The first one is a 5 day stage race on flat water through the canals in Holland. The race in Canada is a 2 day adventure SUP race where you have to find your way with all your gear through lakes, down river, up river and portages around waterfalls with one short sleep, open air, half way. Exciting but also tough. The world seen through the eyes of SUP.
I will go through the training, equipment, weather, tactics and strategy.
It is now 2 months before the race in Holland. By now you should have a good bases in your training.
I paddle mostly 5 days a week. Taking a few days rest in between to let the body recover.
Training for the 11-city
I make my own schedule. I have always trained with Connor Baxter in the past and when we are both on the island we still try to train together but because of the travel schedule we train a lot less together the before. In the past we have raced each other around the buoys in the Maui Harbor which was like a interval training. Sprinting to the buoy then paddling slower to catch our breath. Over and over again. This worked out well for us and got us fit.
Now we try to do it a little more organized. With different training schedules every day to mix it up and to not get in a routine. Because a race is not a routine it is full of burst of sprints during the whole race and every race is different so should the training be.
Right now this is roughly my schedule I would love to do more but between a running a shop with my wife, building my house, my family there is only so much time
4 hrs training session 2 days ago, Maui NorthShore with Team Starboard, Tomo, Connor and Bart
Day 1 interval training
Day 2 2 hrs endurance sup training
Day 3 light interval training
Day 4 rest
Day 5 interval training
Day 6 3-4 hr train session
Day 7 rest
Apart from this it is good to do some running swimming or biking to get fitter all round.
Even if you don't have much time to train. Make the training you do, count. Work hard, train with partner or with a GPS and race against the GPS or your partner. Connor and I have this natural ' I am not gonna let you pass me' eager which pushes you harder then when you train by yourself. That's why I train with a GPS when I train by myself. You see directly when you are starting to slow down.
It is also good to train with a heart rate monitor so you can train in different zones more about that in next post.
