This morning I paddled for 60 minutes. It was my first time in the boat since Tuesday, but the days since then haven't exactly been restful. The ground floor of my building had all kinds of broken plaster and peeling paint on the walls and ceiling, and I decided to use a pressure washer to knock down as much of that stuff as I could. I discovered that pressure washing is very hard work. The washer I used shoots water around 3000 psi, and my hands and arms feel like jelly after hours of handling that thing. I doubt any of the top coaches or sports physiologists would recommend my way of spending the two weeks before the season's big competition.
Oh well, I still have a week to try to get in some rest. My paddling sessions will be short in duration, but I'll paddle as fast as I can in that time. Today I did ten 30-second sprints with full recovery. I'm slowly starting to feel better with the change to my stroke. One thing I've noticed is that I'm capable of a higher stroke rate than I had been before, because I'm not wasting as much motion between strokes. I also need to re-figure my balance--I don't feel as stable as I did when I was paddling with my elbows farther from my body and the blade farther from the boat. I very nearly flipped this morning as I paddled across the squirrelly slackwater at the southern tip of Mud Island.
I'll be paddling again tomorrow, but at lower intensity as I participate in a litter pickup down at the riverfront.
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