How long is "long"?

Today I paddled from the marina to the mouth of the harbor, then up the Mississippi to the mouth of the Wolf River, then back down the Mississippi and back into the harbor and back to the marina.

I first starting doing this circuit in the late 1990s, when Joe Royer and I started getting together to paddle.  The annual Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race, of which Joe is founder and director, starts at the mouth of the Wolf and finishes about a half-mile or so up in the harbor.  So basically we're doing the race course backwards and then forwards when we go up to the Wolf and back.  Doing so has become a habit for Joe and me; it's sort of what we automatically do when we paddle together, unless one of us expresses a desire to do something different.

So I have paddled this route hundreds of times in the last fourteen or fifteen years.  The entire round trip takes me approximately 90 minutes.  Which brings up this question: when I discussed "long steady distance" in my post this past Tuesday, what exactly did I mean by "long"?

Because I've done the Wolf-and-back course so many times, I would say that an average LSD session for me is 90 minutes.  Even if I decide to paddle somewhere else, I typically paddle for 90 minutes if an average-length session is what I'm looking for.  No scientific research went into this; it's just what I'm used to.

If I want to do an "extra-long" session, as I try to do about once a week during the height of the spring training season, I'll paddle somewhere from two to two and a half hours.  I rarely paddle for longer than this for a specific training session (i.e., not counting the times when I get together with some friends and paddle a long section of the Mississippi or something like that).  The reason is that I just can't maintain good stroke form for longer than several hours, and there's no reason to continue practicing my strokes if I'm doing them poorly.  And considering that the longest race I'm likely to enter this year will take me around two hours, there's no reason for me to log ultra-distance sessions.  Also, while paddling is certainly an important part of my life, it's not more important than other things I've got going on--working in the workshop, petting the dog... stuff like that.  So two and a half hours is about my upper limit for a training session.

Now, how about a minimum paddling time?  After all, many people just don't have 90 minutes or even an hour in their day that they can spare for paddling.  What advice do I have for them?

Well, once again, I don't claim to have the last word, but I will point out that the technical aspect of an LSD paddle is at least as important as the physical aspect.  Therefore, I recommend doing a session that's long enough for you to get in a good warmup and then spend a meaningful length of time practicing your strokes.  Forty minutes, perhaps.

But rather than simply listen to me or anybody else, you should get out and do whatever your time and ability allow you to do.  If what you're doing feels beneficial, then it probably is.  As Greg Barton told Bill Endicott in The Barton Mold:

It's sort of a philosophical thing: Why am I doing this? If you can answer that, it's easier to motivate yourself to go out there and do the workout than if you are doing it just because someone tells you to. At times, even if your assumption is wrong, it's better than having no assumption at all. If somebody honestly believes that doing a lot of 250 meter sprints will improve his aerobic base, it probably will, although he might do even better doing some longer pieces. At least he has a purpose for doing it.