Foul or fair?

This week I'm doing what I usually do when I want to be in peak form for a race: some brief, easy paddling; some short sprints; and as much rest and as good a diet as I can get.  On Tuesday I paddled for 60 minutes and did eight 12-stroke sprints.  Today I paddled for 40 minutes and did six 12-stroke sprints.  I'll do something similar tomorrow and load up the boat for transport to the starting area Saturday morning.

My out-of-the-boat life has been rocked by a somewhat stressful event this week.  Without boring you with the details (and the details are relatively mundane--no death in the family or anything like that), I'll just say that every athlete has to put up with some kind of distractions, and the challenge is not to let it disrupt his rest or his focus on the big competition at hand.

Rain in the Missouri and upper Mississippi drainages has prompted the National Weather Service to revise its river level predictions upward a bit.  Right now it looks like the Memphis gauge will read a little over 17 feet on Saturday.  That's good news, not because it will make much difference in the actual racing, but because it will make putting in and taking out a bit easier by covering up more of the rough terrain at the start and finish areas.

Somewhat more worrisome is the weather forecast.  I've been watching it all week, and the chances of showers and thunderstorms have risen as high as 100% and dropped as low as 0%... in other words, your guess is as good as mine, and apparently our guess is as good as that of the professional weather forecasters.  As I write this on Thursday afternoon, the prediction is heavy thunderstorms from Friday night into Saturday morning, but only a 20% chance of rain on Saturday.

The thing that seems fairly certain is that we'll have some thunderstorms in the area Saturday morning, but at least right now it looks like the chances aren't bad for a good racing window.  I saw Joe this morning and he was anxious about it, just like any good race director would be, but we agreed that all we can do is be prepared and otherwise think happy thoughts.