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Hi Andrew,
Sorry for not seeing your question earlier. For some reason I missed the notification of your post. I hope answering now still helps.
I think it is great that you can underrate guys and beat them. That said, at some point your inability to paddle comfortably at higher than your 37 strokes/min is going to hurt you. What do you do when you race someone that can paddle effectively like you do at 37 strokes a minute but does it at 44 strokes/min? Or 48? Or 50?
Just like in cycling cadence is generally inversely proportional to the load. So the “heavier” your stroke, the lower the rate. I’m willing to bet you’re paddling in a big gear that moves the board a long way every stroke. That’s winning you local races but it is limited. If you want to be really successful and win more often against more, better, paddlers you’re going to need to expand the range of paddling gears you’re comfortable in. You’re going to have to learn to lighten your stroke a little and pick up the cadence.
One thing that is important to understand is that big gear – low cadence and smaller gear – higher cadence are not necessarily equal. What you take from load and give to cadence doesn’t necessarily result in the same thing. Our boards aren’t really well designed. They slow down a lot between strokes. A faster cadence usually helps maintain speed between strokes better. Furthermore, a well connected faster stroke is going to accelerate the board faster than a slower stroke. So everyone should be trying to find more strokes while maintaining connection. At least to some point. The truth is 37 strokes/min is a very slow stroke rate.
What has probably happened here is that you are beating people paddling with faster cadences than you who actually aren’t very good. So you’re able to beat them while dramatically underrating them. However, when you come up against better paddlers, the inability to paddle effectively at higher stroke rates will cost you.
As far as the training plan goes, it provides lots of opportunities to change your cadence. The idea is to do that work with a higher cadence in a way that is sustainable without forcing you to do, for example, your level 3 work suddenly at level 4. It’s really just a question of playing with your gears and using your GPS for feedback on speed while you do. It’s not the work that changes, it’s the gear you approach doing the work with that does. Does that make sense?
larry
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