Thursday, February 28, 2013

Down south and back in the boat

I took a couple of days of much-needed rest in Athens.  The weather was miserable, so it was a good time to chill out anyway.

Yesterday I made the next leg of my trip, driving down to Tampa, Florida.  It's a bit out of the way for me (I have to be in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, by tomorrow evening), but I consider it a worthwhile side trip because my friend Heidi lives here.  Anybody who's looked at my Holmes Woodwork website lately knows that it's in bad need of an overhaul, and Heidi's quite the savvy webmaster and she's walking me through some bits of the process that have a way of making my eyes glaze over.  Of course, she probably could have helped me with this stuff long-distance, but Heidi also happens to be one of the nicest, loveliest, most interesting people I know, and I'm relishing spending a little time with her.

And as if that weren't enough, it's WARM where Heidi lives, and her house is across the street from the  Hillsborough River!  So my boat's off the car for the first time since Sunday morning.  Yesterday evening I did a pretty easy 40-minute paddle, just unwinding from the long drive.  With a race this Saturday my ATP-CP system could use a little work, so I did six 12-stroke sprints, starting them at two-minute intervals to ensure a nice full recovery.

This morning I went back out on the river and paddled for 60 minutes, doing another set of six 12-stroke sprints.  Then, a little later in the session, I paddled for ten minutes at my likely race pace for this Saturday--enough to get the feel of paddling hard for a sustained period but not enough to wear myself out.  The weather was breezy but otherwise nice--partly cloudy and low 70s--and it felt good to paddle in nothing but shorts and a T-shirt.

I have a long drive ahead of me tomorrow but this has been a nice stop so far.

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