I'm back from my trip, and even though the dreary, grey skies here are sort of a bummer after a week of nice sunny days, it feels good to be home.
The river is quite a bit higher than it was when I paddled on it last Sunday. That's not really a surprise, considering the system of heavy precipitation that passed through here last weekend and went on to cause all kinds of problems for folks from the upper Midwest to the Northeast and eastern Canada. The water I paddled on this morning submerged the Memphis gauge up to the 20.7-foot mark.
I paddled for 60 minutes in all. Taking a suggestion from this post on Ron Lugbill's blog, I followed a ten-minute warmup with ten six-stroke sprints in the harbor at maximum intensity, doing a sprint at the top of each minute.
As a pre-emptive response to those who might want to say "Lugbill's blog is about slalom racing; the type of racing you're doing doesn't require the bursts of speed or quick accelerations that slalom does," I'll point out two things. First, a quick acceleration off the starting line can be very important, especially in shorter races like the Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race; and second, my goal is not just speed but also to practice the motor skills associated with high-intensity paddling, in the hope that paddling a quick pace won't feel like such a big deal on race day.
After my ten sprints I went out on the river and paddled at race pace for about a half hour before returning to the harbor and doing a nice cool-down back to the dock.
Before paddling this morning I did ten sets of 28 Hindu squats and ten sets of 10 front and lat raises.
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