Clearly, anybody who has raced a 24 hour, 48 hour or expedition event will attest to the dramatic effect sleep deprivation has on performance and recovery.  The devastating effect that poor sleep has on health and well being was recently bought to the fore by the meltdown of players and coaches in the AFL who routinely take a plethora of legal uppers to get ready for night games and then prescription sedatives afterward to try and grasp somesleep. Getting the balance seems elusive.

Events to one side, quite often the juggling of exhaustive training loads with work, study and family comes at the cost of regular sleep.

Research over the past decade has looked to understand exactly what the metabolic and performance downsides are of disrupted and truncated sleep patterns.

Eve Van Cauter, Ph.D., (University of Chicago Medical School) in 1999, studied the effects of three different durations of sleep in 11 men ages 18 to 27. For the first three nights of the study, the men slept eight hours per night; for the next six nights, they slept four hours per night; for the last seven nights, they slept 12 hours per night.

Results showed that after four hours of sleep per night (the sleep deprivation period), they metabolized glucose least efficiently. Levels of the stress hormone cortisol (a by product also in abundance post heavy resistance exercise) were also higher during sleep deprivation periods.

This has been linked to memory impairment, age-related insulin resistance, and impaired recovery in athletes.

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Most of us I think settle for a long sleeve polypro when we are paddling leaving wet suit style outfits to cold weather and major sea miles. Am I right?

What would make me re-think this and drop the habit of a decade? It’s my experience that unless I’m racing a multi-sport event  my shirt does not need a battery of rear pockets I can’t get to anyway. This rules out multi-sport style shirts. That said, I’ve always wanted to be able to get at a food bar or gel on my upper body when the energy levels are declining.

I also need good back ventilation, long front zip and shirt shape that’s longer at the back as the old tops always seem to creep up your back.

A shirt that breathes, sheds moisture and gives A1 sun protection goes without saying but that shield against UV can’t be emphasized enough.

So does the i-RULE SURGE measure up?

Well for a start it is a lot brighter than anything else that has come out of our sponsor’s multi-sport wardrobe that I can remember. The vivid gold-yellow is reasonably visible and made more so by some stylish and subtle reflective highlights.

Fit wise it is a little roomier than say the TORO multi-sport top and the new PRIMO MTB enduro top which is intended to accommodate the thicker upper torso of the hard core paddler. They have listened and made sure there is a whale tail at the back.
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Anaerobic Threshold Workout

Pyramids.

Here you will aim for rate increases at smaller intervals to a tipping point, then reduce again.

o 3 x 29 minutes (rate change at 5′, 4′, 3′, 2′, 1′, 2′, 3′, 4, 5′), 5 minutes rest.
o 4 x 11 minutes (rate change at 3′, 2′, 1′, 2′, 3′), 3 minutes rest.
o 5 x 2000 meters (change rate every 500 meters), 3 minutes rest.
o 4 x 2500 meters (change rate every 500 meters), 3 minutes rest.
o 3′ on/3′ off, 4′on/4′off, 5′on/5′off, 4′on/4′off, 3′on/3′off

Staircasing. Here your rate increases with regular gradations

o 4 x 10 minutes (rate increases every 2 minutes), 3 minutes rest.
o 2 x 24 minutes (18, 20, 22, 24, 20, 22, 24, 26 with rate changing every 3 minutes), 4 minutes rest.
o 5 x 2000 meters (rate increases every 500 meters), 3 minutes rest.
o 4 x 2500 meters (rate increases every 500 meters), 4 minutes rest.

Castles. These mix it up a little for you with both rate increases and decreases at regular intervals.

o 3 x 20 minutes (rate alternates between a high rate and low rate every 2 minutes), 3 minutes rest.
o 3 x 18 minutes (rate alternates between a high rate and low rate every 2 minutes), 3 minutes rest.
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Traditionally, late autumn through to early spring marks the rebuilding of aerobic and strength foundations in the periodised programs of most endurance athletes. It coincides with shorter days, poor weather, dangerous road and trail conditions and with it all, seasonal health concerns.

As in any periodised ( or recovery-based) training program the main aim is progressive adaptation and improvement but not unhealthy obsession. It is OK to miss the occassional session and to roll with the punches in terms of other commitments. It’s not only the traditional big mileage time it is also about addressing core strength and particularly any imbalances or injuries that need rehabilitation and conquering.

Athletes that embark on regular, disciplined base training throughout the winter establish a substantial aerobic foundation that will carry them through to early summer; it’s like  money in the bank.The gradual low-intensity, repetitive nature of base miles often (but not strictly ) done on soft winter trails strengthens ligaments and tendons in key joints, enabling the athlete to gain strength in these crucial locomotion areas and prevent iunjury onset ahead of spring time speed work.

Hill work and snowshoeing or dune running ( if accessible ) are important ingredients in a successful winter build-up and offer stimulating and challenging alternatives to the daily grind.

A common misjudgment is to tune your base mile phase to a metronome like beat of low intensity with way too much time spent in HR Zone 1; it is usually of more use to venture to the dizzying heights of Zone 2 low ranges during winter miles, This means, roughly you should be spending a good deal of your time exercising at between 60-75% of HRmax. In terms of progression over a typical 12- to 16-week base phase, training should gradually increment from the low end (i.e. 62 to 71 percent of lactate threshold (LT), or around 61 percent of max heart rate) of the aerobic energy system to the high end (i.e. 90 percent of LT and 80 percent of max heart rate). In the case of say, a running program, adding 5km-10km gradually to your weekly total before a stable mileage rest period then add to the progressive total over the ensuing three weeks.

You should include a fartlek session once a week whether you are running, riding or paddling adding to the faster sections of these kind of activity over a 3 week period; it breaks up the monotony and helps ready your body for speed work in spring.

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I am not a great paddler ( understatement ) and despite years of riding my butt still rails against the dreaded boat seat; you get wet, tired, chafed and emotional after hours paddling if you are soft like me.

I asked site sponsors iRULE if they had anything that could work for me and they sent me a pair of TORPEDOES which, like a lot of their kit I knew nothing about ahead of time.

There was some familiarity out of the box in terms of the fabric used, it makes use of the same Meryl Nateo as the best selling MOTUS AR and multi-sport knicks from i-RULE. This was good news as the fabric does all the right technical things in terms of moisture management and airflow but has the bonus of being comfortable as heck and long lasting. The shorts themselves are a longer cut which your legs will welcome.

What was vastly different however was the chamois ( compared to MOTUS ) it covers a sensible area exposed to the seat but is still lightweight. It is made of a fabric called Hydrotex Chopper which looks benign enough, something akin to a very smooth soft no pile synthetic chamois which is a few mms thick. It’s not until you put your back side in the  boat at 5.30am on a drizzling, cold morning and head out on a long paddle that you start to understand how the chamois works. The outer surface keeps the water out and the inner surface allows you to breathe while wicking away sweat. This makes for a comfortable paddle in any condition.

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It’s amazing to see many very good athletes in multi-sport races incapable of accelerating through a field or making a break. The ability to paddle faster when you need to is invaluable isn’t it? So how to you go about improving your paddling speed specifically?

In general terms, boat speed is the product of the power propelling it forward  and the resistance of the water to this effort. A paddle is effective when it is engaged in movement through the water. The time intervals that space paddle strokes can lead to a deprecation in boat momentum. This makes the paddler work harder to accelerate the boat to an acceptable speed consuming precious power and energy in the process. Paddling with fewer, longer paddle strokes is more efficient than multiple short paddle strokes at a higher pace - if each long stroke does not move the boat from its course.

Any decent boat offering a sound paddling position, improved stability and control, and the comfort of being able to reduce fatigue and prevent injury by changing positions adds to the paddler’s effective propulsion and therefore may achieve and sustain higher speed.

According to acclaimed paddling coach Chris Hipgrave “Speed and power in any sport depends on genetics, metabolic capacity, muscle strength and size,nervous system capacity, and skill. With the exception of genetics, your training program must address each factor to maximize speed and power for wild-water.”

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Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) is a condition of muscle pain, soreness or stiffness that is generally experienced  12-48 hours post exercise.  It is particularly prevalent when kicking off a new program, switching disciplines ( trail running to kayak for example ), or after shifting your volume and intensity up a notch or two or doing compound sessions such as bricks.

Contrary to old wives tales and dated wisdom, DOMS is not caused by lactic acid accumulation after a tough training session or race. Szymanski (2001) notes that blood and muscle lactate levels do rise considerably during intense eccentric and concentric exercise, however values for blood and muscle lactate return to normal within 30-60 minutes post exercise. Szymanski also notes that the symptoms of DOMS peak within 24-48 hours after an intense eccentric exercise bout when blood lactate levels have been at normal levels for a considerable amount of time.

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