Word of the Week

It has now been three weeks since I have sat in my kayak (in fact any kayak, mine or otherwise) and I can’t believe how quickly this month is flying by. Ongoing manflu, injuries, the grim weather, and other prior commitments, have kept me in rude supply of believable excuses for staying away from the water. I am however painfully aware that I have a boat that is more unstable than I am used to sitting in my back garden and not being practiced in, while the Devises to Westminster race creeps ever closer. I’m actually not too worried about the race per se, I have battered myself on multi day events a few times and know that I have the minerals to get to the end. But if keep putting off this training malarkey I might not be quick enough to make it to the end. This post is essentially me voicing my own kick up the bum to go and train in my boat.

I do want to talk about other sports today though. Predominantly this blog is about my journey to get to the DW and I don’t want to venture too far from topic but I am, to a degree, using other sports to improve my fitness for the race so it is sort of about the DW… Isn’t it?

Anyway Quadrathlon is the word of the week. It’s like a triathlon but with a kayak interval throw in to join the run, ride, and swim. Up until yesterday I hadn’t really given this sport a thought, I think I was aware that a multi-discipline event with a kayak section might exist but I hadn’t looked into it at all… I take part in the other sports individually already and when my DW partner mentioned the quad to me, a little seed was sewn.

There is a long way to go with this, a tri specific wetsuit, and a tri-suit will need to be found, and I will need to work on my running, riding, and swimming in addition to kayaking if I am to finish anywhere but last (and as it seems that there are usually quite small fields of entrants the chances of being at the back are high). There is however a quadrathlon next September held in my old hometown and I am very seriously considering entering. The idea of this event has really got me excited, probably because I haven’t done it before, and at the moment I am mentally working up a training plan. I guess only time will tell if this really is my new passion or just simply the word of the week…