Keeping a Dragonboat Training Log
4 Dec, 2008 by Tyrone Featured PostsMany competitive dragonboat paddlers keep a training log to record their training activities and race times. They record in their log the sessions about on-water training, pool, weight training and other aspects important to their success in Dragonboating.
It’s usually a little booklet like this one below:
You can also include body vitals, such as: body weight, body fat %, resting heart rate, girth measurements of waist, chest, legs and arms. These are usually recorded initally at the start of a training programme / season and not at each session. Then at the end of the season, a paddler can look back at their improvements, not just in race times, but in their overall body conditioning.
| Date: |
1/6/2008
|
| Body Weight: |
85kg
|
| Body Fat %: |
11%
|
| Resting Heart Rate: |
45b.p.m
|
| Girth Measurements | |
| - Waist |
105cm
|
| - Chest |
120cm
|
| - Arms (biceps) |
35cm
|
| - Legs (thighs) |
50cm
|
How to record your data?
A simple way to make sure your data is recorded accurately is to buy an exercise book with lines and draw some columns with headings (you can also type it into a computer on an excel spreadsheet and print it out as well, or even more advanced is to store it on a PDA, whichever way you choose just make sure you can access it easily after every training session). Here’s an example of what I do:
| Date | Description of training | How long did I train for? | Excercises Performed | How I felt? |
| 1/12/2008 | Water Training | 1.5 hours | 3 sets x 1.5km paddling @ 60%, 2 min rest between
3 sets x 500m paddling @ 90%, 1 min rest between |
It was an intensive session, though I felt I struggled at the end with the power sets. I did feel the boat lag today as most people were tired from the race on the weekend. |
Also a crucial aspect is to be honest with what you do on the water and off the water. Write a brief summary of how you felt after the training session and make sure it’s dated.
Training logs will help you in the long term. If you have a bad racing year, you can look back at previous years logs and find out how hard you trained and felt in previous years. Good paddling years are usually a result of how well you have trained.
If you are like me and would prefer to keep everything electronic on the Internet, here’s a website called iLog that can keep track of your training sessions and results.
Good luck with your training and if you have any additional comments, please write them below.
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Greg Bell Central Coast SeaDragons NSW said,
Wrote on December 8, 2008 @ 2:53 pm
Once again thank you for your great articles.
In response to your articles on A Training Log Book and
Mesocyle Planning for training. I believe that if an athlete is even half serious about being the best paddler they can be you need to combine both.
After all ” To fail to plan is to plan to fail”.
I have for many years made my own training programs which is worked around my family and work committments.
Every athlete has individual and unique pressures put upon them from family and the need to earn an income.
It is not all that difficult. You can access enough information of websites or put out a couple of hundred bucks and do a course.The end result will be becomming the best athlete you want yourself to become.
Greg Bell
Tyrone said,
Wrote on December 8, 2008 @ 3:17 pm
Hi Greg,
Thanks for your comment. I totally agree as I wrote those two articles so they could compliment each other. I believe in order for an athlete in Dragonboating to be their best, they need to monitor their progress and it’s crucial to have a training log. I use one all the time for my training sessions as well and it’s not difficult at all. Starting is always the hard part though.
I hope paddlers will find their way to use a training log for dragonboating. It may even become a standard over time.
zahra said,
Wrote on May 13, 2011 @ 6:03 pm
hi, I want to know, do we have any valid book about dragon boat sport?