March was a strange month. Whatever was pulling my health and fitness down at the end of February continued for the first half of the month, which kept training at a low level for almost 3 weeks. That didn’t stop me from paddling, just meant I took it easier for a bit. The month included a fun downwind across the local fjord with a start/finish combo I’ve not used before, a little bit of going faster on my Blackfish and the return of my McConks Go Race, out from hibernation.
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| First paddle of 2023 on my McConks Go Race prototype, conditions were 'hard'! |
My Garmin has not been impressed with me over the month changing my Training Status to ‘Recovery’ for a week and then setting it to ‘unproductive’ for the first time since I put my Fenix 6X on at the end of December. We are now back on better terms with a status change to 'Maintaining'. It isn't only my physical health that has suffered in the last month, my mental health has taken quite a big hit too.
When Michael put my training schedule back into productive mode I was surprised to see him set a 50km session… I decided that was probably a mistake and elected to do a 5km TT assuming that was what he meant as an early season benchmark. Of course, that wasn’t his intention but we were both pleased with the result. Steps back in the right direction.
Before the TT here is the health update, March was not great.
Jan 23 | Feb 23 | March 2023 | April 2023 | |
KM paddled | 208.69 | 122.34 | 152.94 | |
Weight | 98 kg | 96.1kg | 96.3 kg | 98.7 kg |
VO2 Max | 46 | 47 | 47 | 46 |
Resting HR | 54 bpm | 50 bpm | 50 bpm | 54 bpm |
HRV | N/A | 48 | 48 | 45 |
Training load | N/A | 851 | 161 | 723 |
5km | 38m 18s | N/A | 33m 21s | |
10km | 1h 9m 47s | 1h 8m 44s | 1h 15m 55s |
The rest of the data shows my decline in general fitness and I have decided that this month the screenshot from Paddle Logger showing my TT is better than the decline in health graphics. Now I need to put that right for April.
March 5km TT
This was the first ‘proper’ TT of the year for me, in January and February my times were cropped from training sessions and included rest so it felt good to have a session set aside to set a time. And it went well, 4 days before the lake had been frozen solid so the water temp was as low as it could be, there was a little too much wind for my liking so I took my Blackfish, not the Go Race. And, coincidentally it was exactly a year after my first Booth Training TT.
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| One second needed to hit 9.00 km/h! |
I recorded a time of 33 minutes 21 seconds, nothing that will set the world of SUP statistics alight but on a 27” wide all-water board I think it went well. It was my eighth fastest 5km TT, 8 seconds faster than the one set exactly a year earlier when I was on the much faster McConks Go Race.
Looking back further to the end of March 2021 when I completed my first virtual TT over 5km on the same lake in 35 minutes 33 seconds also using my Go Race, a 2+ minute improvement over 2 years while using a board that is not optimised for flatwater. That's not bad at all.
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| Faster than it looks, 27" Blackfish Flatdeck |
Going Faster part 3 - Know your Garmin
In the last month I have had several messages asking how to set up SUP Workouts on a Garmin so here is the SUP My Race guide to workout happiness.
At the end of 2022 I picked up a used Garmin Fenix 6X Sapphire and it is a very impressive bit of kit. Like many Garmin watches it supports workouts and there are currently 9 workout types supported in Garmin connect; Run, Bike, Pool Swimming, Strength, Cardio, HIIT, Yoga, Pilates and Custom.
I use the Fenix all the time and it has proved invaluable for the workouts Michael sets, before the Fenix I had a Garmin Instinct which also supported workouts and also was just as good in that regard as the Fenix. To get the best data with either watch I always use a HR chest strap, wrist measurement of heart rate is not good enough for any sport where you flex your wrist a lot, like paddling.
If you use the SUP activity to track your paddling on your Garmin you must use 'Custom' for your workout, if you use a different workout type then you will not find the workout on your watch when you go training. The Garmin website has a list of workout types here and from that, you can find the watches that support 'Custom' workouts. Probably the most common from the list are lots of Forerunners, Fenix from version 3 and all versions of the Instinct series. Watches like the Vivoactve series are not listed with custom workouts but they do support other workout types.
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| Garmin Connect screen shots #1 and #2 |
Custom lets me programme any of the workouts that Michael has set so far and gives me an audio and physical alert at the start and end of each alert, there is a countdown beep and the watch vibrates on my wrist.
How to create a workout
It is easy to create a workout for your Garmin watch, in the Garmin Connect app on your phone go to 'more' (on an iPhone this is three dots in the bottom right of the screen), from there to ‘Training and Planning’ (screenshot #1 above) then ‘Workouts’ (screenshot #2 above) and then ‘Create Workout’ (screenshot #3 below) and 'Custom' (screenshot #4 below).
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| Garmin Connect screen shots #3 and #4 |
You will then have a template for creating a workout on your screen (screenshot #5 below). Each step can be edited by pressing on the step, this allows you to set the interval for time, distance, HR goal, calories or so that you can end it manually by pressing the lap button, useful for warm-up and cool-down. Each Interval can be moved within the workout by pressing and holding the three horizontal lines, repeats can be nested and you can have multiple repeats within one repeat. It is a very flexible tool allowing you to programme exactly what your coach wants you to do.
When you have created your workout, there is a very simple example in screenshot #6 below, you will then need to save it, make sure you give it a name that makes sense for later! Once saved you will be back on the list of workouts saved in Garmin Connect shown in screenshot #3 above.
You now need to get that workout to your watch, to do this select your new workout by pressing the screen and sending it to your watch. On my iPhone this is the icon top right with an arrow. Then you need to synch your watch with Connect again to get the workout on the watch and you are ready to go.
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| Garmin Connect screen shots #5 and #6 |
When go training remember to take your watch! Select SUP from your activities on your watch and press the menu button to bring up the options menu, if you have remembered to synch your watch then ‘Workouts’ will be an option on the screen, select that and your Custom workout will be there. When you select it you have the option to Do the workout, View the workout or Delete it.
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| Garmin Fenix 6X |
That last one is important if you use a lot of different workouts. There is a limit of workouts you can save on the watch and this varies from model to model, sometimes you will need to delete workouts to make room for new ones.
The Menu button is also where you go together to SUP Settings where useful things like auto lap can be found, 2.5km is a great value here for your 5km TTs. Also Power Modes, in winter I use the 'Jacket' mode on the Fenix to save power, there is no point trying to measure my HR at the wrist through a drysuit seal (it almost works). There are a lot of settings here that should be investigated by long-distance paddlers.
During the workout, you will get a countdown beep at the start and end of each interval and your watch will vibrate to let you know you should be doing something.
When you finish and save your workout you can go through the different intervals through Garmin Connect which will give you metrics on speed and distance but to drill down properly into the data you will need to log into Garmin Connect through a browser and log into your Garmin account.
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| Workout example with nested repeats from my Garmin account |
Here you can find data on distance and speed along with heart rate data, stroke rate, distance per stroke and calories and you can split this out by interval which makes this a valuable tool for training. For next-level geek-ability, you can export all of this data and have a CSV full of your data.
To show how far GPS devices have come this is what I thought of my first GPS watch back in July 2016, the original Garmin Vivoactive Smart.
Garmin Goals
One browser-only feature that Garmin have hidden away are Goals. From the Garmin website (with some improvement to their words) "Goals are targets you set to help you achieve a short term objective. For example if you set a target to ... " stand up paddle " ... for 10 hours over the next week, your Garmin device will keep track of how much you actually..." paddled.
Setting up a Goal is very easy, log into your Garmin account from a browser and at the very bottom of the sidebar on the left is 'Goals'. Click on that and you will see this screen
And there you can see my personal goal for 2023. Clicking on "+ Create a New Goal" takes you to a screen which does exactly as described.
Where you can set up your goals for any timeframe you like, this is a very flexible tool from Garmin. If you then add the Goal to one of your Garmin Dashboards you will see it every time you log into your Garmin account through a browser. This feature is not available through Garmin Connect.
I use this to make sure my SUP My Race yearly goal stays on track.
Invest in yourself
Investing in yourself is the BEST upgrade you can make, with no exceptions. And that is what this series of blog posts is all about, investing in this paddler with the help of World Champion Michael Booth.
You can find out more about Michael's training from his website Booth Training, from his Booth Training Instagram account and on his YouTube channel BoothTV.
You can find me running the Facebook group SUP My Race, writing about all sorts of paddling for TotalSUP and now, occasionally, on Instagram.
See you on the water!
You can read the previous training logs here Training Logs and you can get to individual blog posts using the labels in the sidebar.