13 Weeks... till the General Clinton

I am going to try to post something every Monday, to summarize the previous week and outline the upcoming week.

This past week was sort of a down week for me.  Work is always crazy in late February; there is an environmental reporting deadline of March 1^st.  I also was fighting some sort of sickness, and was unusually sore from the Achieve Class on Monday.  That said I guess it was a decent week.  I did two Achieve classes, ran three times, and got out in the boat on Saturday.   I would have liked to have done a couple more runs, but I am tapering for Stu’s and I am trying to stay healthy and injury free, so I didn’t push it.  The extra rest days were a good thing.  “The hay is the barn” for Stu’s, and at this point I can’t do anything to get in better shape, only do things to hurt my chances.  I wanted to paddle both days on the weekend, but we got about 4 inches of snow Saturday night and it looked more like winter than paddling season.  I decided to do a slushy run instead.  Sorry it is not more interesting, but I am finishing up my winter training cycle and getting ready to start a paddling specific cycle.  

This coming week will be another light week.  I plan on taking a couple Achieve classes, running 2-3 times, and getting out in the boat for a couple hours Saturday.   Stu’s 30K is Sunday.  I will post later in the week specifically about the buildup and goals for Stu’s 30K.

First day back in the boat

So yesterday we got out in the boat for the first paddle of the season on the Nashua River.  I love the excitement of pulling out all the gear and getting ready to head out onto waters we haven’t seen in months. We have a great local put in minutes away from the house that we had scouted out earlier in the week to make sure it was accessible and open. The parking lot at the put in hadn’t been plowed all season so we had to park in the other lot and carry the boat thru the snow which was interesting to say the least. The snow was still up to my knees but we trudged right thru knowing it would be easy to get into the water on the other side. It actually wasn’t too bad with our fancy rubber boots we added to the paddling wardrobe. It makes a huge difference getting in the boat with snow and ice around knowing you can step in the water and not have to sit with wet feet for a couple hours in the boat.

 We decided to take “the barge” our plastic red Wenonah out for safety and strength training sake. Early in the season and being the first time on the river in months you never know what has moved and shifted over the winter so the bigger stable boat adds a little confidence to the day if you ask me. We also feel that moving that big boat up and down the river gives us a little competitive edge and helps wake up those paddling muscles that have been resting for a while. We made our way easily down the river towards the Rt. 2 bridge stopping once in a while to cut out some branches on downed trees that had shifted and block our lines from the year before. Of course we also marked out some trees that needed some chainsaw action but that would be a project for the warmer days when we don’t mind getting a little wet.

Surprisingly enough we made it past the Rt. 2 bridge and just around the bend where we ran into a pretty sizable iceberg so we stopped and had a drink and espresso gel. We both felt great at this point and had about an hour of paddling under our belts. All the training with Jeremy at Achieve Performance and the occasional run in with the treadmill seem to have paid off. The paddling muscles were warming up nicely. As I sat in my seat I thought to myself paddling is like riding a bike, your brain and body remember quickly how to make a good stroke and move the boat along nicely. As we turned around to head back up stream we started talking about our trip to Florida and the sites we will see. It’s really nice to get out and see all the wood ducks and occasional mink but the prospect of seeing gators and dolphins in a few weeks has really got me excited. Ohh yeah that 75-80 degree weather is going to be pretty awesome too considering it was about 35 degrees out when we started our adventure today. Well we had plans to make it back down to the river today but we woke up to about 3-4 inches of fresh snow so we decided that maybe the gym was the way to go today. It was a good start and we now have about 6 miles and an hour and forty-five minutes under our training belts.

Prologue

Hello! 

Thank you visiting our blog.  We decided to create a blog to document our 2011 racing season, we think it is going to a good one for team TnT.  We should probably start by filling people in on the last couple years for TnT.  The last two years we have been very busy and 2011 will be the first year in a few that we should have substantial training time.

 In 2009 we were planning our wedding.  We raced and trained pretty hard up until the General Clinton.  We had a good race there, 5^th amateur mixed, 15th mixed overall.  The first time we felt good the entire race.  We focused on wedding planning for the rest of the summer.  I continued to run quite a bit, doing the Baystate Marathon in a Nor’easter in October.  It poured, I was soaked, I felt like I was in BQ shape but not in that weather.  I hit the half in 1:35 and it really started coming down harder, I limped home to 3:35, disappointed.

2010 saw us buying a house.  The 2010 paddling season started with me getting to go to Ireland for work for a few weeks in March.  Terese got to come and it was a great trip.  When we returned we raced well at The Rat Race and Westfield Wild Water Race on limited hours.  At the ROTC (Run of the Charles) we didn’t have hours for a 3 hours race.  We closed on our house the week after the Charles.   Getting settled into the house took a lot of time during the summer.  We did the Adirondack Canoe Classic 90 miler in the C-4 with my Dad and Skip Tobin.  It was a relaxing and fun race, anyone who has not raced a C-4 should try it, they rule!

We continued to run with a goal of 2 half marathons in October.  I love half marathons! It's an easier distance to train for and you can actually race them.  The marathons I did (Baystate 2008 and 2009) were great to say I did them, I had respectable times, but training and racing them takes a lot out of you.  When you are hurting late in a race paddling you can dial it back, take nice efficient stroke and still, semi-effortlessly move forward.  Running is the opposite, once you are hurting even standing sucks, walking sucks, and shuffling toward the finish line sucks.  It all comes down to training, but when things go bad I would rather be a canoe than pounding down the pavement any day.   I did well at the two half’s, Boston Half 1:28 and Baystate the following week in 1:30.  Terese did well in both off them also.  I feel like I have taken a big step in my running in 2010.  I have always run to keep fit but this year I had sort of a breakthrough. I have been running pretty consistently since spring 2008.  We ran the Clinton (our new home town) Turkey Chase 5K Thanksgiving morning, very hilly course; I was 19:53, 6^th overall. 

So, that brings us to this winter.  We normally get a gym membership every winter, our gym in town was offering a new class taught by Jeremy Frisch, called Achieve Performance Training.  Jeremy is the strength and condition coach at Holy Cross in Worcester.  The Achieve class is awesome.  It is a fast paced full body workout, using lots of different muscle groups.  It is like a gym class for adults and it is different every class.  Jeremy’s philosophy is to get the entire body to be strong and flexible, and then focus on specific sport related activities.  I learned I am not flexible, and some muscles I never use.  He has some great ideas, when I figure out his blog thing I will post a link to his blog.  I raced the Freezer Five in Sterling on New Year’s Day.  I did not know what to expect, I had been running, but no workouts.  We went out the night before to a karaoke party and I ripped it up pretty good.   I surprisingly felt great on race day running a 5 mile PR in 31:20.  I was stoked, I attribute it the Achieve classes.  I felt strong and I was able to stay quick and efficient longer.  We have been taking the Achieve classes twice a week all winter.  I have been continuing to run with a goal race of Stu’s 30K on March 6^th. This will be three years in a row for me at Stu’s.  It’s a great hilly course that I feel puts me in great shape when we get in the boat.  We also enjoyed the snow as much as possibly XC skiing and snowshoeing. 

So that’s how we got to where we are today.  We feel as fit as we have ever been and we are excited about the upcoming season.  We are going training in Florida for the first time ever, so we should be in good shape sooner this year. 

Travis

Hello!!

Welcome to our blog about our upcoming canoeing season. We look forward to sharing our adventures with everyone so stay tuned.

~Terese