We’ve all done it. When we have not performed as well as expected, we naturally look for the reason why we underperformed. Sometimes this is not a good thing to do, but more often it can be beneficial to identify what we need to work on to improve.
In August, I set myself up for a sub-31-minute 5km SUP My Race Time Trial and I was very disappointed to post a 31-minute 18-second attempt. I had excuses.
The Time Trial
If you are new here, then the SUP My Race Time Trial is a 5km or 10km race against the clock; you start and finish at the same spot and do not stop the clock until you are finished. It is a simple, hard test of your SUP performance that can be done anywhere and at any time. You can read about it here and take part in SUP My Race.
My August TT
More often than not, my TTs are unplanned. I get to the lake, see that the conditions are OK or good, and I go for it.
Sometimes, I am more organised; I see a day on the forecast when conditions might be perfect, and I put my intention to go fast in my Booth Training schedule. Boothy sees this and sets out my session: a thorough warm-up, 100% effort and cool down.
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| At 1750m in Norway with Bongo |
This happened in August, straight after my hiking trip to Norway. I saw that perfect day! No wind, sunny, not too warm. I updated Final Surge; Michael saw it and set me up.
Preparation
I know what to do for a planned TT. I know what to wear, where to go, exactly where my start will be, where my turn will be and how to pace my effort. It is a practised routine; I can do it without thinking. Just paddle.
Clothing is the same: compression leggings, my go-faster high-viz top and hat, both from the running world, two wrist bands to control my sweat and, if in summer, barefoot.
The day before, I try to limit my caffeine intake; this might be purely psychological, but on the morning of my TT I take a caffeine supplement and by limiting my intake the day before I think I maximise the effect.
I get up early. Enough to have a light breakfast, I sort out SUP My Race, I load up the van, drink my supplement and drive to the lake. That takes 15 minutes, and soon after I get there, I am usually buzzing from the caffeine, ready to go.
When finished, sit on the jetty I launch from, sync my watch, crop my activity in Strava and celebrate!
August 25. 06:45
I am set, the Ninja is on the roof of the van, the sun is shining, and it is 13°C, perfect for me. I start my drive to the lake in high spirits.
And as soon as the road starts to drop into the valley with ‘my’ lake, my spirits plunge into thick fog. It is 5°C, I can barely see the road.
My first excuse. Fog.
This is not forecast, but I should not be surprised; this valley is a fog magnet, and it has happened before. So I get to the empty car park and switch on the winter heater in the van, set that to 22° and wait. Like the Guinness advert
“He waits, that’s what he does”
Tick followed tock, followed tick followed tock. For 45 minutes. Then the forecast breeze picked up enough to clear the fog. With my buzz fading, I was impatient to get going, also keeping an eye on the time and my dog walking duties at home.
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| A different, sunnier day at the lake |
I took my Ninja to the water and started my warm-up. Late but ready.
My second excuse. Turning.
Warm and ready to go, I lined up on my preferred starting point, a big rock on the southern side of the lake, took some deep breaths, and exploded off the line! Explosion might be overstating things, but I went as fast as a 59-year-old man can go.
And settled into my rhythm, feeling good, looking ahead. Where I could see a fog bank. But it looked to be more than 2,5km ahead; I mentally crossed my fingers and pressed on.
My finger crossing failed, and at about 2,4km I was in the white stuff.
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| Fog at the lake. |
If you have never paddled in fog, then it is a weird sensation; any sense of direction vanishes and balance can be an issue. I know the lake so I adjusted my stroke, more strokes on my right to keep me away from the rocky shoreline, trying to keep my speed up. At 2,5km I started my turn early; I lost my nerve and was concerned about my direction. Turning to my left would keep me away from the shore.
My spirits dropped at this point; there was no way I was going fast enough. But mental resilience is a thing Boothy works on, and in no time I was back in the sunshine. My watch beeped to tell me to turn, but I always set it up for a lap of 2,55 km, so I had some distance to play with.
The fog was now moving along the southern edge of the lake; I kept my left shoulder almost in the whiteness and pressed on. Full gas to the end!
My third excuse. Sweat.
Only a few paragraphs ago, I confidently stated that I knew what to wear. That is correct; I do. But it doesn’t help that I forgot my hat and wristbands, and working hard in the sun, I was starting to get hot, and that means only one thing. SWEAT.
Without my hat to channel sweat away from my face and without the wristbands to stop sweat getting to my hands, I was finding my paddle a bit slippery, even with a grip on it. So I did the only thing I could: I dropped to one knee and shoved my hands and paddle shaft in the water to clean them up a bit. Then pressed on to the end, knowing I could sprint and keep a good grip.
My fourth excuse. Distance.
I crossed the virtual finish line at speed and eased up, expecting a beep from my watch that didn’t happen. I thought I must have missed it as the Garmin is ridiculously quiet. But then ... ‘beep’ as I drifted. Oh.
Finish
Sitting on the jetty, I was more than disappointed with my cropped Time Trial, and I already had my excuses lined up.
Four excuses. One GPS trace.
Your GPS doesn't lie; neither do Garmin nor Strava, and both have very useful analysis features. After updating Boothy in Final Surge, walking the dogs and uploading to SUP My Race, I decided to sit down at my laptop to see what went wrong, to examine my excuses.
Excuse 1. Fog.
Undoubtedly, this delayed my start, but did that make any difference?
Strava says not really. My speed for the first 2km was into a light headwind, but speed was OK. The last 2km were slightly slower, a positive split, which is not what I am for, but given the granularity of the data and the tools used, the Strava analysis tool is not that precise; it shows no grounds for an excuse.
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| Strava analysis: Full 5km |
Analysis: The later start had no measurable impact on my performance.
Excuse 2. Clothing.
I practise getting my hands in the water; it is super useful to do this to collect garbage, or a lost hat when it blows off. I looked long and hard at my GPS and couldn't find the moment when I dipped my hands in the water. It made no difference to my speed.
Analysis: My clothing error made no difference to my performance.
Excuse 3. Turning.
The fog bank must have slowed me down, but the data says not really. Isolating my turn, a 180° arc to my left, shows that I maintained an average speed of 9,2 km/h.
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| Strava analysis: my safe turn |
Analysis: My turn did not make any significant difference to my performance.
Excuse 4. Distance.
Surely my error in distance made a difference, and when looking at my GPS I thought that I had found enough of an error to make a 20+ second difference to my performance. My route back was further from shore than my route out, the fog keeping me from shore without me realising. This meant I paddled a shorter return leg and, in turn, meant that my ‘finish’ was after I stopped paddling hard. At least a good excuse!
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| Strava analysis: my return 2km, further from shore. |
But Strava says no. My latest km was at pace, and the data shows no indication that I slowed at the end; in fact, I stopped paddling at a fraction over 5km total. Cropping an activity in Strava destroys any lap data so I turned to Garmin.
Garmin shows a slightly different version of my effort. The Garmin data I keep uncropped, which maintains all the lap detail. My set-up for the TT is a warm-up, 2 x 2,6 km laps and a cool down. This was an error on my part as it should have been 2 x 2,55km laps; I have now corrected that error for next time.
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| Garmin analysis: uncropped activity |
My watch is set to auto-lap each km, so I get data for the first 2 km, a 600m segment, then the next 2km and another 600m segment.
Interval | Step Type | Lap | Time | Distance | Avg Pace | Avg HR | Max HR | Avg Stroke Rate | Max Stroke Rate | Avg Distance per Stroke | |
2 | Other | 7 - 9 | 16:15 | 2.60 | 6:15 | 166 | 175 | 55 | 64 | 2.92 | |
Other | 7 | 6:09.2 | 1.00 | 6:09 | 162 | 167 | 53 | 62 | 3.03 | ||
Other | 8 | 6:16.9 | 1.00 | 6:17 | 167 | 170 | 55 | 59 | 2.86 | ||
Other | 9 | 3:48.8 | 0.60 | 6:21 | 171 | 175 | 56 | 64 | 2.82 | ||
3 | Other | 10 - 12 | 16:57 | 2.60 | 6:31 | 171 | 179 | 54 | 62 | 2.89 | |
Other | 10 | 6:12.9 | 1.00 | 6:13 | 171 | 174 | 55 | 60 | 2.93 | ||
Other | 11 | 6:16.5 | 1.00 | 6:17 | 172 | 179 | 54 | 59 | 2.90 | ||
Other | 12 | 4:27.2 | 0.60 | 7:25 | 168 | 178 | 49 | 62 | 2.85 |
Analysis: My error with my distance had a small impact on my performance but not enough to make a big difference. Maybe a second or two, nowhere near enough to get me under 31 minutes.
Analysis - What does this data tell me?
The main thing to take from this is that my performance, although not what I had aimed for, was still very good. A 2026 personal best, and the fastest 5km I have paddled on my Ninja.
The main thing to work on is technique. I start off 'OK' but my distance per stroke drops below 3m per stroke; that simply isn't good enough.
Then my fitness must improve so that I can maintain an average pace of 6'12" or better. Looking at my 1km splits on my Garmin, only one split was at the pace I needed; one was close, and the others were too slow.
- My first km at 6’ 09” pace was as scheduled, but this was from stationary, when I was taking those few deep breaths and setting myself up for the TT. That set-up time is usually cropped out of my efforts.
- My second km was very disappointing at 6’17”. I have no explanation for this one.
- My next 600m included my turn, so this is acceptable.
- On the return leg, a 6’13” first km includes exiting the fog, so this makes sense, but the next at 6’17” again seems slow and is not what I should be doing.
- Then the last 600m tails off at the end because of my poor judgement. Always paddle to the beep!
Summary
On August 25 2026, I paddled a virtual Time Trial over 5 km at my favourite lake in favourable conditions. My aim was to finish in under 31 minutes.
My result was a time of 31 minutes and 18 seconds was my fastest time on my 2023 NSP Ninja 22” and, on that day, it was the fastest I could have gone.
Next time I will polish my board the night before!
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.