Waterside C

Well, we've had a day to get over our Waterside C race so I've decided to sit down and give a bit of an account of how it went.

Entering the day, myself and Enda hadn't really set our minds on a time, unlike on Waterside B, however I had toyed with the idea of 4hours 15mins, Blair at the club suggested to Enda 4hours 40mins would be good for us, so we thought okay then 4hours 30mins.

You could say that the night before and on the morning of the race the omens weren't the best, the clocks were going forward and 'sign in' was at 8am meaning very early rises all round. On Saturday night Enda had a text from one of our support team who couldn't make it, bugger, ok though we had 2 of our contingent still coming. Then, after the shuttle, driving back to Pewsey Wharf, a pigeon decided to have a game of chicken with us, lost and the corpse got stuck in the roof bars leaving a rather large blood splat on the side of the boat.

Still undeterred we signed in, got ready and set off. A much more calmer start than Waterside B. As usual took me the customary 10-15mins to settle in the boat, with Enda being the clam influence. Then we got the boat going rather well, portages good too. Found the tunnel (502yards) interesting and run quite a bit of Crofton (7or8 locks in about a mile). All going good then about half way things went  a bit south. Whilst on one of the portages Enda's seat fell out, so we had to stop for that. I noticed that my footplate was very loose so didn't feel I could use it too much to push off and then we had a very soul destroying 6 or 7 miles where the boat just wanted to lean to the right. It was a killer leaving us both frustrated and getting annoyed. We decided we just needed to get on with it and find the best way to cope and hope that Enda's back didn't pop out from paddling in a Z shape.

Anyway, the last couple of miles went better again, apart from me being called a rather unfriendly name from a potty mouthed lady, and we crossed the line in 4hours 21mins, so inside the 4hours 30mins, and to be honest, if it went smoother we could have had 10mins off of that time easily

Taking the positives from it, we dealt with the adversity on this one (even if a little frustration crept in), our average speed was above the 5mph target for the DW and we didn't find ourselves falling in at all. However, the tendinitis has come back in my forearm although it doesn't seem as bad as last time, which reminds me I need to get some ice on it now before bed.

A couple of pictures from the day.

The Pigeon Who Lost!

Back on it, Watched by Support Crew





Rehabbing and Recce

Not much has been doing for me, been taking it easy to get the tendinitis sorted and ready for
Waterside 'C' on Sunday. This one is a 23mile 35 portage race, so it needs to be in top shape. I've just been out doing some running, but Enda has been putting in some high volume of work in the boat still.

In prep for the Devizes to Westminster, some reconnaissance work is required on the stretch of the Thames before Teddington Lock, particularly as most of it will be done in the dark and it has some 'interesting' portages so best to get out in the daylight to check them out.

We covered the first chunk from Reading to Marlow (18miles) on Wednesday with Blair (another one of the guys from the club who is doing the DW). Was a cracking day to be out on the Thames, apart from a slight head wind, conditions were amazing. There is too much money on that river, some of the houses were out of this world!!! How the other half live huh! :o) lol

Anyway, had a good recce of the portages, took in some rays and I had a bit of a eureka!!!! moment in my technique, so still making steady progress there too. Enda did some evacuation drills ;o) and to prove how hard core he is, drove back and went out for the evening session on the Hamble, nuts or what!!!! How was the tendinitis??? Only towards the end did I start to feel it a bit, so I've been taking it easy and icing it, mixed in with some massaging of the area.

Got a couple of pics from the day below and our next blog will be after Sunday's race. Ta ta for now

Marsh Weir (an interesting portage)

Marlow Lock



A Beautiful Day for a Paddle

Hi all. As the title says, it was a cracking day to get out on the water for a paddle. However, I've developed what appears to be, tendinitis on my left forearm just above my wrist. I didn't train at all yesterday as a result and only went for a run on Thursday evening. However, work yesterday seems to have aggravated it a bit. I was going to see how it went and would call an early end to the session if I needed to.

Got to the club this morning and talked about what we fancied doing, the plan was head towards the Itchen Bridge and take it from there. Me and Fred had a look at the feather on my paddle blades and thought it might be worth adjusting it a bit to see how it would go.

We got on the water and settled in for the lovely conditions, although there was a lot of traffic on the water, with the rowing club out in force too, so the their ribs were setting out some nice wash.

Me and Enda thought the conditions were so good, it seemed a good idea to go for a swim, (not!!! lol). We went in and the water was a tad fresh shall we say and it was button mushrooms all round. Back in the boat, the sun warmed us up quite quickly. The wrist wasn't happy though, even with the adjusted feather it was still getting sore. I guess as it was a bit sore before the session the paddling was just aggravating it. So just before the Itchen Bridge, I gave Fred the nod and we all headed back to the slipway. Although I had to get off the water, the others stayed close by and had a go in a few different boats. Enda had himself a little go in a K1 or 2, we'll look at some video footage to compare his technique in 2 different boats ;o) lol

For me, well the only training I'm going to be able to contemplate is running to give the tendinitis time to get better. Was planning on a Thames run this week too, might have to go on hold. I reckon the earliest I can think about paddling will be Thursday night, but might just have to leave it until Waterside C on Sunday, but it might be worth testing it before Waterside C next Saturday though to see if it holds up.

Anyhow, I'll keep you posted.

Back to looking at Enda's Technique;

Compare this one in a Lance (stable boat)

To this one in a Cougar (not so stable boat shall we say ;o) lol)

And finally and very new technique Enda has been developing, he simply calls it 'Submarine'

Crew Night at the Club

A quick update tonight. As the title suggests, it was crew night at the club tonight. This means all the paddlers get matched up according to speed, so faster with slower, etc to balance things out. So both of us were split up tonight, I was paired with the torpedo that is Phil and Enda with equally rapid paddler, Matt.

All I knew of tonight's session was that was 'Races to Places' basically start at some point then race to another named point. Each 'Race' ranged from a few hundred metres up to maybe3/4 mile????  Not sure but someone from the club will probably correct me.

It was quite fun actually, getting the old Condor moving at that pace was quite a shock to it I think :o) lol. Was a really competitive night though and pretty well balanced, even though some of the 'Speedy Gonzales' paddlers of the club were in K1s who tended to be the fastest boats on the night. Apparently some rather large wash waves were being created, mostly by the condors according to a couple of the guys. I can certainly vouch for the deck of the boat I was in, nearly being under water at one point, which caused a bit of a 'Woah! What was that?' from me.

Funniest moment of the night was right at the end, I went to get out of the boat and didn't realise my left leg was completely numb, so as I got out, on my left, the leg kept giving way giving the impression of a bit of an Elvis leg. Enda wondered where the sniper was :o) lol. I gave up and just knelt down in the water, cooled me down nicely.

That's it for now, Enda's out for an 8 miler tomorrow and I'll be getting in a long erg at home

Waterside B

Greetings peeps. Today was the next step towards the DW and it saw us compete in Waterside B, 17.6miles and 19 portages on an 'up and back' course. We had heard stories about how choppy it gets at the start and at the turn around, so we were preparing for that. Also it can be complete carnage at the portages, so it should be a fun event :o)

Last time out at Waterside A we had an average speed of around 4.5m/ph/, we know we need to get our average speed up to 5m/p/h if we want to complete the DW in the 24hours we have set ourselves. Bear in mind though, that this is total speed to account for stops and portages as well as speed over the water.

We had a target of around 3 hours 30mins for today as step up in pace. The start was complete mayhem, so many crafts of all sorts scattered and rafted up all over the place waiting to be given the all clear to head up to the line, and then the first 500m was really choppy due to the volume of boats in a narrow stretch of the canal.

Without going into immense detail, we did the ‘up’ stretch in good time (apart from once getting tipped in by a C2 pair who seemed to have no sense of decency on the second portage). We were both feeling good for the 'and back' stretch which would always take a bit more out of you as we would be paddling against a little flow.

We kept the boat moving pretty well, the major leaning issue of Waterside A seemed to be resolved and we paddled home in 3 hours 11mins, so well inside the target we had set. To say we were pleased is a bit of understatement, we have come a long way in even 2 weeks. I put the extra speed down to Enda's new running shoes ;o) However, we still have room for loads of improvement; we got tipped in once which cost us a few minutes. Also although our portages were quicker, they can get a lot slicker. For the record, that gave us an average speed of around 5.7m/p/h a fair improvement over last time.

Want to say a massive thanks to our support crew for today, Andy and Gareth. Never thought I’d be fed Jelly Babies like how you would feed a horse and Enda received a drink in his eye once, don’t ask ;o) lol

How do we feel now? Well not too bad for me, sore knees from the getting in and out and a tingly right hand from shoving my hand in nettles or something on a portage, but red wine eases the pain :o) lol

So Waterside C in 2 weeks, how will we fair there?????????

A couple of pics below of today and a video of one of the portages. I will upload an album once I get all the pictures onto my computer.

Ready For Action!!!

Carnage at the Start

A Bit of Portage Action

Night Time Paddles and Sore Back

Hello again. Well a lot can happen in a few days it seems when training for the DW. Sunday saw us both take a well earned rest day, but Enda woke up with a very sore back. We both think it might have been when we almost took a swim right at the end of the session and a massive low brace topped off with jarring the paddle on the slipway seemed to do the job.

I have done a bit of strength and conditioning work on Monday, while Enda was trying to give his back a bit of needed TLC, especially with Waterside B coming up on Sunday. I headed out on an early morning 3mile run then we both headed out for some training in the evening. A night time paddle on the Hamble. Headed down then back up stream before heading back to the pontoon rounding off about 5miles of positive paddling for us both. Each time we get in the boat now, the leaning issue we developed is gradually getting better, which is giving us the chance to keep chanting our mantra of, "Hands Up!", "Sit up straight". This is resulting in us getting a better cruising pace, both of us felt pretty pleased at the end, even if Enda's back was a tad sore. However, Enda is pretty tough, or should that read stubborn and crazy? :o) lol

Wednesday night I had work, so I headed to the gym early for some strength work, then completed a 10k ergo that night, whilst Enda headed out for another paddle on the Hamble. Sounds like his back held up better than the previous night and had a good paddle with Blair heading out to the mouth of the Hamble.

Nothing for us today, but more conditioning for me tomorrow then back paddling on Saturday before Sunday's 17.6miles and 19 portages in Waterside B. I hope for sub 3hours 30mins, but Enda reckons 3hours 45, we'll see ;o)

A Chilly Saturday Session

Hi All

We're both tucked up in the warm now after a bit of a chilly session down at the club this morning with a session out on the Itchen. Not sure what was coldest though, the paddle or the trip down in Enda's dub :o) lol I mustn't grumble, without it I would never have made it as I have a poorly car again :o(

Today went really well, got some good steady mileage in (6 miles), and our stroke technique was better than it has been, and believe us it dones need some work to get the efficient marathon paddling technique required. Made a change paddling in daylight too, we seem to be spending most of our time in the boat at night, I can hear Fred now, "All god for the DW". Our leaning boat issues seem to be getting much better, although soon as someone mentions anything about picking up the pace, we get a bit carried away and put too much into it and nearly pull the boat over :o) lol you wouldn't believe how well developed our team low brace has got over the weeks and, I guess, months now of training. The boat was moving much more efficiently today, or was everyone else was letting the cold get the better of them and was taking it slower?

Well thats all for today, we'll be out again on Tuesday night, with us both getting some gym work in on Monday ;o) We'll leave you with this picture of what greeted me at 7:30 this morning.

Our glorious chariot, (or chiller), awaits

Our First Post

Welcome everyone to our special blog. This will chart our progress in all of our endeavours in raising money for the Alzheimer's Research UK.

Our first Charity Challengeis the Devizes to Westminster canoe race. A 125 mile round the clock non-stop event with 77 portages for both me and Enda in a K2 racing kayak. We will start on the Kennet & Avon canal then finish on the River Thames and by the time we reach the end, would have endured mental and physical anguish.There will be a whole host of entrants from the fastest, sub 15hours and 33min target through to us who just hope to complete the course, but will be extra pleased if we do it in under 24hours.

It is going to be a real test of endurance, mental toughness, technical ability and sheer hard work. We have heard stories of people getting hypothermic, sleep deprivation enduced hallucinations, exhaustion, blisters to name a few. However, both me and Enda are determined to push through this for the cause of Alheimer's Research UK.

I will post a bit of a story behind why we chose this charity a bit later, but for now this is it, the beginning of a quest of which we hope you will all follow and be able to give as much or as little as you can afford. I will keep you all posted with regular updates including pictures and videos of our progress for your entertainment.

Please also use the donate button at the right of the blog, also check out the Alzheimer's Research UK site by clicking on the logo to the left to read about what the money raised will go towards. Please use the facebook and twitter buttons too to get this blog out there far and wide.

For now here's a little bit of footage of us completing Waterside A last Sunday, our first ever K2 marathon event, but this was only a mere 13.5miles

I hope you all find this as interesting as we do.

Craig and Enda