Seekajaktour: Umrundung Irlands im Seekajak 2015

The third subject (mindset) I did not train or consider, but it proved to be vital during the trip.
However, I subconsciously practiced it in a business context, during my normal job, doing
big projects, adjusting and achieving targets in sometimes unfavorable conditions.
The biggest challenge for me was integrating training in my daily live, as I could not afford
extra time off, being very much involved in my job (50 to 60 hours a week).
Training (Fitness)
The Swopper: Talking about posture I made my “Swopper” my office chair. A swopper is a
stool without any arm-, back- and headrests so while sitting in my office (10 hours plus a
day). I automatically trained my posture and belly-muscles with this.
The Gym: The main target was improving my general fitness and training the muscles you
mostly need for paddling. So for the first time in my life, I went to the Gym twice a week. At
first it felt a bit weird being among all those youngsters (i.e 30 and younger), whose main
goal seemed to be looking good to improve their chances in finding an even better looking
partner or lover. And still I do not like the atmosphere of being indoors, but it helped a lot to
build up a better posture for paddling.
The river: Going directly after work on our local river Hunte, two to three times a week, was
sometimes far from being my favorite after a long workday. However, it helped to “convert”
my gym-fitness into paddling fitness. The river has hardly any currents so I was able to play
around with different paddles (euro, wing and stick), to improve my mental and physical
flexibility. I swapped to a non-feathered paddle which allowed me to keep to the same
paddling-style although switching from euro-, to greenland- and to wing – paddle.
© Christian Dingenotto 2015
12