Fri 15 June 2012
To escape the frustration of no internet access, I headed out for a
paddle. After missing the 'Ben Thursday night session' I was
motivated to do a good session to make up for it. There was
virtually no wind and it was a high tide during the early afternoon.
I headed out in my Grafton Bandit for a lap of my 7.2km Midway Point
course.
With perfect conditions I thought that I had a reasonable chance of a
PB. My best previous time was 38.10 in my Grafton Chrono.
I went for a short warm up to establish which way the tidal current
was going. There was about a 0.5 to 1.0 km/h approx incoming flow
under the bridge. I headed off at a solid, steady pace for the
2.5km down to Woody Island in flat conditions at 10 to 11km/h against a
variable strength current.
The tide was unusually high and I could
paddle closely around Woody Island without suffering from the bottom
drag that normally slows me to 9km/h.
From Woody to Barren Island there were patches of 13km/h to lift my
average pace but this slowed as the water became shallow again near the
island. Once the drag released me I put in the big ones to the
left end gap of McGee's Bridge, went through, turned right and finished
hard along the north side of it to the end of the bridge where I finish.
Along the final stretch next to the bridge, I was glancing down at the
stopwatch and I could see that I would be close to a fastest time.
I tried to lift but also keep my stroke efficient and struggled to
the end in 37m55s - a PB by 15 seconds. My times for this course
vary a lot due to wind, current, waves and low tide. In the worst
conditions, with low tide (& more bottom drag) my times are generally
42.30 to 43mins.
I like this training course because you usually get wind & waves from
different angles and you also have to put in effort in the increased
drag of the shallow water. In a lot of sessions that people do
they head off directly into the wind and come back directly with the
wind and they don't do enough side-on work and 45°
up or downwind. When you have a fixed triangle or rectangular
course (anything except up & back straight into the wind) you will get a
great variety in your sessions as the wind comes from different
directions.
