Heartburn Hill

Nigel and I ran the Wrekin last night. And when I say we ran, we ran some of it.

Stood at the bottom, did some stretches, set the stopwatch and charged upward… Two minutes and eleven seconds later the running stopped and the gasping started. I thought I was fitter than this. We strolled (at a strong pace to be fair) for about five minutes before having another jog upward but again two or three minutes later (I can’t be more accurate that that this time, I didn’t look at the watch as my vision was blurred), we stopped running again.

I had a really bad sucking pain in my chest, and that horrible sticky metallic tasting spit that seems to fount from some unnamed pain gland in my mouth. Nigel reported that his heart was pounding in his ears and his chest was a bit tight. Well at least it wasn’t just me who was suffering. It was a small consolation though considering the other unfit soul on this hill was going to be my crewmate.

I was a bit disappointed with my recovery rate actually. As we walked a bit further, Nigel suggested another jog but I was unable. Considering he still smokes, and I haven’t for some time, I can only blame it on the fact that my lifestyle (desk job) is less active than Nigel’s.

We did run again on the flatter final stretch from Heavens gate to the trig point where we took a quick 3 minute break to take in the scenery, and to let my heart rate fall a little bit.

After that we were fine, and managing to run all the way down from the top (again I didn’t time the descent but will make a note of it next time), slowing only at the really steep bit as our knees were taking a bit of a pounding.

Quick assessment of the damage I inflicted on my body, I can report that I have developed a bit of a chesty wheeze/cough when I laugh and my right hip hurts a bit. Suddenly April 2010 doesn’t seem far enough away, is 17 months long enough to get this surprisingly decrepit body ready?

I had an idea that it would take about 30 minutes and I suspect that had we run the whole lot it would have. Instead we managed a time of 0.43.20

Goal: Run the Wrekin next time sub 40 minutes. Aiming for 35 minutes.

[Additional] A bit of online research has indicated that I could have been suffering with symptoms of dehydration. Next time I will run with a bottle of water in hand, that could well help.

Forward Paddling.

Full steam ahead with the DW preparations. I hadn’t planned to do anything until Monday (today) but following a Friday and Saturday which were marked notably by excesses in food and drink, Sunday afternoon we managed to get onto the water.

Nigel doesn’t have a boat so I borrowed my dads and after failing to launch from Ironbridge (due to some kind of festival) we put in at Frankwell.

First problem is that Nigel is a giant. He is six foot something tall, my dad and I on the other hand are normal height which meant that the footrests in my dads boat were not set for someone who is longer of leg. Unable to adjust them any further down the boat Nigel was forced to bring them all the way to the top so he could get his legs in. For a first paddle I didn’t think it would be a problem that Nigel would have no footrests.

Nigel’s not really a bad paddler at all. He was quite nervous wobbly to start with, and nearly threw himself in at one point but quite quickly he got his confidence up and had spells of good solid forward strokes.

As we went along I tried to doctor his stroke technique, pointing out when he moved his hands on the paddle shaft and showing him how different strokes moved the boat but I think I turned into a bit of a nag. (I must remember to temper my bossy side. He’ll work the strokes out in good time.)

We spent about an hour on the water, and managed to get to the Agricultural Showground which is about two and a half miles round trip. Nigel was starting to get frustrated with the boat as it kept unexplainably turning him around, and the moved footrests were digging into his shin so it was not a bad time to stop.

For me it was a chance to get back onto the water after not lifting the paddles for well over two months. There were a couple of motorboats about on the river as well, which upset Nigel’s rhythm but gave me a chance to wash hang and play about in their turbulence.

I think (hope) Nigel enjoyed it and he did say that he would have to pick up a cheap boat on Ebay so that he can tailor it to suit his lanky frame.
He can have my spare set of paddles. If I remember, tonight I will put some markers on the shaft with elastic bands and insulating tape, so that he can feel when his hands move out of place. That should help a lot. All in all I’m pretty happy.

Tonight I am running the Wrekin as part of the seven day fitness plan, the bonus is Nigel isn’t working tonight either so he has agreed to come. Time to see how fit we really are I guess.

The Regime

What do I need to prepare for?
125 miles of waterways. Approximately 24 hours of near non stop paddling. 77 portages where I will have to hoist my share of a 20+kg boat and kit and carry it around a few obstacles.

My plan in the early days of training here is to build up my endurance first.

After having read all I can on personal training I have put together a bit of a weekly regime that will build on some key muscle groups. I have a hill not far from where I work (the Wrekin) which is 1335ft up which I plan to dash up and down. I have the kayak which I intend to put on the river, minimum of twice a week, and then I am converting the spare room into a bit of a home gym which I will do some work in as well.

So starting on Monday 29th of September my evenings after work are going to be filled with exertions and sweat before I put on the Playstation.

Monday.
Run to the top of the Wrekin and back down again. The run is approximately 3 miles, elevating 407 metres and back down.
My initial goal for this is a fairly conservative 30 minutes.

Tuesday.
Home gym.

Wednesday.
The Wrekin again.

Thursday.
Home Gym again.

Friday.
Kayaking. Paddle from Ironbridge to Buildwas rapids and back. Approx 3.5 miles round trip.

Saturday
Rest day.

Sunday.
Kayaking. Frankwell to Water pumping station. Approx 5 mile round trip.

That should do for week one. I’ll asses how well I did at the end of the week and adjust week two accordingly. Adding more reps, quicker times, longer distances etc. etc.

The baseline.

So I have decided to do the DW race. The 2009 race is April next year... Seven months. I have read that physically fit specimens of the human race can be ready to do the race in as little as six months, but there is more than just honing the body to be ready for the challenge. I also need to get a marathon boat, be able to use it, and get a paddling partner who is (or will be) as skilled in the boat as I plan to be.

Me and my Muscles.

Right, I’m 31, soon to be 32, (three years off the veteran class for the DW!) I’m near as damn it, five feet and ten inches tall. I weigh in at about ten and a half stone and the Wii Fit tells me that I have a good body mass index, neither over or underweight (though I do seem to be erring on the side of getting overweight.) I have a bit of a spare tyre, nothing major, I would compare it to a BMX tyre at the moment.

My fitness level is alright. I can paddle for a few hours without getting too exhausted, and last year I would paddle the 25 miles from Shrewsbury to Telford on the River Severn in about four and a half hours. In my head I can still do this, though I have neglected my exertions a little bit this year.

Goals: Get fit, and sharpish. Training starts in earnest on Monday 29th of September.

The Crewmate.

The DW race is open to one and two man crews. The one man crew have to race through 4 days. However the two man senior crews can push through in one sitting. This is the DW-race I want to compete in.
Unfortunately I am usually a lone paddler, throwing my boat on the car and doing my own thing. This kind of means I don’t have an obvious paddle pal who is all set and ready to take his/her kayaking on a 125 mile race.

I do have a likely candidate for my crewmate though, in the form of my best chum, Nigel. We used to do loads of stuff in the Scouts (a fine and worthwhile organisation btw) but since we left many years ago, grew up, got jobs, we pretty much stopped doing outdoorsy stuff.

I mentioned it over the weekend over a few beers (at our friends stag do) and he seems pretty keen on the idea at the moment so he’s in. His kayaking experience is 15 years rusty.

Goals: Put Nigel in a boat and see what he’s got. (aiming to do that as soon as next weekend, maybe this weekend after the F1).

The Boat.

No idea on this one at the moment. Currently I have a Dagger RPM general purpose kayak and leaving the absence of a second seat aside, it is slow and heavy, and about as suitable for the Devizes to Westminster race as clogs are for the London Marathon.

I have also never paddled a racing boat, not really. I have a White Water racing boat and know how tippy that can be, and these marathon racers are apparently just as bad if not worse.

So I need to track down a manufacturer who has demo boats so that we can have a go in them, and then secondly need to work out how to fund the purchase of one of these beautifully elegant craft. That is a mission for early next year though.

Goals: Track down suitable source for a racing boat.

Support Crew.

And finally for the DW-Race, you need a willing support crew who will meet, encourage, feed and help you on your way. I’m not going to worry too much about this aspect yet, my missus has all but agreed to be the shuttle bunny for this excursion and I’m sure we can rope a few others to help out.

Goals: None at the moment.

Why and How?

Right, so this is where I am going to chart my progress from now until the 2010 Devizes to Westminster race.

The Devizes to Westminster race is a 125 mile kayak race from Devizes to Westminster. It is reportedly one of the most gruelling annually run kayak races in the world, and I have decided that I'm going to do it.

After a 10 year sabbatical away from paddling, I got back into the sport about a year ago. And when I get into something I really get into it. I bought all the kit; I bought all the books and magazines and devoured all of the online articles. At some point during this ravenous assimilation of kayak based information I stumbled across an article on the DW race, and from that moment I was going to do it.

This year has been a hectic year with all manner of social events going on (getting married being the most significant one) but as of this weekend, I am free to getting back to a normal life. And my normal life from now on is going to comprise of turning an average thirty something, into a lean mean kayak marathon racing athlete.