It's been a week in which I've felt overwhelmed by all of life's minutiae. I've felt tired and anxious, asking myself how I can possibly get down to the river in this state, much less be ready to race next Saturday.
And yet, I've been feeling pretty good in the boat. My sessions have been mostly unstructured, doing sprints and surges as I've felt like it rather than as sets of intervals, but my strokes have felt smooth and effective. I'm also feeling good about this month's strength routine, which I'm doing on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
On Saturday I warmed up and did three 8-stroke sprints, and paddled out onto the river. A barge rig was churning upriver very quickly, and I ferried out hoping to recreate the surfing sweetness of last Tuesday. But I couldn't get any sort of ride on these waves. A stiff breeze from the north wasn't helping. I spent the rest of the 60 minutes doing a loop up above the Hernando DeSoto Bridge and back down into the harbor. The water out on the river was quite choppy from the wind and the towboat, and I did a couple of two-minute surges and felt like I was moving the boat pretty well on that water. I have a feeling next month's North Shore Cup race on Lake Marion near Charleston will have some similar conditions.
Yesterday I paddled for 60 minutes again, and this time I managed to get a couple of good rides behind an upbound tow. I really had to hammer to keep the boat ahead of each swell, and by the time it was over I had piled up quite a few all-out sprints.
For the rest of this week I think I'll be paddling a bit easier with a few short sprints to get myself ready for Saturday's Gator Bait race.
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