Any good endurance athlete will say ..

With 100 metres left, there’s really no thinking, it’s just endurance and just focusing on the pain and trying to ignore the pain at the same time, which is a strange thing. You’ve got to focus on where the pain is and try to eliminate the feeling of fatigue and really just focus on maximizing each stroke, which is a difficult thing when everything’s on fire.

As far as the pain goes, you’ve got to keep pushing it or do I choose to relent and give in to my body’s reaction to working too hard?

The test of an endurance athlete is to push that limit and push that boundary and tell the body it’s got to sit tight a couple of minutes as you see how much you can do.

Any good endurance athlete will say that maintaining their form and their technique through those moments of pain and fatigue is probably the most key aspect to maintaining the speed. It’s really easy to break down the technique and not to be as snappy to return to the setup phase in the kayak stroke.

Adam van Koeverden, Oakville, Ontario, Toronto Star, 21 August 2008

k1-500m Final - 2004 Olympics
sportsscientists.com have a great post on Pacing strategy - how good pacing wins gold medals ..

Now, we know that in virtually every single type of sport, as soon as the event lasts between 3 and 5 minutes, the optimal pacing strategy is a fast start, then a slowing in the middle and an increase at the end, so that the two halves are close to even, but there is an "inverted U-shape" . This is why the first and final laps of mile and 1500m world records are significantly faster than the middle two laps.

When races are short, like a men's 400m or 800m run, or the men's 200m or 500m kayaking event, then it's different - the best strategy then is to go out hard and accept some kind of deterioration at the end of a race. Longer races, like men's 5000m and 10000m running events, the marathon, the Tour, all benefit from even pace, or even a slower start, with an 'endspurt' in the final kilometer. It's not co-incidence, for example, that in 24 of 25 World Records over 10,000m, the fastest kilometer has come at the very end of the race!

[..] for an event lasting 3 to 4 minutes, like the [..] K1 1000m kayak event, the optimal way to race is to hold reserve over the first half and then finish almost as fast as you begin. [..]

And we are not so different that each individual has an optimal pacing strategy. Yes, some are better at sustaining faster starts than others, some are better at kicking later in races. Much of this is psychological, I feel, but there are likely physiological reasons too. But these physiological differences are not so large that anyone can get away with vastly different strategies. For some reason, Germany have figured this out and are winning races that physiologically, they might otherwise have lost.

Takapuna Beach Cup 2011 - Pacific Dragons - Open Mixed (Sat 26 Feb 2011)

Takapuna Beach Cup 2011 - Pacific Dragons - Open Mixed - Google Doc (Sat 26 Feb 2011)
As previously indicated I was planning to participate in this years Takapuna Beach Cup, a 42 km changes outrigger race held on Sat 26 February.

Just back from a flying trip to Auckland. A fantastic event and one well worth planning to do at some stage. I am hoping that it will become a regular part of our calendar.

Here are the output from the two GPS's I had onboard. Firstly from my Locosys BT-31 (see here) which records it's position every second, and my Garmin Forerunner 301 (see here) which records every now and then (ie about every 10-20 sec). The Locosys gives a lot more detail.

No Stopping - Luca Turrini (Thu 30 Nov 2017)

No Stopping - Fremantle (Mon 27 Nov 2017)

Luca Turrini on No Stopping:

This has never been about breaking records. It has always been about doing something we love and help other people. And, maybe, just maybe in doing that, achieving something incredible and that is what we did today. And I think sometimes we don't believe we can do amazing things. That is what this is all about.

via Outrun Cancer by Tenplay.

Hall Of Fame - The Script feat. Will.I.Am (YouTube)

Hall Of Fame (*) - The Script (*) feat. Will.I.Am (*) - [Youtube (*)]
Hall Of Fame (feat. Will.I.Am)

Yeah, You could be the greatest
You can be the best
You can be the king kong banging on your chest

You could beat the world
You could beat the war
You could talk to God, go banging on his door

You can throw your hands up
You can beat the clock
You can move a mountain
You can break rocks
You can be a master
Don't wait for luck
Dedicate yourself and you can find yourself

Standing in the hall of fame
And the world's gonna know your name
Cause you burn with the brightest flame
And the world's gonna know your name
And you'll be on the walls of the hall of fame

You could go the distance
You could run the mile
You could walk straight through hell with a smile

You could be the hero
You could get the gold
Breaking all the records that thought never could be broke

Do it for your people
Do it for your pride
How you ever gonna know if you never even try?

Do it for your country
Do it for your name
Cause there's gonna be a day

When you're standing in the hall of fame
And the world's gonna know your name
Cause you burn with the brightest flame
And the world's gonna know your name
And you'll be on the walls of the hall of fame

Be a champion, Be a champion, Be a champion, Be a champion

On the walls of the hall of fame

Be students
Be teachers
Be politicians
Be preachers

Be believers
Be leaders
Be astronauts
Be champions
Be truth seekers

Be students
Be teachers
Be politicians
Be preachers

Be believers
Be leaders
Be astronauts
Be champions

Standing in the hall of fame
And the world's gonna know your name
Cause you burn with the brightest flame
And the world's gonna know your name
And you'll be on the walls of the hall of fame

(You can be a champion)
You could be the greatest
You can be the best
(You can be a champion)
You can be the king kong banging on your chest

(You can be a champion)
You could beat the world
You could beat the war
(You can be a champion)
You could talk to God, go banging on his door

(You can be a champion)
You can throw your hands up
You can beat the clock
(You can be a champion)
You can move a mountain
You can break rocks

(You can be a champion)
You can be a master
Don't wait for luck
(You can be a champion)
Dedicate yourself and you can find yourself

Standing in the hall of fame

Thanks Lisa - another great song (*). Remember it all starts with Belief (*) and all "the other stuff" (*) just looks after itself.

On Photography - No Caption Needed (Mon 20 Oct 2014)

Untitled - Paris (Thu 18 Sep 2014)
Lucaites (*) writes on Photography (*):

Any photograph is both more or less a record of what has happened, and more or less an artistically enhanced experience, both more or less empirical, and more or less interpretive, both more or less accurate, and more or less suggestive. The point here is that photographs –whether analogue or digital—operate in the interspace between reality and imagination. The camera records the surface of the world like no other instrument, but the truth of what is shown can be realized only through an act of imagination. Stated otherwise, the photograph is inherently not reducible to a simplistic realism, but is instead a heterogeneous object where different sources of meaning intersect, and the intersections are lodged in the formal design and explored through interpretation.

via A Realist Imagination (or is it An Imaginary Realism?) (*) by No Caption Needed (*).

Might have to read this a few times.

Favourite Photo: Col de Portet d'Aspet/France - Sep 2009 - Fabio Casartelli Memorial

Geoff and Joanne at Fabio Casartelli's Memorial - "we stumbled upon it by complete accident" – Col de Portet d'Aspet - Wed 23 Sep 2009 [1] (picasa)
Just a photo of Joanne and I at a Memorial in the Pyrenees in South West France. Sometimes photos are just records and keepsakes of events and moments in our lives. This is just one of those photos. The photo has a nice little touch [1] with the Shadows on the Wing of the Memorial. Some background ..

Tonight's Stage of the the 2010 Edition of the Tour de France starts in Pamiers and finishes in Bagnères-de-Luchon. Along the way it will pass through St-Girons (near St-Lizier).

Last September, we travelled much of tonight's route, but in the reverse direction. Along the way we stumbled across a Memorial for Fabio Casartelli on the Col de Portet d'Aspet. He was an Italian Bike Rider who died in a crash near the Memorial in the 1995 Edition of the Tour de France. Fabio was a member of Lance Armstrong's Motorola Team.

There is a moving account of the impact Fabio's death had on Armstrong in his book, It's not about the Bike. I read the account to Jenny twice in Hospital last year. If you read the account here, you will see it has also had an impact on me through all that has happened and the path that allowed us to stumble across the Memorial (the book does not even mention where it is located - so it was a sheer fluke that we "stumbled across it" - I knew what it was as soon as I saw it - just from the description in the book). I hope to go back at some stage. Though for now, I will make sure I am awake tonight as the Tour passes the Memorial.

[1] I would like to think the two shadows on the “Wings” of the Memorial represent the spirit of Jenny and her life as a twin with Joanne. There we are, Joanne and I, counterpoised by the twin shadows of the Joanne and Jenny. Jenny overlooks us and is there with us, Always.

Stage 15 Route Map - 2010 Tour de France - Mon 19 Jul 2010