How To Train For Long Distance Canoe Race?

The training program for marathon canoe racing aims to build muscular strength and endurance through exercises specific to paddling. The program is designed to last 8 weeks, with a frequency of three. The Olympic canoe racers use an upright body stance, allowing for maximum force with straight arms over short sprints.

Carter Johnson, a surfski and kayak racer, provides training tips for this program. A systematic, structured, and progressive training plan will help you race faster, get more fit, and suffer fewer injuries.

The training methods include long distance training (10-40km) with constant speed, maintaining a heart rate of 120-150 beats per Olympic flat-water canoeing. The Canoe Marathon can feature different ways of starting the race, but at the World Championships, a held start is used. Each week, you will build up by adding more intervals, less rest in-between intervals, or longer distance. After 3 or 4 weeks of build, have a resteasy week before building more on your last set of intervals and distance.

THR sessions focus on short sharp bursts of paddling, where you paddle with about 80% of the effort that would for a flat out sprint. Water craft sports like rowing, canoeing, and kayaking require a high level of technical skill, upper-body and core strength, and endurance. If your race involves open water paddling for 4 miles, make that part of the training in different conditions, such as onshore.

Skills training includes mastering the basic strokes of canoe and kayak handling, mastering the foundations of canoe and kayak handling, and overcoming monotony and pain during the sprint to the finish.