2011 racing season is upon us. The sprinting season this year is starting about 2 weeks later than usual, which has just added to the excitement of actually getting on the water and seeing how fast we are going in an actual race. Mike and I are going well. We have been doing a few 200m K2 time trials which we are pretty happy with and once again excited to put all our training into practice in an actual race. On the 3rd and 4th of May we will race in our national selections followed by our national championships on the weekend after. We will have 1 week in South Africa after nationals before we head to Europe for the 2nd and 3rd world cups of the season. We will then head back to SA for a few weeks before heading to Europe a couple weeks before Worlds and the Olympic Qualifiers.
For the next week we will still be training hard as our focus is on achieving good results at the world cups, but as the weather starts to head into winter we are also very cautious not to over do it and get sick. At this stage of the season it is so important to find a good balance between training and rest.
Time seems to have just flown by and now its time for Ronny and the rest of the German team to head back home. We have had a great time training with them once again and I must admit, I would like them to stay for a little while longer so that we can continue to match ourselves up against some of the best in the world. Mike and I have definitely lifted our performances since training with Ronny last year which is very exciting. Mike and I normally train together everyday, so its hard to notice any improvements but having some other guys to train with gives you a good indication as to you current level of performance.
We have also spent a couple days in the lab at the Sports Science Institute testing our current levels of strength, speed and fitness. First up I did a 200m ergo test and I got a PB time which obviously made me happy. We also did a VO2 max test in which I got a fairly good score which was kind of suprising since our main focus on the water has been more on speed and power than endurance and finally we did bench press, bench pull and a core strength test, all of which I performed better in than this time last year, so I am pretty happy with how my off season has gone. I definitely feel as if I am in a good position to head into the racing season confident that every base has been covered over the last few months. We will start off our racing season in just 2 weeks time with Western Province champs.
For now we will just keep our heads down and keep putting in some solid training, leading up to our selection races in the beginning of May. Tim Brabants is now back in Cape Town so hopefully we can do some training sessions together (when he does his speed work and we do our endurance work).
I cannot believe that the German sprinters have come for a 3 week camp and gone already! We managed to fit in a good few sessions with Ronny and once again we learned a lot and enjoyed our time training with arguably the worlds best paddler, as he has proved over the last 12 years! The good news is that he is only going back to Berlin for 1 week before returning for another 3 week camp. This next training block will be focused a bit more on speed which will be really good for us as we will be able to match up and find out exactly how fast we are going at the moment. The last 3 weeks training was mainly endurance and strength based training.
Besides for training everything else is going really well. Mike and I held a technical coaching clinic at Peninsula Canoe club last weekend which turned out to be very popular and successful. It was great to be able to give back a bit and actually see the guys attending make some real improvements to their techniques. We will be hosting some more in the future which will be cool.
Well done to Andy Birkett and Ant Stott on an incredible race down the Dusi! While it was tough sitting in Cape Town following the race via twitter, I was really impressed with how both athletes slogged it out all the way to the end. I am also stoked for my mate Mike Mbanjwa for coming in 3rd. He had a disaster day 1 by his standards but managed to pick himself up and put a great day 2 and 3 together to hold on for 3rd.
As February starts to come to an end, the realisation that the racing season is almost upon us is starting to kick in. Approximately 1 more month and will be starting our first local races. Exciting year ahead!
Neil Cuninghame, a great friend of mine and a brilliant photographer has now completed editing the pictures from our wedding day. He has posted a few of them on http://www.neilcuninghame.co.za/blog/ for anyone to go and have a look. I think they are really cool and they capture all the love, happiness and fun that was had on the day.
I have had a great last 3 weeks back in hard training after the wedding until coming down with a really bad stomach bug this friday. It knocked me for a loop for the last few days, but I think I am finally coming to the end of it. Something like this just reminds you how fragile we actually are and that we can go from feeling super strong one day to cant get out of bed the next.
Besides for that everything is going great especially since we got a little puppy! She is a golden Labrador and she has been such a joy to have around. Its amazing to see how quickly she is growing and she seems to get cleverer everyday! Pics of Lola will follow soon!
