When you’re in the middle of the competitive season it still doesn’t hurt to do periodic dry land testing as a means to assess strength and power maintenance, however the most important testing should be done on the water. When I was paddling on the National Team in C1 we used to test regularly, and at certain times of the year we’d test weekly on the water. Even workouts that weren’t tests per se, were often performed over marked courses in controlled conditions so we could gather data that was useful in both assessing progress and training state (fatigue levels, etc.). I discussed one of those workouts in last week’s Tip of the Week.
Most of the testing we did were simply time controls over race distance (500m or 1000m). You can certainly perform the same tests for SUP if you want. It won’t hurt you and it might be a great way to track your speed endurance development and assess your preparation for the two to three minute sprint to the first buoy in races. However a more appropriate test for SUP might be another one we frequently did for canoe, usually early in the season, over 2000m or 2 km.
2000m is a great distance to test. In canoe a top-level athlete is going to do it between 8:30 and 9:00. Even the best athletes in the world aren’t able to go much longer than 2 minutes using anaerobic metabolism exclusively, so it is great for testing high-level aerobic power. In order to do a really fast 2000m time in this test you need to manage your early anaerobic-alactic effort, settle into the maximum pace that you can travel using aerobic metabolism (i.e. travel just below your anaerobic threshold) and then know when to resume anaerobic effort late in the test so that you hit the finish line just as you’ve maxed out and are about to blow up from accumulation of high blood lactate.
If the very top racers were to do this test on a SUP board my guess is they would do a time between 11:00 and 11:45. My personal best so far is 11:27. An excellent time that isn’t quite world class would be 12:00. Many will struggle to go under 13:00. The approach on a SUP board should be much like it is when doing it in a C1, it’s just that you’ll be travelling a little longer aerobically in the middle section of the test. It’s still a question of maximizing aerobic travelling speed and the amount that you can do anaerobically without accumulating deleterious amounts of blood lactate too soon. If you consider someone doing the test in 12:00 and the fact that most people can’t go longer than 2:00 to 2:15 anaerobically without failing, then the energy profile of the test for that person is:
Anaerobic-alactic: 15 seconds/720 seconds x 100 = 2%
Anaerobic-lactic: 120 seconds/720 seconds x 100 = 17%
Aerobic: 585 seconds/720 seconds x 100 = 81%
If it takes someone longer to do the 2000m than 12:00, then the aerobic contribution will be even greater. Any test that relies this much on aerobic metabolism is a great test for SUP paddlers racing distances of 5 miles or more. However the beauty of doing a 2000m time control instead of a 5 mile test is that it is much easier to repeat and control.
Consider how difficult it is to find a 5-mile stretch of water than isn’t affected by wind, currents or tides. Finding a 2000m stretch of water isn’t always easy, but at just a little over a mile it is certainly easier to find than 5 miles. I can’t stress enough the importance of controlled conditions for your testing. If you want to compare results from test to test in a meaningful way, you need to know that conditions are as consistent as possible from test to test. You want to test yourself and changes in your paddling ability, not the strength of the wind or the amount of tide.
The other reason I think 2000m is a great distance is that as it only takes approximately 12 to 13 minutes or so to complete it doesn’t fatigue you too much when you do the test. The physical toll it takes on you to do an all out 2000m shouldn’t be a lot different than the physical toll of a normal workout. In fact, we used to do 2-3 x 2000m with about 10 minute rest each time we tested. Doing the test repeatedly actually tests your ability to recover from a hard effort and handle a larger volume of hard work. Those are both useful abilities for a SUP racer. Now that I am older and training SUP exclusively I regularly do 2 x 2000m.
Whether you choose to use 2-3 x 2000m as your test or choose a different yet similar distance, this week’s Tip of the Week is to do regular time controls as part of your training to both assess your progress and monitor the affect your training program is having on you. If you test regularly you’ll know what your performance should be and when you see a deviation from your performance norm it can give you valuable insight into the effectiveness of your training program. A performance decline can be an early indication of cumulative fatigue from training and a sign to cut back while an improvement can be an indication that you are rounding into peak form. The point is, if you don’t test regularly you miss the opportunity to acquire this information.
Scout out the water near you and see if you can find a suitable stretch of water, which regularly has neutral conditions, as a course to test on. Then build regularly scheduled time controls into your program. You’ll find that it’s fun to track your progress, that it will help you set goals, and will provide you with valuable information on your training. Give it a try!
