h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ohh no, when you read through the whole Inspiration journal you took note of mistakes you made. But. But But But remember that hindsight is 20/20. You had to go through all that in order to know what mistakes were made. Ironical and Life

And you are being too hard on yourself. The weather really messed a lot of people up this year.

How portaging's supposed to be done!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=VWjE2mELIQs

Impressive or what?

You know, a long time ago I use to row in eights racing.

I don't know why we didn't do that - we used to go through the lock and walk the boat up/down with the oars as the lock filled/emptied.
Perfectly feasible although a landing area would have helped but then with a kayak it would too.

... think...

Oars

That's why

Special clips to hold them to the sides while still in their locks?

No, just that there's eight if them any they're about 12 feet long. Kind if tricky to carry them and the boat at the same time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=085A7Iv6xzA&feature=player_embedded

Deke

On: Reviewing the Situation

It is now just under six months to the Easter Good Friday of 2014 on which the DW four day event begins. That includes nearly a month from being almost four weeks later in the year than last years party.

The summer has lingered on with warmish temperatures and reasonably sunny periods which has allowed me to get out on a fairly regular basis. The weather has played fair and there has been little by way of the conditions that plagued my preparations last year. In fact I don't think that there's been a single warning board put up along the Thames since the spring, so I can't complain of any real reason why I shouldn't have progressed since then. But the weather has just taken a turn for the worse and October is closing with a bang in the form of high winds and rainstorms.

Summer has well and truly ended and it's now time to take stock of the situation and whether there's a realistic possibility of giving the DW a fair run for its money in 2014. When I called off my training efforts last January there wasn't at that time any real prospect of completing the 2013 race, or for that matter a single day of the four stage event. Putting the DW on the back burner for a year was certainly the right thing to do then, and it gave me the prospect of more than a years training to get up to speed.

On the plus side I've progressed fairly well since last year and my monthly mileage has significantly increased to the point where I'm regularly doing ten mile stints and average training runs are now five miles non-stop. I've done a total of about 150 miles since last April and two of the ten mile trips have been with the club on tidal waters. My best time for five miles gives me an average paddling speed that would put me just inside the cut off time for the daily stages as long as I could maintain that speed throughout the 34 plus mile legs.

On the downside I haven't used the time since January as well as I might have done. The long club runs that I'd hoped to make a more regular feature for the most part, haven't been taking place, and the ones that have, I've either missed or not been able to take part in at the time. Consequently I haven't spent nearly as much time on the open water of the Thames with its much more exposed conditions which I should be getting used to.

My speed over the water is sadly still lacking. My five mile trips are now just beginning to take the shape of a more formalised form of interval training where I am putting in concentrated effort into timed periods, or as a paced run to get the best time for the distance. This does seem to be paying off, albeit very slowly. Whereas before, any run would include intermittent and increasingly frequent rests, the five milers are now done complete without stoppages, even at the turn around point. Generally the paced runs feel a lot better too.

There's still a lot of work to do, but I'm in a much better situation than a year ago. I sill have nearly six months to go. A lot is, as usual, going to depend on the weather and getting out on the Thames instead of the canal.

Anyway, the hunt is on again... how it goes we shall see.