I'm thinking my next competition will be two weeks from tomorrow, and of course the big race here at Memphis is a mere seven weeks from tomorrow. So I'm starting to get back down to business.
Having paddled with Joe Tuesday and started a new strength routine Wednesday, I was ready to do a workout on the water yesterday. A storm front had moved through overnight and the morning was cooler and calm.
Paddling from the marina toward the mouth of the harbor, I warmed up for fifteen minutes and did three 8-stroke sprints. I paddled up the Mississippi to the south end of the Greenbelt Park, and then started my workout heading back downriver. The workout was ten two-minute pieces with two minutes recovery in between. I did the first two on the river and aimed for a pace of 12 miles per hour. By the third one I was back on the flatwater of the harbor, and my target pace was 7.5 mph.
I felt pretty good for most of the workout. As usual I tried to take the best strokes I could, with a good precise catch and full rotation from the waist up. By the sixth or seventh piece I was starting to feel pretty taxed. By the eighth piece I was well north of the marina and I turned around to do the last two heading south, back toward the dock. Up until then the southwest breeze had seemed light, but doing those last two pieces right into it was tough. I struggled to do 7.2 or 7.3 mph for those last two.
Anyway, it seemed like a good start for this period from now until the OICK race on June 17. With all that's been going on in my out-of-the-boat life my biggest challenge will be getting adequate recovery in between workouts.
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