Going Clubbing

It has been a few weeks since I have been in a kayak, it is now pretty much too dark to go before or after work so I am restricted to weekend. For whatever reason(s, of which there were many) I wasn’t in the mood for going last week but this Saturday I did get back on the water courtesy of Wey Kayak Club.

My DW partner-in-crime joined the club to improve her skills in this kayaking malarkey and she convinced me to come along to the club so I could go out for a longer paddle, in a boat I am more comfortable in, with coaches around to improve my skill. I am actually surprised with how much I got from the experience of a club environment and am pleased I went… I am very much considering joining Wey myself.  

After a brief chat with one of the coaches I chose a boat that we thought would suit my abilities, I can’t remember the name of but has a wobble factor around about 6 or 7. It was a Sipre something-or-other but I can’t find it online at the moment. We joined in with a group of paddlers and set off for a 5-ish mile paddle at what initially was a more than comfortable pace for me. After a brief feeling of instability I quickly found form and quite enjoyed paddling for more than 100 metres above the surface again.

The group spread out as we were encouraged to do “Efforts”, 30 strokes at full power followed by 20 recovery strokes. While I was generally at the front of the group whenever we had an Effort, my friend was always ahead of me and I was not able to catch her, Especially on the return journey as I was starting to tire and only able to keep on my full-tilt, full-power, red-hot, maximum pace for maybe thirty seconds before I would start to fade.

Having coaches on hand was new for me, I don’t remember being taught to kayak when I was younger though I assume I must have been, and for the last few years I have been a kayak coach myself, so having someone else on hand to point out where I can improve was really helpful. I was annoyed with myself because I was being picked up on things that I pick up on with other people’s technique but I will focus more to fix myself. My white water kayaking technique was also called out as I couldn’t keep my knees together in the boat for very long, I think they thought I was trying to brace on the cockpit coaming but in reality my leg muscles (my inner thighs mainly) were tiring from holding my knees together.

At the end of the session I was able to try out a Kirton Tor. It's stability was slightly lower than the boat I had been using but was a lovely paddle and within my own instability comfort zone, I now know what boat I want for the DW... If only I can find one.

I did manage to put the session on Strava (though not all of it as I had forgotten to press start until we had turned around and were on the way back). Of the 4.4 kilometres I recorded I averaged 6.9kph and hit a top speed of 11.2kph. I don’t think that the data is meaningful at the moment but if that is my true pace I will complete the DW in about 30 hours!

On Sunday I went for a 1km swim. It didn’t involve a canal or a kayak, was intentional, and in a very nice heated swimming pool. I ached afterwards despite once being able to thrash out that sort of distance without a care, it made me realise that I am no longer as fit as I once was.

Things I am taking away from this weekend…
1. I need to get a more stable boat. I think Petra’s days are numbered.
2. I need to kayak (and generally exercise) more.
3. Despite being a kayaker for nearly 30 years, my DW partner is better than me… and she has only been doing this for eight or so weeks.