Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Catching up

I apologize for the break in posting.  Sometimes life just gets in the way.  I've been busy in my workshop as well as tending to some pet care.  But fear not: the training continues.  I've been paddling my boat four times a week and closing out the month of January with the strength routine.

Here in Memphis it was cold, then it got warm (and windy and wild), and now it's cold again.  Such is winter in the Mid South.  After getting a pair of chilly-day paddles in with Joe last week, I arrived at the riverfront on Saturday and Sunday amid balmy temperatures and the strongest wind from the south that I've seen in quite a long time.  The water was still frigid, so in the interest of safety I stayed in the harbor both days.

On Saturday I paddled into the wind to the mouth (the south end) of the harbor, doing three 8-stroke sprints along the way.  Then, coming back north with the wind at my back, I did eight 30-second sprints at three-minute intervals.  The sprints were hard but felt fast and fun.

On Sunday the wind might have been even a bit stronger.  Once again I paddled to the harbor's mouth and then, with the wind at my back, I did some not-so-structured play.  The waves weren't quite big enough for true surfing, but I could get a little ride now and then for a few seconds at a time; when the wave gave out I would sprint ahead to the next wave.  The best action was between the Hernando DeSoto and monorail bridges, where the harbor gets constricted between a marina on one side and a steep bank on the other, and the wind sort of tunnels.

By the time Joe and I met again yesterday, a front was moving in but the air was still warm.  It was breezy and we got rained on a good bit, but the water wasn't really that rough.  We put in a good 80-minute distance session.

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