K2 paddle time trial improvements

For the past few weeks I've been doing our Tuesday paddle time trial at our Likkewaan Canoe Club in a K2 with my friend Sylvi. She's a very good paddler and we'll be doing a canoe triathlon together on Sunday 7 May at Rietvlei in Centurion. 8km paddle, 20km mtb and 5km run.

My first two time trials in the K2 felt quite unstable - not terribly bad but not comfortable either. I hadn't been in a K2 for a long time and not one this fast before either. By our third session, last week, I was a lot more settled and tonight even more so. It is a good thing because we're probably in for a lot of turbulence at the race.

Last week we bettered our time by a few seconds and tonight we took 20 seconds off our first lap and finished 30-odd seconds faster than last week - even with a bit of chatting on the second lap. Last week and this week we didn't have anyone in front of us to chase so we're still chuffed to have maintained pace. Paddling with Sylvi has definitely made me focus more and she's working me over nicely with a fast cadence.

I'm really enjoying our sessions and improving each week in speed and synchronicity is satisfying.

Photo taken after tonight's time trial.

Sylvi and I did a 35km mtb ride together on Sunday afternoon and we had a good ride. We'll be nice and warm for the 5km run on race day.

Celliers will be doing the paddle tri with Ruben, who is turning 9 in August. They rode the 35km route on Sunday too - taking 30 minutes off their time from the week before. The smaller wheels of Ruben's bike on the rough road make it a far harder ride for him than for us - and he was still trying to bounce over bumps near the finish. He should cruise the 20km distance of the race. Ruben is paddling really well too and he loves being in the K2 with his dad. He has also been coming more often to parkrun too. He was only a few minutes behind Celliers this past Saturday. The boys will have a good one.