Yesterday morning's session was four 19-minute pieces with a one-minute break in between. The prescribed stroke rate was 60 strokes per minute for the first, 66 spm for the second, 72 spm for the third, and 60 spm for the fourth.
It was my first time in the boat since my discussion with Chris N. about my "false rotation." Basically, the problem is that I've been doing all my rotation in my upper torso rather than down in the hips where the connection with your leg power takes place. Per Chris's instruction, I moved my footboard forward (away from me) one notch so I could get my legs a bit straighter on each leg drive. I also talked to Royal, who had his own "false rotation" issue a year ago and spent the ensuing months working on it, and he told me he looks for the sensation of twisting his rear end against the seat. The most helpful tip he gave me was to try to move my backside across the back of the seat bucket instead of straight into it.
So that was what I spent yesterday morning working on more than anything else. And it felt terrible, as if I were completely re-learning how to paddle. I definitely sacrificed some speed: when paddling downstream it was all I could do to maintain 12 kilometers per hour. But I resolved to put all such worries out of my mind for the moment and focus exclusively on that twisting motion. This will definitely take some time: Royal told me it was a couple of months before he really felt like he was getting the hang of it.
The afternoon workout yesterday was a pyramid of sprints with long recoveries, to make our bodies produce lactic acid and then flush it out before the next sprint. The sprints were 10 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds, 45 seconds, 30 seconds, 20 seconds, 15 seconds, and 10 seconds; the recovery times were 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 3 minutes, 4 minutes, 5 minutes, 4 minutes, 3 minutes, 3 minutes.
Chris N. told me not to worry about my new rotation challenge during the sprints, but I worked on it during the warmup and the cool-down. And it felt just as terrible as it had in the morning, if not worse. By the end of the session I was tired and frustrated, and the idea of spending the rest of this winter toiling through mechanical issues all alone in the harbor back home is just not getting my juices flowing right now.
This morning we did two sets of (4 minutes on, 1 minute off) at 60-64 spm. We did the first set with light resistance on the boat and the second set without. This actually was a good workout for working on hip rotation because of the resistance that killed glide and thus increased blade pressure, but I didn't feel any better that I did yesterday. Part of the problem was that I'd left my shoes back at the house and had to paddle barefoot, which I hate doing in a surfski. Chris N. suggested I do some yoga to open up my hips more; I'll look into that when I get home.
We wrapped up today with some varied-pace training, sort of like what happens when you're trading wake rides with other competitors in a race. It was two sets of five times (3 min. at 60 spm and 2 min. at 75 spm). I continued to struggle with rotation but got through the workout decently enough. All that's left is a time trial tomorrow and another workout Sunday morning, and then I'll have some time to regroup and try to figure out how to recapture my paddling self-esteem.
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