Varsities: Marathon preparation

[HelenaC]

"you're not going to come last.... HE'S going to come last"
*cormflakes points at the second guy in the neighbouring boat*

[Douchier]

Training does sound cool.

I see it having two important levels.

1: On one level, we rarely paddle long boats so any chance we can get to become comfortable in them and learn to paddle them properly is going to be really useful.

2: Fitness and technique.

If there are any dates this week/next week/ anytime that people are up for a larger day where we could head to the dodder and bring anyone interested to try themselves out in all the boats going then stick your names and dates down.

If a few people want to train any time then stick it up or arrange it amongst yourselves and go training!
The more training that we can get in from right now the better.

If you go out, please stick it up on the board, it'll be nice to see what people are doing and also be nice encouragement for others.

If you do this you'll need to fill out borrowing forms, no biggie.


this is a category where we can do really well and really get a lot of points from (it's worth more than the rest).
If we put in the effort now then it'll really pay off.

[Niall Finch]

Meself andd Cormac are heading out on the Dodder today, we'll be meeting at the boathouse at half two

[Douchier]

nice one!

Can I come?

yurss!

[CormacR]

Can I come?

I suppose

[HelenaC]

Liffey on sunday anyone?

how much of a flat section is on the dodder like? i mean, can you get a good bit of speed up for a km or two at least?

[kmck]

Have you thought about the canal long flat sections ideal for training smells of pee under the bridges though.

[HelenaC]

Liffey is so much closer, and if its gonna be on the shannon we may aswell get used to paddling in flow, be it with, against or both....

[MarieH]

I'll be around Sunday, the morning would be good.

[Maryanne]

Liffey is so much closer, and if its gonna be on the shannon we may aswell get used to paddling in flow, be it with, against or both....

Fair point Helena! Great idea

Dodder training is still good, and handy for breaks between lectures since you can walk out there.
Once transport is available etting out to the Liffey would let you train over a longer distance.
As for the canal, if a group have gotten as far as having enough transport to go off campus they may as well go to the Liffey since the canal is so gross.

[Douchier]

Dodder training is very good for getting used to new boats and I encourage anyone that can to get down there asap to do it. it's only a 250m stretch though so it's hard to get a rhythm going for serious training.

Liffey training is good, and could be very good at a weekend. From experience I found that trying to get organised and get across town to get out there takes up a lot of time and that when that's taken into account it seems much harder to justify.

The Canal is a good compromise. even in traffic it's not too far from UCD. The stretch from Portabello lock to Suir Road lock back to Portabello is a 6km uninterrupted loop (ie. same as varsities) and you can really get into it and get good training.

From a practical point of view, we could leave some of the boats in my garden which is within walking distance of the canal and people could come train when they want to?

That way you could get the distance in without having to try organise transport for boats and people out to the liffey.

Any takers.


FYI - it doesn't stink at this time of year.

[Maryanne]

That sounds class

[Douchier]

just to clarify there;

I think that we should go to the Dodder initially and go to the canal and go to the Liffey.

the more that we can get more people doing more training the better.

[HelenaC]

I'm also talking about a different section of a different canal, which isnt quite so yocky (now that its open for use again after the sewage contamination last september that is... lol, urban waterways are minging!!)


im not available for any daytime paddling except on weekends, so any evening paddling will be considered.... (i also dont think fancy pointy boats could be put on my racks... dont wanna break em like!)

[Nuala]

Have they finished dredging the stretch near us?