Dragon Boat Paddling Resources

The Garmin 305 (or other like device) brings GSP into a small waterproof package, that aids athletes of all kinds. Here I will discuss how I’ve used the Garmin to aid our on water dragonboat training.

Basic GPS Tracking

The first place I used the Garmin was in GPS tracking and as a heart rate monitor. This does a fine job of cataloging your training sessions. But I wanted more, and the Garmin delivered.

Programmed Practice Sessions

Time Based Interval pieces

The first area I used the Garmin was for time based pieces such as 3(4 min power, 2 min active rest) on each side or 3(4'p:2'ar)2s.Within Garmin Training Center, this is a simple thing to program into the 305.

Go to Workouts, then create a new workout (is use Other as the type for paddling workouts) then click the (+) button to add the pieces of the workout.
First add the warm up – It’s a Workout step where you set “Go until: Time”, then enter your warm up duration.
I add a warm up step for each side, then an additional 1 minute step to warn me of the upcoming interval session start.

Then I add a repeating set of steps representing one Interval on one side. For a workout where I want the above 3(4'p:2'ar)2s I will end up with something like this within Garmin Training Center:

Repeat the steps below 2 times:
   [Warm Up] Go for 5:00 min:sec.
[Interval Warn] Go for 1:00 min:sec. 
Repeat the steps below 6 times:
   [4' Power] Go for 4:00 min:sec.
   [Active Rest] Go for 1:00 min:sec.
   [Changes] Go for 1:00 min:sec. 
[Cool Off] Go until I press the 'lap' button on my device.

Distance Based Race Pieces

The following from Garmin Training Center represents 2 500m race pieces on each side from one of our recent sessions

[Warm Up] Go for 6:00 min:sec. 
[Warm Up] Go for 6:00 min:sec. 
[Racing Starts] Go until I press the 'lap' button on my device. 
[30 Seconds] Go for 0:30 min sec. 
Repeat the steps below 4 times: 
   [500m] Go 0.5 Kilometers. 
   [Cool off] Go for 2:30 min:sec. 
   [Active Rest] Go for 2:30 min:sec. 
   [Changes] Go for 1:00 min:sec. 
[Cool off] Go until I press the 'lap' button on my device.

In the above distance based pieces you select “Distance” under the Go until: popup and enter the distance you require.

While GPS is great for long distances, it is a little loose for these short distances, but it does the job from a training perspective. You should not trust the times you receive as gospel, but they will give you good feedback that you can incorporate.

Garmin Reporting:

You can get some nice visuals from the Garmin Training Center as well.