@Onski326, it’s not confusing. Average mph over time depends on the ability to manage your energy reserves and your physical conditioning. You’re already a strong paddler, and you have room to improve. Craig shows the potential over short distances when going into the aneorobic mode. That limits endurance to about 2 to 3 miles before energy is depleted.
By using your energy reserves aerobically, you can extend your range, gain better control of your breathing, and paddle faster with time as your cardio improves. You can optimize training using heart rate monitors and other aids, or you can simply run a training loop and measure progress. It doesn’t matter what the GPS or heart rate monitor says, as long as you can go from point A to point B in X time, or A to B and return to A in less time. If distance doesn’t change, and you consistently finish a few minutes faster on each trip, you’re progressing. If you keep track of condition, as well as when those conditions are similar, whether it’s favoring your progress or impeding it, you learn not only how those conditions impact your speed but how to manage them. You’ll never find consensus on an open forum. The arguments go to you need this paddle, or buy a faster boat or it depends on wind and current, what actually is meant by cruising, or the greatest dodge - speed isn’t everything. I pointed it out before, that if you’re paddling upstream on the Chesapeake Bay during the middle of a falling tide, you’ll face a least a 3 mph current. If you’re maintaining a 3 mph speed, that means your effort is equivalent to 6 mph. Open water is a dangerous place if you are not aware of conditions and how they affect your “speed” and your physical condition.
The best practice is to establish that training loop. Rely on a set distance and occasionally repeat that trip while measuring time. A GPS or speed graphs mainly help to analyze performance. On my last trip, I could have finished at around 4.1 mph avg speed if I had bypassed the paddle through the salt marsh and had not experimented with the short Ikelos paddle and the GearLab Greenland. However, it was time well spent as I got valuable first hand knowledge about paddle length, blade area, and paddle design. Discussions often extol the merits of a wood paddle providing buoyancy at the exit, but never consider the effort needed to fight the buoyancy through the power stroke, nor do many attribute the same benefit to a foam core Euro paddle.
If you operate any paddle boat away from the safety of a shore, you must be aware of your physical capabilities and condition yourself to improve. If you don’t, you have no contribution to this discussion. If you don’t have some way to monitor your progress so you can measure performance, you have no contribution to this discussion. If you don’t know and don’t care about how fast you can paddle and don’t care about how far you can paddle, you have no contribution to this discussion.
There are many types of paddlers. Some like sight seeing, others race (you’ll find that few on the racing circuit are eager to share closely guarded techniques, which lead us mere mortals to speculate). Still many others like to explore, cover distances, or simply test personal skill against the natural forces. If it’s the challenge that you seek, you’re asking the right questions, and I know exactly where you’re coming from. Craig an I have totally different padfling approaches, with him favoring high angle short paddles and my preference being low angle with longer paddles. His technique is flawless and it favors sprints; mine is somewhat more efficient for consistently covering greater distances. I seek methods to increase speed, but only in how it relates to covering greater distances in less time. Its about being able to stay in the 60% energy output zone until I get tired of sittingbin the boat.
I found that by getting out on the water within 3 to 5 day of the last trip, average speed can improve by around .05 to .15 mph (or around .1 mph per trip) based on my logs. The impact that wind, current and tides have on speed is a moot point to me, because I ALWAYS encounter wind, waves, and current. The influence is constant but varied, depending on the stage of the tide and the direction and duration of the wind, but if you stay onthe water long enough, the tides reverse around every 6 hour 40 minutes (plus or minus). There is a difference between tide and current, in that tidal currents change direction, but rivers have a constant outflow. Then in my area, the velocity, direction, and duration of wind has a different impact. If it comes drom the south, it has 100 miles to build.
The first chart shows that I had excess energy to burn, which is indicated by the area highlighted in white. The last 2 mile leg was all aneorobic. I know because it was paddling into the falling tide, and I know it elevated past standard aerobic output. I know because my notes detail the conditions and the chart shows I went faster on the last 2 mile leg (easier to calculate if enlarged. Notice going into or with conditions had no real impact on speed on thebother legs. That’s my cruising speed. It’s 60% exertion, which I can manage for 8.5 miles, 15 miles, 21.5 miles, 27 miles, or 32 miles. At 38.75 miles, I drop at least .3 mph. I know that, because I compare records. I’ve learned how to manage my energy. If I go into an anerobic state, i can jump .5 mph for about 60 to 90 seconds, but I’ll drop speed by about the same amount for about 3 minutes. While the fractions can be challenged, the actual trend is clear. Paddling until you’re breathing becomes labored will benefit in the short run, but it’ll add a significant penalty that can not be made up. You must remain aerobic to sustain your cruising speed. If you do, your range largely depends on how long you can tolerate being confined.
Compare the (I believe) 11 Oct trip and the 13 Oct trips. Three days later, I should have improved by .1 mph, but the avg speed dropped by .2 mph, under very similar conditions of winds and tides, but the second day had gusts to 25 mph. Although October was at the peak of the season, the gusts had a similar impact on the paddling and the track on the trip I took two days ago. Split hairs about the fractions, but you can’t miss the similarities. Notice also how there was no speed spike during the last 2 miles. That tells me that I was performing at my optimal aerobic threshold. I peeked out and had no excess energy to bleed off - that is MY cruising speed. Compare that to the 11 Nov 22 trip, the last of that season posted earlier at the beginning of this thread. Notice it was 4.84 avg mph, compared to 4.6 mph, or roughly .1 mph faster for each of the final trips that ended the season. Again, aplit fractions if you must, but the trends repeat, and I can predict outcomes.
The odd impression I have from posting these statistics is that the information or method of collecting is typically challenged. However, nobody has ever asked how I manage to keep a flat speed graph going into or with conduction. I’m sure others can donit, but that hasn’t been made public. The apparent consensus is that the results are spurious. I’ve also been told that a 145 Tsunami can’t be paddled at 4.99 avg mph for 21.5 miles. That was my cruising speed when I was 60 yrs old. My cruising speed speed now is about 4.5 mph during mid season. That’s as good as it gets. You should be able to get 5 mph over distance in your 170 Tempest, if you control you energy output. Ironically, advice for going faster results in videos of olymic paddlers flailing to the finish line in 200 or 400 meter sprints. That will not work over a 10 to 30 mile course, yet nobody will point that out. Realistic discussions are sidetrack as spurious in favor of promoting wildly unrealistic techniques - therefore, the question goes unresolved.
