Engineered Athlete Services

new site

2008-04-08T12:43:00.000-07:00

I'm in the process of setting up a new site for my coaching information. Feel free to visit while its under construction!

Updates are going up pretty regularly so check back frequently.

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

LTAD and periodization

2008-01-25T13:15:00.000-08:00

This past week I was at a Sport Canada workshop on Long Term Athlete Development.

One of the important periods being targeted in athlete development is that surrounding the primary growth phase as identified through peak height velocity (PHV). Well design training in this important period in a young athlete's life can open up windows of training opportunities that optimize training adaptations in; the steady growth before PHV, during the rapid acceleration in growth, the rapid deceleration in growth and the post growth phases.

Given some of the interesting discussions in the triathlon coaching world on training periodization. Old school training plans, new age plans, reverse periodization, etc. One central concept to all is the impact of the competitive schedule on the program design.

With PHV considerations in mind, training program designs is driven by the developmental needs of the athlete first and the demands of competition second.

This is a radical shift for the majority of club coaches, as in large groups it is the norm that the athletes must fit the plan. It is just easier that way 9-10 year olds together, 11-12's, 13-14's, etc. However, some progressive clubs have decided that easier is not always the best route and have chosen to embrace LTAD around PHV. In in so doing are are already showing huge gains in athlete development However, the shift in thinking around PHV requires

Ironically, what these top clubs are doing is very similar to what elite coaches do with their high performance athletes; the training programs are made to fit the athlete.

So what form should periodization take?

Reverse
Forward
Old school
New School

Sure, whatever you call it.

Regardless, most importantly periodization must be reactionary to the needs of the athlete's development; chronological, technical, physiological, tactical, psychological and sociological.

Alan Carlsson

ski vs ski

2007-12-19T14:58:00.000-08:00

When winter arrives in Vancouver, a number of surfski and oc paddlers choose to head inland and up the mountains for some serious aerobic cross-training.

A local favorite in Vancouver are the Tuesday Night XC ski races at Cypress. These are the winter answer to the Deep Cove Canoe and Kayak Tuesday Night paddle races. All for fun, some speed folk, many competitive recreational skiers and you can always expect a guest appearance by a few genetic freaks ;-)

If you've never seen a xc ski race, here's a primer;

And here is more on skate technique;

Now remember, I look nothing like that! Slower, mo' tired, mo' drool, eyes rolled back in my head, fall now and then,...

Well Tuesday December 18 was the first race of the 2007-08 season, and ironically the first and last race of 2007. Racing resumes Jan 8 for sure, with rumours of a New Year's hangover special on Jan 2.

For me this was my first xc ski race in over a year, as I did the first race in the 06-07 season, then sat out the rest of the season to favour my Moloka'i solo preparation. It was also my first skate skiing race in over 2 years, a painful awakening to be sure! Luckily I have dropped some weight so the hills weren't as steep or as long as they were last year.

Being a training data aficionado, here is my HR curve, with altitude thrown in for effect!

Full results are here.

All that being said, xc ski racing is a whole world of pain I don't have the pleasure of visiting in surfski racing. While xc ski races are technically long distance events, physiologically they are closer to middle distance events. This means more anaerobic work (read muscular discomfort) than your typical long distance event, but also feature huge technical (my saving grace in xc ski and paddling) and tactical (change techniques, adapt to environment, competition, race course, etc.) components.

Bottom line is xc ski racing will prepare you for open ocean surfski racing in a way no other cross-training activity will. You'll also learn that while you think you've worked hard on your surfski, its a walk in the park compared to a xc ski race...

Then again, facing 3 m ocean swells in 20 kn winds will make a nicely groomed xc ski trail seem like a walk in the park...

There you have it! if only I could remember where my surfski and paddle are...

Alan

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

The spirit of being a true champion

2007-10-31T16:37:00.000-07:00

Here is a video clip I have to share with you guys. For all you paddlers, its not paddling. What it is, is the final few hundred meters of a World Cup Triathlon in NZ.

This is what we coaches should aspire to teach our athletes, the spirit of being a true champion. You can't help but love this kind of effort!

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

NSIWGTBE

2007-10-10T19:34:00.000-07:00

Learning to ride rollers is a challenge for any cyclist or triathlete who wants to make sure their indoor training will make them faster for the next season.

Rollers 101
Rollers are not for the faint of heart. They are not for quitters. They are humbling. But you will rise like a phoenix. But no one said it was going to be easy.

First step, get some good tire PSI. Soft tires will make rollers super, super tough. Not good tough, stupid tough.

Next step, clear the area to the left and right of the rollers of any hard objects you might injure yourself on should you fall. Which you will. Hence step three.

Third step, set yourself up somewhere you can get support. One of the best places for a roller newby is in a door frame.

Step four, start by riding very very easy, holding onto the door frame with one hand, handlebars with the other. Lowest gear you've got. Just turn the pedals. If you're got XY genetic material it will be more difficult as you'll feel an urge to go fast in big gears within seconds.

4.5 If you have tri bars, dream on! Learning to ride rollers in tri bars is not a good idea, and probably impossible. As you'll soon learn...

Step five, back in the door frame, when you feel comfortable riding both left and right handed, slowly, let, go, of, the, door, frame, and, reach, for, the, bars. No sudden movements...

Step six- practice
Step seven- practice
Step eight- practice

Get it?

Rollers 202
You're able to ride without support, can mop your own brow. Drinking while riding and conversations are still pretty one sided when you're on the rollers, but let's not ask for too much. Right?

Rollers 303
Are you ready for an intensity workout on your rollers? Conversations are getting better.

Rollers 404
Intensity rides get longer and a lot harder...

Rollers 505
Time trial time...

Zipper 2016

catching up

2007-09-10T11:51:00.001-07:00

Its been a while since I managed to get a post up, let's just call it a very busy summer.

I had a significant shift in my personal sporting goals after the Moloka'i solo surfski race back in May. I had put in so much effort over the winter that paddling was not as attractive as usual.

Combined with what looked like some success in my battle with seasonal allergies, I decided to shift gears away from the water and back over to triathlons. Prior to taking up competitive paddling in 95, triathlon had been my thing.

A few years ago, I started up a triathlon club here in Vancouver with my triathlon racing nemesis Andrew Tuovinen.

Every race against Andrew followed a similar script; I smoked Andrew in the swim then held my own on the bike. Depending on the length of the swim, technical difficulty on the bike and length of the run, Andrew would either catch me on the run or come very, very close. Not that I was a slouch on the run, Andrew was super fast with a 10 k PB in the 32 min range and a one mile PB in the low 4 min range.

Andrew and I have very compatible coaching styles with complementary strengths and weaknesses. The club is almost at 50 members and we're very proud to say showing some excellent long term athlete development.

This year we had 15 athletes compete at Ironman Canada, and of those all 15 finished the race and 11 of them were taking on an Ironman for the first time. We had emphasized the run as being the key element in the race and all our guys and gals ran super strong marathons to finish their races. We even had a few negative splits on the run! Not bad after 3.8 km of swimming and 180 km of cycling!

At the triathlon club Andrew and I each have a number of athletes working with us one on one. They range from elite level athletes to rookies. One things these athletes all have in common is that they are goal oriented and willing to ask for guidance.

It is a very rewarding environment to coach in. We're super happy with the club we've built and proud of the sportsmanship demonstrated every practice by the club members.

For me, I even managed to complete a few triathlons. My paddling left me with super upper body fitness and my swim was as good as ever (51 min for 4 km), but my aerobic fitness was shockingly poor for weight bearing exercise. I'm working on that now.

My immediate coaching challenges involve two triathletes who want to make the podium at the 2008 ITU Age Group World Championships.

As I am in the planning phases now, my first task is retooling training program templates to deliver all the information we needs to perform at our best.

I've got some good ideas on how to improve sport specific fitness, especially when I consider the bike-run interaction.

When will I get back to paddling? I think I'll wait for the spring or summer of 08...

Alan

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

wash riding in kayaks

2007-02-13T14:56:00.000-08:00

A question was posted on OCPaddler.com about wash riding and I remembered reading an article on this way, way back when.

If you have learned to wash ride and are allowed to do it, it is very beneficial.

I’ve wash ridden back and forth with other boats for up to two hours and an organized pack of two or more boats will drop the rest of the field very quickly. It makes the race much faster and more tactical than essentially being out there in your own space. For some reason I work harder in a pack than alone, maybe its knowing that if I drop off the back I am truly watching the race walk away.

Not to mention that and turns are no longer simply a change of scenery, they are a time to drop or be dropped!

In flatwater canoe & kayak racing it is an accepted tactic and has significant effects on the race outcome. The wash riding boat is usually 5% lower in heart rate than if they were at that speed and leading and their oxygen consumption is approximately 12% lower.

For those who have a high “professor” or “geek” rating here is the abstract of an article published in 1995 on the physiological effects of wash riding in ICF kayaks.

The metabolic cost of two kayaking techniques (Gray, Matherson and McKenzie) The International Journal of Sports Medicine May 1995: Vol. 16 Issue 4. p. 250-254

A common technique employed in flatwater kayak and canoe races is “wash riding”, in which a paddler positions his/her boat on the wake of a leading boat and, at a strategic moment, drops off the wake to sprint ahead. It was hypothesized that this manoeuver was energy efficient, analogous to drafting in cycling. To study this hypothesis, minute ventilation (VE), heart rate (HR) and oxygen consumption (VO2) were measured in 10 elite male kayak paddlers (age = 25 ± 6.5 yrs, height = 183.6 ± 4.4 cm, mass = 83.9 ± 6.1 kg) during steady-state exercise at a standardized velocity in conditions of “wash riding” (WR) and “non-was riding” (NWR). The data were collected in field conditions using a portable telemetric metabolic system (Cosmed K2).

Statistical analysis of the mean values for VE, VO2 and HR was performed using the Hotelling’s T2 statistic and revealed significant differences between the WR and NWR trials for all three dependent variables.

Mean values for VE (l/min) were WR = 133 ± 16.5, NWR = 126.3 ± 15.7; for VO2 (l/min) were WR = 3.22 ± 0.32, NWR = 3.63 ± 0.3; and for HR (bpm) were WR = 167 ± 9.9, NWR = 174 ± 8.0.

It was concluded that wash riding during kayak paddling confers substantial metabolic savings at the speeds tested. This has implications for the design of training programs and competitive strategies for flatwater distance kayak racing.

Knowing that wash riding is beneficial to your speed is one thing, getting good at it is another and it takes lots of practice to learn how to wash ride properly. From a tactical point of view you may have to think kilometers ahead to the next turn or narrow point on the course to be well positioned in a pack. Even when surfing small waves positioning is important as being on the wrong side of another boat can compromise your race in no time.

Alan

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Alcohol and sports performance

2007-02-09T12:52:00.000-08:00

Alcohol has been a contentious topic between athletes, coaches, managers and scientists for decades. As with most things in life the consensus seems to be that alcohol fits in with the "everything in moderation nothing to excess" mantra.

The best argument to not overdoing it comers out of Finland (the land of world record vodka consumption ‘cause there is little else to do all winter in the dark). This study looked at the effect of alcohol consumption at party levels on performance in elite athletes.

They took a group of very high caliber athletes (the Finns are good at this; when they say elite they mean elite) and tested them in a standardized endurance test once per week for a few weeks. Based on performance, they divided them into two equal groups.

The control group kept on going as before for another four weeks with the performance tests. The intervention group went out and partied hard (enough to score "very intoxicated", so 3+ non-American beers for an average male) and continued to do the performance tests along with the first group.

The first group continued to improve while the “party-group” dropped significantly in performance and took on average four weeks to return to their original performance level. By which time the control group was showered and had gone home.

That’s the most conclusive proof of easing off on serious alcohol consumption for competitive athletes. Moderation though, shows no conclusive adverse effects. The biggest area affected by alcohol is the liver; primarily reduced efficiency in detoxifying the blood post workouts and reduced efficiency in glycogen synthesis.

Going back to moderation, years back a Kiwi pro triathlete stopped his beloved beer(s)-a-day habit cold turkey and his performance nose dived for a year until he added beer back into his diet.

There is no denying the nutritional contributions found in beer and wine, and that may help an athlete in many ways. Hard alcohol is not as forgiving due to the very high alcohol content and has little nutritive value.

Another thought regarding alcohol; some athletes will benefit psychologically from a beer or two as it helps them relax before a competition and sleep well. Drinking enough to pass out is not what we’re looking for here, just enough to relax.

Alan

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Kayak paddle fitting

2007-02-09T11:45:00.000-08:00

Here is an article I posted recently on surfski.info on kayak paddle fitting based on an accumulation of flatwater and surfski coaching, listening to others and my own experience. I've added and clarified certain areas based on follow-up discussions.

Here are some quick guidelines to consider in setting your paddle up;

1. Twist: left or right? There is little you can do with his parameter as you will be either one of the other. It is rare to find an ambidextrous kayaker re twist. In an ideal world you can choose which one is best for you, in the real world those who don't have access to a two piece paddle are stuck with what is available where and when you learn.

Some coaches say twist is often associated with handedness (i.e. right handed people are often right twist), but not always. It is however a good starting point.

A quick and easy way to tell is do some "air paddling" while standing and have someone watch if the paddle orients itself correctly on "entry". If you end up slicing (where the paddle would enter parallel to the side of the kayak) you need the opposite twist.

An empirical way to know which twist is right for you is see if you always fall in over and over again at the entry/catch on the same side. If the blade slices in every time on a given side it is probably a twist issue. Always falling in at the exit on the same side is probably more of an exit mechanics / twist angle problem, but in some cases it may be a left-right twist issue.

Twist is very tricky for many paddlers and they resort to getting "twist" by flexing the wrists.

For those with ovalized paddle shafts (either designed oval like Epics or with finger key on grip side) try to change the paddle angle by rolling the paddle shaft along your grip side fingers as they flex/extend and NOT by flexing the wrist. It is important to have finger guides (see point #6 below) on the paddle when keeping a looser grip to ensure you are gripping in the correct orientation. This technique also relaxes your grip.

It takes practice but can greatly minimize the risk of wrist overuse injuries.

Practice using a light weight wooden dowel or broom handle, and a light paddle helps greatly in using this in real life. Your fingers will get sore for a while as they strengthen, but they will adapt quickly.

2. Twist angle: Determining the twist angle on a wing blade will have a drastic effect on your stroke. This is the angle between the two blades of the paddle running down the long axis of the paddle shaft. Normally a twist of zero (0º) mean there is no difference while 90º indicates the blades are perpendicular to each other.

Newer paddlers are best with a fairly flat angle, say 60º a this allows easy entries with minimal need for a steep angle on entry (which may compromise balance) and an easy exit that will lift/catch minimal water. With a wing blade, a steeper angle will require better exit mechanics. If the angle is too steep for your exit skill, the blade will often pull under the hull, or grab on the exit leading to a swim or very poor balance as you will pull your exit side shoulder down towards the exit every time you lift it out, which will affect the entry on the opposite side, and so on in a nasty catch-22 scenario.

As paddlers become more skilled the angle can be changes to accommodate progressing skill and water conditions. If you have a very good exit and the water is flat (re your perception) you may select a steeper angle (toward 70-80º). However, exit mechanics need to be very good or you will pull yourself off balance when you try to extract the blade or you pull back too far.

For very rough water when you know you’ll be paddling flatter (left-right angle) to keep you center of gravity low, flatten out the angle on the blade back toward 60º.

3. Length: this is often determined as a function of sitting height over the water in the kayak, length of the event and paddling style.

A good starting point (that assumes a relationship between limb length and torso length) is to sit holding a paddle or a broom handle, etc. with your upper arms parallel to the ground and your elbows bent at 90º with your hands up (i.e. perpendicular to the ground). Grip the shaft so that your thumbs are on the inside of the grip. Have someone measure the distance between your thumbs. For flatwater kayaking this distance equals ~1/3 of your overall paddle length, the middle third. The other two thirds are located from each thumb to the tip of the paddle.

For beginner flatwater paddlers shorten this distance slightly (up to 5 cm). New paddlers tend to paddle with a flatter stroke (left-right angle) and have poorer posture (i.e. they are shorter in the kayak).

For beginner surfski paddlers shorten this distance (up to 15 cm). New paddlers tend to paddle with a flatter stroke (left-right angle) re flatwater paddlers and slouch more in the ski.

For more advanced surfski paddlers shorten this distance (0-15 cm). Non-flatwater trained surfski paddlers tend to paddle with a slightly flatter stroke (left-right angle) re flatwater paddlers and very skilled ski paddlers will sit up taller in the ski if conditions allow.

In rough and sloppy water shorten the paddle slightly (0.5-2 cm). This allows a slightly faster stroke rate for the same hull speed (i.e. less force per stroke) which improves balance in most paddlers.

In very long events where cadence may drop from fatigue you can shorten the paddle slightly (0.5-2 cm). This allows you to maintain a slightly faster stroke rate for the same hull speed (i.e. less force per stroke) which holds off fatigue a little longer in most paddlers.

In flat glassy calm water lengthen the paddle slightly (0.5-1+ cm). This allows the paddler to slow the stroke rate slightly by stabilize the paddle relative to the kayak more and increasing the force per stroke without compromising balance too much.

If you grip too narrow on your paddle shaft you use a lot of bicep and chest strength (smaller muscles). A wider grip will allow you to use more torso and back strength (bigger muscles). For each person there will be a happy medium based on your biomechanics.

Too short and paddlers slouch, pull with the arms and have poorer technique.

Too long and paddlers have trouble with balance at the entry and exit.

Remember that as you change from model to model within a certain style (ICF, surfski, K1 vs. K2 vs K4, etc.) you may have to alter your paddle length as well.

4. Blade shape: There are many blade designs on the market. Some have a faster entry, some cleaner exit, some feel like they pull more, etc. Try a few out, often the nicer feeling ones cost more and are worth the difference. Many blades are made to suit a specific paddling style.

Two common shapes are;

Tear-drop: where the tip of the paddle widens out slightly relative to the base near the paddle shaft. This shape uses the knowledge that deeper water can provide slightly more resistance due to changes in hydrodynamics and the physical characteristics of water. A tear-drop shaped blade will be much more aggressive on the catch than a parallel blade, and much less forgiving to poor stroke mechanics.
Parallel: parallel blades maintain a relatively uniform blade width as the blade lengthens from base to tip. These blades are more versatile as an all around choice and in variable water conditions.

5. Blade pitch: this is a parameter used to describe any additional changes in effective twist angle within the length of the blade. Some blade will pull into the water (and toward the hull) using a rotation along the long axis of the paddle, while others will enter along the line of action exerted by the paddler.

Depending on your paddling style (especially set up and entry mechanics) you might prefer one over the other.

From my experience coaching flatwater and surfski paddlers, I have observed that paddlers who experience difficult burying the blade quickly (i.e. fast entry) or who initiate a pull back during the entry thus preventing full paddle immersion or who pull back horizontally with the arm as opposed to down and back with the back and torso tend to like more pitch on their blades. Typically, this tends to be newer paddlers and those who do not get a lot of technical feedback on their stroke mechanics.

6. Blade size: Hull speed is a function of force per stroke (the portion thereof that is transmitted to the hull) and stroke rate. Big blade often = slower rate, small blade often = higher rate. The trick is matching blade size to event distance, paddling skill level and torso strength.

For very skilled, strong and experienced adult men or genetically gifted and skilled women doing events of under 10-30 minutes a full size men's sprint blade is ideal.

For less experienced or less strong adult males doing events under 10-20 minutes or all adult men/women doing distance events (20 minutes or longer) a mid-size blade may yield better results.

For younger or new paddlers, a junior or small blade is often adequate and may yield better results.

For some workouts you may choose to use a bigger or smaller blade to stress your paddling technique and musculature more effectively or to address any particular strengths and weaknesses.

7. Finger guides: I advocate the use up tape for finger guides on the paddle shaft to facilitate proper hand position.

On the grip/twist side build up a slight ridge on the outside of the thumb (2-3 wraps of electrician's tape as a base then either fold or twist the tape to build the slight ridge, then tape over it again to smooth off the edges). Newer paddlers are best to use a small built up section (<1-2>7.

8. Shaft shape: some paddle shafts are ovalized while others are round. Comfort and ease in the "twist" is often best on an ovalized shaft. This can be aided on a round shafts by ovalizing the gripping side (twist hand) to allow you to control the paddle by rolling it through your fingers rather than flexion/extension of your wrist.

9. Offset: Offset is less common today than it was years ago. The offset angle refers to a deviation from the long axis of the paddle shaft, usually in the forward direction.

I believe the theory was to allow greater forward propulsion in the middle and back of the stroke. I can't say this fits with my current understanding of how a wing blade generates propulsion, unless the paddling style was very low and acted in a very wide sweeping stroke.

All that being said, there is still lots of room for personal preference and more room for inquiring minds to explore different combinations.

Alan

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Team boat selection

2006-12-06T14:32:00.000-08:00

This post was pulled from a team selection discussion I had with an OC coach I am working with on Maui. We were discussing the difficulties in objectively evaluating team boat skills.

We often overlook the importance of team boat skills. In kayak (and rowing) coaches often select their top team boats by;

top solo performers over a similar duration bracket (i.e. long distance team boat race requires a long distance solo race TIME TRIAL. No drafting, no surfing)
the solo contenders are mixed into tandem teams to measure team skills. Weak combinations are the key. If you have a pool of 12 paddlers, each will be expected to do at least 11 combinations in training and the good combinations are then used in time trials and the bad combinations noted to help ID potential team skill weaknesses. This stage could take 3+ months and they are still not in big boats.
move to big boat combinations looking to overlap the best tandem combinations for example;

OC 1
Luke TT 23:20
Don TT 23:30
Tyson TT 23:34
JJ TT 21:20
Wallis TT 24:10
Grommet TT 23:40
Rob TT 23:29

OC 2
Luke/Don TT 21:20 faster than both OC1 TT
Luke/Tyson TT 23:40 combo slower than both OC1 TT
Luke/JJ TT 21:10 should have been faster given JJ's OC1 TT
Luke/Wallis TT 21:12 fast considering Wallis' TT was slowest
Luke/Grommet TT 22:40 faster than both OC1 TT
Luke/Rob TT 23:05 combo slower than Luke OC1 TT, faster than Rob's
AVERAGE FOR LUKE (stroke) 22:11

Don/Luke TT 20:59 faster than both OC1 TT
Tyson/Luke TT 23:45 combo slower than both OC1 TT
JJ/Luke TT 20:50 should have been faster given JJ's OC1 TT
Wallis/Luke TT 21:01 fast considering Wallis' TT was slowest
Grommet/Luke TT 22:00 faster than both OC1 TT
Rob/Luke TT 22:58 combo slower than Luke OC1 TT, faster than Rob's
AVERAGE FOR LUKE (seat 2) 21:55

Don/Luke TT 20:59 (as above Don/Luke Combo)
Don/Tyson TT 23:30 combo slower than Don OC1 TT, faster than Tyson's
Don/JJ TT 21:05 should have been faster given JJ's OC1 TT
Don/Wallis TT 21:45 fast considering Wallis' TT was slowest
Don/Grommet TT 21:59 faster than both OC1 TT
Don/Rob TT 24:29 combo slower than both OC1 TT
AVERAGE FOR DON (Stroke) 22:17

Luke/Don TT 21:20 (as above Luke/Don combo)
Tyson/Don TT 23:40 combo slower than Don OC1 TT, faster than Tyson's
JJ/Don TT 20:05 faster than both OC1 TT
Wallis/Don TT 20:45 fast considering Wallis' TT was slowest
Grommet/Don TT 22:59 faster than both OC1 TT
Rob/Don TT 24:59 combo slower than both OC1 TT
AVERAGE FOR DON (seat 2) 22:18

And so on, until you've tried all 42 possible 1-2 combinations. From this we see good and bad combos emerging. On the surface it looks like Luke is a better stroke and two seat than Don. However, if we remove the worst combination from each- we get a different picture;

Luke stroke 22:00
Don stroke 21:51
Luke 2 21:33
Don 2 21:45

Doing a full on proper team selection is a long and time consuming process. But in the end you learn were to put the paddlers for optimal results.

Looking at the incomplete chart, we could seat people as follows based on tandem time trial results. Now the tricky bit is deciding if you build you crew around best time clusters OR go for fastest average tandem times for 1-2, 2-3, 3-4, 4-5, 5-6. Using best tandem times we would go with: JJ-Don-Luke-Wallis.

If we finished that OC2 matrix we'd be able to pick out next two guys and pick a couple of other combinations to try out.

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Kayak stroke drills

2006-12-06T14:09:00.000-08:00

This post is in response to a question from Jack in Sacramento about teaching drills for the kayak/surfski stroke.

In many sports where there are distinct propulsive (P) and glide (G) phases, you can draw parallels. One thing we can learn from all the great swim coaching knowledge is the importance of drills and linking drills to the real sport. What we can do is examine swim drills and looked for ways to cross them over to kayak and surfski.

Think about what you want to emphasize, isolate or correct then dream up a drill. You’ll have a few failures, but you’ll learn a lot through trying.

Here are a few brief examples in different categories;

Propulsive
Catch Drills

Enter, pause then pull: add pause after entry until water pushes on non-power face then pull
Enter (foot pressure to core to paddle) then pull: activate connection to hull

Pull Drills

Single side strokes: keep top arm locked in pull and recovery (feather blade and slide forward similar to finger drag). Do 10L, 10R, 20 normal or some pattern 30 sec L, 30 sec R, etc
Single side strokes through exit to PG transition or ear touch drill
power stroke (extend glide for 1-4 seconds while maintaining pull force x speed = power)
little finger: pull deep and down getting little finger in water by exit
tricep extension: keep triceps fully activated in pull

Exit Drills

Pull through exit; no pull, pause, exit
Quick exit

Rotation Drills

Swing drill: paddle 4 or 6 times (even number) then rotate only 3 or 5 times (odd number) with paddle parallel to water at waist height. Keep rotation speed constant on paddling and rotations. Keep range of motion the same on rotation as in paddling.

Transition (P to G) Drills

exit connection (foot board/foot well to leg to hip to core to shoulder to paddle)
overemphasize acceleration to exit/de-emphasize catch/pull for exit
rotation through exit into PG set up

Glide Drills

ear touch with exiting hand
deck touch with blade (same side as entry, opposite side as entry)
power stroke (extend glide for 1-4 seconds while maintaining pull force x speed = power)

Transition (G to P) Drills

set up drills
paddle parallel to water in PG to GP (hold 1-2 seconds: see power stroke)
top hand lifts into place while holding bottom hand at shoulder/chin level

Entry Drills

enter then pull
enter near heels, slowly reach entry forward until paddle “plops” (i.e. no longer quiet) or elbow flexes

Postural Drills

check torso angle overemphasize forward lean or upright posture
learn to flex front back in waves

Surfing Drills

quartering waves to a) left and b) right
reading swells that are a) faster than you and b) slower than you
reading wind waves
linking waves

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

2006-10-20T11:55:00.000-07:00

I received the following question from a Yahoo! Surfski group user;

Hi Alan,

I have a Fenn Mako XT as my first surfski for over 6 months. Previously I was paddling a plastic Sprinter.

After reading your posting i found some very interesting and technical advice there I would like to keep reading on. I do have all the beginner symptoms in rough water in the XT> The flatter paddling, quicker turnover and inevitable capsizes in unpredictable water and winds. Even though I go out again and again in this conditions to master them.

What would your advice be to handle this waters better? My "keep relaxed" mantra has worked well, but I still capsize when in unpredictable waters or sudden side gusts of wind.

Your ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks for following up.

From what you indicated my advice to you given your challenge in rough waters is two fold to being;

1. Learn to use your paddle for support during the pull; which means engaging the top arm, shoulder and pecs to stabilize the stroke, securing the blade in the water before you pull (which means trust your balance which will come from better stroke- yes a catch-22 situation but you've got to break into the cycle!), keeping the pull connected to the hull by maintaining heel pressure throughout the stroke from catch to exit.
You will also need to work on a more vertical paddle angle: enter close to hull, top hand close to centre line of hull or over your centre of gravity if you can move it side to side. The pull should be along bow wave line; slightly in or out of the wake is fine. Taller paddlers (longer arms) will pull out of the bow wave more than shorter paddlers (or shorter arms).
Think about pulling the paddle down into the water while you pull back as this helps activate lats and triceps NOT biceps.
Ideally you want to accelerate your stroke (and hull) from catch to exit.
Exit when your elbow reaches your torso- a quick exit will help prevent you from getting sucked too far back and then into the water.
This is probably the #1 thing limiting rough water ski paddlers; the paddle does nothing for stability.

2. Look for the horizon as your overall focus: glance at the water around you, but never for more than a fraction of a second. Take it all in and ignore the small movements your hull makes; relax the hips and core enough to allow the hull to roll and pitch under you while you paddle. Primarily, the waves will move the hull up and down, but will also gently pull the hull up a wave toward the crest (opposite direction of the wave's direction of travel) then push it into the trough behind the crest. This second point is very hard to overcome but once you do it all will be easier.
As a learning tool, try going out in flat conditions and paddling through progressively bigger boat wakes with your eyes closed. You'll be surprised at the outcome!

Hope that makes sense!

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Aerobic Capacity

2006-10-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

These thoughts were in response to a number of recent posting on aerobic fitness, EPO production and cross-training posted on teh surfski Yahoo! group.

Aerobic fitness consists of two main components;

central cardiovascular fitness (heart and lungs), and
peripheral (the specific muscles involved in the sport movement)

You can train the central cardovascular system using pretty much any cross-training methods you like as long as you can stress your cardiac function and ventilatory system to a greater extent than you will need in the sport for which you are training. As many previous posts have mentionned running is an excellent form of cross-training through which to develop the cardiac and ventilatory part of the aerobic fitness necessary for paddle sports. Some of the important rate limiting factors in central cardiovascular fitness are;

cardiac output: the amount of blood pumped per minute which is a function of stroke volume (blood pumped per heart beat) and heart rate (beats / minute)
blood volume: dehydration or other factors affecting volume will reduce effectiveness of the cardiovascular system
red blood cell count and O₂ carrying capacity

The peripheral adaptations required for aerobic (or anaerobic or alactic) fitness all take place in the muscles and associated nervous system. As such, cross-training has much more limited impact of this portion of training. The changes in muscle architecture, structure,
biochemical composition, etc are all very localized and specific. If the muscles used are similar in a cross-training activity there will be some benefits. However, not only the muscle groups, but also the sequencing of contractions, force of contraction, speed of contraction,
power output, duration of exercise, work to rest ratios and many other factors all have to agree to see mutually beneficial training effects. Two of the biggest rate limiting factors in peripheral aerobic fitness are;

the ability of the muscle to remove and use oxygen from the blood, and
the ability of the muscle to maintain a balanced pH (specifically minimize acidity build up which will delay the onset of fatigue).

So the answer to whether aerobic fitness is transferable, the answer is yes, no and maybe.

For the poster who observed his running HR was much higher than his paddling HR, this may be explained a number of factors;

you probably have a good aerobic power and aerobic capacity in running,
your paddling training has not advanced to the same level (both interval training and base work),
with systematic inclusion of intervals and base work, both your peak paddling HR and the % of peak HR you can use when in long distance events will increase. Your paddling technique is such that you use a smaller amount of muscle than when running,
when you learn to use legs as prime movers and sequence the movement from core to periphery you will see you HR increase to near running values.
it may be you are fatigued and unable to increase your HR to higher values due to systemic fatigue, this would only be true if your running values were also decreased at the same time.

There was also a comment about O₂ desaturation. High levels of VENOUS (think used) blood desaturation is prefectly normal, and very often blood returning from highly activated muscle is significantly desaturated (well below 50%), as it mixes with venous blood returning from non-working muscles and organs, the % desaturation levels return towards normal. If O₂ levels drop far enough and the lungs are unable to re-oxygenate the blood sufficiently in ARTERIAL saturation, the adrenal glands will begin releasing EPO to regulate the poor oxygen carrying capacity of the blood. Under normal exercise conditions at common altitudes, only a very small percent of athletes (read "genetic freaks") can desaturate their blood sufficiently to drop arterial saturation levels to the point where an EPO response is triggered. Don't quote me, but I believe this value is just below 90%. At high
altitude, this is much easier to achieve and very often altitude training will trigger an EPO response, especially if a series of short (1:30-3:00 min) high intensity efforts are undertaken specifically for this purpose. Upon return to lower altitudes a well managed athlete will experience an increase in peak VO₂ and performance.

Hope some of this helps.

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Base of support in kayak

2006-10-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share some thoughts about single foot well skis and stability.

When teaching flatwater kayaking technique one of the cornerstone skills is that of how to stabilize the hull. As a coach and paddler I try to teach these concepts verbally, visually and kinethetically, but I've never tried to communicate this in a written manner, so here it goes.

As you move along a continuum from very stable hulls such as roto-molded recreational sit on top kayaks or sea kayaks (very high primary stability) to faster skis and K1s the consequences of bracing changes. With lots of primary stability you can brace wide, then as primary stability decreases the brace has to narrow down toward the long axis of the hull. In a high end ICF K1, the stability is found as close to the long axis as possible.

As with all sports, the kayak stroke requires a base of support which allows you to apply force. The more stable your base of support the more force you can apply. In paddle sports, a propulsive force accompanied by how fast you apply it generates the power to move you forward (i.e. speed).

In kayak paddling, your base of support is a triangle extending from;

your core/hips to,
your paddle to
where you contact the hull in front of your core.

Some may even argue that it extends the entire length of the long axis of the hull that is in the water with proper technique.

As long as you can apply pressure through all three points (1-2-3) on your base of support you will be stable. When you reduce or eliminate pressure on any one point, your overall stability decreases as well.

The core (1) and paddle (2) aspects of the base of support are relatively clear. The shape of the triangle changes as the hull moves past the paddle, but those two corners of the triangle (should) remain as part of the base of support. Only when you enter the glide phase is your base of support severely compromised by the lack of the paddle (2).

Looking at the location of that third point of contact in your base of support takes us forward from the hips. If you contact at the knees through bracing on the gunwales or cockpit your base of support is a short triangle.

Theoretically you will not be able to transfer much power to the hull while the paddle is in front of the hips as your base of support is quite narrow and far from the long axis of the hull.

Very skilled surfski and K1 paddlers are able to move that long axis from side to side very slightly to their advantage when using good technique.

If a paddler is braced to tightly in their hull, every movement the hull makes is transferred into the paddler, and vise versa. In flatwater, it is mostly paddler movement affecting the hull stability, but as the water gets rougher the hull movement will increasingly affect the stability. This is most noticeable in steep side waves where the hull is pulled up and pushed down the wave face causing a fair degree of roll. If the hull rolls independently of the paddler there is little effect on stability, but when the paddler moves with the hull the centre of gravity moves further and further away from the centre of the base of support until balance is lost.
In surfski and kayak paddling you see this very often in novice paddlers to rough water who flatten their stroke to widen their base of support accommodate their moving centre of gravity, and speed up the stroke to minimize the time spent without the paddle in the water for support (at the expense of propulsion).

Further complicating the balance of a kayak in rough water is the effect of visual feedback. If a paddler looks at the water immediately around the hull or the hull itself, and uses this for balance feedback, the paddler will compromise their balance by moving with the perceived motion of the wave front(s) not simple allowing their centre of gravity to move up and down with the wave(s) passing under the hull and accommodating any challenges presented by the wind on the hull and paddler.

Anyways, just thoughts and theories.

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Sharing coaching knowledge

2005-12-20T10:18:00.000-08:00

Thanks to those who encourage everyone to post their training ideas and thoughts. What will strengthen our paddling community and increase the quality and safety of training for all is the sharing of knowledge.

I'll be the first to admit that I am reluctant at times to share as this may upset some of my coaching clients, but I'll be judicious :-)

If I was to suggest one type of workout that will always make you faster, it is easy technique work at your individual aerobic threshold.

However, we all like to work hard, so here is a really good workout for athletes of all ages and abilities to boost their peak VO₂ (a measure of ability to carry and extract oxygen from the blood);

10-15 minute warm up at very easy pace

If you feel you need longer to warm up, you are probably tired and will not get optimal benefits from this type of workout. Consider taking an easy day instead. Use this time to address technique work, drills and social time.

3-4 intervals lasting 3:00 minutes each taking 6:00 minutes of active rest (at your easy long distance pace or under 70-75% peak heart rate) between each interval

Do these as if they were 3:00 minute races; your goal is to cover the maximum distance possible in that time. If you pace it properly, the first 30 seconds to minute will be relatively easy, then middle minute hard and the last minute hardest yet. All the while your hull speed should be relatively stable and not drop off. If you start too fast, you will go anaerobic very shortly and you hull speed will drop significantly, as will the quality of your technique.

The recovery interval must be active rest. If you don't move or paddle much you will not go very fast, or be able to work hard on subsequent intervals as your body accumulates metabolites and muscle acidity remains high (can you say pickled?). Recovery at too high an intensity and you also fail to recover properly. Luckily, unless you try to paddle at a race pace suitable for races shorter than 10-15 km, your muscles will probably still recovery quite nicely despite your best efforts otherwise. Your performance may suffer for other reasons (i.e. psychological, neural / coordination problems, technical failure, etc.), but your muscles will be working fine.

10-15 minute warm down at an easy pace

As with warm-up, use this time to address technique work, drills and social time.

Peak VO₂ itself is not a golden egg of performance, but it is part of the picture. Easy distance training is critical to maintaining high percentage of your peak VO₂ speed for long distances. Easy distance training is also critical in your ability to recover from hard work. Easy distance training is also critical for quality technique work.

As you build fitness, at some point you will have to decide enough is enough and then switch to working on maintaining your speed at peak VO₂ for longer, so slowly begin reducing the recovery duration between intervals. Then you will need to begin reducing the peak VO₂ effort level down to one more appropriate for the durations/distances you will be racing over.

Keep it simple, progressive and systematic and you won't go wrong. These are basic principles of training

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

How much cross-training is enough?

2005-12-20T10:15:00.000-08:00

Question: "How much cross-training is enough in paddle sports?"

Assuming you do enough sport specific training (i.e. for a competitive recreational athlete you paddle more than 4-5 x week) and you have enough time in the week, then 2-3 x 15-30 minutes of running or cycling should suffice.

Swimming would only work if you are a very good swimmer and you can get a workout in. This is a great cross-training sport for paddlers as it works you arms above your head, where many paddlers are flexibility challenged. It also heightens your feel for the water, need for good hydrodynamics knowledge (swim pull theory/mechanics is very similar to paddle pull theory). However, many non-swim trained people can't last long enough swimming to get an effective aerobic workout; it is all anaerobic efforts and quite a high risk for injuries (or drowning). That being said, if you can't swim and you're doing a paddle sport, take the time to learn the basics to stay afloat and acknowledge your main safety liability.

If you really have spare time, then you could even put in a light aerobic power intensity workout to build/maintain peak VO2 and peak HR.

However, an associated risk for kayak sports (i.e. ski or ICF kayak) is that running and cycling can lead to tight glutes, hamstring and quadriceps, all of which detract from comfort in the boat. So you'll need to stretch and work on flexibility more...

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Normative HR data

2005-12-20T10:11:00.000-08:00

The question was,

"whay can't I get my HR up as high paddling as I can running or biking?"

Heart rates are very individual and to complicate matters further vary dramatically from sport to sport for any one person due to body position, exercising muscle mass, sport specific training experience, past sports experience, age, etc.

I came to kayak and surfski from an Olympic, 1/2 Ironman and Ironman triathlon background. Initially I had a trouble getting my heart rate elevated. With proper technique training and more sport specific workouts my peak paddling HR slowly increased. I can now (6 years of correct paddle sport training later and almost 30 lbs heavier) hold nearly the same peak HR when racing in K1, surfski, cycling, running and swimming (race at over 180, peak at close to 195).

I have found that paddling is no where near as taxing as weight bearing sports such as running, xc skiing and to some degree cycling. My aerobic fitness (not performance) decreases rapidly when I stop cross-training while paddling. So for someone well training in weight bearing aerobic sports, paddling may well push them as hard aerobically (at first), until they learn to use more muscle mass in the movements (i.e. core and legs).

I would suggest that it is not your lack of upper body muscle mass that limits your peak HR and VO2 in paddling, but your inability to use the proper muscle mass at this time. Resistance training in the gym should focus not on increasing strength or muscle mass, but on learning how to use your core strength and sequencing of muscle activation from the core to the extremities (as with cycling - hip movement first then knee then ankle). Proper technique will also minimize the risk of shoulder injuries, and if all you do is technique work for the next while, you'll still get a lot faster than if you focus on strength building or pounding off intervals.

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

surfski paddling in rough water

2005-11-23T10:22:00.000-08:00

Here in Vancouver we often get short period (2-5 seconds), 0.3-1 m amplitude waves as a result of high winds and short fetch. The Jericho PNW-ORCA race of 2005 was a good example. The resulting waves rarely travel faster than 12-15 km/hr. At under 13 km/hr (~8 m/hr) the waves are often slowing me down, acting like speed bumps requiring lots or rudder work to hit the shoulders or low spots consistently. To build good surfing speed in these waves, I have found that quartering the waves (surf them at 45º or more from the direction of the wave front) is most effective, which often sends me off in a direction other than where I want to go, meaning I have to tack a great deal to maintain a productive heading in a race or training.

Going into these waves is another story. Aside from the wind, the impact on the hull is quite significant. I would advise anyone paddling in very steep waves, even of only 2-3 feet in overall trough to crest height to carefully inspect their hull after paddling. My Mako Millennium (vacuum bagged carbon) ended up needing the seams on both sides under the cockpit reinforced as both blew out in 4-5 foot sections (about 6 months apart). I suspect that the water conditions aggravated a weakness in this area with all the seesawing and subsequent impact. On numerous occasions I have had my ski ½ airborne with the front half, including me at times, out of the water. The impact on landing is hard to lessen (by leaning back as you teeter over the top). And for those who caught the body rocking reference, going up steep waves lean forward slightly, then back slightly on the descent, only by 5-10º at most. All the lean should originate from the hips, not the lower back.

So be careful, as blown seams in big water means sinking as most skis have no internal positive buoyancy chambers.

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Abdominal muscles in paddling

2005-11-18T12:06:00.000-08:00

Erik asks: Maybe you can comment on something I touched on regarding torso rotational strength and muscle failure. Let me back up a step and say that when doing sit-ups, crunches, etc that primarily work the rectus [abdominus], it's easy to feel the muscle burn and, thus, assess that muscle's level of strength. However, when my rotational abs are failing, there isn't much of anything related to a muscle burn, just the inability to do the required work.

Therefore, these muscles are somewhat silent and it's difficult to assess their strength and notice their failure. As another example, i'm doing some training sessions with a sledgehammer on a tire, and the same thing holds true - When I tire (excuse the pun), I'm not sore, just wobbly in the core.

Why the different feeling?

Alan: Paddling uses a combination of abdominal muscles; obliques (internal and external), transverse abdominus (wraps your torso like a wide belt), rectus abdominus. Abdominal muscles are very strong and extremely aerobic at the same time. This is a function of their role in both posture and abdominal cavity protection. These muscles also adapt very fast to stimuli, such as exercises, training, etc. As they all work together in paddling, I would suspect that the lack of fatigue Erik mentions (burning, aching, etc.) is probably due to fact the fatigue experienced in most paddling events we do is due to substrate depletion or long term metabolite accumulation (aerobic) as opposed to short term metabolite accumulation (anaerobic). Sprint kayaking (fast 200 and 500 m efforts in particular) will get you that burning sensation!

Muscular fatigue is accompanied by reduced force, reduced speed (resulting in reduced power), reduced range of motion, reduced endurance, and an inability to relax the muscle. This is due to an increase in muscular acidity (lower pH) which interferes with calcium binding properties. In the case of anaerobic exercise induced fatigue (relatively big intramuscular pH change), this may well cause localized burning sensations. If I remember correctly, low pH reduces calcium binding which inhibits relaxing which causes the discomfort (burning). The wobbly feeling (decreased core stability) is a direct consequence of the reduced abdominal strength/coordination.

Your regular crunches, sit up and the like do primarily work the rectus abdominus (aka six pack muscles) which have an action of bringing the sternum closer to the pelvis in a longitudinal axis (head to toes). If you add a transverse rotational component into your exercise repertoire you’ll strengthen your obliques and transverse abdominus as well. When I went to the gym regularly I did a standing and sitting cable pull exercise that was essentially mimicking the kayak pull, but I kept the arms and back muscles isometric (non-contracting) so as to load the rotational / postural musculature. Doing crunches where you rotate from side to side also work, likewise holding a medicine ball. Check out this link for some ideas.

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Paddling torso strength

2005-11-13T17:00:00.000-08:00

One thing to remember when learning to incorporate your torso and legs into your kayak stroke is that it will feel easier and those who gauge their sport satisfaction from working hard will be disappointed at first. You will go faster for the same effort, or go the same speed for less effort, both of which are good things J

However, with diligent technical work you will learn to work harder and harder until you eventually surpass the previous level of effort achieved solely through the use of your upper body. As was pointed out earlier; legs and abs should fail before arms if you do it right.

In sport science this is often referred to as an increase in the economy of motion, where economy of motion is the merger of biomechanics and physiology into performance. It is very sport, velocity and power output specific. Sprint specific economy will not help marathon paddlers and vice versa. The only odd balls in this mix are open ocean paddlers who need both high speed economy (for surfing) and steady state economy (when there is no surfing to be had). As we have previously discussed, top ski paddlers have skill profiles when surfing and much of that has to do with who is efficient (economical) at what velocities. Greg is very economical at lower speeds and catches lots of “low speed” bumps while Oscar is economical on “higher speed” bumps and makes good use of those when they come by.

Alan

Paddling resistors

2005-11-10T10:33:00.000-08:00

A good example of sports specific strength training in paddling is the use of a resistor. These are excellent tools to link gym strength to paddling and are simply a device that adds drag to your boat, such as a simple piece of rope around the hull to monsters with tennis balls threaded through them.

However, as a coach I would caution people against going out and using three tennis balls to their boat on day 1. The increased load can easily damage your shoulders, elbows and wrists.

I would suggest that you first try a 1 cm or 1/4" diameter rope or bungee around the hull. Narrower will also work quite well. You'll feel the added drag right away.
I would also caution you to treat this like strength training at first;

2-3 sets of 8-12 reps per side with adequate recovery between efforts. If you go out and paddle for a long period like this you'll get very good at paddling slow, but might not make the transition backto regular rates or hull resistance very well. After you can handle the thin resistor (i.e. you can get the hull up to near race pace) slowly increase the resistance. Some common ways to do this;

Older paddlers need to be especially cautious of using resistors for the first time as do very young paddlers who are still growing.

When you paddle into the wind and current you get similar results. However, where many paddlers truggle is in asssited situations (applying pressure on the blade when the hull goes faster than race pace- high speed surfing, with the current or wind, etc.).

Please stay aware of undue stress on your shoulders and remember that "no pain, no gain" is better rephrased as "no pain, no brain". Do lots of stretching, flexibility work and maintaining your range of motion as well as normal paddling feel.

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Muscular conditioning

2005-11-10T10:27:00.000-08:00

A good strengthening program in the gym can be very beneficial at certain times in an athlete's career.

By varying the number of sets, reps, weight, lifting tempo, etc. a program can taget;

Strength training in non-elite level athletes also teaches them to use 100% of their muscle mass. Untrained individuals often apply less than 50% of their available muscle mass to any given movement.

There is no real "off season", but a sensible strength training program can run in parallel with your regular training. A sprint distance athlete may get more benefits from gym work than a long distance athlete. Regardless, the trick is making sure it doesn't interfere with sport specific training at key times and then making the transition from gym strength to sport specific strength.

However, nothing can replace correct sport specific technique work.

FYI For a REALLY psycho general strength training view (as opposed to padlding specific strenth training) that gets results visit www.crossfit.com.

I wouldn't recommend this for anyone on a well structured trianing program, but their approach illustrates the importance of variety, some randomness and applied strength.

Give it a go and learn why their mascot is a barfing clown...

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Tactics: wind, waves, tides & currents

2005-11-10T10:14:00.000-08:00

I love this sort of stuff, and know first hand it can make or break a paddling race in certain waters. Here in Vancouver BC we can have 5 m (15 foot) tides at times an this results in very strong currents.

As in surfing, seeking out the fastest line in currents often differs from the shortest line. Even on a Hawai'ian like 1 foot tide...

My favourite resource sites include

http://www.noaa.gov/

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/index.shtml

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/radial_search.php?

http://tbone.biol.sc.edu/tide/index.html

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Enough vs. not enough

2005-11-10T10:10:00.000-08:00

In the short term I will say yes you can maintain high performance levels on reduced training efforts. As long as that was only for 2-3 months and appropriate racing and maintenance workouts were prescribed.

In the long term though, no. Detraining is inevitable and in as short a time as 3 weeks a significant loss in performance can be seen without appropriate training.

The time frame to noticeable detraining will differ with each aspect of performance (assuming no maintenance training);

Of course these are just general values, individual response will vary greatly from individual to individual. Usually those athletes with longer training bases will be able to maintain performance longer at reduced training efforts than those who are very new to the sport.

However, to return to full speed or improve each successive season will require as much effort as before, but will be dependent on how much detraining took place. Keep in mind that at very high levels of performance the return on training time is much lower than for new athletes.

i.e. for the top athletes to improve by 1% may require years, while a novice may improve by 5% in sucessive seasons.Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Principles of Training

2005-11-10T10:05:00.000-08:00

Fundamental Principles of Training

Progressive overload

The principle of progressive overload states that, for athletes to improve they must slowly and methodologically encounter workloads and stresses (physical and mental) that exceed their current abilities. This overload does not necessarily occur on a daily basis, but should span successive days, months and years. Overload will result in fatigue (principle 8), which in turn will trigger fitness super-compensations (principle 2). If an athlete’s abilities (physical, technical, and
psychological) are not overloaded, they soon and more improvements occur.

Super-compensation

The principle of super-compensation is based on the fact that an athlete will adapt to training stress. In order to experience super-compensation, an athlete will pass through a period of fatigue
(principle [8]), then a period of enhanced fitness once recovery (principle 3) is allowed.

Recovery

The principle of recovery states that for fitness to improve and even be maintained, a period of reduced effort is necessary. The need for recovery is inherent at all levels of training;

By allowing differing amounts of recovery, a program can direct an athlete's preparation towards a specific goal; be it psychological, aerobic, anaerobic or technical.

Specificity

Specificity is an expression of how close your training is to your competitive requirements.

Paddling is part of a unique group of sports (including swimming, rock climbing, and cross-country skiing) that require unique and unnatural movements. Consequently, only a limited amount of non-specific training will enhance performance and as athletes become more experienced, the benefits of non-specific training are greatly diminished. Thus, the specificity of fitness training increases in importance for the moreexperienced and elite athletes.

In other words, to become a better paddler you need to paddle.

Frequency

The frequency with which an athlete trains is always important. Frequency needs addressing both within and between workouts. Within a workout, frequency is defined by the duration of work and rest intervals. The frequency of workouts in a given day, week, or month will be important in more advanced athletes, not so much with novice paddlers unless fatigue (principle 8) plays a role.

Periodization

One of the most important aspects of training is the systematic assembly of training into a cohesive unit. Periodization is the process by which a season or year is broken down into a number of phases that address specific training needs or goals.

Maintenance

The ability to maintain fitness and performance between training bouts is essential for top athletic performance. Modified and reduced workouts administered at the appropriate time will allow an athlete to maintain performance levels with minimal training.

Fatigue

While not a principle of training in itself, fatigue is a consequence of all training programs. However, chronic fatigue or overtraining is more often attributed to poorly designed or poorly
monitored programs.

Overtraining is defined as a chronic and long term decrease in both performance and fitness that requires a long time to overcome. The causes and symptoms of overtraining are often interwoven so tightly that identifying causalrelationships is nearly impossible.

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

200 m sprints

2005-11-10T09:48:00.000-08:00

What is the benefit of a paddling workout of ~200 m intervals then trying to hold that speed based GPS feedback?

This is a workout that will build lots of surfing specific fitness, as will the very short stuff. If you can accelerate your hull super fast you can catch your wave is less time, thus saving energy for when you need it, such as those you have to really work to catch!

I'd also argue that an emphasis on efficiency and technique would be a must.

All this is what is so important about high intensity training its all about quality. If you do your first piece in 58 seconds and you are trying for all out efforts each time AND trying to keep your speed high, some top coaches would say that when your speed drops too much (say 2.5-5%) then the workout would be over unless you can pull the speed back up in the next 1-2 repeats.

In this case if you do repeat #1 in 0:58 that's his benchmark. As long as each repeat after that is within 2.5-5% you are maintianing quality. On 0:58 sec pieces you would have to maintain 0:58 to 1:01 to stay within 5%, or 0:58-0:59 to stay within 2.5%.

Being realistic, 2.5% can be anything from a rough spot of water, a missed stroke, too much rudder. 5% may be more realistic in rough water, 2.5% in flat. For more highly trained paddlers 2.5% may be best, and 5% fo less skilled, even 10% for newbies.

As an aside, what is the biggest challenge of sport science is keeping the language at a level we can all communicate through.

Many coaches and paddlers with real experience know the same stuff as PhD and science geeks do. They just don't know the why behind their knowledge.

Likewise those PhD guys know the why but not how to apply it. It is only through encouraging the two groups to work together that sport training, technique and boat design moves forward to break records.

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Paddling intensity & rate

2005-11-10T09:37:00.000-08:00

This is a question than almost every paddler encounters at some time or another. Except those who go hard everyday without thinking about it.

How hard you go (intensity) and how fast your rate goes varies on what the goal of the workout is. Let's look at both parts; intensity and rate.

INTENSITY

Intensity varies as a function of duration. For short durations you should be able to work much harder than you can for longer duration. In other words, an all out 30 second effort is faster than an all out 5 minute effort, which is faster than a 2 hour effort.

That's assuming you go at a 100% effort for that duration. if you go slightly easier then things get confusing. 80% of an all out 30 seocnd effort may well be 100% of a 5:00 minute effort, and 80% of a 5 minuute effort may be a 100% 2 hour effort.

A good coach working with well trained athletes will use a variety of effort levels and durations in intensity workouts to achieve certain objectives;

Assuming a 100% effort;

RATE

As a rule of thumb, the higher the overall intensity the higher the rate. You can also think of this as short duration means higher rate. However, if your rate get's too high your technique fails and you get slower (ironically while still working harder).

The best rate for each individual is very unique to them. It will vary with muscular strength, speed, age, fast twitch/slow twitch muscle fibre, training back ground, height limb length, wind, waves, etc. Likewise, crew boats and individual boats will differ in rate for the same event.

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Lactate levels and performance

2005-11-09T21:31:00.000-08:00

Careful interpretation of specifically chosen lactate tests can tell you more than just your anaerobic threshold. Improper nutrition will affect the curve, increased / decreased technical efficiency will affect the curve, etc.

However, the relationship between acidity levels in the muscle (as estimated though blood lactate) and performance is what we end up looking at. To get faster there are two main parameters associated with iAnT;

In your lactate profile there are some expected changes with training;

easy distance training

It is easy to get caught thinking low lactate is better than high lactate. We are conditionned to fear "high lactate values" as we often associate buring muscles with lactate. Ironically, it is not lactate that causes the burn, but more probably the acidity levels (this revelation is often too much for many non-physiologists as it requires too much reprogramming of how we interpret training/racing discomfort and pain).

At low speeds you will alsways have lower lactate. However, to push yourself and race to your potential you do not do compete at your iAnT but ever so slightly above iAnT. How much above iAnT depends on the length of the race, how hard you've trained, and how hard you are able
to push yourself.

If you've worked on pushing your peak HR up near your physiological / genetic maximum, you will produce higher lactate. If you have never worked in that range, you won't produce as much lactate, nor will you have as much speed reserve. This is one reason I hope never to be in a
sprint finish with a sprint trained athlete. if they kept up through the long portion of the race and it all comes down to the final few meters they may well have a bigger speed reserve than I do.

Back to test interpretation, if your lactate values at a given HR are increasing and the associated speed does not change (or gets slower), you may have a problem. Poor nutrition resulting in muscle glycogen depletion could be the cause, or a loss of aerobic fitness. However, if you've been working the high intensity end of your training this is a normal result. If after an easy distance phase the associated speeds don't increase you can assume a problem exists.

Fatigue or overtraining would probably result in a decrease in speed and lactate at a given HR. If it is overtraining (chronic fatigue), you can expect to take months to recover, while short term fatigue will clear up with a few days of recovery. Using indices of overtraining/fatigue monitoring tools will gove you more insight into this.

Incidentally, a well designed training program should be designed around recovery as opposed to work. This will minimize the risk of overtraining.There are a number of books to help you learn about lactate curves.

Swimming Fastest

The Science of Winning

Lactate Threshold Training

here

Blackwell Scientific IOC Series

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Performance & program evaluation time

2005-11-09T21:26:00.000-08:00

This is a big and often confusing area in sport.

Performance is definitely a central issue. As such, the question is, how often do you evaluate (in this case blood lactate) to ensure you are on track for peak performance?

In sport science there is a saying that you should never test for
the sake of testing. You must test for the sake of improving your
performance criteria. All too often coaches end up testing for the sake
of testing and never using the test data to improve performance.

As for what tests you choose, these need to reflect directly on the
parameters you are training in order to achieve a peak performance
(race);

There is no magic time interval for evaluating a training program. It depends on a number of factors such as;

I prefer anywhere from 2-6 weeks, depending on what I am using in my evaluation protocols. Sometimes evaluation will be simply a time trial that reflects race duration (i.e. 500 m sprint or 5-10 km distance) scheduled after the athlete's / crew's recovery period.

Technique evaluations can occur at any time, you can back that up with video analysis or a "report card" if you want.

As for using the same evaluation tools, I would say you are safer doing that rather than trying out different tools. One criteria that is important in athlete evaluation is that the testing methods and conditions are reproducible.

In an ideal world. In real life, we can settle for recording sufficient information to interpret the data.

In this case, if we look at the time alone there is negligible improvement. However, when we take the wind into account and current we are looking at a different result. Unfortunately we can't measure the effects of those conditions on the performance.

This opens up a whole new aspect of evaluation; fitness testing vs performance. Fitness testing uses non-sport specific tools (i.e. chin ups, swimming and running) to estimate your ability to do the sport in question. Performance testing uses the sport in question in its natural
environment.

Paddle ergometers are an excellent example of a fitness tool that is almost a performance tool. Big thing missing in many paddle ergs is the interaction between paddler, hull, paddle and water. As such, this is a fitness evaluation tool. A very specific fitness evaluation tool
for certain, but it will rarely illustrate finer aspects of performance.

How you end up fine tuning your training is a very indepth area, and very specific to the evaluation you did. Was it technique? Was it aerobic? Was it anaerobic? Was it nutrition? Was it tactical?...

And many of these answers are trade secrets. Once you've been told I'd have to kill you.

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

How hard is easy?

2005-11-09T21:20:00.000-08:00

My training philosophy is to keep all long, easy distance workouts focused on the easy part. My academic experience and applied experience with athletes who work too hard on the easy distance workouts get fatigued earlier and the quality of their intensity workouts and racing is sub-standard.

I follow a system I learned about from a Norwegian cross-country ski coach I worked for a few years ago. For those of you unfamiliar with Norway's national sport of cross-country skiing, the demands on athletes are remarkably similar to open ocean paddling. You need a huge aerobic base to learn the basic motor skills and ability to adapt to the terrain, all embedded in the basic need to cover the race duration (10 minutes through 3+ hours). At the same time you need a big
anaerobic capacity to handle the variable load and constant accelerations needed to maintain speed over small obstacles. For the record, xc skiers are often cited as being the most aerobically fit athletes anywhere with peak VO2 values for men in the high 80's, with a few genetic freaks in the high 90's.

All of the Norwegian coaching resources emphasize that aerobic fitness adaptation need to take place in an aerobic environment at speeds/effort levels that encourage aerobic adaptations in the muscles. Physiologically, if the muscles work a little too hard (not necessarily at or close to anaerobic threshold) they become a little more acidic. A little more acidity in a muscle compromises the efficiency of the aerobic mechanisms. This reduces the effectiveness of the training focus.

At first training speed are very, very slow in order to ensure the exercise in aerobic. However, with a couple of months you will be getting faster at your aerobic training speed. If you diligently keep
it up long enough you will eventually approach your old race pace, and you will feel little effort in doing so. The training benefits to your technique in being able to train at near distance race pace with little fatigue are immeasurable.

I remember talking to one of our biathletes (ski - shoot) who commented on how fast some of the top Germans (i.e. Wold's best biathletes) did their easy training, and his temptation was to train at similar speeds. However, the athletes in question had been under a systematic aerobic training program since age 12 or younger and had built up over 20 years of solid aerobic base as described above. For them it was easy training, for our guys it was close to race pace and a slippery slope to overtraining.

In some cases easy may start with a HR of 110-120 and 4 mph, then adapt to 110-130 within a few months and 4 to 4.5 mph. Within a few years it may be easy training at a HR of 110-165 and 6 to 7.5 mph.

Unfortunately, many athletes today want a quick fix to distance racing (or sprint racing) and there is no quick fix. It takes work, lots of work over a long period of time. This may be one reason why top paddlers are not always the fit younger ones, and the older guys can hold their own.

You'll hear all sorts of training theories and each may be as good as the next. Whichever one you choose to follow, make sure it agrees with the rest of your training program (i.e. intensity, race pace work, etc.).

Cliff Claven voice, "It's a little known fact Narmy that international calibre xc skiers on top National Teams are not expected to do well in World Cup / Championships races until they are in their mid to late 30's. And some stay at the top for 10 years or more."

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

How much distance work...

2005-11-09T21:09:00.000-08:00

How much distance work should be done for a Moloka'i race?

The OC6 and OC1 events are completley different from a fitness perspective. Unless you do the OC6 iron, in which case the gap narrows.

In the OC6 change event the ability to repeatedly paddle hard then recovery quickly is paramount for good crossing. Depending on the frequency and duration of your water change chart, the training is adapted to fit.

In an OC6 iron, the ability to paddle non-stop for 6+ hours is more important. In the solo event, the same applies but for a different duration, which for all intents and purposes is pretty negligible at these durations.

When you plan your program you need to think, "how far am I planning to race?". In other words, how long will it take assuming a reasonable range of conditions. Always think of training in terms of duration rather than distance. As we all know, 10 miles into a 20 kn wind is different than 10 miles with a 20 kn wind...

When you have a duration range of race durations in mind (say 4-5 hours), you need to plan your season backwards from the target race date, keeping in mind your body will need to adapt to training in a systematic and progressive manner.

Many exercise physiologists recommend slowly increasing your weekly training volume (5-10% per week) so as to minimize the risk of overtraining and overuse injuries. Your longest single session paddle can safely increase by the same. Some programs may increase by a set 15:00 min per week, which although is greater than 15% at first, it becomes less difficult later on and workout pretty much the same as a 10% average increase over 18-20 weeks. I've calculated some long paddle options using the 5%, 10% and 15:00 min approaches below.

Some sports science sources say 1 long easy effort per week, others once every 10-14 days. Between your long easy efforts you plan all your short-medium efforts (no longer than 75% of the longest; no shorter than 20-30 minutes) adn intensity training.

To further complicate things you also need to factor in recovery weeks every 3-6 weeks where you significantly reduce your volume to allow your body time to adapt, get stronger, faster, fitter, do the laundry, feed the dog, etc.

If you allow youself only 4 months to prepare you will be forced to accelerate your plan. A consequence of that is you'll get exhausted and need a lengthy time off to recover. A well designed training program should be able to see you almost fully recovered in 2-3 weeks of easy exercise or time off. The biggest difference between a short crash-training program and a very long term program is that the longer year round programs are usually part of your lifestyle, and you see much bigger long term (year to year) improvements as you spend less
time de-training then re-training every season.

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Vampires and MLSS

2005-11-09T21:05:00.000-08:00

In this MLSS test I was testing blood lactate at each step. HR can be equated to various lactate levels, but when lacate levels are rising rapidly (i.e. over your iAnT) the relationship is dicey at best. When you go to peak effort levels, you are best learning about a seriously math intensive relationship between blood lactate, muscle lactate, exercising muscle, non-exercising muscle and lactate release/removal rates. Serious, serious geekology that needs biostatistical software/knowledge to figure out what's going on. Pretty cool though...

The basic lactate testing process is very simple, but requires a little practice before you can shed the nickname "butcher" and become a "vampire". I've probably taken a few thousand samples over the last 10 years, and I still have the odd bad day. Especially with prima dona athletes.

I use the Accusport / Accutrend analyzer which is very reliable and accurate. While relatively cheap at $230 it is as good as the more expensive (and smaller and faster) Lactate Scout at $400. Both are available at http://lactate.com

The steps for taking a sample are as follows;

1. I set up a test table/area where I arrange my supplies on a clean, dry surface. If it is windy, set up a wind shield. I place a test strip, cotton gauze pad, alcohol swab and autolancet tip together for each planned sample and move reserve material out of the way, but acessible. You will also need a waste bag and a "sharp's" container. No one likes bloody medical supplied lying on a beach or park, so pack up all your waste properly. The sharp's container is for used autolancet tips and can be a proper biomedical one or another unbreakable, sealable container (i.e. small plastic pop bottle with a screw cap). For a quick guide to managing biomedical hazards click here.

2. put on latex or vinyl gloves to minimize risk of infection (to subject and self, even if you're testing yourself),

3. use alcohol prep swap to clean pad of finger (ideally index finger, avoid thumb or "skinnier" fingers as this minimizes any risk of bruising,

4. wipe off excess alcohol with cotton gauze pad,

5. remind subject to relax their finger (further minimizes bruising),

6. "gently" prick pad of finger with an autolancet (mechanical pricking device similar to those used for diabetic blood glucose level monitoring). For on water tests lancet setting may need to be more agressive if the fingers are very wet/waterlogged, cold or circulation impaired.

7. gently massage drop of blood from pad of finger tip,

8. apply drop to analyzer test strip, then transfer strip to analyzer,

9. apply gauze to finger tip to help clean up any excess blood,

10. suggest the subject lick their finger to help speed coagulation,

11. remind subject what next step of testing procedure is (i.e. 4:00 minutes at HR of 140, etc.),

12. in Accusport analyzer sample is ready in 60 seconds, Lactate Scout takes 15 seconds.

When you are very good at this you can do steps 3-10 in less than 30 seconds. Newbie may take 2-3 minutes or longer, bruise the finger, make horror movie type mess and loose friends.

I would recommend that [La-] be used in testing, while you use the equivalent HR for training. This is a tired and true methods to improve training quality while minimizing the risks of overtraining.

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

MLSS II

2005-11-09T20:52:00.000-08:00

More masochistic fun for distance and sprint athletes alike.

The Maximum Lactate Steady State (MLSS) test is based on the assumption that at the individual Anaerobic Threshold (iAnT) lactate production becomes greater than lactate removal.

This test requires the athlete to first raise their blood lactate levels as high as possible through completing two x 2:00 minutes all out wiht 10:00 minutes of recovery (easy exercise) between the two efforts. After the last 2:00 effort we assume blood lactate levels are high.

From there we begin exercising at low HR values for 3-4 minutes at each step of the test. I would select a value close to the Aerobic Threshold (AeT) to begin as this ensures minimal lactate production. From there we can do 3-4 minutes of exercise at this HR (take a lactate sample), then 3-4 minutes increasing the HR by 10, and repeat until failure to complete 3-4 minutes.

What we will see, if everything worked out well, is the lactate value dropping while the HR/effort is below the MLSS value. As we approach MLSS, the rate of change in lactate will slow to nothing, then begin increasing again. The resulting curve is U-shaped wiht the MLSS value at the bottom of the U. See the next graph for an illustration of this (FYI same Ironman triathlete as the run iAnT curves were generated for- no injuries training going well samples taken in June 2005. I felt the bike fitness would estimate the MLSS value accurately given the intensity training that we had accomplished in the past few months).

You can eyeball the bottom of the U curve or be a geek and have your graphing software do a polynomial regression on the curve and then figure out inflexion point using calculus. And who said we'd never use calculus outside of high school?

The geeky method suggested a MLSS HR of 163. Now this value is definitely not your very long duration race pace. MLSS is often a very hard distance race pace, that can last from 15 to 60+ minutes depending on the athlete. Motivation, fatigue, hydration, glycogen levels, etc. all play critical roles in competing at MLSS. For longer events MLSS-2 or 3 beats/minute may be prescribed as a target HR. For shorter events, MLSS +2 or 3 beats may be prescribed.

An distance athlete dedicated to racing at thier optimal performacen level would learn their MLSS, then train to race at that value using shorter efforts at that intensity. For example;

week 1 4 x 4:00 min @ MLSS on 4:00 min easy
week 2 4 x 4:00 min @ MLSS on 3:00 min easy
week 3 4 x 4:00 min @ MLSS on 2:00 min easy
week 4 4 x 4:00 min @ MLSS on 1:00 min easy
week 5 3 x 6:00 min @ MLSS on 2:00 min easy or 2 x 8:00 @ MLSS or 16:00 min @ MLSS
week 6 you get the idea but gradually increasing the duration or shortening the recovery. If you manage 16:00 @ MLSS, you could even begin over at week 1 doing 5-7 x 4:00 min @ MLSS on 4:00 min and work at that. The possibilities are endless.

This sort of workout is HARD though and doing it more than 1-2 x week will leave you exhausted and can place your paddling performance at risk. However, applied at the right time and correctly administered you will eventually get faster at longer distances.

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Maximal Lactate Steady State

2005-11-09T20:46:00.000-08:00

If lactate values at a given HR increase it can be a warning sign of a potential problem. With aerobic adaptation we should see a decrease in [La-] at given HR assuming the speed is constant. However, we are learning to be detectives here, I'll direct your attention to the speeds the athlete is holding at the 160 HR (third red point and fifth green point from the left on the top graph) and this will help.

From this we learn that while an increase in lactate may indicate more muscular work is being done, there can be reasons for this. In this case the reason is that the athlete can now run almost 30 seconds / kilometer faster at a HR of 160 than they could in March. In a 6 mile run this is about 3 minutes faster, although holding this pace for 6 miles may be tricky as their individual anaerobic threshold is probably about 150. As you can see, there is no clear point where their lactate levels rise fast, although it is obvious it is somewhere between HR 150 and 160. A different individual anaerobic threshold test would help us estimate the iAnT. My favorite these days is one called the Maximal Lactate Steady State (MLSS) test. This test works very nicely with trained athletes, although non-athletes find it mentally challenging to work as hard as is necessary.

As a coach you need to ask and answer questions about the results you see, no matter what the test being performed. In this case I have an unfair advantage, as I know that the athlete did no intensity work for three months as a means to minimze the risk of re-injury. All their training was at an aerobic threshold pace of 125-145 beats per minute. The training adaptation we are looking at is that all sub-maximal speeds (where maximal is equal to a HR of ~180) are faster than in March.

For the next month we are focusing on easier "race pace" intensity intervals to prepare them for a race at the end of June. Not an ideal situation as far as training goes, but as a coach I should help my athletes achieve their goals despite the challenges they face. In this case, the challenge was an injury which required 10 weeks off from running, followed by a walk-run program, then gradual increases in running volume prior to any intensity. There is no doubt this athlete is behind the 8 ball for the June race, which incidentally is an Ironman triathlon. The swim and bike training progressed well through the stress fracture, so all we need now is the run to hold together at a sub-iAnT pace which is what most mid-pack Ironman triathletes accomplish. Our goal is to run at a HR of 145.

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Training Zones

2005-11-09T20:29:00.000-08:00

Here are a few thoughts on target HR zones and training hours. First, HR zones.

There are many theories on how to train for sport, far more than we can ever hope to cover in this forum. However, many of these theories have common elements that indicate universal importance in training. When we look at training zones and how hard we need to work to get fitter, faster or stronger many programs identify the anaerobic threshold (AnT) as a key parameter. I think that it would be a great subject to talk about this a little.

While a few sentences ago I mentionned the concept of AnT was relatively universal in sport training theory, it is never that simple as there are many interpretations of [AnT , how to identify it, what it represents and how to use it in training.

First we should look at what the AnT is intended to represent. When we exercise we require energy, and the human body gets this energy from two main sources; aerobic and anaerobic sources. Using real world comparisons, aerobic energy is a very eco friendly, renewable energy source; while anaerobic energy is high-octane, heavily polluting limited supply energy source.

At all times you are using both aerobic and anaerobic energy sources in some proportion. At low intensity levels (i.e. reading this post, walking, paddling wiht your Great-Granny, etc.) you will be primarily aerobic, while short duration, high intensity efforts (i.e. pounding out a regatta start, 1/4 mile or linking waves at 20 +Kn, etc.) you will be primarily anaerobic.

At some point intensity-duration combination, you will produce more energy from anaerobic sources than aerobic sources. This is your AnT. Most sport science agrees to this point. How they define and measure this threshold varies greatly and thus how it applies to your training.

Anaerobic energy production is estimated using a convenient and relatively easy metaboilic by-product called lactic acid (also called simply lactate). Muscle lactate is mirrored to a certain degree in blood lactate, and this is the basis of many AnT estimation methods. Lactate concentrations in the blood are measured in a chemisty terminology value called the milimole (mM) per liter of blood, and values range from under 1.0 mM (i.e. easy exercise or rest) to over 20 mM (i.e. cross-eyed, tasting blood, ready to puke, forgot your name, want to die quickly). Heart rates and speeds can be assigned to lactate values as a measure of how much muscular work is being done.

This value can be between 70 and 95+% of your peak HR. Some very well trained aerobic athlete will often be able to race for 2+ hours at 95% of their peak HR. However, right next to him (or her) may be another athlete racing at only 80% of his (or her) peak HR.

The most simple forms of AnT use absolute lactate values. For example, there is a method favoured by the ex-eastern block sport scientists that uses a 4.0 mM marker. This is a great normative value when everyone uses the same training program and mass screening is necessary to determine who will fit the training plan. There is no questionning the sucess of many of these programs in swimming, track cycling, cross-country skiing and other sports. In this
method a HR and speed at 4.0 mM is identified and used in assigning training effort levels (i.e. 80% 4.0 mM pace, 110% 4.0 mM pace, etc.).

The next form of AnT is the individual anaerobic threshold (iAnT) which recognizes that each person is unique in their physiology. These estimation methods identify each individual's AnT by looking for the point where lactate value increase rapidly at the onset of significant anaerobic energy production. Each individual would then have a HR and speed associated with this value. As with the absolute AnT, training paces are assigned accordingly.

The many methods used to identify iAnT will each give you a slightly different value, which is important in assigning training zones, etc. Likewise at different time in the training season and in different sports (i.e. OC vs surfski vs swimmiing vs running). The simplest method requires a series of 3-4 minute efforts at set heart rates, followed by a very small finger tip blood sample (all tropical water paddlers shudder at the thought) and quick analysis in a small hand held device (takes about a minute).

Average speeds and HR are recorded, along wiht the lactate value. This continues in 10 beat per minute increments until the athlete can't hold the target HR for 3-4 minutes (i.e. 4 min at 100, 4 min at 110, 4 min at 120,... 3-4 min at 180+). Somewhere along there the lactate values will suddenly jump up and rise rapidly 2-3 steps before failure to finish a step.

This iAnT will indicate a long distance pace you should be able to hold for 1-3 hours depending on your fitness level, training program, hydration level, etc.

Other methods will overestimate this value resulting in an iAnT you can't hold very long (10-15 minutes), while others will underestimate it and give you a value you can hold all day.

Luckily for those who live in areas where certain fish love the scent of blood, iAnT can be roughly estimated using non-invasive methods. Your average HR from a long race will suffice, as will using your breathing rate. When your breathing rate increase rapidly, you've probably passed you AnT .

A more complicated method involves 2-4 time trials ranging from 1-10 minutes in length and doing some funky math on the results. This is called a critical speed test.

Here are sample lactate curves from a runner taken at two different times. One uses HR the other speed.

See if you can identify the anaerobic threshold in the pre training (March) and post training (June) testing, and offer up some thoughts on what has happened.

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Positive drug test again

2005-11-09T14:24:00.000-08:00

Recently a number of prominent athletes in kayaking, triathlon and cycling have tested positive for banned substances.

Thanks to all the moderate thinkers who have learned not to condemn athletes at the drop of the A sample.

My studies of sport philosophy taught me that to truly understand an issue we must look at both sides of the argument, no matter how distasteful the issue. As soon as we ignore the opposing argument we are showing uncategorical bias which can cloud one's judgment. Now, I am not condoning drug use, only seeking for us to understand this issue better through looking at it from both sides.

Rather than a desire to win at all costs, performance enhancing drug use in athletes can be attributed to the mind being willing to work 110%, but the body only being able to go to 100% before breaking down. It is for lack of a better word an addiction to pushing one's limits. We all do it; paddle an extra few km, try to get that 0.1 km/hr faster, lift 5 kg more, shave 0:01 off your 500 m best. Some do this in sport and play, others at work, some socially, others with finances.

Now, to play the devil's advocate from a sport science perspective; I'll counter Mike's observations that anabolic steroid use will only benefit explosive anaerobic type efforts. Drug use can speed recovery allowing them to go that extra 10%. In theory a well administered anabolic steroid program should be able to speed recovery which would be a benefit to any athlete; explosive power or endurance. A well administered training program could easily minimize muscle mass gains, while maximizing the anabolic : catabolic balance in training load.

However, we need to remember that drug use alone will not make a champion; all top athletes have to have amazing skill and train as professionally as possible. We need to be aware that drugs are out there. The crucial moment for an athlete comes when they have to say "yes", or "no". This decision is often perceived as belonging only to the athlete, which is incorrect. As with any individual in society, our values are shaped by the community in which we live, work and play. The difference between "yes" and "no" may well lie in the perceived societal values being taught to the athlete by peers, coaches, administrators, friends, family, fans, media and all the others who influence that individual. When the perceived balance shifts too far from "no", the temptation will begin.

Any coaches following this topic who would like to learn more about Fair Play in sport please visit any or all of the following resources;

WADA
Canadian Centre of Ethics in Sport CCES
Canadian Coaching Association Coaching Code of Ethics
Green and Gold Inc
Play by the Rules
True Sport Foundation
Centre for Sport and Law
Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

The aerobic power to weight relationship in paddle sports

2005-11-09T14:19:00.000-08:00

There are two big categories of aerobic (endurance) sports; weight dependent and weight independent.

NOTE: Now by "weight", we are talking lean body mass mostly, not lean mass + fat mass. So assume for argument's sake all the examples below are for athletes with a similar % body fat.

In weight dependent sports how much you weight directly influences your ability to perform aerobically. In these activities aerobic power is measured in millilitres of O2 consumed per kilogram (of total body weight) per minute. Values for sedentary individuals are in the 25-35 ml/kg/min range, genetic freaks in the elite sports world can exceed 100 ml/kg/min.

Sports in this category include running, cycling, rock climbing, etc.

Weight independent sports are those where how much you weigh has little to no influence on how well you can perform aerobically. Aerobic power values for sedentary individual are in the 1.75-2.0 l/min, and elite athletes can exceed 6-7 l/min.

Sports in this category include swimming, paddling, rowing, etc.

Aerobic power is specific to the sport you are doing, so should be estimated on a paddling erg for paddlers, treadmill for runners, rowing erg for rowers, etc.

Now as with everything in life, there is no black and white delineation between weight dependent and independent. There is a spectrum. Even within a given sport there is variation. In cycling, bigger heavier riders are favoured on the flats, smaller lighter riders on the hills. XC skiing is the same, flats and downhills favour bigger skiers, and steep uphills favour lighter skiers.

In those sports where weight is both an advantage and a disadvantage, aerobic power is then expressed neither as weight dependent or independent, but a little of each as a function of the sport's requirements. Leaving the math aside, sports scientists look at the characteristics of the top performers in the event overall, and then express the aerobic power as a function of body mass to a certain mathematical power (where kg^0=1 or weight independent, through kg^1 weight dependent);

So now we have ml/(kg^0)/min (which is equal to l/min) through ml/kg/min along with the in between values, i.e. xc skiing overall is ml/(kg^2/3)/min while on the flats it is l/min and steep uphills it is ml/(kg^2)/min.

Ocean paddling is relatively devoid of sport science research, but flatwater canoe and kayak often express aerobic power as weight independent, so lean body mass has little effect on performance. The physics of hydrodynamics tends to confirm this with little additional drag due to increased body weight in a given hull.

However, in open ocean paddling we often have up and down sections. Without fully understanding all the relationships and intricacies involved, we would probably be safe saying surfski is weight independent on flats and as it gets rougher, a small weight dependent factor creeps in.

To counter that, surfing is also much more of an anaerobic activity where strength and power are advantageous in catching waves. Increased anaerobic power is often associated with increased muscle mass, so we may well see that weight dependent performance factor nullified by this need.

So all in all, being heavier (lean body mass) is an advantage if that muscle is trained to paddle. Some of that muscle will contribute to performance from aerobic fitness, some from anaerobic fitness.

However, technique, open ocean skills and wise preparation are often the deciding factor

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Do you pull your paddle back or boat forward?

2005-11-09T14:17:00.000-08:00

This is a very good question and a very important one for all paddlers.

First, keep in mind that you are looking to move your boat (you) forward up to your paddle, not pulling the paddle back. The simple difference between pulling the paddle back and pulling the boat forward require completely different sequences of muscular action.

So, think "I am pulling the boat forward", or "I am pulling the boat up to the exit", or "I am pushing my heels (i.e. your feet in the foot wells of the
ski) away from the paddle" are your cue words to think about.

The power you generate from your paddling movement is proportional to your speed. Power is a function of force per paddle stroke and stroke frequency/rate.

Assuming your technical efficiency and effectiveness remains the same you have two choices to increase speed; A increase force per stroke B increase stroke rate

However, too much force reduces your stroke rate to the point you loose power, and too high a stroke rate reduces your force per stroke to the point you loose power. An additional too low a stroke rate (high force stroke) will adversely affect your balance and put you at risk of injuring your joints. Too high a stroke rate runs the risk of compromised technique and reduced aerobic endurance (high rate uses fast twitch muscle fibers which have less endurance).

If you take a page from rowers, speed skaters, swimmers and x-c skiers, they start the season focusing on covering the most distance per stroke/stride possible. This emphasizes force per stroke/stride using good technique. They then slowly increase the rate as they approach competition season while maintaining a good force and technical efficiency.

In the real surfski world, most non-elite paddlers use mid-size to smaller blades depending on their size/strength and select a pull force to give a 60-70 strokes per minute cadence. Much slower and you risk loosing balance in rough / sloppy water and you loose speed (or long term injuries). Much faster and technique suffers and you loose speed (or fatigue earlier).

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

GPS accuracy

2005-11-09T14:11:00.000-08:00

Here is a posting on GPS accuracy I though useful

Al Bowers	Deputy Director of Research (acting)
al.bowers@nasa.gov	NASA Dryden Flight Research Center

"It is my belief that flight is possible." - Wilbur Wright, 03 Sep 1900

Okay, As for the "dither" the GPS has. That has been turned OFF for a couple of years now. The uncertainty on the location is actually a product of the number of satellites your reciever is seeing (more satellites, better accuracy). Commercial units are within a few feet (we use a technique called integer wave counting where we can nail it down within a couple of inches, a common instrumentation technique we use). The speed from the GPS is REALLY good, I mean REALLY well nailed down. We've run LOTS of tests to try and "spoof" the GPS and (as long as the local USAF and Navy are not trying to run their GPS jamming gear) it's REALLY good. The speed is determined by Doppler shift (not differentiating the location signal) so if your reciever uses a good timing crystal (and most of them are pretty dang good) the speed will be pretty rock solid.

BUT, GPS doesn't give an instantaneous speed. It AVERAGES the time over a long period (the shortest time is 1 second). So max speeds may be "filtered" (an engineering word for "averaged") down to a lower level. And as has been pointed out, current will change the readings between GPS and Speedmate.

Okay, another problem with Speedmate. The boat hull deflects the water passing aroound it. The result is the water is flowing past the hull FASTER than the boat is moving through the water. Water, being incompressible, has to flow around the hull faster due to the depression the hull makes in the water. Similar to the wing of an airplane (air flows faster over the top than the bottom because of the shape, which is what causes the lift to develop). So Speedmate, even if perfectly calibrated, would read higher than GPS (which measures filtered REAL speed). We spend a LOT of time and money calibrating this part out (called the installation error) in airspeed systems on aircraft. It's an artform in and of itself. As for laminar v turbulent flow over the hull, if the impeller is near the cockpit or forward of it, it shouldn't be a problem. I don't know about aft , though the impeller migt be far enough out into "free water" that it might not matter (I dont' think there is much separated flow on the hulls we use now, if there were, the boat woud probably be pretty slow).

More than anyone really wanted to know. It's probably best if we all just go paddle and not worry about it too much.

GPS geekology

2005-11-09T14:07:00.000-08:00

For GPS nerds here is a look ahead into the use of GPS at 20 Hz (20 samples per second) in sports. Most (all?) hand held GPS units are limited to 1 Hz (1 sample per second)

When this level of accuracy makes it way to cheaper / lighter units (Don and Darrell; feel free to let us know your thoughts) it will open up entirely new levels of technical instruction to athletes and coaches. I’ve been waiting to explore such applications in team boat coaching for some time. It is relatively easy to comment objectively on entry and exit timing from video at even 30 Hz, but to be able to extract data on pull speed difference between catch and exit would be even more important for boat run and team blend.

Incidentally, I’ve tested the Silicon Coach software mentioned in the article and it is very, very slick. I’ve used it to analyze K1 technique and it can illustrate some very hard to convey concepts in a few images (i.e. changes in paddle angle from catch to exit, top hand set up height, etc.)

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

GPS

2005-11-09T14:03:00.000-08:00

I use a Garmin GPSMAP60C. I have found this to be the most useful training tool for someone like me who train alone most of the time, and who has to troubleshoot his own technique on a regular (read ongoing) basis. I have it mounted on my Mako Millenium right between the foot pedals on the foot straps where it is easy to reach. I used the mounting bolt from the strap
through a Garmin Marine mount, so minimal risk of it comming off, and I secure the lanyard around the foot strap as well. The Garmin suction cup mount is also quite secure from what I hear.

The unit can record your route in a number of forms; set time intervals (from 1 sec to multiple hours), set distance (every few meters/yards to every hundred kilomters/miles), and if I remember correctly direction changes (set number of degrees).

The GPS comes with basic mapping software (includes downloading) and a USB cable. I export the data as a text file into Excel for graphing and subsequent geeking. I have purchased a couple of sets of Blueways Nautical Charts (Western Canada adn Hawaiian Islands) that I uploaded to the GPS from my PC. There ase ~$150 CAN per chart set and excellent resources when checking out race venues, water depth, possible currents, routes, hazards, etc.

I've posted some other info and sample maps, data (2004 Tour of Indian
Arm) HERE

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Broadside waves in kayaking

2005-11-09T13:58:00.000-08:00

There are a number of adverse effects to stability from reacting to broadside waves in your kayak or ski.

When I was learning flatwater K1, and now when I coach K1 the hardest lesson to learn regarding waves was to ignore them for the most part. In a K1, as a novice, any little wave is a huge threat. Whether it is the wake of a passing duck, a breath of wind or the apparent wall of water thrown up from a passing motor boat at 5kn, all of these are huge obstacles to the newbie in a K1.

We teach all our K1 paddlers to look primarily at the horizon or some stable object on the horizon so that their body remains vertical, even if the kayak tilts left, right, etc. Many newer paddlers look at the bow of the boat, or worse yet the water and quickly become disoriented.

While looking at the horizon doesn't mean ignoring what the water is doing. You have to constantly scan the water around you while maintaining the horizon as "home base". If anything important happens on your scan you can then prepare for any necessary action such as relaxing, flattening the stroke slightly, shortening the stroke, changing course, etc.

A great deal of rough water skill comes from a delicate balance of skill, core strength and the ability to relax your core muscles to accommodate boat movement while continuing to apply power to the hull

With only a little effort you can shift from fearing rough sloppy water to loving it as another ski challenge to tackle.

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Dehydration II

2005-11-09T13:25:00.000-08:00

There have been some interesting questions raised in this discussion of hydration/energy replenishment.

When I am monitoring athletes in training, I advise them that hydration and energy replenishment is not just for this workout, but for the next 48-56 hours' workouts as well. Ideally we want to minimize the negative impact of any given workout (i.e. fatigue, muscle soreness, dehydration, etc.) so that subsequent workouts can accomplish their desired effects. However, there are times when we do want fatigue (say after a 4:00 hour overdistance training paddle), but not dehydration or severe glycogen depletion as we may need to take more days off from quality training than ideal.

Myself I advise that in races of 45 minutes or less you can do without fluids in warm weather, possibly up to an hour in cooler conditions (i.e. the water bottle or hydration system hose freezes solid). However, this is racing alone, in warm up I always carry sufficient fluids for the pr-race hydration and then race "dry". I have often seen fit athletes fade in a 30 minute hot weather race because they didn't rehydrate during a 20-30 minute warm up prior to racing.

Here is a quick reference table fort how much fluid you can loose at different temperatures based on a 70 kg male. Keep in mind that it is not just sweating that causes us to loose fluids, but breathing out hydrated air from the lungs every single breath. Bigger people will loose more, smaller less.

temperature (C)	fluid loss/hour
-05	0.6-1.4 litres
10	1.2-1.5
20	1.6-2.5
30	2.0-2.8

For me I know I can't drink 2 L per hour to replenish that fluid (assuming that energy drink is about the same density as water where 1 kg = 1 L), so I am minimizing losses from the start at 20ºC and above.

BODY MASS LOST	EFFECT
1%	increased core temperature
2	decreased plasma volume
	decreased muscle volume
	decreased heart stroke volume
	increased heart rate
	decreased blood pressure
3	decreased blood flow to skin
4	decreased blood flow to muscles
	increased muscle metabolite concentration
	increased probability of heat exhaustion
5	increased probability of heat stroke
	decreased muscle mineral concentration increased possibility of muscle spasms and cramps
6	increased urine specific gravity (yellower and smelly)
	increased urine acidity
7	increased urine protein decreased blood flow to kidneys
	decreased nutrient and O2 supply to kidneys
	increased concentration of toxins in blood

The relationship between % of body mass lost to dehydration and loss of performance is dramatic. At a 1% loss performance dropped by 1-5%, at 2% performance losses could be as high a 5-10%, and by 3% most athletes lost 25-20% if they could still "race" and were not reduced to a death march.

For me personally, I know I can't drink 2 L per hour to replenish that fluid (assuming that energy drink is about the same density as water where 1 kg = 1 L), so I am minimizing losses from the start at 20ºC and above. The longer I can hold of a 2% loss of mass the better I am likely to perform.

Keep in mind that it is not just sweating that causes us to loose fluids, but breathing out hydrated air from the lungs every single breath.

This fear of dehydration is what compels some athletes to hyperhydrate and develop low blood and muscle sodium levels (hyponatremia) which can be fatal. However, as previously mentioned you need to be obsessive to drink that much water: over 2-4 l/hour for hours on end.

Long term repeated dehydration can cause severe medical problems, a number of elite Ironman triathletes have lost portions of their large intestines to dehydration, other case studies have shown kidney problems (i.e. kidney stones to reduced function), increased joint damage due to repeated loss of lubricating fluid, etc.

Alan Carlsson

Dehydration & overheating

2005-11-09T13:22:00.000-08:00

From a physiologist's point of view drinking less and dips in the water are not the way to prevent dehydration and heat illnesses.

Dips in the water: while this will provide you with temporary relief from the heat, the long term effects are not as nice. When you experience immersion cooling (even a few degrees below body temperature) your body will redirect blood flow from the skin to the core. The skin is where you loose heat through sweating, so a reduction in skin blood flow will increase the rate of overheating.

Training without fluids: this does very little to help you acclimatize, except get you used to being dehydrated.

Drinking less: this will speed up dehydration and ultimately lead to the same conditions as above.

Well tried and used methods for athletes to deal with the heat include;

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Kayak paddle set up

2005-11-09T13:08:00.000-08:00

The feather angle on your kayak or ski paddle is very important as it can affect your paddle stroke in both positive and negative ways.
Here are some quick guidelines to consider in setting your paddle up;

I’ll see about posting some pictures on this later.

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Glutamine and sickness while training

2005-11-09T13:06:00.000-08:00

An interesting point about getting sick while training hard is the role played by glutamine.

Glutamine is indeed an amino acid essential to good health. What is very important about glutamine is that it is an amino acid in a group known as the branched chain amino acids.

The branched chain amino acids are important as they are a key pathway to centralized fatigue. Central fatigue is the long term accumulated fatigue you get from long races, extended days or weeks of hard training and other non-sporting forms of stress (work, school, social, anti-social, etc.). Central fatigue is not the tired feeling in your back and arms after a tough set of intervals where a few minutes of recovery will set you right. Central fatigue requires attention or it will compromise your season, or even career if neglected too much.

Back to glutamine, branched chain amino acids and central fatigue...

When we exercise, we burn carbohydrates, fat and protein for fuel. Each is ultimately broken down to a carbohydrate. Fats take a long time to become a carbohydrate, proteins less time. At very low intensities (i.e. walking or easy hiking) fat is consumed preferentially as there is no urgency to supply energy. As the aerobic demand increases and we need to produce energy faster (i.e. more power or speed) the balance shifts from fats to carbohydrates. Each person will differ in what percentages they use and what the end result is, but the pattern remains the same fats first, carbohydrates second. Dietary habits will affect this to some degree but not much.

There is always an underlying use of a small percentage of protein.

At high intensity race pace (from 15-20 minutes all out through to approximately 2-3 hours all out) protein contributes approximately 10% of this energy. As distances get longer than 2-3 hours the protein contribution will decrease unless it is being replaced through ingestion of a drink or solid food with biologically active protein. These are protein sources the body can digest quickly and easily (i.e. lactalbumin or egg white protein) rather than slow to digest sources (i.e. steak or plant sources).

Branched chain amino acids are used up preferentially over non branched chain amino acids as fuel sources due to their being easier to convert into carbohydrates for use in the muscles and brain. Where branch chain amino acids become important is when your blood amino acid content begins to get depleted, which is when you are working hard.

In your brain, branched chain amino acids need to be actively imported in the brain. The transport system that does this also brings in a few other molecules, and when the branch chain amino acids are lower in concentration these other molecules are brought into the brain in larger amounts. One of these is a precursor of serotonin, a central nervous system depressor. In elevated quantities this molecule will trigger a fatigue response; you will gradually loose coordination, muscular force, muscular speed and muscular power. This is a protective mechanism to protect your body from working so hard it causes itself some serious exercise induced damage.

In elite athletes with lab access, measuring the glutamine to glutamate ratio, sport scientists can advise an athlete when they are getting close to overtraining, burn out of just need a short break. It highlights the importance of hard work being balanced with recovery to produce optimal results.

Alan Carlsson
www.EAScoaching.ca

Paddling in cold weather

2005-11-09T12:48:00.000-08:00

I used to live in Calgary Alberta where winter temperatures can drop as low as -40ºC and everything freezes. For the most part we would train in 0 to -15º quite frequently from October to March every year.

Readers will be happy to hear that the therapy has been successful and I haven't done this in years since I moved to Vancouver's more temperate climes (rarely below 5º C and water rarely colder that 10ºC at 1 m, surface temperature changes as a function of wind and air temperature.

Back to cold weather gear...

Believe it or not, there were a few of us who (willingly) choose to practice a paddle sport in the extreme cold of Calgary and Quebec. Admittedly it was not surfski, the boat was a five person canoe (the sport is ice canoe) and when the water was open you would paddle, when blocked by ice you would pull the canoe on the ice and, depending on the surface either push or pull the canoe to the next lead of open water.

If any of you are curious, surf over to http://www.canotaglace.org/ for a look. It is in French, but “entrée" is enter and "album photo" is easy.

If anyone is curious I can post a little more on ice canoe later.

Clothing wise, we avoided neoprene everywhere except our feet as we overheated when working hard and froze when taking it easy. As long as you can balance the heat loss with the heat production inside the neoprene you are fine, otherwise it can be miserable. Especially miserable if you've just sweated up a storm and then have to stop for a polar bear or wolf to cross the ice (just kidding).

On our bodies we dressed like a cross-country ski racer, layering of polypropylene and windproof. Always hats as you can loose up to 50% of your body heat through your head despite how much hair you might have. Don't just throw on your summer paddling cap, get an insulated hat of wool or polypropylene.

Before I forget, avoid cotton fabric in the winter. They offer no insulation at all and actually conduct heat from your body when wet. Cotton and winter sports equals hypothermia, and if you are in your ski in open water probably death.

Your PFD is also an excellent insulator and will keep you much warmer than without one. To be honest, when it gets cold I enjoy wearing my PFD because it can be so toasty warm!

On feet, we would use a very thin polypropylene or very thin wool sock (my mum's Christmas gift of nice lamb's wool dress socks one year), then a neoprene sock (2-3 mm) and finally a neoprene boot (3-5 mm, side zipper to anywhere from just over ankle height to 1/3 calf). One thing we swore by, through experience, was always take the time to warm the water in your neoprene before going out. There was nothing more enjoyable than watching the newbies dunk their feet through a hole in the ice to get them wet as dry neoprene is no where near as warm as neoprene with a little water in it when the air temperature is below freezing.

On our hands we avoided neoprene (too warm- lead to serious blistering and skin irritation) and used layering again. Some used very thin neoprene when it was mild (around zero) but for cold weather, big heavy cumbersome insulated mittens were in fashion, some might even say "a la mode" ;)

As a ski and kayak paddle in Vancouver I use pogies in the winter. These are shell mittens that attach over the paddle using Velcro and are great. You can even get fur/polar fleece line pogies now. I get mine from Heather McNie of McNie Protective Paddling Gear (look under paddling accessories). Any Canadian or cool climate kayak paddlers will own a pair of these.

Finding a stable enclosed K1 for winter training is also essential.

And never paddle far from shore in the cold winter weather. While the cool ocean water won't kill you, it is paddling to shore after falling in that can. Wind chill and wet clothing are a lethal mix, and wind exposure on the open water is brutal.

Lastly, you should also paddle with a partner in winter, but the truth of the matter is, if the water is cold and the air is cold, you paddling partner will be able to do very little to save you without seriously endangering their own life. I have fallen in water so cold (while paddling K1 in the fall (October), with a partner and only 3-4 m from shore) that I could barely make it to shore as soon as I fell out. That was less than 15-20 seconds in the water and I was loosing motor control.
Winter aquatic safety is very serious if you live in a cold climate, please don't think you're invulnerable.

Alan Carlsson
Engineered Athlete Services

Training while "kind of " sick

2005-11-09T12:45:00.001-08:00

It can be done, but is it worth the risk?

Many of us, me included, feel a psychologically need to exercise that can often lead us to neglect our health. I always tell myself and my athletes that it is better to take 4-7 days off now than 4+ weeks later.

As for intensity, even when you are "kind of sick" it is too risky. After hard exercise your immune system response is blunted for 24-48+ hours, making you more susceptible to infections. If I was your coach and I knew you were sick, I would use the following steps;

I'll emphasize the risk of upper respiratory track infection (i.e.
common cold or similar) developing into bronchitis if improperly treated.
Bronchitis can become pneumonia, and once you've had pneumonia once you are
more likely to get it again, and even easier the next time, and so on.

Detraining, or the loss of all that hard training you have accomplished can
will only begin to take effect after 2-3 weeks of absolute couch potato like
activity. A break of 4-7 days will have little to no effect except
psychological, and that in itself is a tough one to overcome.

Follow Scott's advice and stretch more instead of working out more. You can
also tackle your technical needs while staying home by visualizing your
stroke, surfing skills and even remounting the ski. If you can see yourself
doing the action correctly you are well on your way to doing it in real
life. That being said, don't substitute visualization for actual training
once you're healthy again...

Alan Carlsson
www.EAScoaching.ca

BIG update time

2005-11-09T12:45:00.000-08:00

I’ve decided to update by blog knowledge base by posting some articles and answers I’ve sent to various news groups and forums over the past while. It’s not that I don’t post to my blog; I just never considered to cc my blog!

Enjoy.

Alan

Long overdue update

2005-03-13T07:56:00.000-08:00

Okay, I admit it it has been a while since I posted to the EAS blog.

Since my last posting, the triathlon club has been in full swing, senior's outrigger has started up again and I've been seeing a number of small boat clients (outrigger, sprint kayak and surfski).

I've also been to New Zealand for the 2006 International Va'a Federation Congress. While I was there we reviewed the race site for the 2006 Sprint Outrigger World Championships followed by two full days of meetings. After my three (only 3) days in NZ, I was off again to meetings and interviews in Hawai'i for six days.

I returned home February 1, exhausted. It is now mid-March. February and most of March has slipped by under coaching, coaching education, workout planning and keeping up to date with all the assorted athletes, administrators and officials. I

've also been helping organize paddling races to raise awareness for adaptive paddling through Pogue Sports Canoe Club. Our latest event in Deep Cove had 37 paddlers supporting our cause! The next one is on March 19, also in Deep Cove at 11:00 am.

Alan

Triathlon club, outrigger and kayakers

2004-11-29T22:44:00.000-08:00

Things are starting to move a little faster for EAS now.

I hope to have my business plan ‘finished’ tomorrow, thanks to an artifical deadline set up by a Small Business BC business plan contest. In all reality the plan should become a dynamic document that grows with the business. Let’s hope it doesn’t become the Frankenstein of the business plan world…

I am beginning to get back into more active coaching again. The high performance kayakers are a staple in my week now as well as some contract technique work with a kapuna outrigger paddler. The main kapuna six man outrigger program has also expressed interest in having me work for them again in 2005.

I am also involved in a start-up triathlon club with fellow triathlete Andrew Tuovinen and race promoter Owen Davis. We had our first information session this past Saturday and 15 people showed up. There were some excellent questions from the audience, and we had considered most of them previously in our weekly planning meetings. If you missed Saturday, we are doing it again this Thursday December 2^nd, 7:00 pm in room 107 downstairs in the Kitsilano Community Centre. Incidentally, the club has its own blog at http://triathlontalk.blogspot.com so check it out sometime.

On the horizon, December 12 I am instructing an adult xc ski group for the Hollyburn Jackrabbit ski parents’. Assuming Cypress will be open of course. However, with 17 cm of snow the past few days it is looking promising for a new ski season in Vancouver.

T-16 days

2004-11-14T18:07:00.000-08:00

Well, it is now sixteen days before the official launch date planned for EAS.

In the workshops I've been attending through Small Business BC, I was dismayed to learn that a detailed business plan is an absolute. I've been using the Interactive Business Planner provided by Canada Business Service Centre and it has made the impossible possible. Thanks.

While this document is fermenting away into a piece of work, I am also finishing off my NCCP level three practical assignments in canoe-kayak. This is another step toward membership in the Canadian Professional Coaches Association and access to the resources in the Canadian Sport Centre in Vancouver.

That's it for tonight, we are off to find some gelato from the Casa de Gelato.

2004-11-12T15:02:00.000-08:00

Alan, all rubberized and ready to challenge the swim at the 2003 Jericho Oceanman triathlon
Posted by Hello

Kraft

2004-11-10T17:44:00.000-08:00

I have to comment on the recent positive drug tests for some of the worlds best endurance athletes.

A few weeks back Tyler Hamilton was caught for blood doping. Evidence suggested not only once, but arguably a pattern of abuse. Since then his Phonak teammate Santiago Perez tested positive for the same illegal procedure. Coincidence? Then there is their Swiss teamate, Oscar Camenzind who tested positive for EPO earlier in the summer...

Then Rutger Beke, the Belgian triathlete tested positive for EPO.

And today it was revealed that Nina Kraft the women's Ironman Hawai'i champion tested positive for EPO.

While I can not condone breaking the rules, I always remind myself that no World Class athletic effort is achieved without huge amounts of dedication and personal sacrifice.

In these cases reputations were sacrificed in order to win.

Lunch to launch: 5 hours

2004-11-10T17:32:00.000-08:00

As part of setting up EAS as a small business, taking e.business and marketing courses is a good idea. I am taking mine through Small Business BC and eBusiness Connection and horizons are expanding fast.

Today at lunch, I learnt about blogging and RSS, and it sounded exactly like something I wanted for EAS. I just didn't know what form it would take or how to do it.

So, seeing as there is no time like the present to get started on projects such as this... here we go.