Has anyone out there done the Jay crossover race in Vermont? I would love to hear anyone's experiences with it.

Last year it was held into a 20+mph headwind for most of the 26 miles. In the broad part of the lake the waves were in the three foot range with a very short period (two to three under the boat at the same time). Ocean paddlers felt right at home. The 9:00 start time was moved up to 4:00 to try to keep out of the worst of it, but that didn't work...

Did I mention the rain and fog?

Organization is good and folks tried hard to make it a good race for all despite conditions.

Previous years have been dead flat and sunny. It certainly is a beautiful lake.

The race certainly qualifies as an adventure.

Guy

What lake is it on and what time of year, somes like a fun paddle if you don't care about being last.

Bob (the slow one)

Bob,

It's on Lake Memphremagog. It starts in Magog PQ and finishes in Newport VT. This year is will be on July 29. Here's the web site: http://www.jaychallenge.com/ At the top of the page there is a link to the kayak race info.

guy

I'm thinking about doing this as part of a woman's team. We would be doing it just for fun, not to win. If other people are interested in doing it as well, perhaps we can talk about training. I had a baby recently and I'm terribly out of shape. I would love to talk to others about how to train for this.

Tori

Tori,

There are lots of opportunities for training and racing in the New England area. There are weekly training races on the Charles River http://www.ski-paddle.com/racing.html and a series of races organized by the New England Canoe and Kayak Racing Association http://www.neckra.com .

While there are probably as many theories on training as there are paddlers the general rule is to put the first 4/5 ths of your training into building your aerobic base by doing low to moderate intensity distance work (one hour sessions) four to five times a week with a long paddle on the weekend (building to 3 to 5 hours hours if the crossover is your goal). The last 5th adds speed work.

On water training starts with ice out on the Mystic river (below the lakes in Medford) and moves to the Sudbury and Concord rivers as they open up.

Guy

Thanks Guy!

I'll check those out.