Boss Man’s note: Paul Jackson is sharing his intense training regime with us all this week, as he and his squad prepare for next month’s Battle of the Paddle.  This is Day 2, so be sure to check out Jacko’s Gym, Day 1 in case you missed it yesterday.

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Day 2 (morning session)

This morning’s session was really windy (20 knots plus). We like to train no matter what the weather’s like, so we tweaked our routine a bit to make the most of the conditions. We paddled one way into the head-wind, then turned around and went straight back the other way with the tail-wind.

Here’s how our session looked…

• 1km warm-up paddle into the wind
• turn around and do a 1.3km non-stop tail-wind paddle at 80% effort
• 60 seconds rest
• turn around and go back into the head-wind for 1.3km, doing 3 minute interval sprints all the way back at race pace (100% effort!), with 30 seconds rest between each interval
• 60 seconds rest
• turn around and do another 1.3km non-stop tail-wind paddle at 80% effort
• turn around and repeat the earlier 100% efforts: 1.3km, doing 3 minute interval sprints into the head-wind, with 30 seconds rest between each interval
• 1km warm down, focusing on your paddling and buoy-turning technique

Here’s how that all looks on the GPS…

My timing/heart rate info is on the left, and Angie’s is on the right. You can see pretty clearly that our heart-rates go right up when we do the shorter, 100% efforts, compared with the longer, 80% intervals.

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Day 2 (afternoon session)

Pretty straight forward this arvo, just a 7km paddle in an OC-1 (one man outrigger canoe). The focus is on technique and breathing, not speed.

Why an OC-1 and not a SUP? It’s definitely good to mix things up with your paddling. It keeps training interesting plus you get to work slightly different muscles and can focus on different parts of your technique.

Outrigger and Stand Up Paddling are so similar that you’ll still get awesome benefits no matter which one you do. There’s a lot of cross-over between the two sports; it’s no surprise that the champion OC paddlers from the past five years (Danny Ching, Travis Grant, etc) are now the top guys in SUP.

If you can’t find an OC-1 to use, just take your SUP out for a nice long paddle, with the focus on your technique and breathing.

So that’s it for today. Go get some rest before tomorrow coz it’s going to be a tough one…!

Cheers,
– Jacko

>>> Jacko’s Gym: Day One

>>> Jacko’s Gym: Day Three

>>> Jacko’s Gym: Day Four

>>> Jacko’s Gym: Day Five

>>> Jacko’s Gym: Day Six