I am a realitively new OC-1 paddler. I live in the Toronto (Canada) area and do my paddling on lake Ontario. From what I can tell the conditions I paddle in are similiar to the East Coast of the States and also the Gulf of Mexico side of Florida. All of the local races are out and back course, very few down wind races. I have been reviewing the race results on the OCPADDLER website but it's difficult to compare my conditions to these race conditions. My question is.... how fast do I need to be to be competitive in the masters division. Currently I am able to average between 9.5 km/hr and 10.5 km/hr (5.8 and 6.4 miles/hr) depending on conditions during a good training run...... any input would be greatly appreciated
Submitted by washride on Fri, 05/18/2007 - 6:01am
Hey Washride, check with Stan Machacek in the Toronto area for input on this subject. Stan is a great guy and a very experienced masters racer. If you need Stans contact info , please send me a private message.
#1 Fri, 05/18/2007 - 6:38am
I'm on the west coast in Vancouver and our conditions are similiar to yours .Most of the top guys are averaging over 11.5 - 12 + km/hr . Middle of the pack is around your speed at 9.5-10 and bottom would be below this .This would be in more flatwater ,light chop conditions
hope this helps
#2 Fri, 05/18/2007 - 2:38pm
Hey Washride,
I paddle in the same pond as you. I use MPH instead of KMs, but the numbers from OCSprinter sound right. 6 mph is about right for middle of pack. The top guys are doing around 6.5-7+ MPH in our waters here.
Choke Aloha!
#3 Mon, 05/21/2007 - 6:40am
hi,
wow! i'm impressed-- on any given day conditions are comparable between toronto, vancouver and florida? if you talk to the sprinters, they're bitchin that conditions, and ie. boat speeds, aren't even the same between lanes 1 and 7 on the same body of water at the same moment. don't y'all have wind, tides and other currents? having paddled a bit around vancouver island, i found the tides/winds particularly influencing there as water sloshed around all those little islands, bays, sloughs into some mean streams of water.
instead of absolute speed of your competitors, i'd worry a little bit about technique and a lot about cardiovascular health-- then the speed will come. given low wind, neutral tide, glassy water, a modern boat and a fixed amount of heart and lung, it's not unreasonable to paddle just a touch slower than you run, which is about what the 10km in an hour suggests. if you're paddling much much slower than you're running, worry about technique/equipment or maybe upper body strength... and, well, if you're running much slower than that, try worrying a lot more about general cardiovascular health. well... don't "worry" about anything, just have fun.
btw: in general i think canada has more running culture than hawai'i... but my impression is that a lot more hawaiian paddling teams incorporate running into their weekly practice sessions... also incorporate more beer and barbeque into their after training sessions, even if all that grain came from sasketchewan.
good luck amigo.
#4 Mon, 05/21/2007 - 7:52am
Rule of thumb:
20 miles/week = minimum maintenance
30 miles/week = improving
40 miles/week = getting very good over time
Plus races
#5 Mon, 05/21/2007 - 9:24pm