Today I did six laps of the May strength circuit and paddled for 55 minutes. Joe and I did eight 75-second pieces with 45 seconds recovery. This amounted to a "lactic tolerance" workout; my hope is it will help me withstand the lactic burn as I dig for the finish line in the last few hundred meters of the coming races.
For most of this season I have done my workouts in the middle of much longer (90 minutes or more) paddling sessions, but I'm starting to trim that down now that the big races are just around the corner. I'm still revving my engines hard, but I'm trying to get more rest the rest of the day.
The best college running coach I had was very insistent on running workout sessions as efficiently as possible--warm up, do the workout, cool down, and go home. Lingering at practice just wasted energy, he believed, and it was better to give everything you had to training for an hour or less and then go back to studying or partying or whatever else you did with the rest of your life.
Since paddling is both lower impact and more technical than running, I think there is value in some long paddles to precede and follow up a hard workout. But when the big races are coming up, and I need all the rest I can get when the training is at its most intense, I take my old college coach's advice and keep my session in the boat short and sweet.
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