SUP Training with Michael Booth - 2023 recap and 2024 targets

on
My last paddle of 2023 - Infinity Blackfish


Mid-winter is always a tricky time for a Stand Up Paddler, it’s usually windy, cold and wet and this season in Sweden it was also solid! My local lake froze in early December and the other spots I use have been getting harder to use. Combine that with a heavy cold through the end of November and you can guess that December did not go as planned. 


But, good news! Despite a little frostbite (due to my own foolishness off the water!) I hit my revised Garmin Goal of 2400km for 2023, putting me in the top 10 paddlers for distance for the year on SUP My Race.


Here are my 2023 stats



Jan

Feb

March

April

May

June

July

Aug

Sept

Oct

Nov

Dec

KM paddled

208.69

122.34

152.94

273.27

260.77

248.81

200.4

225.94

155.90

184.02

222.03

135.03

Weight

KG

98

96.

96.3

98.7

98

94.9

97.1

95.1

96.0

94.9

98.4

99.3

VO2 Max

46

47

47

46

46

47

47

47

46

48

48

48

Resting HR

54

50

50

55

52

50

49

49

52

51

51

53

HRV 

N/A

48

48

45

50

54

54

56

46

46

44

45

Training load

N/A

851

161

723

963

928

913

1001

615

1173

242

170

5km 

38m 18s

N/A

33m 21s

33m 7s

32m 45s

30m 33s

N/A

32m 25s

N/A

31m 57s

32m 40s

N/A

10km

1h 9m 47s

1h 8m 44s

1h 15m 55s

1h 10m 13s

1h 11m 7s

1h 3m 10s

N/A

1h 2m 59s

1h 4m 8s

1h 4m 55s

N/A

1h 16m 44s


Superior VO2 Max


Despite the drop in paddle time and exercise in general my VO2 max stayed at 48 then, surprise! It went up to 49 in early January!! The frozen lake, river and sea mean that my training has been indoors on the bike and as a result, I now know what the Garmin level above ‘excellent’ is, they think I am ‘superior’ and that’s purple on the VO2 max-o-meter. 





2023 Recap - did I beat my goals?


Back in January 2023 I set out my goals for the year in this blog and you can read them here - 2023 January Blog


Winter paddling has it's challenges but it is beautiful!



5KM


My 2023 target in the 5km TT was under 32 minutes and I blew that out of the water! My best was a time of 30 minutes 33 seconds, an average speed of 9.83 km/h. Stoked is, I think, what Michael would say. This result gave me 7th place in the 2023 SUP My Race 5km Time Trial. 


10km


For the 10km my 2023 target was do split into two, easy and hard. 


My ‘easy’ target was under 64 minutes. Looking back at that it really was an easy target that I beat several times. 


The harder target was under 63 minutes and I am glad to say I did it, by 1 second! That day I was happy with my average of 9.53 km/h but once that euphoria had faded I felt I could have done better, both with paddling and planning. I had jokingly said I could see the Nebula FW taking me to a 61-minute 10km but fell sort of that in 2023. My personal best put me in sixth place in the 2023 SUP My Race 10km Time Trial.


Stoked with 2023



Racing


The goal was ‘go to a race’ and I went! That experience is documented here - The difference between paddling fast and racing


My race started badly, I then had a great middle section, fell at the last turn just after taking the lead and finished third, accidentally becoming the West Sweden SUP champ,  with a trophy to prove it. It still feels odd, winning from third but the winner and runner-up live in different regions, lucky for me!  


50km


This was the one goal I did not tick off last year and it’s been moved to 2024. This year I will paddle further! 


Garmin Goal


If you are not on SUP My Race then you can use your Garmin to keep track of your yearly paddling by setting a Garmin Goal. I set this to 2200 km in January 2023, I hit that target in October so re-set it to 2400. I was very happy to get there with my last paddle of the year with a total of 2401.16km.


SUP My Race


Ending the year with over 270,000km posted by more than 890 active paddlers broke all the previous records in the group. And with over 8500 members and nearly 2000 visitors the group continues to grow, encouraging more and more paddlers to paddle further and faster than they have before. 


2024 Goals




My January catch-up with Michael focused on 2024, after agreeing that we should put SUP training on ice, literally, for a few weeks we discussed my ambitions for 2024 and came up with this list: 


  • 5km TT - under 30 minutes. Yes, the target is a 10km/h average for 30 minutes. 
  • 10km TT - Under 62 minutes. 
  • 50km in one activity. 
  • 300km in one month
  • Garmin Goal of 2400km.


And we have a schedule to go with that list, May and June will be busy! 


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 are all about, investing in this paddler with the help of World Champion Michael Booth. 


You can find out more about Michael's training on 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.