I admit it. Thanks to the Boardmasters Storm I haven’t been out on the water today. I holed myself up in the gym and rowed 5000m. I split my session into 10 sets of 500m with a one minute rest period in between. Sounds easy right?
I set off like a jack out of the box, nailing a magnificently high stroke rate (for me at least) for about ten seconds before I falteringly slowed up (with thoughts of WTF?) and then tried my best to smash out the rest of my meters as quickly as possible. I heaved and puffed my way through all of my too-quick rest periods before heaving and puffing more through each increasingly painful set. At the end of 5000m I hauled my poor exhausted body up into a barely standing position and wobbled off shakily to seek redemption somewhere. I found it a short stagger away at the paper towel dispenser where I proceeded to mop down my desecrated yet perhaps slightly fitter body and finally got my breath back. It got me thinking. Do you train efficiently?
Not all of us want to enter races or be the quickest paddler on the water. You also don’t need to be an athlete, have a coach or have a “training programme”. However, if you enjoy SUP and are interested in increasing your health and fitness then becoming a little more focussed over how you SUP can pay dividends. Welcome to the geeky but relevant world of energy systems.
Two main systems exist within the body which produce the energy you need during exercise: the aerobic and the anaerobic energy systems. Which system you use depends largely on the intensity and duration of your SUP sessions together with your overall fitness level. Longer, low to moderate-intensity exercise will predominantly use the aerobic system whilst shorter, higher intensity exercise will predominantly use your anaerobic system. All three systems work together to replenish a substance called adenosine triphosphate (ATP) which is critical for energy production and indeed for every cellular process within the body.
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SHADENFREUDE
TEST REPORTS
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Magical. Mystical. Epic.
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