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Having been through an absolutely awful time with Covid Luuka wondered if she would ever return to high performance sport levels and compete again. “I am definitely feeling closer to my old self with every week that I am here in London”, said Luuka. “Therefore, I am looking forward to hitting the World Cup start line again and will be very interested to see where I am at. It was great to try out my new boat, a new model which most people are paddling. It feels good on the water.”

Here is Luuka’s overview of her preparation in London & Prague

• I focussed a lot on my session preparation and recovery strategies (activation, sleep, nutrition) which contributed to handling the camp well. London is a notoriously physical place to paddle, so I was unsure how I would respond to the increase in whitewater load compared to NZ.
• We focussed a lot on course learning, with a mix of technical and delivery sessions. The highlight session for me was full runs session. I had no idea if physically I could even make it to the bottom as I haven’t done full runs on a heavy course like this in a long time but again was surprised.
• We were able to do 3 x Kayak Cross sessions, which were very valuable. The first was with a group of top females where we did some head to head racing. The other two sessions I focussed on various upstream techniques. The big learning from the Kayak Cross (CSLX) sessions, is that the head to head sessions especially are a very high load. The racing is high power, and the boats are twice as heavy as a slalom kayak. They also do not glide as well, so it takes a lot more effort to maneuverer them. The head-to-head sessions are also the most valuable in terms of having to make good decisions, under pressure, in unknown situations. 
• We decided to come to Prague early instead of competing in the first World Cup in Augsburg. This gives better preparation for the Prague World Cup, and some time to recover from the camp in London. It was a good decision as I am valuing the extra preparation time here. Interestingly, my HRV is the highest it has been in over a year, and we cannot really explain why. However, it is a good sign that things are on track.  
• The racing format for next week is different to what we would normally expect at a World Cup. The time between demo runs and the first class (which is K1W) is very short, so there will not be as much time to analyse the course and I am adjusting my race plan accordingly.