Training for the Hawkesbury Canoe Classic

How does one train for a 111 km paddle? Especially when one gets tennis elbow and can't paddle for a month immediately prior to the race?

I was doing so well up until the beginning of September. I was cycling about two hours a week, climbing about 1.5 hours a week, walking my dog every day, and had just started stepping up the distance I was kayaking, with a 12 km paddle on the Wednesday night and then a 20 km paddle on the following Monday. On Tuesday 4 September my training came to a crashing halt, with the pain in my arm preventing me from picking up my teapot.

I spent a month getting physiotherapy, which in addition to resting my arm and switching to using my computer mouse with my left hand, made a big difference. To maintain my fitness, I did a little cycling, and took up running regularly. I hate running, but cycling wasn't the best for my arm, and I needed the cardio. My dog didn't mind! Very nice Physio as well, which made enduring the pain much easier ;)



Paddling on the Lane Cove River in Sydney at sunset



Since the beginning of October I've been back in my boat, starting with a 2 km paddle (not worth getting the kayak out for this distance normally), then gradually increasing that by increments. I completed 4 km, then 7 km, then 9 km, then 11 km, gradually decreasing the number of days between each paddle. In the last week I paddled 12.5 km on Wednesday night, 12 km on Friday morning, and 24 km on Sunday night, and am pleased that my arm didn't flare up. I've also noticed that my cardiovascular fitness is excellent, thanks to running with my dog; if only my arms were strong enough to push me along faster (and yes, for the paddlers out there, I am rotating but you still need arm strength in the end).

My plan is to do another 12 km paddle on Tuesday morning, with an easy going 6 km on Wednesday night. After that I might just stick to walking the dog and making sure I sleep well.

I'm told that if you can paddle 30 km, you can finish the race because you've just got to do it twice more. Seems a furphy to me because I was pretty sore after the 24 km, but we'll see...