Training - the build up.

None of us has done a lot of kayaking (I did two days on an outwardbound course back in the 70s but nothing since) so one of the first things we did was register for an introductory course with Milton Keynes Canoe Club (MKCC). Andy Nash (who works for Affiniti with Liz, Gary and myself) is a coach there and has been a fantastic help to get us up and paddling. The photo shows Tony, Gordon and Nigel getting on the water for the first time at the MKCC open day on May 5th, the course started the following Friday.

We're doing formal lessons with Andy on Friday evenings and 'free paddling' on Tuesday evenings. The aim for Tuesdays is now to concentrate on endurance training, I'm concerned that we're currently only averaging just over 3 miles an hour and we have two days where we have to paddle 31 miles, i.e. 10 hours paddling if we go at our current rate! The saving grace is that we're paddling with the current on the Thames which will give us an extra 1 - 2 mph.

The links below take you to a site called Motion Based and show some of our training sessions, as tracked by a Garmin GPS. I'll be taking it with me on the main trip and expect to upload our tracks on a daily basis (technology permitting!). There's an option on the left to 'Export to Google Earth', click it and then select 'Open', it will then automatically open Google Earth and overlay our route on the satellite image - fantastic! If I can work out how to embed the files it creates in this blog I will do so, but I would strongly recommend you try it, it really is good even in areas where the resolution of the satellite image isn't particularly high - where it is high, it's amazing.

If you go to the 'Map Player' tab on teh Motion Based link, you can replay our route (identifying pub stops, unexpected 360's etc.) - you may be prompted to download an Adobe module (SVC?) before it will work the first time.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/accept.mb?senderPk.pkValue=6772&unitSystemPkValue=2&episodePk.pkValue=887865

This link is for the following Tuesday:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/accept.mb?senderPk.pkValue=6772&unitSystemPkValue=2&episodePk.pkValue=929298

And this link is for the cycle ride Tony and I went on today - which I accept is a bit late in the day with less than two weeks to go:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/accept.mb?senderPk.pkValue=6772&unitSystemPkValue=2&episodePk.pkValue=929299