During baseball season, my favorite team's website gets updated several times a day. The team plays a game almost every day, after all, and there are always subplots like injuries, trade rumors, shuffling of the lineup, and the like to report on. In the offseason, by contrast, two or three days might go by in between website updates. It's not that there isn't anything going on: the players are busy with winter ball or carrying out their offseason conditioning regimes, and the front office is constantly looking for ways to assemble the best possible roster for the next season. But without a new game each day and a chance for the team to improve its place in the standings, the urgency just isn't there to deliver up-to-the-minute news to the fans.
And so I offer my excuse for the lack of activity here on this website. Even though I am definitely laying some groundwork for next season, it's hard to get inspired to write a lot of stuff when there are no competitions right around the corner.
Life has been full of the usual adult responsibilities along with the family obligations that accompany the holiday season. But there is, in fact, plenty training happening, albeit in a quiet, behind-the-scenes way. I've just finished three solid weeks of my latest strength routine, and starting this coming week I'll be doing a new one. I got in the boat twice a week all through November, and since the beginning of December I've bumped that up to thrice a week. Most days I paddle for 60 to 80 minutes, and it's generally steady paddling though I do try to throw in some 8-stroke sprints and some long surges and stuff like that to keep my body used to the idea of going harder.
On the injury front, I'm happy to say that most of my body is feeling good, but I've spent a full year now trying to get rid of some pain in an unlikely place for a paddler: my feet. My right foot started hurting around this time last year and after spending a few months hoping it would go away I finally saw a doctor about it. The doctor said it was a textbook case of plantar fasciitis, and he gave me one of those splints to wear in bed at night and recommended a couple of stretching exercises. These remedies helped some but never quite solved the problem for good; by the time I took my trip to the Northeast in August the pain was flaring up again and was threatening to get into my left foot as well. My buddy Rob, the chiropractor in New York, showed me a better stretching exercise and he also agreed with my suspicion that the condition was caused by my more aggressive use of my feet while paddling, pushing against the footboard with my onside foot while pulling against the strap with my offside foot. So there you go: paddling has given me a foot injury. I never would have predicted such a thing.
Since seeing Rob in August I have tried to push and pull less intensely with my feet while paddling, and I have been pretty conscientious about doing the stretch he showed me. I think it has definitely helped: as I write this the pain in my left foot is gone. But I can't quite seem to shake it from my right foot. There are periods where it feels almost pain-free, but then it flares up again. I have had all kinds of stubborn ailments in the past that did finally work themselves out, and I hope this one will too, but I'm trying to stay on top of it and keep it from developing into a bone spur.
Winter does seem to be moving into the Mid South. This past Thursday a stiff north wind and a Fahrenheit temperature in the mid 30s prompted me to break out the pogies for the first time. On Saturday it was about ten degrees warmer and less windy, but I didn't get down to paddle until late afternoon and it was almost dark when I finished. I was chilled to the core as I put my boat away and by the time I'd walked up the ramp to my car I was shivering violently. At this early stage there's no telling what kind of winter we'll end up having, but in most years I'm utterly weary of winter by the beginning of February.
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