In this current block of training all of my physical sessions are just geared around going FAST and making the boat get up to speed quickly from a standing start. From the data we have of recorded 20m sprint times I’ve matched the record and become one of the very few C1 paddlers to reach a sub 7 second time, so already the speed work we’re doing is paying off!

I’ve continued to wear my overnight lenses to correct my short sightedness and now I think I’ve made the full adaption which is great. Being able to see properly for all of my sessions has been great, especially with trying to learn the subtleties of the Olympic courses waves and other features.

I’ve made a semi move to London so now I’m operating out of a base there and a base in Nottingham. My coaching and support services still remain predominantly in Nottingham which means I do need to be here still most weeks but with a room in London as well now I will be spending the majority of my time down there.

Training in London has been great, I’m really enjoying every second I’m spending on that course and I’m finding that the hard physical work I’ve put in already  this winter has really paid off and I’m finding that I can really just focus on the technical element of paddling there and just learning the place inside out.

So the domestic season has come to an end now, I managed to improve my ranking a little in the last few races to finish 2nd senior and 1st U23 overall for the year (out of a series of 9 races, with people best 5 results counting).

I was very happy with this. Over the last 3 years I have gone 4-3-2, so next year (especially with it being an Olympic year) I hope to continue that upward trend and get that number 1 spot!

I started my winter training on November 1st. It's all hard work now until a short rest period over Christmas and New Year before restarting my 2012 campaign in January.

My first week was very hard, the first one always is after a bit of a break at the back end of summer. I like to have a bit of a break before starting winter training; I find I'm always so motivated and excited to get started. 

My week now consists of: 8 paddling sessions, 4 gym sessions, 2 land-based conditioning sessions, and 1 gymnastic based gym session. It's very intense but I'm really enjoying it and I'm feeling good.

I'm excited to see what benefits are going to come to the addition of a lot more functional/gymnastic type strength exercises coming into the gym program.

The times were really tight in both categories with only a 4,33sec gap between the leader Daniele Molmenti (ITA) and the last man to get in, in K1, and 4,09sec between Stanislav Jezek (CZE) and the 15th in C1 man. So no place for big mistakes!!

Campbell Walsh (GBR) was the best NELO, placing 4th, 1,19sec away from the leader.

Carles Juan Marti (ESP) placed 29th less than 1sec from the 21th, Huw Swetnam (GBR) didn't had a good day placing 45th and the young Pedro Henrique "Pepe" (BRA) placed 49th.

Today it's time for the K1 W and the C2. The races just started.

Good luck everyone

Watch on NELO TV

Starting with the youngest Nerea Fernandez (ESP) ended up in 15th place on K1 W Junior and 11th place on C1 W Junior.

Still with the Spanish team Xabier Jauregui on K1 Junior, after an awsome 2nd run in the heats got a 50sec penalty and placed 20th. On the teams event placed 4th after being on the lead.

David Bain (GBR) on K1 Junior, was flying down the course looking forward to the medals when he got stuck on the last two gates, being 10th. Later on he would be again 10th on the teams event.

Adam Burguess (GBR) on C1 U23, made it to 13th after a small mistake that let him really close to the final. On the teams event he was 2nd after a great performance. He also raced in C2 ending up in 14th place on the single event and 3rd place on the teams event.

Joe Morley (GBR) and Ekhi Diez (ESP) on K1 U23, haven't found the way to ride faster on the course, a race that was really tight, standing in 24th place and 36th place, respectively. While in the teams event Joe took the 6th place and Ekhi the 15th.

Nuria Vilarrubla (ESP), on the photo, took the best result for NELO in all the events, ending up in 2nd place on C1 W U23, after being badly sick on the days before. This was the first medal for NELO in a European and hopefully the first of many others.

Congratulations Nuria. Congratulations to everyone you all did it well, best race for NELO in the slalom scene. This results showed that we are on the good way and looking forward for better results.

Next week NELO will be in Lee Valey for the Olimpic Test Event.

See you there

BOSNIA PRE EUROPEANS

The time has come where the Junior and U23 GB teams have returned to Bosnia. Thankfully the river is staying at a consistent level now, not like in our training camp, where the water rose each day from 25 cumecs to 200, which was challenging to say the least with gates having to be risen every 5 minutes. The course has been altered very little since I was last here, and although it is not the most technical river out there, I am still thoroughly looking forward to racing, which starts with my individual and team qualification races on Thursday.

And yes, it’s a little hot, 40+ deg c :O :O :O

PADDLING MY NEW PYRANHA VARUN AND CARBON FREERIDE BLADES AT HPP

As my training started to dip for racing, and "hot" weather visiting the UK I decided it was about time to get comfortable in my Varun, before I get on larger rivers in central Europe in 3 weeks time. I really enjoyed paddling the boat down river, its a lot faster than other play boats of its type, yet also carves nicely on a wave as well as it being playful in a hole. It really is ace for all round paddling, which is exactly what I intend to do in Austria, Slovinia and Switzerland.

The carbon blades were also great; I am still using the Freeride blade design, which as I said in a previous review are nice strong, powerful blades. The carbon blades are quite a lot lighter, making them more similar to my slalom blades.

BOURG ST MAURICE

A few weeks back I had a camp in Bourg, which is by far my favourite course! It’s just amazing big powerful water that really tests every paddler. After a hard week training it came to the race day. Unfortunately my first run did not go to plan with a 50 given and unfortunately as second runs were cancelled I did not get another chance to qualify however the week was still very valuable.

On that evening myself and Tom Brady decided to go for a light run to ARK 1600, which is abut 15km up and the same down We reached ARK 1600 in good time, so we decided to continue to ARK 2000, only another 15km up. We did reach ARK 2000, after a good 30kms and climbing over 1300 meters. Unfortunately once we approached the top the weather closed in with wet snow and sleet. We both got rather cold rather quickly so a quick decent to lower ground, and a lift down the rest of the mountain with blankets and glucose powder from our coach was greatly appreciated.

David
http://davidpbain.blogspot.com/ 

I attacked the final run and was happy with my effort so I was initially surprised to be almost 2 seconds slower, a 99.9. On reflection, I probably lost several small amounts of time in comparison to the first run - I still need to check on the Dartfish head-to-head video analysis.

So, I finished in 4th place. A very good result, but I was frustrated I didn't put together a better run to get onto the podium. Kauzer dominated the event, winning by a large margin with fellow Slovenian Meglic 2nd. German Schubert was on the World Cup podium for the first time in 3rd.

Remember, you can watch all the race action online at ICF TV.

Away from K1, David Florence got us a listen to the national anthem by storming down the course and winning the C1 event.

I'm already in the hotel for this week's training camp at the World Championship venue, Bratislava. I'm skipping World Cup 2 in France as the race is reserved for the GB U23 team. Then I'll be back competing at WC3 in Leipzig, Germany, the following week. Looking forward to that one, as I've never been there yet.

Campbell Walsh
http://www.campbellwalsh.com/news.php?page=398 

Depois de 5 horas de viajem(italia-Slovenia) cheguei em tacen, uma das pistas de canoagem mais conhecidas no mundo por sua queda enorme na logo na largada.

Bom, meu primeiro contato com a pista foi um pouco confuso, não sabia ao certo qual linha pegar e estava ainda me adaptando ao novo barco e remo! posso dizer que tomei muita "porrada" no "Pancadão" existe 2 linhas na largada, a da direita que você pega um refluxo e pode se perder nele, e a da direita: que primeiro te deixa cego com a água na cara e e depois te leva muito perto de um muro e faz parecer que vai bater! é normal eu ficar um pouco "perdido"na pista pois é minha primeira vez aqui e a maioria dos atletas já vieram aqui ao menos 10 vezes! Estou muito Feliz com meu final de treino, muitos acertos e uma navegação tranqüila!

Estou também muito feliz com meu novo Barco Nelo modelo 2011, uma boa saída de remonta, uma boa navegação e muito fácil nas manobras rápidas são uns das qualidades!

Amanha temos nosso 2 e ultimo treino! Sábado classificaria, Domingo Semi e Final! Muito Obrigado a todos que torcem por mim !!! Fé em Deus e Foco no objetivo !

Abraços
Pedro Henrique

http://pepecanoe.blogspot.com/2011/06/1-etapa-copa-do-mundo-de-canoagem.html