I mentioned yesterday that March had come in like a lamb. Turns out the lion wasn't far behind, and it's now feasting on said lamb. When I got up this morning it was perhaps 50 degrees Fahrenheit but predicted to drop some 20 degrees during the course of the day. This was definitely a day to be on the water earlier rather than later, and I was in the boat by about twenty minutes after nine. According to my car's temperature display, it was already below 40 degrees by then.
I've said before that I've been doing longer paddles on Sundays, and all this past week I had been looking at today as a good time to go around the Loosahatchie Bar, a trip that usually takes me 130 minutes or so on average when I start and finish at Harbortown Marina. But I ditched that plan when I found the wind blowing hard from the north. To those inclined to call me a wuss for doing so, I'll just say that I see things a little differently: epic slogs are not very useful as a training staple, in my opinion. Sure, one or two per season might provide a little boost to one's mental toughness, but in general I don't want to think of my boat as a place of pain and suffering. In the boat I want to feel crisp and sharp and, you know... speedy.
So instead I did a 60-minute session in the harbor with lots of short sprints--30 seconds or less, generally--with full recovery. I capped off the workout by timing myself from the Hernando DeSoto Bridge to the monorail bridge, and clocked about 1:58. I think it might be the first time ever I've broken two minutes on this course, and definitely the first time in the surf ski. It was wind-aided, but I'll take it just the same.
I came home feeling good about what I'd done. Like I said yesterday, I've been feeling a bit unenthusiastic about training lately, and I think what I did today was a much better antidote than a long, hard, frigid ordeal would have been.
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