Welcome to the first instalment of my 2023 training log, you can find all the logs from 2022 here - Training Logs
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| Sunrise on the 2023 season |
Lets kick off 2023 with a stats recap:
2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
Weight - 01 January | 103.9kg | 98kg | |
VO2 Max | Under 40 / Good | 46 | |
Resting HR - 01 January | 60 - 65 estimated | 63 | 54 |
5km PB | 32m 33s | 32m 4s | Target: under 32m |
10km PB | 66m9s | 64m 39s | Target: under 64m |
There have been some changes, a lack of activity over Christmas and New Year combined with a big drop in my mental health and the edible temptations that season brings saw an unwanted increase in my weight and resting HR. But that makes losses easier to achieve later in the year.
You will also notice a new metric, VO2 Max. At the end of 2022 I managed to get hold of a used Garmin Fenix 6X for a decent price and that watch has a billion functions for fitness! One of those is a report of VO2 Max and that is, I think a better measure of fitness than using FTP from my bike. The 2022 figure is estimated from an old watch which had me in the lower end of the ‘Good’ part of the graph.
What is VO2 Max?
There are hundreds of articles about VO2 Max on the internet, the most concise definition I can find is that it is the volume of oxygen your body uses while exercising hard. The higher the number the better BUT it is not a number you can simply compare with someone else, there are all sorts of factors that influence it not least of which is age. But my number is pretty good for someone in my age range (I am now 55) and I think, hope it will increase through the season.
I’ve done a little research and the estimate produced by a Fenix 6X seems to be consistent with a proper test, generally Garmin seems to estimate within 3 or 4% of a lab test. Which is good enough for me and using the same watch should give me a reliable trend through the season.
You can read about VO2 Max and how Garmin calculate it here https://www.garmin.com/en-US/garmin-technology/health-science/fitness-tracking/
Equipment
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| McConks Go Race 14c Prototype |
We start the year as we left off. Paddles from EO SUP in Latvia, race boards from McConks and winter training / bad weather board from Infinity. Palm equipment have also helped me out with a Quick SUP belt and their leash which I will update on later.
To record my activities I will be using the Fenix and a HR strap for all SUP and bike activities. I have several straps, 2 from Garmin and one from 4iiii, a chest strap is essential to get accurate HR readings when exercising.
Resting HR and Weight
Two metrics that are closely related. One thing I have realised from keeping track of my stats for this blog is that my weight and resting HR vary with the seasons, not great in January improving to pretty good in June / July. My aim in 2022 was to keep those summer numbers but that didn’t work out.
My 2021 Summer numbers were 94kg and 54 resting HR, in 2022 my weight got down to 91.1kg and my resting HR an impressive 49 that week. Then I picked up some niggly injures, not related to my SUP training and both my weight and HR started to creep up. Working on that now!
Also worth noting that the week I started to wear the Fenix watch my HR increased slightly, possibly due to a better sensor on the watch. All readings in 2023 will be from the Fenix.
Training
I am extremely happy to be continuing with Michael and Booth Training, super-stoked I think is the correct Australian expression. Still on his Personalised Plan and still getting a little bit excited when I get feedback about sessions. You can find out more about Booth Training here
Goals
I have four SUP targets for 2023. They are:
- 10km Time Trial on SUP My Race in under 64 minutes. I seem to be able to pace myself better on the longer time trial and think that a 63 early in the season is possible. To hit this I need to take 40 seconds off my 2022 best and achieve an average speed of 9.38km/h.
- 10km Time Trial on SUP My Race in under 63 minutes. This is the much more ambitious target with a 100 second improvement needed but with the training times I was showing at the end of 2022 I think that if I get a perfect run later in the season I can hit this. To get this one I will need to hold 9.53 km/h for 62 minutes 59 seconds.
- 5km Time Trial on SUP My Race in under 32 minutes. I find the 5km a little harder to pace, late in the 2022 season I recored one where my first half was at 10.2 km/h but the return was spoiled by boat wake and trying too hard, over revving. Under 32 minutes is a roll-over from 2022 when I fell agonisingly short on more than one occasion. I need to find 5 seconds for this one.
- Take part in a race. This might be the hardest one for me to do so no promises but coach says I should and he knows more than I do about these things.
Other than these four specific SUP targets I have two more that are measurable:
- Keep weight under control through the year.
- Paddle more than 50km in one go
And I will try to paddle in new places with new people, two things that are difficult in a huge country with relatively few paddlers so we will see how that goes. And of course the SUP My Race Gathering in June, itself quite an undertaking for someone who is increasingly self identifying as an introvert!
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| My gym 2023 |
Time to train
It is now half way through January and luckily for me winter has taken a bit of a break here in Sweden, there is currently no ice so I can stick to my training schedule from Michael, so far I have paddled 82 km in 2023 and there is a lot of paddling ahead.
See you on the water!
You can find out more about Michael's training from his website Booth Training, from his Booth Training Instagram account and on his YouTube challenge BoothTV.