The Great Glen Challenge: SUP Race across Scotland

Reflections from a first-timer tackling the 92km Great Glen Challenge ultra SUP race across Scotland, with tips on training & nutrition.

Stretching from Fort William in the east to Inverness in the west, The Great Glen is an artery across Scotland with roads, canals, rivers, and lochs providing options to traverse this natural fault line.

With the Caledonian Canal linking Loch Lochy, Loch Oich, and Loch Ness paddlers can start in the Atlantic and end up in the North Sea via this 92km water network.

And if you can paddle it you can race it.

The Great Glen Challenge has ‘challenge’ in the name, sure. But make no mistake, this was a race to me, and apparently many others too. Having been persuaded by my local training buddy Paul Drake (himself a multiple veteran of the Challenge) to give it a go I opted for the one-day non-stop race, over the two-day race. Because, well, go big or go home …

Previous to this race the longest I had paddled was 27km at The Paddle Skedaddle in Norfolk, in May earlier in the year. I remember finishing that race and thinking, ‘Yup, that’s as far as I need to go on a SUP.’ But it’s amazing how, with time, your brain can rationalise that if you can complete a 27km race, well, 92km is only 3x that + a little bit more.

Racing The Great Glen Challenge

Training Plan

I signed up to The Great Glen Challenge in early June, which gave me three and a bit months to make changes to my training plan.

I had at that point just started using Training Peaks to map my training, under advice from April Zilg through paddletraining.com. I had other paddling goals I was preparing for before I committed to the Great Glen, which were all much shorter ocean and flat water tech and 10km races.

Backing up a bit, let me tell you briefly about the start of the year. At the end of 2022 – my first full year of SUP racing – I decided to make SUP training a priority for 2023. From January to March I had a loose training plan that saw me on the water 3-4 x a week, and in the gym 1-2 x a week. I was roughly following Mick’s Di Betta’s 8-week plan. Then I got COVID on 7th April and that knocked me sideways, going on to spoil the GBSUP Cardiff 10km on 30th April (lungs still hadn’t recovered). I didn’t train for two weeks after getting COVID, and then mostly light paddling until Cardiff. Then I picked up horrible vomiting bug at the Cardiff race (this really wasn’t the fun part of the year for me) which ruined the run up to The Paddle Skedaddle on the 13th May … but I, oddly, ended up doing really well in that race (another story!).

Following the Skedaddle I raced twice the next week, before a much-needed recovery week taking me to June.

So in early June as I decided to commit to The Great Glen I was just starting a new training block. I had 2 tech races and 1 distance race I was training for in early July, so initially I focussed on them. It was only in mid-July – just two months out – that my training became more focussed on The Great Glen.

As I was pressing in to April’s resources I was beginning to learn a lot about aerobic deficiency syndrome. Essentially, this is when an endurance athlete hasn’t trained their aerobic base enough and doesn’t reap the gains that a well-tuned fat-burning aerobic system brings. I had had a mixed year of training and racing so far, but I knew I could do more steady state Zone 2 training.

Immediately after the last July race I started on a block of Zone 2 work. What does that look like? Well, here’s a snapshot of the first week in August:

• Monday: 12×4 – 12 sets of 4 minutes in Zone 2 (around 139bpm for me) with 1 min recovery between. 15 min warm up and 15min cool down.
• Tuesday: strength session in gym followed by 30′ run (Zone 2)
• Wednesday: 12×2 – 12 sets of 2 minutes at top end of Zone 2 (around 148bpm for me) with 2 mins recovery paddling between. 20 min warm up and 10 min cool down.
• Thursday: 5×8 – 5 sets of 8 minutes in Zone 2 (around 139bpm for me) with 2 mins recovery paddling between. 15 min warm up and 15 min cool down.
• Friday: strength session in gym followed by 30′ run (Zone 2).
• Saturday: REST.
• Sunday: 2hr Zone 2 steady state paddle.

The longest training sessions I had were 3hrs 30mins, and I only did two of those. Instead of lots of long paddles I focussed on volume spread out over multiple sessions, and added in speed work again before The National Championships (the weekend before The Great Glen).

It was right about this time when I began to question, ‘What have I signed up for?’ This thought came and went, culminating in a moment of feeling very small the night before the very big race, with the awe-inspiring surroundings providing a threatening backdrop. But dawn brings hope and all the unnerving thoughts were completely absent on the day of the race.

In terms of distance paddled, leading up to The Great Glen, including other races, I paddled:

• June: 169km
• July: 137km
• August: 200km
• September (up until The Great Glen on 22nd Sep): 101km

Pre-Race Taper

If you have a hunt on the Internet for tips before big races (I find running and triathlon advice useful here) you’re bound to come across the taper concept. Essentially, as I understand it, this is when you ease off on you’re training before the race with the goal to arrive at race day in near peak fitness (some fitness may be lost in taper) but, crucially, well-rested and ready to smash it.

There are differing pieces of advice on how to do this, but this is what I did this year.

1. Two weeks before the National Championships (the Sunday before the Great Glen Challenge on the Friday, so, nearly three weeks out) I reduced volume of paddling sessions.
2. I kept intensity, as I had Sprint, Tech, and an 8km race on the Sunday.
3. I had several recovery paddles (slow, Zone 1) 8-10km.
4. Two days before the Championships I took the day off, and had short session ( warm up, 4 x 15′ pickups with Zone 2 between, cool down) the day before.
5. Then I raced hard at Nat Champs, three races, on the Sunday
6. Recovery gym session on the Monday (weather conditions weren’t great for the board).
7. No paddling Tuesday-Thursday before The Great Glen on the Friday.

Race Strategy

At the end of August I treated myself to a VO2 max test at the University of Bath. I had used various methods to gauge where the top of my Zone 2 is, including the breathing through the nose test (can you paddle and breathe only through the nose) and the hold-a-conversation-whilst-paddling test (can you talk normally, without gasping for air, if yes, you’re probably in Zone 2). And I did some heart rate decoupling analysis tests for good measure.

Anyhoo, I was geeking out on this stuff and found the best way to accurately know your HR zones was to do a lab test. So I went to Uni of Bath (more on this in another post) and found out, happily, that top of Zone 2 for me was around 155bpm.

So I asked Jonathan, who ran my test, if he thought based on that I could hold 150bpm across a 12 hour ultra SUP race. He thought I could.

So then it was a case of knowing my HR in the race and sticking to this. I have an Apple Watch SE, so I knew that was going to die shortly into the race (great watch; terrible battery life – get an Ultra or a Garmin instead). So I used my phone, connected to my Polar H10 chest strap and had it sing out to me every 20 mins what my average page and HR was. And I stuck to the zone. And Paul and I paddled hard from the get go and didn’t let up.

Race Results

And Paul came 4th and I came 5th, in 12 hours and 9 minutes, within 4 minutes of 2nd, and only 33 minutes off the impressive Paul Simmons who took 1st. Full results here.

Before the race I was apt to say, almost jokingly, that I was aiming for 12 hours, in a ‘shoot for the moon’ sort of way, banking on favourable winds and following swell.

I was stoked with the time, stoked with the performance – particularly the first half of the race where we set and maintained a strong pace – stoked with the grit to see out Loch Ness, and so incredibly pleased to see the finish line.

Nutrition

In the days leading up to the race I made a conscious effort eat well. Normal food, with some carb drinks in the 2 days before, and then a good meal the night before the race. I had hit upon a great pre-race evening meal at the Skedaddle, and because I did well in that race I now swear by it. Baked Potato. Steak. Veg. And a little wine if required to settle the nerves.

But being in Scotland this of course had be transcribed, and so Haggis, Baked Potato, Veg, and Irn Bru did the job nicely.

With over 12 hours of paddling staring me in the face I spent quite a bit of time learning about, and then planning, my nutrition for the race itself. Prior to this race I had really only ever used electrolyte tablets, and I had taken 2 x dates on the Skedaddle with me.

I didn’t find loads of nutrition advice for SUP ultra races online, but I did find plenty on other ultra races. Science in Sport were particularly helpful here, and with their input, and backed up by other general articles on the web, I decided to set a goal of consuming 80g carbs per hour during the race.

Here’s how I managed that, or got close-ish.

1. I worked out how much hydration I would use, which for me, in the weather conditions we had, was around 500ml per hour. I used SiS GO Electrolyte powder, which covered hydration, electrolytes, and at 500ml/per hour, 36 grams of carbs. Sweet. Just 44 carbs per hour left.
2. I made an Excel spreadsheet, broken into 20 minute increments, and worked out what I’d need to eat and when to make the 80g carbs per hour. I used:
   • 1 x Banana
   • 2 x Energy Bakes
   • 2 x Energy Gels
   • Several Energy Bars
   • Some Energy Chews
   • A bag of dates (unused as I couldn’t reach deep enough into my hydration pack pocket to fish them out at the right time)
3. I aimed to eat every 20 minutes, alerted by my regular 20 min HR call-outs from my phone. I started 20 minutes into the race, which felt really weird, but probably helped later on.

The reason I used several SiS products is that I had found that they worked for me. Other brands energy stuff didn’t always sit right, but SiS just worked. And as I became more curious I tried more of their products.

Everything was tested at least once in a training session before the race. On the day, I ended up craving the chews, but not wanting the bakes. The gels were a mess at the portage and I wouldn’t do them again.

Polar says I burnt 8300 calories during the race, so even with all I took on, I was in a big deficit. The Hog Roast at the awards evening the following night began to make up for that.

Paddling Conditions

In the weeks leading up to the race I was refreshing the Windfinder app multiple times a day. I was praying for south-westerly winds of between 10-20mph to give us good downwind conditions. I didn’t know how I’d fare in Loch Ness on those conditions, but I figured all the paddlers would face the same and if we could get some waves, and if I could just surf some of the trip it would go a lot quicker.

Well, the wind didn’t quite play ball. We did have a slight tail wind at the start of the race, which then gave out to no wind, then to a stiff side-wind 2/3 down Ness, and finally a head wind to finish the loch. At 10 hours in, paddling into a head wind, I was not a happy chap. It was grit-your-teeth and push on stuff. Loch Ness is long, 35km long, and you don’t see the end when you start. And then when you do see the end it taunts you by seemingly not getting any closer for 2 hours.

There was chop from passing boats at times. I don’t know if there are speed restrictions on the Lochs, but if there are, they’re fast, and some of the boats produce some hefty wake. This was one to watch for as the wash can sneak up a paddler, having originated on one side of the loch and taken a while to cross to where one’s paddling.

Recovering From The Race

Various friends and Internet resources had suggested that following an ultra race the body would take a while to recover. So I planned on taking it easy.

The trouble was I was racing the next weekend, my home race on the River Avon at Saltford. So here’s what I did:

• REST days on Sat, Sun, Mon following race
• Recovery paddle on Tuesday (felt sluggish!)
• Recovery gym session on Wednesday (felt I could lift the world – really good session)
• Pickups – short 15 second sprints – on the Thursday to wake the body up for faster work on the race on the Sunday
• Pilates on Friday
• REST on Saturday
• Raced on Sunday, and incidentally recorded my fastest ever average pace over the 9km race

Following all that I got back into training for future races.

The short of it is, The Great Glen didn’t destroy my body, showing I think that I was well-trained, and that I balanced rest and nutrition appropriately.

It turns out doing an ultra race doesn’t necessarily derail your season. The weekend before I won my Sprint, Tech, and Distance (age division) races, wining the GBSUP National Championships 30-39 male category. The week after The Great Glen I smashed out a PB on a distance race.

Photos

My Kit

• I paddled the Starboard All Star 2022 14′ x 24.5″. Great board. I probably could have gone a step down in width on the day, with the conditions as they were, but happy with my decision. If Loch Ness did turn out to be lumpy, 9+ hours in to the race, I would have hated to have been on a board too narrow to handle at that point.
• Black Project Hydro FlowX (M) paddle, with medium flex. This paddle might be a little too flexy for me on shorter races, but it was a gem for long distance.
• Black Project Maliko fin. I went with something a bit more manoeuvrable expecting bumps but this was fine on the flat, and no issues with tracking.
• A small dry bag attached to my forward leash mount with required safety kit.
• A roll of clear Gorilla tape. This was based on a chance conversation with a fellow paddler the night before. He had dinged his board at the first portage the year before. So I put tape into my kit (wouldn’t have thought of it otherwise). I paid very close attention at the first portage … and promptly dinged my board too. Doh! The ding was on the top, forward of the cockpit, and would have taken on water on Loch Ness later on if it weren’t for the tape.
• Camelback Chase 8 hydration vest with 2L bladder. Great at holding drink, snacks, & emergency equipment including phone and dry top.

What Changes I’d Make For Next Time

The next day, over breakfast, my wife Helen said to me that she really enjoyed the race and would come back again for it. Now this isn’t true of every SUP race so I shouldn’t dismiss this response. At the time I was feeling the fatigue, so I may have rolled my eyes, but within a day or two, “yeah”, I thought, I could go back. Within a couple of weeks the challenge had made its way into next year’s plans.

Based on my first experience at The Great Glen Challenge here is what I would do differently next year.

• Race the portages. I was overtaken on foot at many portages, then reclaiming the spots on the water. I wasn’t exactly a slouch on the portages (some of which are quite long) but next year I would aim to complete them faster. This means:
  • Being mindful of the dry bag on the front of the board. It’s a pain to have it swinging free on a portage. I would opt for a smaller bag and unclip it from the board as I exited the water, clip it to my hydration vest.
  • Not planning to eat at the portage. It turns out it’s easier to eat on the water. Don’t faff with gels on land. Get through the land quick – fill up the hydration vest with shore support or one the taps at the locks – and get back on the water quick.
  • Be aware of who’s around you. Earley portages can see a few paddlers, in varying craft, trying to access the water at once, and with limited access/launch points it was easy to get caught in a queue.
• Increase the volume of training. If I had more time, and more space in my racing calendar, I would add more sessions earlier – keeping most at a low intensity. I would also try for 1 or two really long training sessions, 5-6 hours maybe. Not so much for physical endurance training as for mental endurance training.
• Map out my racing calendar earlier. See above. Whilst I trained all year, my race-specific training was quite late. And I had several other races around it. If I want to do better at the Great Glen I’ll probably want to drop other races and start specific training earlier.
• Eat more. In the latter third of the race fatigue was setting in. My HR was dropping slightly and in the last hour’s paddle along the canal to Inverness I couldn’t keep up with Paul. I think upping my carb intake slightly could help with this.

I loved The Great Glen Challenge. I loved being back in Scotland, land of my birth and where I took my first paddling strokes. I loved The Highlands and the simply spectacular scenery. I loved the challenge of the race and the camaraderie of the fellow paddlers. I loved the achievement and the resulting serenity in the days that followed. It was a joy to be a part of and I am deeply grateful to Emma and Duncan, who organised the whole thing, for providing the opportunity.

What about you? Have you raced The Great Glen Challenge? Are you considering a SUP ultra event? What training tips do you have to share, or do you have questions you’d like to see answered? Leave a comment below, I’d love to hear from you.