Month: October 2009

Interesting phenomenon

Evidently putting a kayak into storage for a month and a half turns a fast tippy boat into a slow stable heavy barge. At least that seems to be what’s happened to my Looksha II while I was paddling my Thunderbolt. I got out the Looksha because for I went out on Wednesday in the Thunderbolt and spent way too much time trying to clear leaves off the bow and rudder. The Looksha has a gently curved bow that doesn’t pick up leaves the way the Thunderbolt does, and the kick up rudder is very easy to clear of leaves when it picks some up. Unfortunately it’s about 0.5 mph slower than the Thunderbolt. I’m also slamming my paddle into the sides a lot because it’s a whole 2 inches wider, and I’m not getting such good rotation because the seat is a tighter fit and not as slick. Oh well, at least I’m not spending all my time clearing leaves off.

The weather has also not been anything to write home about. Today it was in the low 40s, most of the time it was drizzling, but for a few minutes we were getting hailed on instead. It was grim. Not my favourite conditions to paddle in, but it beats sitting around getting fat.

Long term goals?

I was looking at Scott Stenberg’s Facebook post where he says he’s done 1370 miles in his boat so far this year, and looking at my Garmin Training Center which says I’ve done 490 miles in my boat so far. Ok, granted I didn’t have the GPS until the 5th of April, and I didn’t bring it on every single work-out, but I wasn’t doing much distance back in March, and I’m sure I brought it on all the big ones, so I’ve probably really done less than 525 miles anyway.

One of the things I’ve been thinking about a bit is someday doing the Adirondack Canoe Classic, aka “The 90 Miler”. In many ways, it reminds me of the Canadian Ski Marathon (CSM), which used to be the focal point of my cross country skiing season. The CSM was nominally 100 miles over two days, although the years I did it, it was more like 170 km. The 90 Miler is nominally 90 miles over three days, although I’m told it’s closer to 87. And hey, my Thunderbolt has done it already, so it knows the way!

I definitely don’t have the training base to do the 90 Miler yet, but if I try to do 650-700 miles next year, and 800+ the next, I might be ready. The race looks pretty daunting for a first timer. It’s not like the Canadian Ski Marathon where there were checkpoints every 15-25 km where you could quit and jump on a bus. At the 90 Miler, you’re expected to have a pit crew who meets you at certain road-accessible points – so I suppose if you need to quit, you have to wait for one of those points. One thing I might do to prepare is to join somebody’s pit crew and meet them on the portages to hand them water and food. That might give me some view of what it’s like without getting in over my head.

Another thing I’d like to look into is doing it in a K-2 with somebody on the team. I bet a couple of us in a West Side Boat Shop Bullitt could do pretty well for ourselves. The Bullitt is based on the EFT, which is the touring class boat that Mike likes. Too bad WSBS doesn’t make a K-2 based on one of their unlimited boats, like a Thunderbolt or Marauder.

How not to make a payment system

A few weeks ago, I borrowed Dan’s truck for a trip to Whitby to pick up my dad’s power tools that he doesn’t have room for in his new house. On the way out, I saw a HUGE traffic jam on the 401 in the return direction, so I took the 407 Express Toll Road on the way home. I figured I’d just get the bill from Dan when it came, and pay it. Big mistake.

It turns out that there is absolutely no way to pay this bill without creating some sort of account profile for Dan. I’m not Dan, and I don’t want to create a profile for him. I don’t know him well enough to answer the security questions, for one thing. Plus while it’s unlikely that he is going to be a regular traveller on the 407, I don’t want to be the guardian of his account (ie. I know the PIN) if he does. There is also no way to enter the name on the credit card – if it’s not the same as the person named on the account, it isn’t going to work. There is no way to just send in a check or, if you don’t call from 9-5 on a weekday, to talk to a customer service rep. It seems to me that driving a borrowed car on the 407 should be something that the systems designers might have anticipated happening once in a while and designed in a method to resolve this short of making the owner of the car pay.

I guess in future I should either remember my 407 transponder, or just risk the traffic jams on the 401.

Trying to improve my catch

Today I went for a paddle where I was trying to figure out how to improve my catch. It’s been pointed out to me a few times that I don’t get my paddle blade fully “buried” in the water by the time I start pulling, which means I’m not getting full advantage of the most powerful part of the stroke. In part, that’s because I chose a very long paddle blade in order to make the catch a bit more gentle on my elbows, so I’m not sure I want to fix this entirely. But that said, if I want to get faster, I’m going to have to put more power down.
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