Practicing K1 skills

I'm happy to say that the shoulder bruise is healing fast.  It's just a tiny bit sore today, and the bump is barely noticeable now.

I started the morning with two sets of the May strength routine.  Then I headed down to the river for a 60-minute paddle.  The water was reasonably calm in spite of a south breeze, so I took out the K1.  I have a workout planned for tomorrow, so I spent today working on skills and doing all kinds of drills.  I paddled from the marina to the mouth of the harbor for a warmup, and then I paddled back to the marina doing some stroke drills, including one-sided paddling (as I've mentioned before, I'm much less stable paddling on my right than paddling on my left) and the "hesitation" drill where I take a stroke on one side and then pause for a second with blades out of the water before taking a stroke on the other side.

On the protected water in the interior of the marina's "U" shape, I did some six-stroke sprints and some backpaddling.  I've gotten quite good at backpaddling in the surf ski, using the rudder to steer even though it's at the leading end of the boat, but right now it's a different story in the K1.  I'll keep at it.  I've been rewarded for my persistence in learning difficult skills many times in the past, and I have to believe that I will be once more.

Overall I felt quite comfortable just paddling forward in the K1, and I think I'm slowly improving paddling at higher intensity.  So it was a satisfying morning.  Even those paddling sessions that don't wear you out can be very valuable.