Distracted

With any luck, he'll love the water (and my paddleboard)

Hello. I've been a little distracted since late 2012 and haven't been blogging as consistently as I had in the past or as much as I'd like. I thought I'd let you know why. We adopted a second dog! From the Humane Society, he's a young mix of your-guess-is-as-good-as-mine, but he's a pretty cool little guy. Smart, out-going, and he gets along well with our other pup. But when he came to us it was apparent that he had received zero training in his short life. Fortunately, I enjoy the challenge of dog training. I believe that a lot of work in the beginning yields a lifetime of benefits for all of us. So that's what's been consuming a lot of my free time...Javi!

Fundamentals of Peak Performance: Periodization

Periodization Simplified

Yes, I know, sooo long overdue. The holidays, life, etc...thanks for bearing with me everyone.

Periodization is a term that describes the various phases of a training season. Your aim should be to develop different aspects of your fitness that then form the basis for further training. You wouldn't build a house by adding trim or wiring the electrical system first. And the same can be said for endurance training. You want a strong, sturdy foundation. Then you can add the detail work. But intially, you'll want a foundation that can resist the occassional storm. 

Starting out, you'll be in the Preparation phase. Ideally, this is where you are now. The Preparation phase is a time for strength training, yoga, cross training, and fun. This is followed with the Base phase. The focus of the Base phase is aerobic endurance. In some cases, you may want to add a second Base Phase, but one that transitions towards more intensity. After the Base phases, you'll add more intensity while reducing your overall endurance (or volume) load. This is the Strengthening phase. The intensity of the Strengthening phase should lead you directly into your Peaking Phase, which is when you should experience your peak fitness. Because it's impossible to physically sustain peak fitness for long periods of time, and because you've probably experienced a long season of training and fitness, you'll need to rest. This marks the beginning of your Recovery phase. Then, when you're ready, you can begin to ramp up and start all over again. Sounds easy, right?

I also want to note that there are cycles within a training season and beyond it. Training creates the potential for fitness and rest and recovery allows you to realize it. To obtain improved fitness, you need to apply a certain demand on your body and then rest so that it can adapt to that demand. A cycle within your training could be one day. You train, you rest. Another cycle exists throughout the training week. Days of training, followed by days of rest, and adaptation occurs. Then there are cycles within training phases - several more demanding weeks, followed by a week of rest. Then there is the cycle of your entire training season, increasing demands of intensity, followed by the increased realization of your fitness, and then  recovery. And a cycle I stress as equally important is the big cycle of your five or ten year fitness goals. Why do any of this? Is there something longterm that you're working towards? You may feel an urgency to improve for this season, but look ahead two or more years - with steady training and persistence, you may be able to accomplish whatever you want - even paddling the Inside Passage!

Fundamentals of Peak Performance: Testing

Jim Terrell's "Flume" Testing Grounds

How are you going to measure your improvement? By establishing a baseline of your performance and then testing against it throughout your training. There are various ways one can go about this. I'm going to assume you aren't going to use a heart rate monitor to test your lactate threshold or a GPS to measure distance or speed. What I'm instead going to suggest you do is measure your distance over a specific period of time. I'm going to suggest seeing how far you can paddle in calm conditions for 30 minutes, after an adequate warm-up. This isn't as simple as going all out right at the start. You'll need to pace yourself in order to finish strong. You want to paddle in that space where you feel lactic acid in your muscles, but your body is able to manage it. On the RPE scale, somewhere between 14-17. Calm conditions mean no wind and little to no tidal currents. Once you know how far you can paddle in 30 minutes, you can test yourself throughout your training season under the same conditions and compare your distances, as well as how you feel while paddling. Of course, another test would be to paddle a specific distance and see how your timing improves with training. But it's a little more difficult to know the precise distance you're paddling with any accuracy, at least without a GPS system.

Next: Periodization & Training Phases

Remember Last December?

We just saw a couple of inches of snow in Olympia. Followed by a day of steady wind and rain. So far this month, we've had some really wet ones. All of this cold, wet weather got me thinking about last December. Remember? 21 dry days. No rain until the 25th of December. Only ten days with any real wind. Clear skies. It was like Halcyon Days went all month long. Now the Solstice is just days away and I fear we won't even see the Halcyon Days I look forward to every December. Halcyon Days? These were days of calm weather, usually beginning before and coinciding with the Winter Solstice. Kingfishers (genus Halcyon) were believed to calm the seas with their wings while brooding their eggs on the beach. Where are they - we need them!

Fundamentals of Peak Performance: Reported Perceived Exertion

The Borg Reported Perceived Exertion (RPE) Scale is tool that allows athletes, regardless of their discipline, to repeatedly measure and report their efforts and intensity. As your fitness level improves, your experience with this scale may change over time. The scale goes to 20 instead of 10 because those numbers are intended to be multiplied by a factor of 10. This should then provide you with a rough estimate of your heart rate. For example, if you are paddling hard, beginning to feel lactic acid in your muscles, you may describe this as a 15 or 16, which would correspond to a heart rate of 150-160bpm. RPE is subjective, but over time, you will learn your body and how it feels when subjected to differing intensities.

Next: Performance Testing

Knots to Know: Bowline

I believe that if you're going to spend time on the water, you really should have some basic knot tying skills. You never know when it'll come in handy. Even though there are plenty of folks that still know how to tie knots, it feels like a lost art. Fortunately, there are a lot of great resources for knot tying, many on the internet. A favorite of mine is Animated Knots by Grog. In my opinion, this site couldn't make knot tying any clearer or easier. 

I'm going to refer to this site from time to time, and the first knot I'll recommend is the Bowline. The bowline is great for forming a loop that can then be used to secure a line to something else. I'd also recommend the water bowline (an extra loop makes it more secure) and the running bowline. 

Pick up a 3 foot piece of nautical or climbing rope and have fun learning a few knots!

Fundamentals of Peak Performance: Assessment

You have your goals. They are specific, attainable, and honest. And speaking of honest, it's time to look at your abilities with respect to performance. This is where you can recognize your assets and develop your weaknesses. Look at these different factors and try to realistically assess and catalog your abilities.

Physical:

There are three basic abilities you rely on as a paddler: strength, endurance, and technique skills. Everything else is built on this framework. Strength is your ability to generate force by propelling you and your body along the water. Endurance is your ability to do so for a long period of time. Technique is your ability to perform the most efficient movements possible.

You want to grade yourself on your strength, endurance, and technique. If you feel yourself lacking, that's okay - commitment can go far with paddling and training. 

Mental:

Consider your confidence, attitude, ability to overcome adversity, focus, visualization, and motivation. These all play a role in training and peak performance.

Additional factors:

Additional factors include your experience and comfort on the water in various conditions, social support of friends and family, tendency to overtrain, adequate recovery, injuries, and nutrition. 

Training factors:
There are a few additional factors that relate directly to training. For examply, the amount of time you'll have available to devote to training and how often. What about your age, i.e. the amount of time it takes to recover from a serious workout. And finally, take your paddling and training experience into account. If you've been training and racing for several years, your body will be better suited to training than if it was the first month on a paddleboard (but don't let that discourage you!)

You know your goals. Hopefully you'll be able to develop some training objectives based on your assessment of strengths and weaknesses. For instance, if you paddle all day long, but lack good paddling technique, then you know you'll need to spend additional time and focus on your technique.

Next: Reported Percieved Exertion