Ron Lugbill, a member of the U.S. national team in whitewater slalom in the 1970s and early 1980s, has a blog I've just found out about. Take a look at it here.
Ron is the less-famous of the two Lugbill brothers: his brother Jon was a five-time world champion in the C1 class. I've never met Ron myself--he had long since retired from competition by the time I started racing slalom in the 1990s--but I admire him based on my second-hand experience with him, such as reading articles he's written and talking to racers he's coached. I think he's a lawyer these days, but does some freelance coaching and, as one can tell from reading his blog, spends a lot of time thinking about the sport.
Of course, the racing I'm doing these days is not slalom, so there's a lot of stuff on Lugbill's blog that doesn't really apply to my training. But there's a lot of stuff that does. It'll take me a while to read through all his back-posts and ponder what it all means for me. One thing that's already caught my attention is his assertion that one should work on speed and power throughout the year; I've always done most of my speed work in the couple of months before the biggest races. He also talks about how best to incorporate strength training into a paddler's regime.
I learned of the blog when somebody linked to it on the Whitewater Slalom Alumni and Friends page on Face Book. Go "like" that page if you're looking for more paddling stuff to chew on.
I have read other articles that maintain working on speed throughout the year, so I plan on giving it a try this year. I do know that in the years I have started earlier I have been fastest.
ReplyDeleteDon Walls
Yeah, I'm looking forward to trying a few new things in the next couple of months.
ReplyDeleteI admit that I'm struggling to understand the role of speed in marathon canoe and kayak racing. I come from a running background, where 100-meter dash guys just don't do the distance events; but in paddling, the flatties always do really well whenever they decide to attend a longer-distance race. Mike Herbert has the power and body type of a pure sprinter, but holds his own in races of three hours or more. I don't see somebody like Tyson Gay or Justin Gatlin doing the same thing in a running marathon.