Want to be a stronger, better, faster stand up paddler? Then read these SUP race training guides from Larry Cain.

If you don’t know Larry already here’s a quick bio: Long career as a C1 Sprint Canoe champion, Gold Medal winner for in the ’84 Olympics, hails from Canada and is now a regular winner at the Stand Up Paddle races North of the border. Larry turned 50 earlier this year but can still be seen regularly schooling guys half (or even a third) of his age. I mean c’mon, Larry’s got his own Wikipedia page. That’s bad ass. (…wait, this story sounds familiar doesn’t it?)

Plus these days he works as a Phys Ed teacher, meaning Larry doesn’t just have an Olympic-sized knowledge of how to paddle, he also knows how to teach it, something that’s often very under rated (just because someone knows how to paddle fast doesn’t mean they know how to teach someone else how to paddle fast).

So there you go. Larry Cain knows his stuff. Long story short: If Larry Cain says something about SUP race training, you probably should listen…

Late last year the Canadian put out a great, four-part series of SUP race training guides on his blog that should be essential reading for any serious paddler. Those guides are still as relevant today as they were twelve months ago, but there’s a new update to the series, part #5, which focuses on base development, or as Larry describes it:

“If you are from a climate that allows you to paddle all year round, this is the phase that you should enter immediately after the most important competition of the year. When I was competing in sprint canoe this phase began immediately after the World Championships or Olympics. Now that I am racing SUP, this year it’ll start immediately after the Battle of the Paddle.”

With the Battle of the Paddle only a few weeks away and many serious paddlers taking a breather after Dana Point, this is great stuff to know.

In case you’re new to Larry Cain’s Stand Up Paddle race training guides, here’s the entire collection…

Part 1: Introduction (October 2012)
Part 2: Essential Elements of Fitness (October 2012)
Part 3: Goal Setting, Assessing Performance and Choosing Races (October 2012)
Part 4: Structure of a Periodized Year Plan (November 2012)
NEW Part 5: Specific Base Development Phase (September 2013)