For paddlers in the northeast climes, our liquid state of matter goes all solid-like for several months of the year, causing us to scratch our heads in bewilderment. When this occurs, we often drive back and forth, boats on the roof, seemingly lost and disconsolate, before eventually accepting the inevitability of it all (Life is so unfair.) and heading back indoors to wait out the winter season. We take to our indoor trainers, be they bike, running, rowing, or otherwise, to flail away alone in darkened basements and family rooms-a lonely, isolated existence. Since humans are, by nature, social animals, isolated pockets of individuals in other sports have clustered together to train indoors. Cyclists have their spin classes, runners have their banks of treadmills at the local gym or spa, and rowers have their Concept II competitions like the CRASH Bs. And Kayakers had...squat. Until…
Behold, the wonders of the Internet, and the good Dr. Erik Borgnes, top regional and world ranked surfski racer out of Wisconsin, along with Tom Kerr, registered Molokai and past Dubai Shamaal competitor from CT. They recently recruited a group of 10 paddlers interested in the motivational powers of pitting their indoor ergometer times against one another, but most importantly, against themselves. Erik created a Yahoo group (kayak_erg@yahoogroups) where paddlers could participate in six weekly time trials at a 5K (3.1 mile) distance, post their thoughts, and view their rankings. Tom tabulated the weekly results via a spreadsheet program designed to crunch the numbers, and track the times and rankings. Each paddler established a baseline in the first session, which he or she attempted to best each week. Results were based primarily on individual paddler improvement, vs. out and out lowest time. The roster comprised racers from coast to coast. Larry Goolsby (Washington), Andy Howell (Colorado), Erik Borgnes, and Sue Bartfield (Wisconsin), Eric Haas (Michigan), Matt Skeels (New York). Tom Kerr, Greg Lirot, and myself (Connecticut), and Tim Dwyer (Rhode Island).
The impetus for this idea was the inception of the first indoor kayak ergometer competition. KayakPro and Grayson Bourne, producer of the hallowed Speedstroke Kayak Ergometer, will be hosting the Indoor Kayak Ergometer Championships on February 20, 2010 in Oklahoma City, OK, patterned after the indoor rowing events sponsored by Concept 2 Rowing Ergometers. Concept 2 facilitates a number of smaller events throughout the U.S. and world, culminating in the epitome of indoor rowing competitions: the C.R.A.S.H. B.s, in Boston, MA, on February 14. This event draws competitors from every area of the globe, in all age and gender brackets.
I’ve raced the Crash B’s for the past two years, joined by a number of other lunatics intent on pushing past anaerobic thresholds (‘To infinity and beyond!’) for the grueling 2K distance: 6-7 minutes of gritted teeth and stratospheric heart rates. A number of us wondered why there wasn’t something similar for the forward facing kayak crowd-enter the KayakPro event, and more informally, this Yahoo group of indoor 'erg-ers'.
For our Yahoo group goals, the normal short sprint distances of other events morphed in to a much longer 5K (3.1 mi.) time trial. This is a brutal distance, short enough to be considered a long interval, and long enough to make you wish you had never picked up a paddle shaft. At the conclusion of this 5K series, the group decided to continue the format, but mix up the distances with some marathon 10K distances and 500m sprints.
These machines are incredibly effective specialized training tools, replicating the feel of the forward stroke with unimagined realism. All the paddlers were on Speedstroke units, with several upping the ante and moving to the newest and greatest incarnation of the Speedstroke machines midway through the sessions, the new Gym. This new, high zoot KayakPro Gym unit also offers the capability to hook machines together for virtual training sessions, and offers the feature of racing a pair of computer generated paddlers on a tv screen. (I demoed this model out at the Jersey Paddlesports Show. Lars Linde, who was manning the KayakPro booth for Grayson Bourne, unbeknownst to me mischievously set the two computer paddlers to come around in the final kilometers, no matter what your velocity. I almost had a coronary trying to keep the little CGI paddlers from outsprinting me. The day before, Lars had pulled the exact same stunt on none other than Greg Barton himself, who was on the brink of nuclear meltdown winding it up to around 13 mph to stave off the little demon avatars.
After completing the 5k series, the paddlers have embarked upon a variety of distances, solely to mix things up a bit: several 10K trials, then back to the 5K, and finally, some 2K, 500 and 200m max efforts. Far, far better than training alone, the equivalent of solitary confinement, the added competition and camaraderie has been a motivating force to continue training through the long, dark, and cold days and nights on the tundra. ~Mark Ceconi
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