Training....

[Off-Shore]

On iPhone I now use Endomondo. Much much lighter on battery than Motion X. Nice clean user interface, keeps track of cumulative (per sport)  in your account in the cloud and a few other niceties like speed charts etc..

More importantly, if going out to sea (or mountains) alone, you can add a friend to your account (and alert them when you go out) and they can track your progress live online and see where you end up (or get stuck).

Will try out Endomondo. The other thing with Motion X is it can screw things up. This was a 2km paddle with my son but looks like we did 68km!

[paolosup]

I also use Garmin 910XT....great watch and with heart rate everything I need.
Last 2 paddle trainings I actually started doing intervals. I am on water for just over an hour but try to do 10 sets of 2 minutes at max speed/effort. At the moment that is not a lot but am hoping this will improve by next summer.
This type of training worked well for me when I did triathlons...improved speed greatly!

[Bulky]

Time to step up, Bulky. The BOP is in a couple of weeks. You'll do fine.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Pono.  That's a crazy weekend for us but your encouragement had me in the "go for it camp" and I was putting together plans to get out of some commitments that weekend to at least make the Sunday race.  Until last night when a "must-do" charity event called (the hospital that fixed my son's heart).  I guess my BOP debut will have to be in 2015.  By then, I'll weigh 62lbs!

I'm almost at the end of the season of life where I'm chasing my kids around on soccer fields most weekends.  Have a blast!