All wet

With a new month comes a new strength routine.  I've sort of been neglecting my core, so I'll be working it hard for the next couple of months.  In recent years I've learned some great core exercises involving an exercise ball, many of which are demonstrated in this video by Chinese whitewater slalom racer Jing Jing Li.  I actually only managed a cursory strength session today because I was pressed for time, but I hope to work up a good routine over the next couple of days.

Down at the river it was anything but unseasonably warm like yesterday was.  When I arrived at the marina it was 34 degrees Fahrenheit and raining.  But the rain eased up as I paddled out of the harbor and was no worse than a drizzle for most of my 90-minute session.

I started with a little warmup routine that I learned from one of Austin Kieffer's posts, here.  Then I paddled from the mouth of the harbor up to the mouth of the Wolf River at approximately the pace I'll likely race at down at Ocean Springs at the end of next month.  There was a cold north wind that wasn't too bad, but threw some occasional gusts at me.  The elapsed time was about 33 minutes.  I recovered from that with ten minutes of easy paddling on the flatwater of the lower Wolf.  Then I paddled at a faster pace back down the Mississippi to the mouth of the harbor.  My elapsed time was less than half of what it had been paddling up that same piece of river: fifteen and a half minutes.  Makes a big difference having the current and the wind in your favor.

As I paddled up the harbor back to the marina, the rain began to pick up again and it was coming down pretty hard by the time I reached the dock.  I guess you could say I hit the window of lighter precipitation perfectly, though it was kind of a drag putting my boat away in the pouring-down rain.