what is the basis to increase its average speed?

The main problem with LSD is the time it takes.
Agreed most top athletes do 80% or more of their training at very low intensities, but they are doing 20-30hrs per week. All the research is based at pro level athletes.
I only have 40minutes on the water after work, so I cannot possibly do an LSD session. 7 hours of slow paddling a week with one interval session is not getting anyone to their best.
Chris Carmichael (former training guru (yes, he's the guy that trained the cheat)) devised a training program to get competitive on 6-8 hrs per week, and it is almost exclusively intervals.
The downside is, that you can only be competitive for 3-4 weeks per cycle, and with only 2 cycles possible in a year. It puts that much stress on your body.
So what do we do, I guess the best we can do is try and find somewhere in the middle.
Try and build a reasonable base, and get in some LSD paddles whenever we can to extend the peak, but do a fair amount of intervals to get us to a reasonable peak and try and plan for the important races

Thoughts?

7 hours is plenty of time to get 2x2 hour paddles in of LSD. If you don't have two hours during the week you will have to cut it back to one LSD in the weekend, perhaps longer than 2 hours, more like 3 hours.

Most of my LSD paddles during the off season and preseason were between 2-2.5 hours, twice a week. Other work outs were a sprint work out and some cadence work. Warm ups, warm downs and in between efforts were back at LSD pace.

Any running or cycling I did was also done at LSD but I didn't do a lot of either.

Most weeks would be under 7 hours paddling for me.

Most races are between half an hour to two hours long. A few are longer but towards the end of summer and the days are longer for additional training if needed.

In season my LSD paddles are reduced back to once a week. More emphasis on speed work.

OK. I've been trying the new regime for a week and a half and here are a few impressions.

I can stick with my mates while we are all chatting up to about 10.4 kph. After this I have found a new love of drafting. Curious to see if this speed increases. More keen to see if my mates start to bag me for drafting so much. In our group, drafting, along with booties, gloves and shark shields are considered a sign of weakness.

Riding my bike with the missus was embarrassing as I struggled to keep up. At least I had the excuse that I had to slow down cos I was pushing my aerobic limit.

I have a new found obsession with my HRM. The anxiety caused when I forgot to turn it off after one paddle and it was flat the next day isn't worth repeating.

Washing your HRM strap is good. Not letting it dry before next morning isn't good. Especially if its cold.

On the positives. I've lengthened my paddle 4cm. Mainly cos I'm not buggered all the time.

My arms have always ached because of paddling. After a week and a half I don't have any arm pain.

I get back from a paddle and recover fairly quickly. Normally I would be knackered until lunch time.

If I could get my speed up for the same HR that would be good. But at least for now I've got an excuse to slow down and give the body a rest.

We've got some downwind conditions coming up. The big challenge is to keep to the regime as my mates disappear into the distance.

I've done four squad sessions in the last couple of weeks. All have focused on interval training. I am one of the slowest having only started paddling a year ago. The rest of the squad are fast.
Being slow I have had the benefit of yanda nossiter guiding me. For a new paddler like me she is pushing me to increase my stroke rate and to accelerate onto runs.

The constant flat out paddling then resting is training my body to paddle at a higher and faster rate. The rest is training my heart to drop down and then go up again.

Below is my last squad. I am holding speeds of about 11.5 kmhr over 4-6 minute intervals.

This is using a fenn xt. Without this squad training I would never have been able to do this. Hopefully I can lengthen the time I can hold this speed.

Mind you squad is absolute agony and I would struggle to push myself this hard if I was on my own.

Nice work Dicko.

You'll find you'll stay fresh, also pain and injury free. The speed will come. In a few months your mates will be working hard to draft off you whilst you tick along to your max aerobic HR.
I understand your obsession with your HR monitor. I found myself looking at it every 5-10sec and still do to make sure I'm at the max without going over it.
Doing a downwind is a big test, you'll experience a whole new level of frustration.
Stick with it though and this time next year you'll be amazed at how fast you are paddling.

Here is a link to a max aerobic function test which if done on a regular basis will allow you to chart and see your improvements. philmaffetone.com/maf-test

Good luck with your training and soon to be new found speed

Cheers

Everyone is different. Different ages, different diets, different levels of fitness. Nordic skiing is one of the most demanding sports on the cardiovascular system. Most successful skiers train within 5 heart rate training zones, 1 (60%MHR) being the easiest 5 (95-100%MHR) being the hardest. All the zones effect your physiology differently and need to be used to maximize performance. The ratios of how much of each to realize the benefit can loosely be described as zones 1 and 2 - 1 year, zone 3 - 3 months, zone 4 - 4 weeks, and zone 5 - 5 days. This is not a plan, but more an example to show how much or little of each zone is needed to realize the benefit. The levels can also be used to describe how stressful a workout is by multiplying time spent at each level. Resting HR can be used to measure fitness and stress levels from over training. To only use one level of training can show short term benefit in different people depending on where they are. If you have no fitness and train using level 4 intervals you will not have the base to support those efforts for very long. If you just train at level 1 and 2 you will never reach your full potential. Having a good coach that understands training levels, or doing sufficient study yourself to understand the benefits of each level will make a huge difference. Here's a link as a start. Good Luck

www.crosscountryskier.com/magazine/08_nov/cxc.htm