How far can you paddle in a single day?

If you are a beginner and you are
going 10 miles at 3.5, that is great, but you are probably bracing too hard on the foot pegs if your knees are hurting.

Every so often stretch your legs out in between the foot braces, and don’t push too hard on them.

All the long mileage comes with time in the boat.

It’s kind of like training for you first running marathon - (LSD) Long slow distance!



Jack L

Not as hard as you would think
30 nautical miles (roughly 34.5 miles) isn’t bad.



Divide your distance by time and you can see that average speed is actually pretty slow. If you paddle 12 hrs, your average speed only needs to be 2.5 nm/hr, or 2.9 mph.

My training runs last year for the MR340 were 36 miles, and usually took me about 9-10 hours.

On rivers, you would be able to do much much more very easily.

I assume you are talking about flat water though.

Distance? Easy!
In 2009, with heart disease and not having been in a canoe in about 30 years, this old fat guy (me) and his wife took a canoe 26 miles in 6 hours. We went DOWN the Rifle River (and “only” turned over 4 times.) You really need only paddle to steer. :wink:

Hard to Believe
261 miles = 450 kms



Since the world record on moving water is around 350 kms paddled in 24hrs, hard to believe to record for flat water is 100kms more.

24-hr World Record
Curious, I looked it up.



The record was set last fall, and is 261 miles on moving water.



http://www.somegoodadventure.com/paddlesports/24hr-kayak-record-on-the-yukon-river/

So moving water record is 261 miles
whats the flatwater record?


Ya
You had the # right. It was a lot more than I had thought. 450km in one day… crazy.

day distance
hane done 70 miles 20 times shortest time 8 hours slowest 12. in the 90 the first day is 35 miles about 6 hours.



train!!!

26 miles…but…
My personal record is 26 Miles in 3 1/2 hours, including a quick lunch break. We did have a little help from moving water though :slight_smile:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApxF_MDZ9Lo



The Lehigh was flowing about 10,000 cubic feet per second if you take creek inflow into consideration, the release from the dam was 8200 cfs but we had a lot more by the end of the gorge. So in our 3.5 hours, we took advantage of about 950,000,000 gallons of moving water…the amount of horsepower that must represent is staggering.



The most I ever paddled on flatwater was about 15 miles in a day, I don’t remember how many hours it took though it wasn’t a whole day by any means.

150 miles
According to guiness it’s 150.34 miles in 24 hours on flat water. Almost 242 km for you metric folks.



http://race.fit2paddle.com/C2047168441/E20060816144453/index.html

Thanks for looking that up :slight_smile:

Ultra marathon training tips

– Last Updated: May-31-11 3:08 PM EST –

complete with duct tapping your nipples advice

http://race.fit2paddle.com/C1240588584/E20070130193655/index.html

50 miles
My longest day of pure paddling is 50 miles in about 12.5 or 13 hrs. From the 50 mile mark I popped up a downwind sail and paddle/sailed another 35 or so. Total time was just under 22 hours.


flat water record
Brandon NElson use to have the record of 141 miles in 24 hours on flatwater but it may be broken.

The first 35 teams in at the finish of the Yukon Quest are paddling back to back 220-mile days for a time of …under 50 hours for 440 miles…the first place team last year completed the 440 miles in 33 hours I believe…a voyaguer canoe.

The top teams in the Ausable Canoe Marathon have been finishing the 120-mile race in well under 15 hours for the last 25 years, with the record time of 13 hour, 58 minutes.

that is on about 65% flat water for that race.

Molokai World Championship
Is 32 miles, or 51km, from one hawaiian island to another.



The record is 3:21.



That’s 10 miles/hr or 15 km/hr.

ok im quiting
or at least feel like it i can barely paddle 5 miles a day. im ashamed to admit this

Why be ashamed?
What’s more important, that you love getting out on the water and paddling, or that there’s someone in the world that’s faster than you?



Bear in mind, all the paddlers doing these amazing feats have probably been paddling for years, have had lots of coaching, train like elite athletes, base their entire lives around paddling and training, and are paddling top-end elite kayaks.



There’s nothing wrong with 5 miles a day, if you’re loving it. Overtime you’re distance will increase. You’ll get better endurance, more efficient technique, and eventually a faster kayak.

guess thats true
one day i almost went 10 and really felt i was going to die.i always forget i still have to paddle back.its amazeing how far some of ya all go

Are going to do the same tomorrow?
There is a big difference between what you can do in a single day of all out effort, and what you do when you are going to do the same thing tomorrow, and the next day, and the next, etc.



20km is a good day’s paddle after day 4 or 5.

20 miles/day is not normal

– Last Updated: Jun-01-11 12:39 AM EST –

The distances some of the paddlers in this thread has paddled in a day is very impressive.

But for a 'normal' casual paddler, 10km is quite long and tiring (about 6 miles)