Boston Head Race and 5km ergo trial!

So after finally recovering from the horrendous cold that hit me on 9^th January I was back training with my squad in Nottingham by the 14^th. I had been entered into the Boston Head race whilst I was away as this race was a 5km water race which was the exact same route as what we have to do for the 5km water trials. Having a trial on 15^th February this was going to be a great chance to practice the course some more and get my head around planning the best and quickest route for the trial.

The weather wasn’t too bad, yes very cold but it luckily didn’t rain on the second division which I was in. The paddle up to the start went okay but for some reason I was on the water for a total of 90mins BEFORE I even started to race! I got very cold and the warm up paddle to the start seemed pointless now. It was as though you had just got in your boat and was forced to race straight away – not ideal.

The race went well except for taking the bend far too tight which made my blade get caught in the mud at the edge of the riverbank so I came to a stop L I got straight back on it and am now confident in the route I will take for the 5km water trial. I am so pleased I made this mistake on this race and not on an important trial where every second counts!

 

 

The following Wednesday (22^nd January) our coach had decided for the squad to complete the 5km ergo test required for trials. I was very apprehensive about this as I hadn’t done much preparation on the ergo other than long, low rate distances. I needed to make the cut off time of 19:40.0 to progress along the U23 route. I knew this was achievable as my PB at this point was 19:25.3 and I knew I was much better than when I did that so I went out to achieve the senior cut off time of 19:10.0. I had a sensible plan in my head which I was going to stick to. When we started I felt very relaxed and got straight into a solid rhythm making my plan seem very achievable. I was under all my target splits throughout and somehow managed to still squeeze it on massively for the last 1km. My final time was 19:06.6 J YAY I had done better than I set out to do and was over the moon. This was a fantastic birthday present to myself…yes I had to do a 5km ergo test on my birthday!

Now I have another tick in the box and can fully focus for the 5km water trial on 15^th February. The next few weeks will consist of me training hard to improve my water technique along with watching what I eat; I may have had a little bit too much birthday cake…lightweight problems suck!