GB Team Training

I remember writing in my last post 'the Hurley season has started'. Well, 4 days later it promptly stopped again, and I hung my playboat up for another few weeks. I was planning to keep fit by going to the gym etc, but it didn't happen - I got a cold, I had to do work, I had to go shopping after work, it was too cold to leave the house etc. etc. excuses, excuses (very poor ones as the gym is just across the road from my front door!)

I was all ready though for a weekend of Team Training at Holme Pierreont this w/e, and it looked like the temperature was rising to a reasonably paddleable level. However, with the bearable temperature came a whole load of rain - fantastic... but not for paddling at Nottingham. Hurley was on 2 and rising, the rivers were all pumping and damn it, I was driving 2 and 1/2 hours to go to an artificial course. Upon arriving at Nottingham I found the course was flooded (washed out, very brown and smelling bad), and everyone was thinking of going to Hurley (back where I'd just driven from). Arrrgh! We made the best of the day at Nottingham though, without doing any proper on-water training. We did a morning gym session (no excuses allowed this time!), and learnt a few new helpful exercises - for which my body is now paying. A few laps of the course in our boats for fitness training - without letting any of the ammonia-ripe water enter our mouths. Followed by a good session on rules with Stu Morris - those that hadn't done any judging, and even those of us that had, found out how useful it is to critically look at another person's ride to see whether the moves would be scored or not.

The decision was then finalised to head to Hurley for Sunday - which was going to be on a stonking 4 gates. Excellent. It was a strange level, but good fun, and of course good to be back in the boat and on the water. Gate 1 was flat and not very retentive, but gates 2 and 3 were good for some big loops if you could get on top of the pile and plug it in with the right speed and angle (unfortunately this didn't happen too often with me- especially in the afternoon session when I was getting cold and tired). I wish I had taken my camera - it turned out to be a sunny day (thankfully, as the water was really cold) and I could have practiced some photography when the queue got too long! Already the water level is dropping fast (it rained for 2 days then stopped), so I'm hoping to get it on a good 3 gates this week before it drops back down to 1.

I'm sure it is going to be a winter where Hurley will run irregularly and probably rarely at weekends, so when it does it will be busy. However, I'm going to be finishing work in 2 weeks 1 day (and counting...) so Hurley during the week and creek boating at the weekends, and then 4 weeks in Uganda in Jan/Feb. Can't wait!