the course of 4 laps. Today I decided to work on buoy turns, but not just buoy turns I wanted to work on buoy turns with my whole body feeling like jelly as if I was in a race. In order to feel like jelly what is the best element to add to a training session??? BEAR CRAWLS and SANDY HILL RUNS!
I decided to incorporate bear crawls after remembering a phone conversation Westy and I had about training over the winter. He called to tell me he enjoyed reading my blog and suggested I get into doing bear crawls because of the effect they have on the whole body. Of course I waited until now to start doing them because they are so HARD! I should have been doing them all year long and maybe I wouldn't be feeling so lackluster, at times, now!
My goal was to alternate between paddle w/ right buoy turn followed by 20 yard bear crawls then paddle w/ left buoy turn followed by sandy hill run totaling 10 bear crawls and 10 sandy hill runs and 20 buoy turns. I did 4-4-8 and took a 20 crunch rest between 3 and 4. At 3 I couldn't even remember whether I was to do a left or right buoy turn! I tried to do 5 but felt I had already worked my body close to failure as it was so I went for a half mile run after then a cool down swim and more ab work. I got crushed but there is plenty of time to recover before this Saturday's East of Maui race in downtown Annapolis. The best thing I took away from the workout was staying focused on stroke technique during the paddles. I was very aware of the mechanics I was executing while in motion, even if it was very slow at times!
The workout, I think, has started to give me the confidence I need to improve the weakest aspect of my paddling. I feel pretty good right now after a quart of Gatorade. I did not feel good about an hour ago but that is the point isn't it? I went way past my comfort zone in attempts to improve as a paddler. My same old routine was not getting me where I had hoped to be by July 4th! Because I am not where I had hoped to be I also think it is time to get back to what I know works...heart rate training. I need to build up my aerobic base. Too much anaerobic effort feels like it is starting to take a toll. Good thing I am going to Maryland to try and dig that thing out of a closet and my mom's.
Bear crawls off set with long slow paddles. Let's see what they do! Oh, and buoy turn suicides as well!
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