Post-race notes and "recovery"

Before yesterday the fastest time recorded in the Osage Spring 12 race had been one hour, 34 minutes, 1 second.  Tandem kayakers Joe Mann and Matt Dressler turned in that time in the 2015 edition; yesterday's overall winners Mira Doneva and Ron Ladzinski were just three seconds back that year.  With the help of the strong river flow and ideal weather conditions yesterday, ten boats were faster than the old record.  Mira and Ron set a new overall record of one hour, 17 minutes, 31 seconds; my time of 1:19:32 is the new record in the "men's solo unlimited" (i.e., surf skis and such) class.  The complete results are now posted here.

I don't think I've ever seen Mike Herbert use as low a stroke rate as he was using in the race yesterday.  He was in the stern seat, so Savanna got to set the rate and it was Mike's job to follow.  Savanna is a fine athlete but apparently she didn't inherit her dad's insane turnover ability.

I woke up this morning very sore in my midsection.  That's not at all unusual the day after a race, but what was unusual was some sunburn on my scalp.  My hair is pretty short right now--a man even asked me if I was in the military while I was filling up the tank on the trip home--and in the race I wore just a visor, without any thought given to the exposure of my skin up there.  I did apply sunscreen to the rest of my exposed skin.

Once I'd had some coffee and breakfast and was awake for real, I saw to the typical post-race chores: I washed the mud and grime off my boat and stored it in the garage, and I unloaded the car of paddling gear and camping gear and cleaned it up a little and put it away all nice and neat.

After that I headed down to the river for a recovery paddle in the old beat-up boat I keep down there.  At least, a recovery paddle is all I really needed today.  But with the river having just crested at 36 feet here at Memphis around midnight, there were all kinds of nifty places out there to explore, and on top of that it was another gorgeous sunny day with Fahrenheit temperatures in the mid 70s.  So I had to get out and do a little bit more than I'd normally do on a recovery day.

I did some thorough stretching on the dock and then paddled off toward the mouth of the harbor.  As soon as I got there I ferried straight across the Mississippi to the Arkansas side.  I had to hoof it a bit because a barge rig was coming upriver; then, over near the Arkansas side, I had to navigate the same minefield of boils and exploding whirlpools and stuff I'd encountered last Sunday.

Then I was paddling across the flooded farmland across from downtown Memphis, and the water calmed down, though it was definitely flowing.  One thing you should understand about the Mississippi basin is that bottomland areas like the one across from downtown are in fact river channels that are simply between floods most of the time.  If you want to plant some crops on that land, or build a house on it, fine; but you must accept that when Old Man River has a mind to go a-floodin', he couldn't care less how many thousands of dollars you've invested there.

Here the current was mild enough that I could paddle against it without much trouble, and I did the easy "recovery" paddling I'd been seeking.  Soon I was north of the Hernando DeSoto Bridge and I found a couple of open channels through the forested land up there.  I couldn't believe I was only a mile or so from the core of downtown as I drifted through this impromptu swamp, serenaded by the songbirds and dappled by the sunlight peaking through the lush tree canopy.

Soon I popped out of the woods and was back in the main river channel.  That barge rig I'd had to avoid earlier had left plenty of turbulent water in its wake and I tried to keep my sore body relaxed as I paddled through it.  As I re-entered the harbor I saw dozens of walkers and joggers over on the bank, enjoying the beautiful day, and I displayed my very best paddling form because, just like I said in my last post, I'm a bit vain that way, like a peacock showing off his tail feathers.

I returned to the dock to complete a 70-minute session, and all told it was a decent recovery paddle with maybe just a whiff of higher intensity.