New Ventures

Something a bit new today, or at least an old thing that I haven't done for a very long time. Today I had a bit of a race.

Now, it wasn't anything too exciting and it was on a paddleboard rather than a bike, but it was sort of fun to take part in an event again.

Wait a second I hear you say, really, racing, is that wise?

Well, normally I would say no, but this event was less of a race and more of a participation event, a bit like a Park Run. The idea for these events is that you nominate a time and then you try and see how close you can get to it. I figured an event like that was reasonably safe as I was only really racing myself. It worked pretty well.

Still, it was great taking part in a race atmosphere again. The buzz of it. Actually, it was kind of cool because it was a very low key affair, so there wasn't really any nerves or anything like that. So that was nice.

While the 'race' was very different to a triathlon some things were still the same. I wasn't surprised to see that lots of people didn't warm up. This is a classic thing in triathlon, watch the start of a triathlon and see how many people properly warm up. It is very few. People seem to have this perception that because the race is so long there is no benefit in getting warm first. I have heard others say they don't want to tire themselves out, like 10 minutes spent warming up before a Half Ironman is going to fatigue them. If it is, then they should probably be thinking twice about doing the race.

In the end, what ever the race, you are going to be asking your body to go from static to full bore in a very short period of time. It is always going to be able to do that more effectively if you have warmed it up first. Having a proper warm up first is going to mean that you will race better, simple as that/. Still, it was interesting to see that the reluctance to warm up exists across different sports.

Another thing that was the same between the paddle board race this morning and triathlon is the importance of pacing. Over the course of today I ended up passing a few people simple because I controlled my pacing a bit better. Going out hard can feel really good, particularly if it puts you at the front of the pack, but if that pace is not sustainable then all you are doing is hurting yourself. Choosing a sustainable pace and then sticking with it is always going to see get a better result at the end, and have more fun on the way, whether the race is 30 minutes long or 10 hours.

There were a few other similarities that stuck out, like the importance of technique and efficiency, particularly as the fatigue sets in, the difference that equipment selection can make and why it is important to race to the conditions. However, one of the other really important things that was similar was that just like most triathlon crowds, the paddling crowd down at the event today were very nice and really welcoming which made the event a load of fun. And in the end that is the point.