Think Legend

Ok. I needed to clear my head, so I took out the think legend for a 1 hr time trial.

All I can write is *Wow*! The legend is a lot of fun ... fast, accelerates well, and is fun!

I did my usual loop.



Time: 57 minutes
Distance: 7.00 miles

I must say, it was a great way to clear my head!

90 Practice Run

Today I tagged along with the NNYP club for a day of portages and paddling. In short, I needed to learn where the portages were in order to ready myself for the 90.

I started with paddling with a stock canoe around 10:30ish. We talked and paddled to the first portage, where it was clear that I was *too* slow on the portages.

An analogy can be made to the motion of a slinky ... they would leave me behind on land and I would spring forward on the water easily catch and pass them. We did the 'slinky dance' until Brown's track portage. When I put on at Brown's track, the canoe was long gone and I couldn't tell if they'd paddled up- or down-stream. So ... I sat on the dock and waited for nearly 1/2 hour before getting directions from Kim. Kim, Joan, and my wife were setting up a pit stop for the lagging war-canoe.

I then got to Racquette lake. I was alone and desperate for directions, so I talked to some fishermen. It turns out that they share a difference of opinion as to what constitutes a 'cove'. [They told me to, " ... paddle along until you get to the second cove ... the second cove will be the marion river ...". Incidently, the second cove by leads you into another gigantic lake.] Nevertheless, after about an hour, I finally spotted Bob [a great guy and good stock boater]. I followed Bob into the Marion River and slowly made my way to the final portage.

Alas, the war canoe finally caught up and I raced them to the take out. They were slightly faster on the portage [my kayak weighs 40+ lbs], but I had the advantage on the water. I beat them to the take out! Woot! Woot!

Comedy of errors

Ok ... so this weekend was a comedy of errors.

It all started when I got to my apartment Friday after work, too late to drive home to go camping as previously planned. It continued on Sunday, when I thought I could race my ICF on a wind blown lake, and culminated in my running through the woods with a canoe on my back!

I got to the St. Regis Canoe Classic with plenty of time to register and ready myself for the race. In fact, all was well until I walked past the sheltered parking lot. At the water's edge, my boat nearly blew out of my hands. No big deal, right? WRONG!

Madpaddler testing the waters about 40 minutes before the race start.

The waves were coming into my cockpit!

A quick test run revealed that it wouldn't be a good idea from me to paddle my Mohawk. So ... I was going to "chicken out" and go to Lake Placid to have dinner with some friends. As I was packing up, I saw MAC. Mac was very gracious and offered me his woodstrip c1.

The only catch was that I'd have to drive out to his place, pick it up, and drive back before the race started (ca. 15 minutes). He gave me directions, which I remembered as "turn right on Rte 30, drive to the 'T', turn right, drive 2 miles, and turn right." I followed his instructions and as it turns out, exactly 2 miles past the 'T' there is a a right hand turn onto a side road. I turned right on the side road and was still looking for his place when the race started. In short, I *shouldn't* have turned right, as MAC's place is about 2.1 miles past the 'T'.

After returning from my trip, I was 20 minutes late. My wife informed the race director that I had changed boats and was now paddling a stock c1. For the record, I have only ever raced a C1 once. No problem ... they are like kayaks with training wheels, right? Not true ...

I found that paddling a canoe in the wind has its own unique set of problems. Instead of getting swamped, the bow is pushed around A LOT more than the bow of my kayak. Save for the wind-cocking issues, the trip across the lake through spitfire and onto lower St. Regis was mostly uneventful.

As I was making my way to the portage, I looked skyward and saw a bald eagle frolicking in the breeze. I allowed my canoe to glide and watched in enjoyment. On the portage, the enjoyment of watching the eagle was replaced with agony.

I grabbed the wood strip boat, threw it on my right shoulder and began jogging, essentially barefoot. The path is a 1/4 mile route uphill on a narrow path through the woods, then is about another 1/4 mile on a dirt road. As I was running with my head-down uphill, I passed by an Adirondack lean-to, continued down hill, through a stream, next to a pond, back up hill, and then the trail disappeared! Suddenly I realized that I was not on the portage path! I backtracked to the lean to and found the portage path. I figure I ran an extra 1/4 mile or so ... (detour marked in red below ...lol)

I was amazed that I wasn't out of breath when I arrived at the put-in. I started to make my way back to Paul Smith's College. Within 5 minutes, I was passed by a C2. It was the C2 of Kennedy/Santor. [They were paddling the long course and I was at the back of the pack for the short course] We exchanged well wishes and then they were off.

As I made my way to the lake, wind-driven waves replaced the calm water of the river. I had a hard time surfing the c1 to the finish line. A c1 doesn't have a rocker profile nor the chines to permit surfing at angles of greater than 45 degrees to the direction of the waves. Surfing straight down wind and about 10 degree to straight is fine ... but 45 to 60 will make the boat heave and bob. In any event, I managed to make my way to the finish line.

Madpaddler in c1 stock at finish.

My GPS tracks.

I finished the race with a GPS time of 1hr 27min. I guesstimate that I can subtract about 3 to 4 minutes from this time (because of running on the wrong trail in the woods), which would also subtract about 0.25 miles from the 7.7 miles.

Distance 7.45 miles

Time 1 hr 25 min (?)

Tempo workout

I had a fair bit of excess energy from tapering and NOT racing at the Owasco Challenge. I needed to race. Given that there were no races on Monday, I decided to do a 1 hour time trial on the Erie Canal. I can normally paddle about 7.2 miles in an hour, which is about the distance from the Rexford boathouse to the 3rd upstream bridge.


I paddled 7.2 miles in just about 57 minutes.

Long Distance Paddle

This Sunday is the Lake Owasco Challenge. In preparation of the race, I paddled did a LD (long, slow distance paddle) today.

I paddled for just over 2 hrs and did several laps on the Erie Canal.

Northern New York Paddlers TIme Trial

Tonight was my first NNYP time trial. I had to drive 1Hr 15 minutes to get my boat and get to the Erie Canal. The time trials are held in a little park owned by the local rowing club in Rexford, NY. I arrived with only minutes to ready myself for the race.

I had heard that a very good local paddler usually shows up with his kayak and destroys the field. Indeed, he is a very good paddler and I'd lost at least twice to him two years earlier when he was paddling the NYMCRA circuit. So ... I was expecting a similar result.

We all lined up, and then the race was off.

I paddled moderately because I had no idea where I was going. I was paddling out front, looking over my shoulder, trying to anticipate the course based on the direction and actions of the paddlers behind me. I had slowed at the 1/2 mile mark because I wasn't sure if we were turning at the bridge abutment! It was actually a lot of fun, but I didn't get a great workout.

After the race, the NNYP had a small party for one of its members and they offered me cake! It sure beats the pizza that I'd normally have with SLVP. I can't wait for the Electric City Regatta on Saturday.

Friday Kayak Session

This morning when I woke, it was HOT AND HUMID, so I planned an afternoon kayak session. I was hoping to get a session in before my wife came home at 3:30. In this way I wouldn't have to choose between two of my favorite things: paddling and hanging out with Dot.

As soon as I finished working around 2 o'clock, I grabbed a pair of paddling shorts and was ready to try the Kajner 2- XL in my dominator II (an ICF kayak).

Much to my surprise a rain storm had quickly rolled in

Then it started to thunder and lightning, accompanied by hail.

I debated waiting it out and leaving a bit later. However, a quick check of weather underground

ensured that I *wasn't* going to be paddling on the water any time soon. [See the yellow blob on the St. Lawrence!]

So ... I decided to spend some quality time on my torture machine (AKA my speedstroke).

So ... my session:

• 15 min warmup at 12 kph,
• Several 4 minute intervals (VO2 intervals) with 2 to 3 minutes rest.
• cool down for about 5-10 minutes
• called it a day.

In all, I logged about 45 to 50 minutes on the torture device.

Sadly, I am not going to be able to make it to Dan Murn's race in Rochester again this year...

First outing with new paddle

I train (or at least try to) three times per week: Wednesday, Friday and Sunday . I reserve Sunday as a long slow distance day (or a race day), and the other two days are for long and short intervals, respectively.

Today I decided to skip the long intervals and do a tempo-esque one hour paddle to test my new Kajner 2 -XL. I've learned over the last couple of years that the best testing grounds are ones that remain consistent. I've found that Lake Bonaparte in Harrisville, NY (in the early morning hours) is a great place to test equipment.

For two weeks in a row, I've been greated with nearly perfect conditions. In fact, it has been like a mill-pond at 7:30 AM.

It is almost exactly 7 miles in circumference following the main (read deepish) shoreline, making it ideal for a 1 hr paddle.

I've averaged 7.22 mph on two seperate outings at comfortably hard (i.e. not race) pace. I repeated the same effort with my new paddle.

So, how was my first trip with the new paddle? The first thing I noticed, and was pleasantly surprised by, was the 'catch'. My k6 gurgles a bit on the catch and the new paddle has a Hollywood-esque sound of a ninja sword slicing rapidly through the air. In other words, the gurgle is gone and replaced with a slicing sound. I wasn't surprised by the release - there is no hesitation in the release (and least not at my ability level).

Here is a google earth image of my GPS tracks on Lake Bonaparte.

And the GPS results (6.58 miles in 53'42")

This is a speed of just over 7.3 mph with the new paddle. Compare that to my previous best of 7.2 mph with the old K6. Fantastic!

I am aware that I should repeat this process over (n>20) to have statistically reliable results. However, based on the feel at the catch, the lighter weight and the new locking mechanism - I think the new K2 is an improvement over the old (but still very nice) K6.