Grinding back into motion

I spent Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday laying low in the house, doing a few minimal chores but mostly just lying around and taking long naps.  I felt crummy, almost sick--partly because of the medication I was on, I think, and partly because my body was having to devote much of its energy to dealing with my finger wound.  Friday morning I went and saw the plastic surgeon, who thought my injury was not so serious and wouldn't require any further operation.  She said as long as I kept the wound clean I should be able to go back to most of my normal activities.  She prescribed a different antibiotic that wouldn't make me feel so lousy, and by late Friday I felt on my way back to the world of the living.

Yesterday morning I got back to the February strength routine, which goes something like this: a couple of drills on the exercise ball, a set of bent-over rows with a dumbbell, a couple more exercise ball drills, a set of power cleans with a cinder block, one last drill on the ball, and a set of step-ups on the stairs.  I had a little bit of trouble gripping the dumbbell with my left hand, but otherwise it all went just fine.  My core is weak and I'm looking forward to un-weakening it.

I was out of the boat for four days, and they were a pretty good four days to be out of the boat: I think the temperature stayed below freezing for some 72 straight hours during that time.  This morning's weather was not exactly cheer-inducing--grey skies and 35 degrees Fahrenheit--but it's supposed to go back to sub-freezing with some frozen precipitation soon, so down to the river I went for a 90-minute session.

My bandaged finger felt a little awkward, but didn't really hinder my paddling at all.  Most of the time it's not necessary, and in fact not even desirable, to have a rigor-mortis-type grip on a kayak paddle.  By keeping your hands relaxed you conserve energy and avoid undue stress on your wrist and forearm muscles.

After a ten-minute warmup, I did eight six-stroke sprints at one-minute intervals.  Then I spent the forty minutes from 0:25 to 1:05 doing 30-second sprints at four-minute intervals.  The workout felt hard, and my finger was a mental distraction, but I think it went pretty well.  There were several pieces right in the middle where I felt I was moving the boat with authority.

I came home and cleaned the wound and changed the dressing, per doctor's orders.