A tiring warmup and a hard workout

The last several days have been very humid and today promised to get even more so (rain).  The raindrops began to fall as I drove down to the river this morning and then a couple of heavy showers moved through as I stretched under the marina's shelter.  By the time I was through stretching the rain had abated to a light drizzle and mostly held off the whole time I was on the water.

I paddled to the mouth of the harbor and then up the Mississippi toward the mouth of the Wolf River. I found myself paddling into a strong northwest wind as well as the swift current of the swollen river, and the going was slow.  It was a struggle to go much over 3 miles per hour from the mouth of the harbor to the Greenbelt Park.  Once I reached the greenbelt I was able to move into more protected water since the park's lower tier was underwater with the Memphis gauge reading at 34.4 feet.  But the wind still impeded my progress and getting the boat up to 5 mph was a challenge.

I finally reached the mouth of the Wolf more than 50 minutes after I'd left the dock--most of the time it takes me between 45 and 50 minutes to get up there.  I'd had quite a workout, but the day's official workout was only beginning.  I embarked on eight three-minute pieces with three minutes recovery in between; the target pace for each piece was 7.5 mph, pretty quick for me.  With the 5-kilometer Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race just four weeks away, it's time to go faster.

I did the first piece up the Wolf and struggled to achieve 7.5 mph; after the recovery interval I did the next piece back down the Wolf and maintained 8 mph for most of it.  There must have been a bit of flow in the Wolf even though the Mississippi was backed up into it.

I did the next two pieces going back down the Mississippi, so the 7.5-mph standard was irrelevant, but I tried to paddle with the same intensity.  The water was squirrelly and I occasionally had trouble taking good strokes while trying to stay balanced.

I did the last four pieces back in the harbor and kept my speed at or near 7.5 mph throughout.  I was feeling it big-time in the last two but I got it done.

I'm still a bit sore from the new strength routine, and now I'm exhausted from today's workout.  Fortunately I didn't have anything pressing on the agenda for the rest of my Saturday.