There was a discussion on Facebook about Greg Barton’s speed comparisons. In this document, Greg compares the speed of various Epic kayaks over a 10km flat-water course. He gives estimated times for both himself, and a theoretical “Intermediate” paddler. Somebody pointed out that his “intermediate” paddler paddles the 10km course in 51:55 in a V10 Sport (my favoured boat). That’s 11.6 km/hr, or about 7.2 mph. Several paddlers I respect agreed that that’s an ok speed for an “intermediate” paddler.
I’ve been racing for over 10 years, and during the season I train 7-8 hours or more a week. I don’t think I could train more even if I were retired – it’s not a matter of time to train, but more about what my body will take before it falls apart. I’ve worked very hard with many great teachers to improve my technique and abilities. But in spite of all that, even when I’m not carrying all the extra weight I put on this year, I’m lucky to exceed 10.4-10.6 km/hr for a 10km race. It makes me very sad to think that I’m not considered an intermediate paddler. It makes me wonder why I ever bother.
But then I remember days like I talked about in Flow State where I just feel so connected with my boat and my body as I stroke through calm water. I guess I’ll just keep training and racing for myself, and try not to care if everybody is laughing at the slow fat load making a fool of himself.
In a dream last night, “we”, probably meaning all of surviving humanity, were surrounded by dog like creatures that were immortal, unkillable and unstoppable. And they hated us. There was a suggestion that they could sense our finite lives throughout their infinite ones whatever that means.
Every time they got into a room or a field or any other space, we’d barricade it off and consider it permanently lost, and anybody in that space was lost. There were scenes like in sinking war ships where we could see the people but we didn’t dare open a door to get them in case the dogs got to the door before we could close it again.
There was a very claustrophobic feel of the world shrinking as each space was lost and no chance of ever making gains.
At some point I had volunteers opening a door to make a small enclosed area inside the lost space, kind of like the old video game Qix, but I think I added that note of hope in a semi waking state rather than in the actual dream.
I can’t imagine why I’d dream such a hopeless dream in the middle of a global pandemic and a nation hurtling towards dictatorship.
One of the things I liked about the Garmin VIRB 360 camera is that they actually say “Constantly record for more than 1 hour on 1 charge5 — without overheating” on their product page, which shows a lot more concern for continuous recording than GoPro. They also sell a cradle that gives external power. So I thought I’d be all set for the sort of 2 – 3 hour recordings that have been my holy grail since I got into race videos.
I’ve been running various tests with different combinations of external batteries, and never seemed to get more than 1.5 hours. And today while running a test, I just happened to be looking at my camera when I displayed a “High temperature alert” on the screen just before it shut down. Well, again, I’ve got to give them props in handling high temps better than GoPro – GoPro usually don’t even give you a beep before they shut down for high temps.
But I’m still left with the quandary on how do I keep my cameras from overheating. I’ve thought about covering my camera with tinfoil or attaching a computer CPU heatsink, but a 360 camera doesn’t give you much in the way of non-vital surface to attach things to. Freeze it? My Fenix can act as a remote for it, maybe I could just turn it off in the middle of a race when nothing much is happening?
I went out for a paddle today, and had both my Forerunner 920XT and my Fenix 6X on my foot strap, and both set up to “Race an Activity” with the same 10km activity selected. The course I was racing had 57:08.3 as the base time. I had my GoPro so I could grab some shots of both screens. I am doing this because I can’t for the life of me figure out what some of the fields are on the Fenix. I know what fields I need on the 920XT, but the equivalent fields on the Fenix are either in different places, or they show utterly insane values.
First set of pictures
This picture is quite early on in the paddle. The 920XT is showing a Estimated Finish Time of 55:21, and Time Ahead of 0:11. So it thinks I’m going 11 seconds faster than the activity I’m racing. Since the difference between the target time of 57:08.3 and the estimated finish time of 55:31 is more than 11 seconds, I assume it means I’m 11 seconds ahead right now, but if I keep it up I’ll finish in 55:21. On the Fenix side, the Estimated Finish Time is 1:01:23. I have no idea why it thinks I’m 6 minutes slower than the 920XT. But here’s the insane part: The Time Behind is showing 42:07:48. WHERE THE FUCK IS THAT 42 HOURS COMING FROM!!! Even if the 42 represents something other than hours, if the time behind is 7:42, I’m trying to figure out what that mathematically relates to, because the estimated finish time is only 4:14 behind the goal time, not 7:42.
First Set.
Another screen shot around the same time. The top one is labelled “ETE”, I think that’s time remaining. The middle one is distance remaining (9.49 km, so about 500 meters into the “race”). I’m not sure, but I think the bottom one is actually an estimate of the clock time when I’m expected to finish.
Second Set.
This is further along. I assume the prominent number in the middle is the estimated total time? The top one is distance remaining (5.47 km). That syncs up nicely with the 920XT saying I’ve completed 4.53 km.
Second Set.
This is seconds after the previous one. The Fenix is showing an utterly useless map. If there’s a way to zoom this in so it would be more useful, I haven’t discovered it.
Second Set.
And a few seconds later. The Fenix is showing the same distance remaining, although this time in the prominent middle position. The top field is, as I mentioned in the second screen shot, apparently the estimated time to completion. The bottom one is the estimated clock time at completion. No idea why I’d want to know that.
Second Set.
Here’s that baffling “Time Behind” again, still with the strange “42”. The estimated finish time at the bottom of 59:20 lines up OK with the 58:12 earlier in this second set of pictures because I had to stop paddling to take these so I’m getting slower with each shot. But again, even ignoring the “42” in the top field doesn’t make sense, because again, 59:20 is 2:11 slower than the goal time, not 6:39.
I wish there was some documentation on what these fields were, and I wish there was a way to customize them.
