What a race!? The conditions were about as good as any surfski race could ask for. The wind was lined up perfectly and blowing 25 knots, the weather was mild for Maui and a merciful layer of cloud cover had rolled in to shield racers from the punishing Hawaiian sun.

My race plan was simple. First, I wanted to hold back my excitement and keep the pace controlled for the first 5 minutes. Second, I wanted to lead as much of the race as possible so I could keep Dolan out of a comfortable surfing rhythm and hopefully force him to make mistakes. And third, I wanted to stay on his line in case he had local current knowledge that I didn’t know about.

I found Dolan in the start line and pulled up next to him. Before I knew it, the gun went off and the race was on. Despite my focus on Dolan, Borys Markin was the one who took off the line. Dolan and I were both intent to let him go and start at a controlled pace. With the wind blowing hard, the waves built almost immediately. We both found our rhythms, linking the waves and ramping up our speeds. We soon caught the charging Borys and in the next few minutes we distanced ourselves from him and the rest of the field. It looked like 2019 would once again be a two person match race.

We began to work out into the larger ocean swell that was traveling south down the channel. I was worried most about the first half of the race because the big ocean swell was something I didn’t have much practice in. To cross the channel well, the fastest athletes would need to harness the speed of the large swell, but also continually bank off to the right to keep on the race line.

I had expected Dolan to lead and dictate this section, but as I started to open up my race pace, I found myself pulling ahead. Despite my fears, I felt smooth, strong and shockingly comfortable riding the swell and still staying on the race line. For the next 45 minutes, I lead the race. I thrilled at being out in front and couldn’t keep the grin off my face. He would put in efforts and catch back up to me, pulling up beside me, but I felt unstoppable and could easily answer with a push of my own to surge back into the lead. I was dictating the pace, but I was always wary of Dolan making a dramatic line change. I didn’t want him using his superior course knowledge. So I kept looking over my shoulder, taking my directions from behind, marking any changes in his direction.

With an hour of racing down, I was still leading and had yet to be seriously contested. I was tempted to truly fire it up and make a serious bid to leave him for good. However, the memory of blazing my own trail at last year’s Molokai only to have 6 others pass me on faster lines still haunted me. I wasn’t going to let the win be dictated by line choice this time. I doubled down and decided I would match his every move. We practically flew across the channel, me leading and Dolan making the directional decisions.

With about an hour to go, Dolan surged, but this time his surge didn’t stop when he pulled even with me. He kept going. Shocked by his push and behind for the first time, I stumbled mentally. Was he just playing with me the whole first half? Was he simply biding his time to drop me? The self-doubt started to creep in. One wave became two and two waves grew to five. He was now convincingly ahead.

I shook myself mentally, I had to reset. “You can answer this,” I told myself, “you’ve been leading the whole time, go get it back!” I focused on the wave ahead, looking for openings. I spotted one and took off at a sprint. I jumped one wave, then two, letting my momentum carry me over a third and fourth. And just like that, I was only one wave behind. My rhythm carried me past him and before I knew it, I was once again in the lead. I kept pushing and with a look over my shoulder, I saw that I was now leading by the same five wave gap. I steeled myself. I was in contention for this win just as much as he was, but I could feel that it was going to be a mental battle till the last stroke.

As I hardened my resolve for the fight ahead, I was reminded of what Cory Hill had told me once about downwind racing. He said, downwind racing is like a boxing match. When a competitor makes a move in the waves and pushes ahead, the distance they put on you is like a physical blow. You know the pain and effort it will take to make up that distance and if you don’t stay strong that blow will knock you down for good. But, just like boxing, in downwind you always have the opportunity to return the blow. To win you must absorb your competitors attacks, retaliate with your own and make sure that your attack is the final one before the finish line. This race was shaping up to be an epic downwind boxing match.

Sure enough over the next hour, we went back and forth in a series of moves and counter moves. Each of us surging to land our “punches,” leaving the other reeling from the blow. The strange part was that instead of just pulling one or two waves ahead, we seemed to gap each other by four to six waves every time. I don’t know if it was the rhythm of the surf or if we would work too hard and then need a longer recovery, but the gaps were big on each exchange.

We battled back and forth like this and we practically flew over the final kilometers to the finish. As we neared the end, the race was far too close for comfort. I realized that the winner would likely be decided by the timing of a surge. Dolan must have been thinking the same and timed his final surge near perfectly. We were so close to finish and I didn’t think I had it in me to counter in that short a distance. I shook myself mentally. I was so proud of my racing so far and there was no chance I wasn’t going to give it my all to the very last stroke. If he beat me it would be after I wrung out every drop of effort I could.

Right then the lead media boat pulled up beside me. With spectators and cameras on me, I felt suddenly a bit stronger. I could do this and they were going to catch it on film! I looked head to Dolan. He was still a daunting five waves ahead, but we had been changing leads like this the whole time. What’s more, I was on the outside in the better waves, heading directly to the turn buoy while he had to angle out to his left. It was a lot to make up in the last 500 meters, but if I gave it everything, I just might be able to catch him by the turn and dice the flat for a photo finish. Time to go.

I dug in and sprinted over the first wave. One wave down, let’s do this! But tragically, the escort boat took off moments later. Seeing Dolan and wanting shots of him too, the boat pulled up ahead and crossed directly in front of my path to pull up beside Dolan. NOO!!! The escort boat wake chopped up the water, ruining the rhythm and flow of the waves. I tried to wave and yell to get them to move, but they were focused on Dolan. I decided to push anyway, I had to try. I was bounced and pushed around in the confused water. I watched the speeds drop on my GPS and my heart fell. Dolan closed the last few hundred meters to the turn buoy and rounded the turn first. It was over.

We each pushed to the finish but you can only make up ground like that in the downwind. Dolan crossed the finish in a well-deserved first place and I followed him in, crossing the line 30 seconds behind.

As I drifted to a stop, I couldn’t help but feel bitter disappointment well up inside me. This had been the year, I had paddled so well. I was fit, dialed into the waves and had been more than ready for the distance. My frustration wasn’t at losing, Dolan had raced superbly and timed his final surge like a true champ. I was frustrated because though I had been on the back foot, the final chance to contest his lead was taken from my control. What’s more, despite the closeness of the battle for the entire 42km, the only record of the race would be a result that failed to tell the story of our battle.

I sat with my disappointment and I remembered what I had written just a few days prior in the pre-race blog. I had written that my two objectives for this race were to prepare to the best of my ability and give it my maximal effort. Had I not done both of those?

With a few more moments of reflection, I realized I had. Sure there had been some things I would change about the race in hindsight, but I had given it my all and done both of the things I set out to do. Despite the second and the way the finish played out, I was proud of my race. I wouldn’t have changed a thing and it was an honor to compete with an someone who had brought out the best in me and still won. I smiled … he might have won, but I would be back in May for a rematch.

With over 250 boats registered for the 2019 Maui 2 Molokai (M2M) and incredible winds predicted for the iconic 42km island crossing, the race is shaping up to be one for the record books. I have raced the M2M twice before, in 2017 and 2018. Both years, I came in feeling cocky and unstoppable and on both occasions I was beat soundly by Pat Dolan (local Hawaiian and big crossing surfski legend). Both years I came in thinking I could win the M2M and both times I made major mistakes that kept me from having the race I wanted. My mistakes boiled down to a lack of respect.

The first year, I failed to respect the distance. This race is 42km and even in incredible winds the winning times tend to be somewhere between 2 hours and 20 minutes and 2 hours and 30 minutes. In 2017, I was fit, strong and, after a two week training camp on Maui, I was crushing blisteringly fast downwinds leading up to the race. I may have been ready for the speed and intensity, but I was not prepared for the distance. In 2016, all the races on my calendar were around 90 minutes and with a near identical season lined up for 2017, M2M was the one long race of my year. I reasoned that I was strong enough and surfed well enough that I could handle the extra hour of racing with little to no changes in my preparation. I planned to just take plenty of fuel and, if I was well fueled, my fitness would do the rest. It feels stupid looking back at my thought process, but hindsight can only save my future races.

I lined up on race day and the event unfolded just as I anticipated. I was dictating the pace off the start, easily taking and found myself in a comfortable rhythm. I wasn’t pushing my limit (effort-wise) and the race felt comfortably within my control. This lasted for about 90 minutes. That was when Pat Dolan made his move to take the lead. I scrambled and though I countered his move and caught back up to him, the effort felt distinctly different from the first 90 minutes. I could feel my body was not responding the way I wanted. Over the next hour, I slowly lost my fire. I was able to hold it together enough to finish a strong second, only losing about a minute to charging Dolan, but it was a humbling defeat and it was not the finish sprint I had hoped for. In 2017, the M2M taught me my first lesson: in the heat and humidity of Hawaii, you need to be well and truly prepared for a 42 kilometer race or you will be left behind in the latter stages of the event.

Not to be denied, I vowed to return in 2018, ready for the distance. I spent January through April logging plenty of longer paddles and come race day, I was once again feeling confident and cocky. I was all over the distance and as that was my only handicap from the year prior, why didn’t I deserve the gold? And that is what lead to my second mistake.

I became so confident that only a single weakness stood in my way that I turned my attention towards the more prestigious Molokai Challenge in May. I decided to use M2M and my trip to Hawaii to train for the Molokai. My plan was to fly in to Maui right before the race, pick up my boat race morning and start my Hawaii training camp with a win. This time, I failed to respect the challenging conditions of Hawaii.

I have come to appreciate the fact that the water, waves, and climate of Hawaii are not things that feel natural right away. It takes time for me to adjust to a new place. Unfortunately, I used the 2018 M2M to remind myself of this fact. I received my boat on race morning (without a single Hawaii training session) and though set up went well, I was unstable, hot, and lacked surfing rhythm in the warm up. When the gun went off and the field tore across the channel, my race start was truly dreadful. In 2017, I was confident and strong from stroke one, but in 2018 I began to lose ground to Dolan almost immediately. I hemorrhaged time over the first 30 minutes of the race and slowly lost about 90 seconds before the halfway point. I finally did manage to find my rhythm and though I raced and surfed beautifully in the second half (exactly what I was missing on year one), I couldn’t gain back the early ground lost to Dolan. I once again finished a strong second place, but 90 seconds off first. I had respected the distance, but once again failed to fully respect this race.

This year, I am coming at the event with fresh eyes. I am no longer dismissing the event as a minor training race on my calendar. And I am no longer downplaying how truly impressive Dolan is as a waterman and athlete. I am coming into this event full of respect for the race, the conditions and Dolan. Don’t get me wrong, I still want to win and I hope to. But this year, I am focusing on what I can control versus the outcome. I can control my preparation and I can control my effort on race day.

The preparation is all but complete. I have executed numerous paddles of 2.5 hours or longer and I am putting the finishing touches on a quality two-week, Hawaii training camp. I feel dialed in to the waves, the climate and ready for the distance. All that I have left is to show up race morning ready to leave everything on the water. Hopefully 2019 is the year.

Thanks for reading and if you want to follow the results, I will have a post out recapping the event on Monday!

Happy paddling!

In the last post I wrote about the NAC Classic race in southern California and how wonderful it was to race pain free after a frustrating six weeks of shoulder rehab. This post picks up seven weeks down the road, as I mull over the last block of training and look ahead to the next race on the calendar, the April 13th Maui to Molokai (M2M) in Hawaii.

M2M is a special race for me. I have done it twice now and both times the conditions were fantastic and the competition was incredible, but both times I came away with a frustrating 2nd place. Not frustrating because I deserved to win, Pat Dolan raced superbly and without question outraced me on both occasions, but frustrating because on both occasions I made stupid and avoidable errors. This year, I plan to learn from my mistakes and show up to race in the best shape possible. Over the past two months, with my shoulder almost completely recovered, I have been working hard on my fitness. However, with an open ended goal of “get as fit as possible,” it’s easy to get lost in the minutia of training and spend energy on areas that aren’t crucially important. To help keep my training on track and not lose sight of the big picture, I created four goals/focuses to guide me through the week.

My first focus was speed development. While endurance and surging late in a race is a strength of mine, race starts tend to be a weakness. There can be a lot of confusion at the beginning of a race when paddlers are battling for draft positions and making a run for the hot spot prize. In the past I would hold back, worried that I needed to save energy for the long haul and doubting my capacity to push the pace with the leaders. This year, I decided to change that narrative. To accomplish this goal, I structured every week around 3 key workouts. Each workout was a high-end interval workout focused on pieces of 4 minutes or less and often centered on pieces as short as 30 seconds. Not only was the content of these sessions an important focus, but my goal was to schedule the rest of the training week around these three key sessions so that I would always arrive to them as fresh as possible and attack them with all the intensity I could muster. My two favorite sessions from this block were 20 x 30 seconds on/ 60 seconds off and 4 x 4 minutes on/ 4 minutes off. These sessions were brutal, but I came to enjoy them as they pushed me well outside of my comfort zone.

My second focus was time on the ocean. Because many of my key sessions were done in the flatwater, I wanted to make sure that my time in the ocean didn’t suffer, especially since I was an ocean racer. To address this, I made sure that every training day had at least one session in the ocean, even if it was an afternoon recovery paddle after a morning key session. My reasoning was that time the ocean would keep up my skills and feel for the waves sharp.

Last year, as I prepared for the Molokai race, I made a lot of mistakes when it came to my long paddle, therefore, my third focus was to concentrate on this session. In the past, my long training sessions were often done at too low of an intensity and I would over hydrate and fuel, leading to dependence on carbs and water. What’s more, I began to dread these sessions due to their monotony and because I would often finish chilled to the bone. This year, my long paddle strategy addressed all three of the aforementioned areas. First I would start with a steady paddle to get in some volume and warm up (my body was often quite beat up by the time I got to my Saturday paddle and the easier pace was mentally necessary to start my longest session of the week). Instead of keeping the pace low the whole paddle, however, I decided to finish these workouts by joining the San Diego Canoe and Kayak Team for their Saturday practice. By working out with the sprint team at the end of my long session, I was able to keep mentally focused and stimulated, making sure that the last 10-15km of my long paddle were both high intensity and high quality.

When it came to fueling, instead of using last year’s strategy that involved consuming energy gels and water on regular intervals, I would try to push my limits. I would still bring carbs and water on my paddles, mind you, but I would hold off on using them for as long as possible. Finally, I decided to overdress. This was important to avoid becoming crippling cold after two hours of paddling into the wind and it would also help me prepare for being in warmer temperatures come Hawaii.

My fourth goal was to listen to my body. This is certainly a buzz phrase in the sports world at the moment, but for me I have always found it to be very important. When starting this training block I wrote out a grueling program with little to no rest. My “ideal” training programs often suffer from this oversite, but I try now to listen to my body and schedule rest/deload weeks as needed. On this block I ended up taking two weeks to deload and rest. The more I surfski, the more I appreciate the need to listen to my body and adjust accordingly, rather than blindly follow my training schedule.

So there you go, a few tips and goals I use when designing and executing my weekly training and some insight into what I have been doing to build up to the 2019 M2M. Next week I will break down my racing mistakes from years prior and lay out my plan for this year’s race!

Thanks for reading and happy paddling!