I rode my bike downtown today and paddled for 80 minutes. It was awfully windy out on the river, and the presence of heavy barge traffic made the water fairly rough. I tried to stay relaxed and not fight the water.
My back is still hurting, but improving. One thing that hadn't occurred to me when I wrote my last post is that I might have hurt myself doing yard work, of all things, on Thursday. There was a layer of half-composted leaves in the street gutter along one side of the house, and I used a flat-nosed shovel to scrape it up and put it in a wheelbarrow. The shovel has a pretty short handle, so I was bending over a lot. And I've found that once you reach middle age, you bend over at your peril.
Outdoors, Inc., was hosting its annual cyclocross race this morning in the Greenbelt Park that runs along the Mississippi above the Hernando DeSoto Bridge. They always shoot video at this event, and I paddled up there hoping they might get some footage of me while they were at it. In the Major League Baseball postseason last month, San Francisco Giants closer Sergio Romo attracted attention by persistently getting his face into TV shots and photos, a practice he calls "Romo-bombing." I guess what I was doing today would be called... what? "Elmo-bombing"?
You need to start doing more core development. That will help your back and your rowing! Try taking a crossfit class.
ReplyDeleteYou're right. I will be getting back into some strength-building exercises soon, and core strength is something I definitely want to improve. I'll check out what Crossfit does.
ReplyDeleteThank you for reading!