My first 5km Ninja-style wasn’t scheduled in my Booth Training plan.
In fact, as I write this, I think it was a terrible time to do a hard hit at the lake. The day before, I had a hard session, 8 x 1km at pace on a windy day. Before that a week of birthday, travel and easier sessions. And lots of eating, a sport I excel at. But conditions at the lake were forecast to be very good, so I got up early and set my mind to the task at hand.
Paddle fast, turn, paddle back faster.
When I start a TT, I have a target in mind. That morning, it was to go faster than my first Ninja TT, a disappointing 32+ minutes. I wanted a 31’45”, looking at the breeze blowing towards me as I warmed up on shore, I thought that was reasonable, slight headwind to start, then benefit from a tailwind at the end. Not in the forecast, which was for still conditions, but I'd take what Mother Nature gave me. Sunny and warm.
A longer warm-up than usual on water, still working on foot position on the board, when happy, I lined up short of my on-land start marker. A few deep breaths, set my mind on the job, pressed the lap button on my watch and …. Go!
Hard at the start, sprinting up to speed, data shows me hitting and holding 12 kmh for a short while before settling into my stroke at 9,5. These figures were provided after the event from my GPS. I prefer not to know when paddling. Go hard, find out how hard later.
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| The first half |
The headwind faded after my first 500m, flatwater as far as I could see, as expected from the forecast. Good rhythm, solid stroke with the NSP Vivace paddle, feeling good. It has taken a long time to get used to the small blade, but now, finally, it feels fast.
Follow the shore, 10m on my right. I know where my turn will be, prepare for the beep from my watch, then step back. No flashy pivot for me, a fairly tight loop to my left, my stronger side. Cautious as I am still baffled by the tail of the Ninja, we’ll talk about that another day. Then, as the nose comes around, waddle forward, like a huge unbalanced duck, and then back from duck to paddler, deep strokes to balance the board and accelerate back to speed. 12 then 9,6.
Two point five kilometres to go.
Careful not to go too hard now, pace is key. Settle into my stroke again, deep, hand lower on the paddle shaft, grip tape positioned to remind me without thinking. Breathe. Repeat.
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| The second half |
My 1km marker, a small swimming platform for one of the near-lake houses, now I should speed up to hammer home a negative split. I am empty. The tank is drained, but I am trained for this, Be More Boothy. Keep the stroke strong, don’t overthink. Reach, catch, power, recover. Repeat.
Five hundred meters
The fuel light is now flashing in my mental dashboard, and an alarm is sounding deep in my skull. FOOD.
No time for that, must paddle, stroke rate increases, less power per stroke, and I am starting to lose my form. Self-doubt is multiplying by the second. This is a no-pressure 5km; no one else in the world knows I am here, but I need to get it done. I can see the finish line, but I have dropped from 12 strokes per side to 5 or 6. Splashing, shorter reach. Thank goodness no one knows!
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Stop paddling. Drop to knees. Breathe. Hands in the water to cool down, too spent to get into the water, might have to swim back. Breathe. Consider life choices that have put me here.
I am nearly 60 years old. Maybe golf would be easier.
Hopefully, you will agree that Flatwater SUP paddling is far from boring.
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| Harder than my usual effort! |
The Ninja
My last blog featured Alain, head of racing design at NSP, and we talked a little about the origins of the Ninja and Carolina boards. Since then, I have been getting to know my Ninja a little better, as well as putting my Carolina through its paces.
The Ninja is a clever board, or to be more precise, the minds behind it are clever designers. And they have designed a flatwater board that comes from the sea, not from the lake or river.
As such, it handles a far wider range of conditions than other flatwater boards I have paddled. This range of ability does come with a cost. In perfect conditions, those magical sessions on glassy water with no wind, no boat wake, and no distractions, then the Ninja is not quite as fast as my old Nebula from EO SUP.
Looking at my training data, I have had one of those perfect days in 3 years; they are extremely rare, but when they happen, they are special. My data says that on the one perfect day, I paddled my 5km course 34 seconds faster than I have ever managed before or since.
That one day stands out as an outlier in my data. My lifetime PB that I am chasing.
My next three fastest times are within 1 second of each other, all on the Nebula, a cluster of valuable data. My baseline of sessions on very good days. Not quite perfect, but fast.
And then we find this session, my second attempt on the Ninja, Fifth in my lifetime 5km list, 17 seconds behind my baseline as I recover from injury. I am SUPer confident that the Ninja will surpass that group of 5km times to set my lifetime second-best soon. A fully fit Jones on the Ninja will get under 31 minutes this season.
Now back to work. I have a shoulder to fix and fitness to find. I need to do this again.
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| VLT F22 from Droplet |
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.
NSP are one of the leading SUP and Surf brands and are active all around the world. You can find out more about their SUP Range on the NSP website https://www.nspsurfboards.com and on their Facebook and Instagram pages. They have recently launched a dedicated SUP Race Instagram account - NSP Racing.
You can find me running the Facebook group SUP My Race and now, occasionally, on Instagram.
You can read the previous training logs here Training Logs and you can get to individual blog posts using the labels in the sidebar.