How Training Programs Work for Kayak and Surf Ski Paddlers

Ever wondered how a training program is built? In this post I break down how we plan a program for kayak and surf ski paddlers, and how that plan helps you perform at a higher level at your next event.

Start from the top: now and your goal event

Every program starts with two points: where you are now, and your goal event. The time between them is the length of the plan.

Between now and the main event there will usually be smaller events along the way. Those create natural blocks in the plan. These blocks would also be a specific length of time we need to work on some performance variable.

What goes into each block

What goes into each block depends on two things: the performance requirements of the event, and the athlete’s current level in each of those requirements. Is it an endurance event or a sprint event? The components of performance might include:

• Aerobic capacity
• VO2 max
• Speed
• Power
• Strength
• Skills

We want to get a gauge of where the athlete is at in each of these. Those components of performance create the blocks we need to build on to perform at the end goal.

General first, specific later

Generally speaking, we start general. Early in the program we work on things like strength and endurance, the base fitness we need to build on. If you’re an endurance paddler training for a long-distance event, you still keep a little bit of speed in your program.

As we move through the program towards the goal event, the training gets more specific. Close to the event, your training starts to look more and more like the event you’re about to compete in.

The blocks also need to be built around other events, work, study and seasonality. If you live somewhere that gets really cold in winter, you might change the volume based on the outdoor environment so the program is still achievable.

The ladder concept

I like to think of performance as a ladder. Each rung is a different level of performance: beginner at the bottom, international at the top. As you get better at paddling, you step up the ladder.

Each component of performance sits on a rung. As those components move up, there might be one or two that haven’t moved up to the next rung yet. Those are the things we work on early in the program, to get them up to the level that will help you meet your goal.

Then, over future programs, we keep stepping up, bringing up the level of each of those components.

Developing a load plan

Once we have the overall plan and the blocks (block one, block two, block three, block four), we need to work out what each block looks like week by week, Monday through to Sunday.

Before we get to what each week looks like, we need a load plan. If every week looked the same, that would be a mistake. The load would be too consistent, and we wouldn’t be building recovery and stress into the program as we move through it.

The traditional four-week block

Traditionally, we start with the first week as the initial week, build on it for three weeks, then come back to the level of the first week. The first week of the next phase starts at the level of the second week of the first phase, and we build up from there. That keeps the program load on an upwards trend. Ie progressive overload.

That’s a traditional four-week progressive overload block. I typically use it earlier in the program, while we’re building up into a base load.

Low week, high week

There are other ways to do it. For example, we could alternate: low week, high week, low week, high week. I’d generally use this later in the program, as the training gets more specific, because it works really well for alternating recovery and high intensity.

Designing the training week

Once we’ve developed the load plan, or periodisation, we move into the weekly structure:

• What days of the week are we going to train?
• How does that match the load planned for that week?
• Where are the days we can’t train because of work or other commitments?

Hard sessions early, endurance later

It’s also important to build fatigue through the week. We want the high-intensity, highly fatiguing sessions, like speed or threshold, early in the week, and endurance typically later.

That’s because when we’re tired we can still train endurance, but we can’t train speed and threshold as well as we can when we’re fresh. So we structure the week to be fresh for the hard sessions, and we can be a little more tired for the longer L2 endurance sessions.

What that might look like:

1. First part of the week: speed, threshold, gym, endurance, then something easy.
2. Second part of the week: speed, threshold, endurance, then rest on Sunday. You might put another gym session in there.

We’ve built the fatigue in the first part of the week, had a rest day or an easy session, built the fatigue again in the second part, then had a rest day on Sunday.

Week to week

The next week might be a little harder again. We might add a few efforts or intervals to the speed session, increase the length of the threshold work, or add a couple of extra kilometres to the endurance paddles. Then we rest and do it again.

The following week would be more again. Then we reduce the load back to the base level for a recovery week.

It’s all about how we build work and recovery into each week.

Programs already built for you

I’ve already built these training programs for you on Strong Paddler. Every member gets access to the training programs under Coach Programs.

You also get the Strong Paddler app, where you track your own program and sessions, both gym and on the water. It also lets me see what you’re doing, so I can adapt your training program as you go.