Disclaimer - I am *not* a morning person, I love my bed far too much and it's hard to get me out of it, probably only one thing always will and that is paddling. And once you make it onto the water there is nothing more tranquil. So, as my alarm sounded and I could see the blackness outside my window I got up, realized it was freaking cold (approx. 10C) and dressed accordingly (note that it was great to curl up into my Lululemon Scuba hoody)
Met up with everyone at about 6:30 in east Freo (thankfully close to home) and got on the water. Plan was to "warm-up" to the spit and then start the time trial from there to the Stirling Hwy Bridge (map below). My "warm-up" wasn't exactly easy as the boys took off in front of me and I didn't want them to be waiting too long at the other end for me so I was paddling fairly hard - I haven't quite figured out how to translate all my power into speed on my board but I'll get there. One plus however is that my cardio is in decent shape from crossfit so I am not struggling for breath. As long as I practice and think about my outrigger cues for better technique I'll get there soon enough.
Once at the spit and caught up to the boys I had a chance to remove a layer of clothing before we were off - about 2 minutes or so of "rest". I mentioned that I'd probably not do the full 5km and pull up somewhere around the cars which I did (this was a great idea and we now have the "short course"). I officially did 3.75km on the TT (approx. 38 minutes of paddling) though adding in the "warm-up" it was closer to 7.5km with a two minute rest in the middle. I'm happy with that.
Need to focus on burying the blade fully before the pull (same old, same old) and then pulling with my lats engaged (arms straight) rather than with my arms. It was actually good to be in the back without any pressure to keep up, etc. and go hard while focusing on technique. My balance is rock solid which helps.
Got the best comment as I was paddling easy back to the cars - saw some surfskiers and said good morning to them and as I got a bit further away I hear a girl on the beach "accuse" them of 'checking out the paddler' to which they replied 'nah, we were looking at the board'... made me laugh. Good way to end the paddle. Ha!
We finished it off with some coffee at the finish and enjoyed the world waking up. It was nice actually to have finished a workout on a saturday morning all before 9am.
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| 5km route (start at top) - I finished 3.75km just past the middle yellow dot |
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