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Twizel Sprints

While my long term goal in the boat is definitely at the endurance end of the scale, a wise Brazilian by the name of Flavio once told me the only way to be fast in a marathon, is to be fast in a 10km, and the only way to be fast in a 10km, is to be fast in a 1km. 

And so here I found myself, at the tail end of a big block of paddling, definitely noticing some fatigue after 3 hours of paddling the day before, and lining up against the future of sprint paddling in Canterbury and Otago. My expectations were pretty low, I was very much just there for the experience so I was pleasantly surprised to come away with 4th A final in the K1 200m. With my training being focused towards endurance, I had expected this to be my worst event of the day since it is aimed at explosive power and high speed.

Surprisingly (or perhaps not with my level of fatigue), the shortest race of the day was also my best. In all of the following events I would reach the 250m mark and reach my limit in pace, watching the others power away from me. I ended the day with a 7th in the K1 500m, 5th in K2 500m, and then a 6th in the K1 1000m. My times across the events were certainly not fast by a national standard for open men, but thanks to being reasonably new to the K1 scene, I would be allowed to race as a novice at nationals where my times would be reasonably competitive. Might be time to put the novice cap back on... 

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