Short sharp training program on flatwater....please?

At least in the Sth Hemisphere, approaching winter is squeeeeeezing the daylight out of my before work training session.
Theres no time for a 1hr paddle, just a 30-40 minute paddle after sunup and before its time to be at work....so...
Can someone give me an idea of how to use a 30-40 minute time slot effectively?
I usually paddle solo and 90% of the time on the flatest of water, sheltered from the wind.
Thanks in advance
Janita K

I'm sure others will have lots of tips for you but one thing you can do is a warm-up on the beach before it gets light. Go for a 10 minute beach run, do some push-ups, pull-ups etc and then get straight in your boat and you can make the most of the 30minutes you have.

Stuart's advice is very good. The other thing to do is intervals. 30 strokes (counting on 1 side) as hard as you can, then 30 strokes recovery. An alternative is 1 min hard, 1 min recovery, 2 minutes hard, 1 min recovery, 3 minutes hard, 1 minute recovery. Repeat 5 times. Interval training is good for speed and endurance.

Janita,

Just adding more to the good advice you've received thus far. Too many hard interval workouts in a short period of time might have you tired and overtrained in short order - though some can handle shorter recovery periods between workouts.

You might try something like paddling 6 days a week, 3 of them easy sessions working on technique, etc. Do one interval session of 1,2 or 4 min intervals, one session of shorter 15-20 sec intervals, and one session of a time trial (marathon or just sub-marathon pace) of either 3 x 9 min, 2 x 15 min, or 1 x 30-40 min. You can also vary the length of the rest periods between the shorter intervals, too. I suggest longer (near full recovery) rest periods at first.

As you can see there are many possibilities. I would just be careful not to do high intensity sessions too often - what is too often? For me it's up to 3 times per week.

Thanks for the ideas...all copied down for use this week.
Warm up off water beforehand is easy coz I walk my ski (250m) to the beach on a trolley and usually do a set of push ups to start and finish.
In paddling 6 man outrigger canoes, we would often do resistance training by dragging a storage crate on a line behind the canoe. Great way to add intensity to a session.
In the ski world, is the same ever done? Adding something to create drag?
My advantage is I train in water that is flat as a table, with the tidal sweep up and down the beach tugging me.
I would not want to attach anything to my craft with rope (thats way too dangerous) but we used to hang a car tyre off the nose of an OC6 to create drag....so anyone ever done anything similar with a single ski???
In moving swell and chop I cant see how it would work coz the item creating drag would cause instability, but in my locale, just a tiny kids bike inflated inner tube slipped over my skis nose might give me enough drag to increase resistance.
Surely someone out there has tried to do the same thing for the same reason?
Any ideas?

In K1 on flat water, some guys use a tennis ball with a bungee cord threaded through it, to loop around the hull with the tennis ball at the bottom.

I also occasionally do what Gary suggests with just a bungee. If you put it in front of the cockpit area, it should create a bit more drag (by breaking up the laminar flow) than if you put it around the ski just behind the seat area (where flow is already turbulent). Also, the bungee up front might mess up the water in the catch area of the stroke so that you're stroking in non-laminar water. Dragging things in the water hasn't worked as well for me compared with bungees. A thicker bungee provides more resistance than a thinner one does. Threading a tennis ball onto the bungee makes it really tough.

Some paddlers don't believe in using bungees thinking that it causes your muscles to "learn" to paddle more slowly. I think they're occasionally useful at different times in the season and at different speeds, i.e. LSD training or short sprints. Again, more variables to play with.