I began my second week of Maks Frančeškin-directed training with three sets of (6 minutes at 60 strokes per minute/1 minute rest/4 minutes at 64 spm/1 minute rest/3 minutes at 68 spm/1 minute rest/2 minutes at 72 spm/3 minutes rest). Once again I wasn't particularly winded, but by the last set I was really feeling it in my arms, shoulders, and legs. When I reported this information to Maks, he replied, "I am happy to hear that the workout had the 'empty' arms effect on you. Those kinds of workouts really result in big power gains." Sounds good to me!
Before doing the workout I got Joe to shoot some video of me from the dock so that Maks could take another look at my stroke. Maks said I was doing a better job of keeping my top hand closer to my head but was still not anchoring the blade thoroughly before commencing each stroke. I'd noticed that myself while watching the video, and it irked me because I'd long thought I was doing a decent job of planting the blade. I asked Maks if there was any particular feedback I should look for that would tell me how well I'm doing it. He didn't quite have the magic pill I was hoping for, but he reminded me that "Honestly, the best/easiest way to know when you are anchoring is to feel the pressure. The better you are anchored/catching, the harder it will feel on your arms." And so, the search continues for forward-stroke perfection. Oh well... every paddler's stroke, just like every human being, will always be a work in progress.
The first couple of days of this week featured pleasantly mild weather, but that changed yesterday morning. When I got to the river it was 39 degrees Fahrenheit--not deathly cold, really, but not much fun to go paddling in under an overcast sky with a 10-mile-per-hour north wind blowing and a mixture of rain and sleet falling. Letting a forced smile be my umbrella, I performed the day's workout: four sets of (5 minutes at 62 spm, 3 minutes at 66 spm, 2 minutes at 70 spm). Maks didn't specify a recovery interval, so I backed off on the intensity a bit and did the four sets straight through. I strove to take solid strokes and make the boat glide, for that had been Maks's main instruction for this workout: "glide, glide, glide."
This morning it was colder--36 degrees when I got to the river. But it wasn't raining, and the clouds were giving way to some sunshine. It was time for a "resistance" session, so I took my little whiffle-ball-equipped bungee cord down to the dock with me and put it on the boat. The workout was three sets of three 3-minute pieces with 4 minutes recovery. The pieces were to be done at 76-78 spm. Maks said to take a longer rest between sets, so I made that 5 minutes. The resistance on the boat forced me to apply greater power to each stroke, and that taxed my muscles; meanwhile, the somewhat higher stroke rate got me breathing harder, too. Per Maks's instructions, I tried to keep my technique the same as it would have been without resistance.
Halfway through my second week under Maks's tutelage, there's plenty of hard work going on. The good news is that I believe my body is starting to get used to the lower stroke rates and the subtle differences among them, and it's nice to see my patience paying off that way. The fact is, I've actually been doing this sort of training almost a month now, as the workouts we did at camp down in Florida were heavily Maks-influenced if not written by Maks himself.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment