How I spent a week at the Pines in  Melbourne, FL

 

Razz at 2009 Sakonnet River Race

I had the pleasure of spending a week at the pines, to do some base work in my old surf ski, this December. First a little background about the pines. 
The pines are an old apartment complex in in Melbourne Florida that has been favored by rowers and sprint kayakers for the last 20 years.  So why go this old place where there is not much to do and see?   The reason is the Canal and Banana river. The canal is 4.5 miles long and straight as a arrow and weary protected from any wind, (if you have ever paddled a sprint boat you know why that is important) the river is a bit wider and you can go for as long as you like, and the coach boats don’t have to worry about their wake. There are 5 places where you can go from the canal to the river, so if it is blowing hard from the north you can paddle up the canal and the go down wind home, if that is not heaven what is. You also have the inter coastal waterway and if you go south you can go to Miami, if you go north you go to Washington DC).

So who comes to this place? Right now we have the Canadian national team, a few Danes, some Swedes, a few girls from Norway and a girl from South Africa, so total about 15 girls 25 men and 15 canoes and this is two weeks before Christmas so very slow, most of the national teams has already gone home for Christmas, (if you come here during spring break there will be around 200 paddlers on the water every day !!!!) Tthe intensity is not lacking, most of the paddlers are doing lots of base work and long steady stuff ( 20k in the am, 20k at lunch, and 15k in the afternoon, that was the Saturday work out) that is what I call base work.

K1's lined up

So who will be here in the spring? the list of world champions, and guys that has qualified for the Olympics would be too long to list here, but the lady in the office told me if I would like to stay @ the pines in the spring I better book it soon??

So a little about my days, here. And by the way I am the only surfski, the only guy over 40 and the only guy with a few extra pounds to carry, so yes, I stand out a bit.  The first workout is at 7.30am, (when I got here I thought it was a bit late in the day, but on day 4 I wouldn’t mind if it started at 9am).

So up at 6:30-7am a bit of food, vitamins and some thing to drink, get your stuff together, and down to the boat park. Warm up the first few miles, and then look around for somebody that is doing an easy work out, so I can follow him or her with out getting dropped in the first mile.  I am here for base miles so most of the work outs is just go to the end and back with out stopping, easier said then done when you try to look like you know what you are doing, and you try to follow the girls when they go by, for as long as you can until you get dropped.  Then rush home for break fast, maybe a shower (with three workouts a day showers take up too much time) and a bit of rest.

Work out # 2 is around 11:30- 12, and is a run, bike ride or a swim (there is a public pool just down the street) some of the other paddlers do a workout on the water or the gym, at lunch too, that takes about 1-2 hrs, lunch recovering drink, and more rest, maybe a nap.

Workout # 3, is around 4pm it gets dark around 6, so if you are doing some long stuff maybe a bit earlier. For this workout I have been doing just a long paddle, trying not to stop, again this one hurts and all the little pains are showing up, so I concentrate on technique. This is the best thing about being here because everybody paddling here has perfect technique, so lots of looking at other paddlers.
So if you think you are on vacation, think again.

Most of the paddlers have Sunday off, the only real rest in the week, but you still have to get up early, because the Laundromat only has so may washing machines. So the only time off here is spent at the Laundromat, e-mailing updating blogs and some beach time.

So what other sport has the top athletes from different nations train together? We have 1-4 from the worlds in the 1000m paddling together. How cool is that, and you can have front row seat. All you have to do is go for paddle at the pines.    If you can sit in a ICF sprint boat, then you can rent one from Kayakpro.  Grayson has about 15 boats in the boat park.That would make travel to this place a bit easier, fly to Orlando rent a car, drive a hour and a half, and you are at the heaven for a paddler.

I don’t know how to sum up my time here? It will probably sink in when I get home, yes, it is hard to be away from the family, taking time off from work, and staying in a place where the routine feels more like jail or the dream job that hurts like hell.     
   
I am almost looking forward to the long drive back to RI, where I don’t have to think about the next workout, for almost 48 hrs. .

This is my mileage for the week
Kayak: 18.5 hrs or, 110miles
Bike: 6 hours
water consumed: 10gal

websites:
Vankayak
Erik Van Larsen
René Poulsen
Henrietta Engel
Canada canoe kayak
Kayakpro
Usckt
Floridapinesresort.com

RAZZ the old Surfskier, Newport, Rhode Island