Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Haste makes waste

I think I've mentioned before that I'm currently living in the apartment over my mother's garage.  My mother has moved to a retirement community, so it's just me here (the house is on the market but has not yet sold).

The locks on the doors here are such that it's pretty easy to lock oneself out.  I've mostly been careful about that, but this morning I went outside and shut the door behind me without unlocking it.  I spent the better part of the next hour knocking on neighbor's doors, trying to borrow somebody's phone so I could call my mother and have her come let me back in the house.  Few of my neighbors seemed to be home, but I finally got my hands on a phone, and my mother very kindly came right over.

Though I really didn't lose that much time, I felt in a rush the rest of the morning, and in my haste I went down to the river without my paddling clothes.  I discovered my mistake on the dock, and ended up paddling in my underwear for 40 minutes.

I paddled the K1, a boat that requires maximum concentration from me right now.  Feeling flustered and distracted, I might have been better off just skipping paddling, but eventually I got my mind on the business at hand.

One thing I did today was paddle on one side for ten or twelve strokes at a time.  I have done this in the surf ski many times and had no trouble, but I found it very difficult in the K1, especially when paddling on my right side.  Each time I took a stroke, I badly wanted to counter it with a stroke on the other side. I was frustrated with how awkward I was feeling, but I'm hoping that this and similar drills will bring about some improvement in my balance.

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