Race

Race practice was pretty easy. We kept it somewhat light so that people didn't wear themselves out before the race. They kept the reccers that were racing together with me. This worked out well because we ended up being faster than the other two canoes.

Being able to use my steering blade was nice. I could dig because it was actually long enough, and at the same time the handle wasn't unwieldy. Unfortunately it was taking some time for me to get used to the paddle again. Also, when I tried to Kahi with it, it would vibrate. I think it has something to do with the angle I plant the blade and the thickness of the grip tape I applied. Somehow they're resonating with each other.

I was a bit cautious with poking on the right. I tihnk that lift from a few weeks ago has left me just a bit gun-shy. That plus not having had a chance to steer much before the past 2 weeks means I'll have to get over it quickly. I should be better during the race since there'll be too many things to think about for me to psych myeslf out.

Breakfast was PB&J sandwich. This ensured I was starving during lunch. We tried to go to Extreme Pita, but that ended up being out of business. We ended up at Chipotle again, which was pretty good. I had chicken instead of the barbacoa. Dinner ended up being wings and rice, so that I could finish off the rice.

Finished paddles

So finished the steering blades. I actually ran out of the spray varnish. If I hadn't I would have liked to have added another coat to the handle. It doesn't quite feel like the handle has enough varnish on it.

No exercise today because no paddling. I was completely exhausted from trial to go to the gym.

Eating wasn't super healthy. I got Subway for breakfast ( which actually caused me to be too late to be able to park in Old Town). Lunch was Chipotle ( barbacoa) and then dinner was salmon with rice.

Race

Short course crew vs long course crew. We did the same loop we did last week, this time racing between teh two crews. The short course crew did really well. At one point we were leading by a nose. Considering that I was forcing the Short Course crew to recover and back off at certain intervals, this was very good.

Steering with that shorter blade really did a number on my shoulders. Because its a much shorter blade, it forced me to arm paddle when trying to make corrections. This killed my arms quickly.

Other than that it went well. Got a good workout, despite steering.

Food was mixed. Had a breakfast burrito for breakfast, but then had a chicken wrap for lunch. Had my PB&J sandwich for pre-practice snack. Then dinner was the other PB&J, plus 3 hardboiled eggs.

No exercise

Absolutely no exercise today. I really wasnt' feeling well, and told Casey that I wasn't. She said to just go home and rest. Unfortunately I got the message when I was already at De Anza. I stayed for an hour and helped out as best I could. By then I was feeling sufficiently crappythat I went home.

Took a nap from about 10am to 2pm. That helped quite a bit. I got the mail and found that my Garmin had arrived. Went to the office to pick it up. I tried it a little, but couldn't get a GPS signal because I was indoors. I would have tried it outside but it was already raining.

Food wasn't good either. Breakfast was McDonalds Sausage McMuffin. Lunch was CA burrito and fries ( none of which I actually tasted). Dinner was salmon again.

No practice, another bonus paddle.

Today was the ho'olaulea. Spent the whole day taking pictures. We didn't have race practice, so no big workout for me. We were able to get a paddle in. I took a small group of people for a short intro paddle, and then 6 of us paddled Tieva back to Hanohano. Again we only had 3 regular paddlers and the other 3 were newbies. 2 of the newbies were the ones from the day before, and another was completely new.

It wasn't that bad. I was stroking this time, Ryan was seat 4 and Casey steered. I asked that Ryan be seat 4 simply cause the bay was getting choppy. The wind had picked up and was against us almost the whole time. It took about 45 mins to get to Santa Clara point. I had to slow down a few times to let the people behind me keep up with the rate. Though towards the end I just let myself naturally speed up, they seemed to keep up fine. How much power they were providing, I'm not sure.

Had McDonalds sausage mcmuffin for breakfast. Lunch was a plate lunch consiting of rice, korean chicken and a slice of korean bbq. Dinner was Pho.

I'm not feeling that well, so the pho was really nice. I was freezing towards the end, so hopefully I'm not getting sick.

Bonius paddle

Helped get Hanohano's Tieva wa'a to De Anza cove for tomorrow's Keiki Heihei wa'a. Was nice to paddle, stretch out my muscles a bit. We had a full 6 people, but only 3 of us were regular paddlers. Jess stroked, I sat seat 2 and Casey steered. The other 3 were completely new to paddling. One was a keiki mom, and the other two were from Casey's crossfit gym.

They seemed to be trying hard, but its difficult to get good efficiency on your first try out. We didn't stop from Santa Clara point to De Anza cove.

Food wasn't good news. Breakfast was subway sausage and cheese on flatbread, lunch was this super greasy chinese food. Dinner was decently healthy. I had salmon in the oven, no rice. I did top it off with the hard boiled eggs I brought to jury duty but didn't eat.

Steered

So ended up steering again. Almost didn't make it because of jury duty. Got a few good runs in. Around the bowling pin we had a nice little race between the canoes. Even though I was steering, I was able to get a good workout out of it.

Because of Jury Duty I ate pretty badly. Had a powerbar for breakfast. Then some chips for mid-morning snack. Then chipotle for lunch. Finished up my chips before practice and then some wings and rice for dinner.

I was exhausted from Jury duty. I literally got home and as soon as I was able to sit down, I felt drained.

Steered practice

Steered for the short course crew. Because I steered it wasn't as big a physical workout as when I paddle. It was however more of a mental workout. Its' been a while since I steered.

The short course crew did very well. We even chased down one of San Diego's women's crews. At least I think it was SD's Wahine crew. It took a while but we closed the huge lead they had on us. I don't know if they knew we were trying to catch them, but when our canoes got close, I'm sure they stepped it up a notch.

While we were trying to catch them, I tried to be as respectful as possible. I didn't want to interfere with what they were doing. We used them as a moving target, so it was all how fast we could get our canoe, not how well we could "race" them.

After that we did starts.

Food wise, it wasn't a horrible food day. I had my oatmeal for breakfast, then the bowl for lunch. Pre-practice snack was 4 hard boiled eggs. Then dinner was chicken wings and rice.

Appointments and Groceries

Not a great start to my paddling routine. I guess its not that bad, since I didn't really think I was going to start the OC1 days until my friend gets his OC-1 repaired.

Had an optometry appointment to check out some headaches I've been getting. He said that everything looks fine and that I could have just been having a migraine. I've had migraines before so its not unfathomable that I got another.

I ate pretty badly today:

Breakfast: Oatmeal ( not bad)
Lunch: Chipotle Burrito Bowl - Barbacoa with sour cream, cheese, white rice and black beans. I would guess right around the 700-800 calorie mark.
Dinner: 7 hotwings + rice. Not exactly a healthy dinner. It's not really a pig-out dinner, but I could have eaten healthier.

Plus a hardboiled egg while I was waiting for dinner to finish cooking. 

I was starving when I got home. I had to run some errands afterwork, so by the time I got home I was especially hungry. I started the food in the oven and ate a hardboiled egg while I was waiting. That egg actually really did well at controlling my hunger. Hopefully I don't over do it on the eggs.

Paddled about 8-9 miles

Workout:

Paddled about 8-9 miles in the OC-6 last night. We stopped a few times to talk about technique and timing so it wasn't a consistent pace. We did 8/4's ( 8 sides on, 4 sides recovery), so it wasn't too crazy a workout. Our longest stretches were about 2.5 miles long. We had a few people new to race practice so we worked more on technique.

Not having a GPS was really annoying. I had to use mapmyrun.com after the fact to get the mileage.

I felt pretty good paddling, wasn't getting overly exhausted. Didn't have my camelbak so could only drink during the stops. I tried to push myself a bit, really pour the power on during the power pieces. We had new people in the canoe so when the pieces would get longer, people would tire out and the boat would sink down. Completely understandable, and really just makes the training more of a strength workout than a distance one. I don't mind, I need to work on both.

Body seems to be feeling ok, no new aches and pains. Shoulder pain didn't return, which is good. Tried to keep the form better, which I think helped.

Food:

Breakfast: PB&J + Diet Coke. Forgot my oatmeal at home, luckily I had made 2 sandwiches for after work.
Lunch: Flame Broiler chicken bowl + kimchi. About as healthy as my lunches get.
Dinner: Powerbar + 3 hardboiled eggs. Was pretty good on dinner. Was starving and didn't feel like waiting for my regular naan pizza. This dinner worked out well. The saltyness of the hardboiled eggs contrasted the sweetness of the powerbar. Plus both had good protein.

Training starts now

A month or two ago, a few friends started kicking around the idea of doing the Queen Lili'oukalani race in Kona this year. It didn't become "real" for me until last week, when I made that switch from "would be cool" to "I'm doing this". I figured that starting up a blog might help with motivation and keeping track of my training.

I've been to the race once before. I didn't race the long distance 18-mile race, just the 6-mile double hull sprint. At the time I didn't think I was fit enough or comfortable enough with my paddling to do the 18-miles. Since then I've helped  others train 2-3 years in a row to get ready for the race. This year it was time.

I've been paddling pretty consistently in both the club's Race and Recreational practices, so at least I'm not super rusty. But having decided to do the race, I want to be as prepared as I possibly can. For now I've come up with a tentative training schedule. There's almost exactly 4 months between now and the race, so that's a lot of time to improve in my paddling and steering ( in case I end up steering). I have a lot to improve on technique and fitness wise. 18-miles is no joke in practice, but in a race, in the much hotter Hawaiian heat, in unfamiliar waters, is something you have to prepare for.

Currently the plan is something like this:

Weekly Training

Monday: Race practice
Tuesday: OC-1 Practice
Wednesday: Race practice
Thursday: Recreation practice
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Race in the morning, Recreation in the afternoon.
Sunday: Rest or other-training.

I also want to fit Yoga in there somewhere. The doctor said it would do well for my back ( lower back issues) and overall flexibility.

On top of all this, I'm also going to have to be even better about watching my diet. I'm not going to completely change everything I eat, but I will start gradually removing the unnecessary/unhealthy foods that have been reintroduced in the past year or so.