Friday, July 14, 2017

Ecstasy and agony

The heat index has moved on up into triple digits this week, but it still hasn't been quite as bad as it can be in the Mid South in July.  I think the highest actual temperature we've had so far has been maybe 95 degrees Fahrenheit; some years we're over 100 at this time.

Tuesday was one of those days when my 60 minutes in the boat felt like just what the doctor ordered. I warmed up and did three 8-stroke sprints in the harbor, and then paddled up the Mississippi to the southern reaches of the Greenbelt Park.  A barge rig was coming downstream and I tried to ride its wake back down to the harbor entrance, but the waves weren't much good.  It was invigorating to rev my engines for that short period, at least.

Last night I went out to Shelby Farms for "Thursday evening sprints" on Patriot Lake.  I guess those sprints always hurt pretty good, but they seemed to hurt a little more than usual last night.  Moving into that "top gear" that I usually have felt like a real struggle.  We did four sprints with four or five minutes recovery in between.  We're using fixed landmarks for our start and finish; the distance is somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 meters--a little bit short of that, probably.

I was dead-tired after last night's workout but this morning I'm not feeling too achy.  I did a round of the current strength routine to complete my usual Monday-Wednesday-Friday cycle for that.

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