Answer: Good. You have a year. You should be able to do this as you already have experience with longer races. The main trick is to keep yourself under control. A year is a long time. When faced with a year to train, too many paddlers go nuts like a kid in a candy store. Around December or January they panic that they are not ready..go nuts…blow themselves up and they show up at the start line (if they make it there without injuring themselves)  completely cracked.

You are not going to do this.

Step 1: Get a calendar. Lay out the training year. You need to follow the chapter in periodization closely. Most of the year will be spent recovering from this year and laying a base foundation. Your goal is race day. Do not worry about your high end fitness in February. it is totally OK to get dropped on every paddle. It is OK to finish last in every race you enter. February is base training season.

Step 2: Build your base . That starts this year. Even though you can paddle year round it does not mean you should. Consider taking a break. A REAL FREAKING BREAK in October, November or December. Put down the paddle. Step away from the water for 2 weeks. If you need to, shackle yourself to the bed. Just stay out of the water.  For another 2 weeks go surfing or swimming or whatever you want to do to cross train but only pick up your paddle 1x per week. This is not a time to get fat and sloppy. Keep active and unstructured. Stay on top of your diet but do not let paddling be your focus. After a month you are going to be hungry to paddle. The bottom will not fall out.

Step 3: Base means base . Long and slow means long and slow. The bigger your base. The longer you will be able to hold your peak and less like you will botch things on race day. A Get a heart rate monitor and do not go over your level 2 heart rate. Do lots of miles. This is also  the time to get your sufing in. When you start your build toward race day, I dont care if the sickest swell since 1972 hits. You are going to need to control yourself and stick to the program and not go adding in surf sessions with the boys. You are free to cross train and do gym work during your base training. This is a great time to do strength work in the gym. Once a week go do some paddle intervals with your buddies or have a hammer session and paddle your brains out. You probably won’t be able to over cook things too bad with one hammer session a week and it will help to keep your brain in order.

Step 4: 16 weeks out from race day – follow our Molokai program: Stick to the program.

Step 5: If you find yourself in a hole – stop digging. If you want to maximize your training for a big race training will not always be “fun.”  In many cases you will be training alone on some of your big training sessions. Remember – follow your heart rate.

In most cases members of a group have different fitness/strength levels and it is impossible to always train as a group because the slower person will overtrain. This type of training can be boring and sticking to a program can feel like work. You can expect to feel tired and start questioning things at times. That may become your new normal. Get used to it but if you are feeling like you are getting overtrained – listen to your body and do not be a slave to your heart rate monitor. If something seems out of whack (e.g. you cannot get your heart rate up or your heart rate is really high and you are not going hard) figure out what is wrong. You may be overtrained.

If you find yourself in a hole – stop digging. Do not be afraid to dial things back and take extra recovery from time to time. it is better to show up at Molokai 10% undertrained than 1% overtrained.

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