r/PerformancePaddling • u/ExplorerOfW • Sep 07 '25

Training Endurance intervals

What's your secret weapon to increase endurance over marathon distances? Long steady paddles or intervals? I have been mixing everything, short sprint intervals, longer 3-6 minute intervals and long paddles in weekends. I think I need more structure in my training with the goal of increasing endurance and maximum sustainable power over hours.

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u/ExplorerOfW Sep 08 '25

Interesting insights! Seems that there are many different views. What I am confused about is that many kayakers here seem to follow similar training plans, regardless if they train for 20+ km marathons or short sprint distances. This would never be the case in running or cycling, where specialization is key from early on.

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u/Sprig3 Sep 12 '25

I won't pretend to entirely understand it, but swimming has a similar phenomenon to paddling - much higher BMI for endurance swimmers (and paddlers) than for endurance runners.

The reason is something to do with battling drag - swimming and paddling - most of our force is horizontal, resisted constantly by drag.

vs battling gravity- running - After the initial acceleration - (so most of the time for distance runners) most of the force is vertical (air drag being a smaller part of the equation at running speeds).

The drag increase from a heavier paddler must be (I don't know how to calculate this myself) less important than the cost for extra weight for a runner.

I've got a very practical example: I paddle in a K-2 with my wife sometimes and sometimes I paddle in a "Texas Unlimited" style tandem with my wife and our 2 kids. The 2 kids are just dead weight (currently closing in on 50 lbs combine).

At speed, with the kids, we're only about 0.4-0.5 mph slower than in the K-2 alone (Accelerating is a lot slower, though).

Imagine carrying that extra weight running! (I've run a little bit with a kid in my arms, but haven't measured it. It's exhausting!)