Day 2 of the house re-arrangethon has come and gone. Another successful day behind us.
Today we finished painting one of our rooms, moved a bunch of furniture into our children's new rooms and went to the hardware store and left with about half of it. You know you are in the middle of a big weekend when you are pushing two big trolleys out of the store and one of the employees says to you 'I don't envy your weekend'. Ummm, thanks.
Sitting here in the middle of our big weekend we are in the strange situation of being very satisfied with how much we have achieved so far but also a bit overwhelmed with how much is left to go. Loads to go, but so far so good, certainly one of those one step at a time type scenarios.
Besides furthering the chaos that is currently our home the day has included a few other activities.
Firstly I headed out for a paddle on the board. Training today was a bit of a tempo session. With paddling I adopt exactly the same training philosophy as I use for triathlon, every session has a point. Monday was recovery, Tuesday was threshold, Wednesday was steady volume, today was tempo and tomorrow will be more steady volume. A mix of sessions to make sure I am working all aspects of my physiology, but no session wasted.
After my paddle I actually headed out for another paddle. Strange I hear you say but this paddle was actually different to my first paddle in that it was in a surfski rather than on a board.
Many lifetimes ago, before I started triathlon I used to paddle kayaks. In the years since then I have moved on most of my boats, but I have held onto one in case I wanted to paddle again. When I tore my AC joint in 2015 I thought my kayaking days were done as I found that it tended to irritate my shoulder joint. I kept the boat, but didn't have any great plans for it.
Since 2015 though I have done a heap of shoulder work and this week I started wondering if it would stand up to a paddle. I figured it was time to find out so I organised with a mate to head out on the skis this morning.
The paddle went surprisingly well. It is funny how strong muscle memory is. By the time I had been paddling for 5 minutes it was like I had never left. Sure the muscles were sore (and will be tomorrow I suspect), but the technique slotted straight back in. The paddle was neither far or fast, but it was lots of fun and so far my shoulder has not complained a peep. Definitely something that is going to happen more often.
The swim tomorrow and the surfski paddle today has made me a bit more determined to get in a bit of cross training this winter.
With triathlon I was always so focused that I never really let myself do other sports. Cross training is successfully used in the off season by many athletes, but it didn't really feature in my plans too often. However, the past few months has shown me just how effective paddling can be as swim training and I am sure that isn't the only area in which I could cross train. Riding and running are great general fitness sessions as well as being important for triathlon. I suspect ski paddling will be very beneficial for swimming too.
The beauty of doing some cross training is that it allows you to keep working on your sport, but also have a break and do something different for a while. Doing something different can help you maintain fitness but also build strength in different areas. Building strength in these different areas can help you long term by building resilience as well as helping you correct any strength imbalances you might have. More importantly a bit of cross training can give you a break from your normal routine and recharge a bit mentally. Letting you get to the next season mentally refreshed and ready to go. I think it is one of these things that you don't want to overdo, but used in moderation I can see it being a very useful addition to off season training.
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