A Whole World of Pain

Well, perhaps not a whole world but a good proportion of it, I am now certainly feeling the effects of my third dragon boat training session from earlier in the day. After our first practice session with the police a couple of weeks back, I was hopeful that things would be a touch easier as our training was being taken over by the Hong Kong Amateur Dragon Boat Association from our second week. When our 30 minute warm up session on the beach far exceeded any of the circuit training sessions we used to do at school I should have realised that that the HKADBA was not going to be a softer option. Last week we separated into the learners and experienced paddler groups (each with separate boats), off we went and all was well.
This week I was expecting more of the same, however it appeared that our 'learning' period was over as we were split into two boats with the other paddlers (police included) who are using the training session to practice for the International races which are held at Shatin each year, not the 'fun' races at Stanley (which tend to involve a few races, then a few beers) which is more what I had set my sights on.
We headed out for our 'warm up' paddle, consisting of 3 bouts of 120 strokes at full power, with a 5 minute breather in between. Following the second bout I had finished my water supply, and, if I am completely honest, was not entirely sure whether I was going to last the morning.
When we had finally completed our 'warm up' one of the younger police members collapsed in the boat from exhaustion and needed attention. A few paddles and life jackets were passed forward to form a makeshift bed for the chap to lie down on, whilst first aid was administered. What alarmed me at the time was the fact that none of the other paddlers seemed particularly concerned about the situation, as if this was quite a normal occurrence.
After 10 minutes of 'first aid' which seemed to consist of slapping the poor fellow around a bit (I suspect that this was more for embarrassing the police than to aid his recovery), he was well enough to make it into the back of the boat and sit up, although his paddling for the day was over.
After this, the training seemed a little easier, although not by much, and the rest of the morning was fairly uneventful. After our 2 hours of paddling we finally made it back to the beach when our trainer announced that for those who wanted to, he would carry on the training session for another hour. At this point, I took the 'sensible' option and decided to carry on for the additional session (not wanting to be out done by the professional paddlers). The last hour focused on cardio training (would you believe), which generally involved paddling faster than I thought was physically possible.
After feeling quite pleased with myself at the time, I am now aware that just about about everywhere on my body hurts. In addition, I also managed to get quite badly sun burnt, even though it was cloudy all morning, just to add to the general level of discomfort!
Next week, alas, it's the Hong Kong Rugby 7's, so my paddling will have to give way to a weekend of drunken debauchery (not by me I hasten to add - I will be quietly sipping my mineral water and going nowhere near the South Stand)!