If you are a member of the Facebook Group SUP My Race - the longest running SUP distance challenge on the internet - then you will have seen there is a new group sponsor, Michael Booth the multiple SUP world champion. Michael has agreed to train me with the aim of hitting some specific fitness goals this summer and I will be sharing that with the group with regular updates, hopefully showing my progress and highlighting the benefits of professional, structured coaching.
We start work on Monday 21 February but before starting I wanted to check on my current level of fitness with some baseline tests.
First my stats for the week commencing 14 February 2022:
- Weight 101.2kg
- Resting HR 54
- SUP Hour 8.4 km
- FTP 276w
SUP Hour is the distance I have paddled in an hour at a steady pace, for this test HR was in zone 3 throughout.
FTP is Functional Threshold Power and it is a performance metric used widely in the cycling world.
Goals
I have set out specific targets for the summer. They are:
- To complete a 10km time trial - start and finish at the same place - in under 64 minutes before the end of May. This means holding 9.38 km/h for 64 minutes.
- To complete the SUP My Race 5km Time Trial in under 32 minutes.
- To maintain an average of 9 km/h during the Viking Midsummer Challenge in June.
- Weight back to 94 kg.
Training Resources
I am very lucky to live in an area with plenty of spots to get on the water. My primary training resource is my local lake just 15 minutes drive away. It is 4.5 km long, deep with few boats and it is often very flat so perfect to train on for endurance. Heading to the coast I have easy access to two bodies of water, Kungsbacka Fjord and the Kattegat / Gothenburg Archipelago. These allow more technical training but you have to keep an eye out for boats and shallow water.
I have no gym membership but at home I am fortunate to have a good training set up, an old bike connected to a smart trainer with a power meter, I have a Zwift account and I have an inexpensive rowing machine. Because I spend a lot of my day outside training indoors suits me and means that through the Swedish winter I can keep on top of my fitness when it is impossible to paddle. The bike and Zwift allow me to ride in a virtual world complete with mountains and dinosaurs and allow me to keep track of my fitness.
Background
It has been a long time since I did any structured training, as a teenager I was a competitive swimmer and trained several times week but when that stopped fitness became an afterthought. I played field hockey for a decade, as a goalkeeper fitness was all about speed for 16 yards and sharp reflexes. When injury forced me to stop playing I started to swim again and as a masters swimmer I was faster than I was as a junior before I lost interest in that and started to SUP. Through all this time cycling has been a constant but for fun, I have raced mountain bikes including 12 hour events and on the road bike I have taken part in dozens of events including the Ronde van Vlaanderen or Tour of Flanders. I have also ridden up several of the big cols used in the Tour De France.
I first got a SUP about 8 years ago, after a few years I bought a narrower board and I did some races in the UK. I enjoyed it at club level but I did not have the speed or that competitive desire needed to race competitively, I am not that paddler who will do anything to get round the first turn ahead of everyone else.
We moved to Sweden in 2018 where opportunities to SUP are almost limitless and I started to paddle a lot more. In Spring 2021 group sponsorship from McConks lead to the creation of my own board, my specification turned into a design by Andrew at McConks and made by Prestol in Latvia and group sponsorship from EO SUP put the best paddle I have ever used in my hands, the 2021 Oti with a 90 sq inch blade. I found that that I was capable of going a lot faster than I thought I could. That summer I did my first 10km at over 9 km/h, I was flying. I am still not a racer but I realised I am a fast paddler. You can read about my board here and my paddles here.
One more significant thing that happened through this time was my diagnosis and treatment for testicular cancer. As a result of that I am dependent on regular testosterone injections, these are currently every 12 weeks and mean that in week 1 of my cycle I can be like The Hulk and in week 12 I am more like Carl, the old man in the film ‘UP’.
My July 2021 stats were
- Weight 94kg
- Resting HR 54
- SUP Hour 9.1 km
- FTP approx 280w
Just as I was getting quick my world fell apart, there is no need for details here but as a result I started to take anti-depressants. These did their job, helping me cope with my mental health problems but my weight rapidly increased by 10kg, my resting HR by 10 bpm and during hard exercise I was getting severe dizzy spells, not great on a SUP. I had to stop trying paddle fast.
My stats on 01 January 2022 were
- Weight 103.9 kg
- Resting HR 63
- SUP Hour N/A
- FTP Approx 220w.
Through the second half of 2021 I got a lot of help and I started to deal with some of the problems I have had. At the end of January 2022 my doctor agreed that I could drop the antidepressant dose with a view to coming off them completely in March. Almost immediately my appetite went back to normal as I no longer felt the need to eat 24 hours a day. Over the course of two weeks my resting HR dropped back below 60 for the first time in months and when I could paddle I no longer felt dizzy doing short, hard efforts.
That catastrophic drop in form meant that the race paddle EO SUP sent me in September 2021 hasn’t been used properly, my 2022 Fortis with a 95 sq inch blade will be used a lot in 2022.
New Years Resolution
The return to normal or close to it prompted me to contact Michael and here we are, about to start a journey with Booth Training to find out what difference structured training will make to a paddler that has potential to go faster. Because I am not a competitive racer I will be sharing as much as I can with you while obviously not giving away any of Michaels training secrets, you’ll need to sign up with him to get the full benefit of his knowledge. You can find some of his workouts on his YouTube Channel Booth TV and you can find out more about his services on his website here.
The next blog in this series is now available here
Sponsor Links
EO SUP https://eo-sup.com/
McConks https://mcconks.com/
Booth Training https://www.michael-booth.com.au/