When I got up Saturday morning the Fahrenheit temperature was in the high 60s. It felt warmer out on the back porch than it did inside the house. When I got down to the riverfront there was a steady breeze from the south but it was nothing too ferocious.
After warming up and doing three 8-stroke sprints, I did a set of ten 30-second sprints at three-minute intervals. I've been doing this workout for several years now since learning of research (cited in this post on Ron Lugbill's blog) that suggests that sprints like these are better than long, steady paddles for developing endurance. I do my share of long, steady paddles, of course, but I've had some good results since I started mixing in some workouts like this one.
I'd spent the previous day doing a bunch of scraping and sanding at the rental property where I've been painting, and my arms felt tired from that. My lower back is a bit sore from the bending, too. But I held up just fine through all ten sprints.
My workout took me almost to the north end of the harbor, and it began to rain as I turned around for the 15-minute paddle back to the marina. I got good and soaked as I paddled along, and the rain picked up even more intensity once I was back at the dock.
Saturday evening we got the heavy thunderstorms the weathermen had been predicting, but we were spared violent weather here in Memphis. A tornado or two did touch down over in Arkansas.
The handbell group I play with had a gig yesterday morning, so I waited until today to do my weekly "longer" paddle. And as luck would have it, today is what I would call our first "picture-perfect" day of 2018. When I got to the river this morning there was not a cloud in the sky, the breeze was light, and the temperature was in the low 50s on its way to a high in the mid 60s. With the Mississippi River at 30.0 feet on the Memphis gauge, there was plenty of water for a good smooth trip around the Loosahatchie Bar.
As I paddled away from the dock I felt some soreness in my upper left biceps. I'd noticed it while lying in bed last night too, and I wondered what I'd done yesterday to irritate that area. Then it hit me: on one of the pieces we played with our handbells yesterday I was ringing the biggest bell our group owns--the third octave G note--and the last page of the music had me ringing some thirty consecutive quarter notes with my left hand. And I had to ring softly, so I had to use some extra muscle to control that. As a result, I paddled today with a handbell injury. Actually I would describe it more as a bit of soreness than a real injury, but it's kind of fun to say you've got a handbell injury.
The area bothered me less once I was all warmed up. The trip around the Bar went just fine, with no drama of note. There was some barge traffic out on the river but fortunately it wasn't creating any terribly rough conditions. I glided back alongside the dock an hour and 58 minutes after I'd started.
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