So here we go - Bonne Annee

No paddling both paddlers are busy in the Alps, although I could have done with the Condor on some of our pistes which had puddles today!

The exercise regime has not stopped, it's all latex straps and cords just the way I like it! After poo pooing them I then proceeded to fail after 40 stretches causing Mrs A to laugh....

Anyway from tomorrow I will be sans alcohol and the serious stuff starts....

Paddling in a Winter Wonderland!

GRRRRRRR.

The planned Reading to Marlow run was aborted on account of the roads being too dangerous for the support crew to pick us up. Undettered the two of us set off from the club heading upstream to Pangbourne.

Snow was being swept off the fields into our faces and despite gloves our right hands were frozen due to the prevailing wind, we pushed on and portaged early at Mapledurham lock, dog walkers looking on incredulously at the the loons in the river.

We had taken precautions we had a full change of clothes in the boat in the event of misshaps and the temperature had risen above freezing.

The next pound was straightforward and we pushed on past Pangbourne to Beale Park where we turned for the downstream leg.

Matt was suffering badly owing to an imbalance in the boat, I leaned to the left to compensate and things eased a bit, balance is key, Matt admitted he could not carry on with the pain he was feeling, I stopped whacking him with the paddle at this point and tipping snow down his neck........

We took a few points away from the session, notably don't let the pain build up and get absolutely square in the boat after each portage.

The landscape was stunning lots of wildfowl were moving and the snow covered fields were a sight to behold, life's good,

I see no ships

We aborted our launch this morning with conditions as they were; a heavy mist, in the dark and fast stream with the temperature just above freezing we decided to take the safe route and went back inside the club and had a one hour session on the Ergos.

We're back in the groove (not the river)

We decided to do an early start in the dark and take the newly altered boat up to Pangbourne and back.

The river was flowing extremely fast, so it was difficult to get much power into each stroke in the fast stream, we certainly had a few wobbles and with safety in mind came ashore well below Mapldurham Lock and portaged with a run of a few hundred meters through the fields and through the lock.

The pound above the lock was much smoother, fast flowing still but much less turbulent, agoin thinking about our new shiny boat and our own mortality we did not turn around the bridge supports as earlier sessions, we turned below the bridge and a good job too, we must have been swept some 150 to 200 meters down stream by the time we turned the boat across the river.

We started to pull harder and the boat was absolutely flying downstream.

Below Mapledurham Lock the put in was problematic with the turblent water from teh weir pool psuhing the boat towards the bankside tree overhangs, Matt navigated us out and we pushed on.

We finished in 1:46 barely a minute over our record, however it had taken us 1:10 to go upstream and just 36 minutes to get back! From the Garmin our top speed home was almost 11 miles per hour and all that with Lee's heart rate barely touching 140bpm..........

The boat is great!!

First outing

Beside a very fast flowing Thames we tenatively put the boat into the water in the early hours today, after adjusting the seats, we inched her away from the bank with Matt in the front steering.

The wobbles started and we determined the our feet were well above the footplate heights which caused a push problem for Lee and Matt was almost unable to steer, after a few hundred yards we decided to turn her round and get back to the club for a think.

Back in the supports in the club the footplates were much lower than almost any other boat in the club.

We racked her away and did a session on the ergos instead.

Later this morning Matt returned the boat to Marsport who removed the plates and re-bonded them at the correct height ready for us to try again.

She has arrived - NEW BOAT

Matt after what seemed like an enternity collected the new boat from Marsport on Saturday. Unfortunately with Lee in Wales he will need to wait before the first launch, but she is a beaty.

We have not picked a name for her, Connie the Condor is a bit naff so if any of you have any thoughts please let us know.

We can only get faster now!

Paddle like an Egyptian

Back on the paddle machines early this morning, the river is still flowing at a rate of knots so erring on the side of safety we set off on a land based pyramid session on the indoor ergometers as follows:

1 minute off 1 minute on
1 off 2 on
1 off 3 on

etc. up to 1 off 8 on the back down again.

Results: 7 blisters...............

Matt has a new heart rate monitor and whilst the athletes cooled down afterwards, Lee's HR fell slight faster than Matt's and doctors out there might like to tell us why?

Matt muttered something about fitness..............but hey this is a two man effort there is no "I" in "TEAM"

Rocky Hardman

Yo Adrian

Monday night was spent on a gym circuit session at the canoe club, Matt led Lee on a run around the streets of Caversham in the freezing cold, the good news was that Lee did not die and managed to keep Matt in sight all the way back to the club.

These club sessions are brilliant, we used about 10 stations doing a loop of the kit, weights, pull ups, swiss balls etc. varying the time on each station over three or four circuits listening to whatever is playing on the other members I-pods.

We both retired home feeling virtuous.

Lee was also issued with the long awaited club house key so does not have to wait for Matt to have his breakfast now before turning up at the club and granting Lee access.

Matt Attack

Saturday morning at the club session Matt was on his own doing battle with other die hard club members out in the morning.

After a long paddle Matt was pipped at the post by two more experienced club paddlers, it sounded exciting stuff and Matt was ahead for much of the paddle.

Lee was nowhere to be seen this weekend, shoring up the flood defences of Swallowfield............

Brass monkeys

The car is fixed so I met Matt early Friday morning at the boat club, the Thames is now flowing at quite a pace and is very high too in our reach or pound between Mapledurham Lock upstream and Reading Lock down stream.

We set off upstream running to the pyramid interval pattern described earlier, after three attempts at getting the garmin HRM trainer to start properly in the interval mode we were off, even at max revs it was like trying to drag a car up a hill the flow was so strong. The wind on my hands was freezing, definitely time to fix the pogies (weather shields) to the paddles.

We persevered turned at Mapledurham and Matt hollered from the back "right push it all the way back to the club" so that was it we were off in a flurry of paddles and spray until we reached the marina on the downstream bend where we encountered a rowing 8 turning in mid stream, I didn't know whether to go on the right hand bank (correct side) or bang down the centre and try to keep ahead of them.

I shouted for a bit more commitment from Walker in the back (probably eating toast and having a picnic) and we picked up speed, the boat was running really well and we stayed ahead of the 8 for the next kilometer back to the club, no mean feat although I think they were not racing.

We then did a portage at the Rowing Club dock, ran under Caversham Bridge (scaring an oncoming runner with two little dogs witless) as we ran the tunnel with the K2 on our shoulders and put back in below the bridge and paddled away. The portage was fast, we were pleased.....

This is Caversham Bridge (in better weather!) we got out by the white building at the top on the left bank, ran beneath the bridge through the tunnel and away again in the boat.



All in all a good session, intervals are the way ahead and we'll focus on these efforts in our mid week outings.

This time next week we will have the new boat and teh excuses about dodgy rudders, sliding seats etc. will be a thing of the past!

More balls than most

Whilst Matt has been hammering away at the club gym sessions this week Lee has been at home grounded due to hiw wife's car breaking down.

The braver men amongst you woudl be saying why does that matter there are buses (exactly, that's what I was on!)

Anyway not being one to shirk my training commitment it was all press ups and swiss balls this week. I managed to balance for over an hour with my feet off the ground whilst seated on the swiss ball watching a film on T.V. (perfect exercise I thought and fairly easy going) until I stood up and tried to walk!! it felt like a truck had driven over my abdomen...........

It is a great exercise and helps the balance immensely too, we are off to buy a second swiss ball now to put under my feet so I'll be horizontal as in the boat

Aldermaston Wharf to Caversham

Lee drove to the club early to collect the K2 Condor, whilst Matt was still asleep at home, the weather was horrible getting soaked just walking to the car.

With the boat loaded by Lee it was off up the hill to collect Matt, as I drove past the lights were on which was a good sign, hopefully he had finished his poached eggs on toast.

We drove over to Aldermaston and thankfully the rain stopped, we were quickly set up and got into the boat in the canal, Lee in the front Matt in the back.

There was quite a narrow channel on account of the double and triple moored barges, it would be interesting in the Thameside 1 races with hundreds of boats going down. In our minds we had a 2:12 time to beat, so with the timer started we banged on.

No sooner do you start than you reach a lock at Padworth, then under the swing bridge at Padworth and Towney Bridge, at Ufton swing bridge we drifted slowly towards the bridge and just scrapped underneath Lee leaning far forward on the bow, making a mental note that we could see some concrete about 2" clear of the water, if that is not showing next time we would need to portage this bridge.

Other hazards included a closed lock for maintenanance I think at Sulhamstead where they had put a construction fence across the canal which fortunately was floating so we paddled over it and it did not snag the rudder.

The portages were going well and we were not hanging around everything seemed smooth, also we encountered some good flow where the Kennet flows on and off the canal.

We nailed the portage this time at Shenfield Mill having to walk over reeds to get into the boat put in in the weir stream and saved minutes over our effort a couple of months back involving a wasp nest. As we headed under the Rose Kiln lane bridge on the outskirts of Reading I looked at the time 1:28 it was fast, definitely up on our previous best however, I said to Matt we needed to pull our fingers out if we were to get a decent time (did not want him slacking in the back).

County and Blakes locks passed without incident and we were spat out into the Thames which was flowing quite well, but against us....

County Lock in the centre of Reading

We hugged the Tesco's bank then portaged at Reading lock before the final sprint to the finish just in time to see the rest of the club launching for the Sunday morning session.

We had nailed our record and finished in 1:55:51 at an average speed of 6.6 mph we were chuffed and cannot wait to run this again when the new boat comes.

It is all about the crew

This evening was spent with Simon Jeffs and his wife Sandra, talking us through their race and support systems. Debbie and Melissa (our wives) were definitely taking things seriously both arriving with pads and pens to take notes!

It was really helpful to run through things, we have agreed to stop at Marsh Lock for food and a change of clothes before the night time session and also to feed up properly before starting the Tideway.

Matt and I were concious of an early start on Sunday when we were doing the Aldermaston Wharf to Caversham run again taking the course of the Thameside 1 race.

Train like an Egyptian

It is all about pyramids!

After a slight delay trying to get the Garmin programmed for intervals we set off from the club early Friday morning to do a pyramid session:

1 minute effort

1 minute rest

2 minutes effort

1 minute rest and so on up to an effort of five minutes then back down to 1 minute.

We both agreed that the system was harder than a sprint up and down for an hour and agreed to persevere with the system for the mid week sessions.

Inspired

I knew that James Cracknell had done the D.W. this year but had not realised that he did it with Bernie Shrosbree, the extreme sport trainer who coached Cracknell and team to the South Pole on skis.

On checking Bernie's site: http://www.bernieshrosbree.com/ i discovered his book; Inspired, just what I need for the train journeys to London, once finished I'll give it to Matt for his Christmas present, he'll be none the wiser. Bernie kindly replied to my query commenting on the D.W.

DO LOTS OF TRAINING AS A TEAM!!!

This means you Debbie, Melissa, Julian, Shaun, Alasdair, Simon, Sarah our so far signed up support team.

Matt and I are already doing a fair bit of training together we have not broached the subject of a one week high altitude training camp with our wives yet, but I think it is a reasonable request!

The Edge is in the race

A while back I was chatting to a friend and pursuer of off the wall activities, Mr Steve Edge an internationally renown graphic designer and fellow fisherman, which is how we met. I mentioned the Devizes to Westminster and he said "Count me in mate"



It seems another boat is joining the merry band of craft attacking the course next Easter, I cannot wait to see what Steve decorates his boat with, this is a man that had a suit of armour made and sought permission from a pub landlord in the East End to ride a white horse into the pub dressed as St George.



Recent pursuits include catching a Ferrari in a London street with a salmon fishing fly rod, you just have to see it: http://www.steve-edge.com/ look under Steve's blogs, he'll bring a touch of glamour and fun to any setting even soaked to the skin paddling along the Thames in the dead of night.



Steve even decorates his fishing huts in Russia with sunflowers, the decoration was spotted from the air by a visiting dignatory who commented to his party "what on earth is that?", "Oh that will be Steve Edge" came the reply.


This is a man larger than life whose personality and strength is larger than his diminuitive frame and I am sure he will bring some colour and theatre to the event.



Well done Steve, get paddling mate......

K2 to Sonning Lock return

A very fresh start leaving home just after 06:00 followed by a quick chat with Matt in the boat house (Matt incedentally was looking resplendent in his new goretex fronted Craft (tm) paddling attire. The Condor was readied with a bike light on the back to comply with the navigation rules in the half light of the dawn and we got ready to push off downstream.

Matt tore down his leggings to reveal a very wild pair of shorts, it looked as though his winter coat was beginning to grow and he said that he did not feel the cold as much as me. For my part the bio mechanical Skin (tm) base layer was doing the trick, if only I could breathe! I look quite similar now to Robbie Farah the West Tigers Hooker except without the ball!















The boat ran quite well to Reading lock but set off after the portage below the lock in an unsteady fashion, gradually we got going in the centre of the river which seemed very fast flowing, we barrelled on down and put a turn in well up from the lock cut and tucked in uder the far bank at Sonning to avoid the flow as much as we could. We passed a fleet of canoeists heading down from the Watersport centre, after exchanging greetings we cracked on, the portage was not too bad and we pushed hard back to teh club, finishing in 1 hour and 1 minute, Paul at the club commented how much steam was emanating from us as we sat alongside the club dock in the boat getting our breath back and working out what we can do to go faster, for we must if we are to stand a chance of beating our target.



We have agreed that we are going to spend more time focusing on pyriamid training intervals, pushing in each effort phase to our max stroke rate /speed from 1 minute up to 5 minutes then back to one minute with a rest phase of 1 minute between efforts so a total work out of 33 minutes but at very high intensity, I now just have to work out how to program my Garmin to bleep at us at the appropriate time...................................

It's all about the science............

Very little in the way of wildlife spots apart from another kamikazi Grebe who we nearly decapitated and a good Kingfisher spot. The morning mist cleared to leave the river looking stunning in the sunshine.

That is not us in the boat

Pro tem, until our boat is delivered by Marsport i have lifted a photo from the Kirton Kayaks web-site, that is not us in the boat either!

No training today, Matt is joining the club session tonight sprints followed by a weight session, Lee under the watchful eye of his level two qualified wife will be doing a 400 rep medicine ball circuit twice! followed by a session on their Concept 2 rower......

Back on the water in the morning K2 to Sonning return.

Watch this

This is what it is all about but these boys go fast for 1000m not 125 miles!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u73lFSUHWS4

Smashed it!

Not the boat, our Pangbourne record! previously we had run this in 1:47 pushing hard today in lovely sunshine but very heavy river flow and high water conditions we came in with a time of:

01:41:38, average speed 6.7 mph, max speed 9.2 mph, average heart rate 147 bpm and the best bit we burnt 1,315 calories!

One or two hairy moments as we crossed very turbulent water below Mapledurham lock to the portage in the weirpool.

The weather was perfect the sun was shining through and we spotted a mink in the river. True to form a Grebe surfaced within a foot of the boat and disappeared as quickly as he arrived.

That's all folks, dinner beckons, to fill that calorie deficit.....

Sum for the week:

37 miles paddled since last Sunday.

Blimey we'll be canoeing in the streets soon

Relentless rain overnight on Friday have topped up the Thames even more, if it keeps up we'll canoe to and from our homes!

Lee took the Elio K1 from the club first thing this morning and had a very quick descent downstream to Sonning Lock only to turn and find himself on the wrong end of howling wind and strong river flow. Snaking back up close to either bank he made ground and completed the 6.96 miles in 1:11:20 (Hrs:Mins:Secs) average speed 5.9 mph and an average heart rate of 130, thoughts (Either he's getting fitter or was not trying hard enough) in truth he is saving himself for tomorrow's run in the K2 Club Condor to Pangbourne and back with Matt hoping to break their record on that stretch of the Thames in K1's Lee did it in 1:55:03 we are hoping to be sub 1:47.

Popped into Marsport at Reading to check on progress with the new boat being sponsored by A.B. Walker and Son, alas she is still 2 weeks away from being delivered, both Matt and Lee are anxious to get their hands on the new boat, for there will be no more kit excuses from that point on. Here are the lads putting finishing touched to a boat like ours in the factory:

Other notable spots (for the twitchers) Lee saw 7 black Swans just below Reading lock and a large Pike rolled just ahead of the boat near to Sonning lock, as ever on this stretch he saw several kingfishers and a very alarmed Great Crested Grebe surfaced just on his bow under Caversham Bridge with a fish in it's bill.

Any suggestions for the blog please keep them coming in..............

Amazing start Thank you Orange Aero

We mentioned the motivational aspect of raising funds for Help For Heroes, imagine how we felt when logging on to ourJust Giving page we discovered that our friends at Orange Aero have donated a massive sum of £1,000 to get the collection underway, topped up by a personal donation from our friend and long time DW adviser, provider of kit, and volunteer support crew Simon Jeffs and his family; Sandra, Michael and Emily.

For those that don't know Orange Aero are a specialist aero engine company working on lovely bits of kit that keep us all in the air, we would love to have the thrust from one of their supported engines, but this fantastic donation has given us all the lift we need:

Thank you all very much indeed.

CATS AND DOGS

I thought twice as I dodged the flooded roads on the way to the club this morning. We are back in the K2 today last used on the Marlow to Runnymeade outing in horrendous weather so why should today be any different.

Atkins up front with the tiller and setting the pace and Walker in the rear seat sheltering from the rain. We had one or two wobbles but soon got up to speed and we were aiming to break our Mapledurham island return record, the going was quite good, the river has come up about 8 inches from Lee's K1 session yesterday and we assume the flow is faster too.

In the thick of the mist and rain, the local helicopter pilot took off from his house near the canoe club at Caversham, I commented to Matt "that guy is a complete nutter to be out in weather like this", we both reflected that he was probably looking down thinking the same of us, and no doubt his DW time would be a fraction of ours in his chopper! As they say this event is the poor mans everest and we do not have the funds to buy a helicopter.

We came in 55:35 minutes later which is a new record! things are going well, we both agreed there were times we could have pulled harder and now have a conundrum, should we increase the cadence or stroke rate or get a longer reach and more powerful catch/pull?

I am off to read a book or bother Simon Jeffs for his input.......

JUST GIVING PAGE LAUNCHED

Hello everyone, Julian Walker, Matt's brother has fantastically agreed to A B Walker sponsoring our boat and equipment, having been denied two Range Rover Sport support vehicles we have ordered via Marsport in Reading a new Carbon Kevlar construction Condor K2 (space for two of us) one paddling, one sleeping.

Julian has launched the just giving page at: http://www.justgiving.com/Canoe-Kings

Your generosity is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Matt and Lee

Why o why did I invite Matt Walker to my 40th!

In the beginning.............After much revellery courstesy of my wife organising a suprise 40th birthday party for me in May this year Matt Walker (who was then a good friend) remarked on leaving the party in the small hours that he and I would be entering the 2010, 125 mile Devizes to Westminster Canoe race (non stop).

Matt had been chatting most of the evening to another good friend, Simon Jeffs who had just completed the 2009 event with his friend and business partner Rob Gearing.

So in June 2009 we joined Reading Canoe Club (closer to Matt's house than mine).

Forgive the catch up reading, there have been some funny moments since we started, which I'll post, very few photgraphs on account of Matt never wanting to stop anywhere, some great support and encouragement from team at Reading Canoe Club and the odd yawn at home when I relay my data from the GPS heart rate monitor..............

THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF DOING THIS CRAZY RACE IS TO RAISE AN IMMENSE AMOUNT OF MONEY FOR THE HELP FOR HEROES CHARITY

Tough one Marlow to Runnymeade 1st November

Sunday 1st November, Marlow to Runnymeade

It has been a while since we have attempted a long run in the K2 together. On account if Lee doing not too badly this past Friday, he was in the front with the stick between his toes. We started at 08:44 having driven and dropped Matt's car in the car park at Runnymeade, which means we have to get back there. On the way back to Marlow the car is buffeted by the wind and it is lashing down with rain.

We set off just below Marlow lock and the conditions are just horrible, Matt is behind the Atkins bulk so at least he is sheltered, there are leaves everywhere which are soon jammed to the front of the boat and the spary off the bow is being driven into Lee's face by the wind, we pass another K2 heading upstream just below the Longridge scout camp, we think they mutter "another couple of DW loons"

This is a stretch which Lee knows well on account of his in-laws boat being moored in Cookham, our balance on this section is all wrong and we are really uncomfortable. We push on and reach the first portage at Cookham, the next section in the Cliveden reach is better and less exposed to the weather. Finally we reach Boulters Lock and thread the boat through a pedestrian tunnel below the lock which is not the correct route we later find out.

Maidenhead to Windsor the wind is in our face and blowing a gale, on turning the bend nearing Windsor, Windsor Castle looms:We comment it makes you proud to be British. Below Windsor bridge we have to keep hard right away from the weir, another portage and we eventually head out with Windor Great Park to our right, the wind is now cross river over our right shoulders and so strong we have to tuck in right under HRH's bank, we hope she won't mind as we accumulate ever more leaves and the boat feels stuck in the water.

Windsor Lock:

Finally after two more locks we end up in Magna Carta country and three bends later we see the car and the fishermen we left four hours ago.

Our time:

03:12:44, 19.08 miles, average speed 5.9 mph we hit a max of 9.3 mph at one point! avg heart rate 137 bpm and 1,757 calories burned!

That was one tough experience, Matt needed to shoot home so no chance to sample the coffee and picnic Lee had packed................another chunk of the Thames ticked off, if we do the same distance from Runnymeade we should reach the tidal lock at Teddington and the start of the tidal section.