At the beach

I spent most of Monday lying around like an absolute slug.  "Decompression," the hip people call it.  I got out of bed around 8 AM (for me, that's really sleeping in), drank some coffee, sat on our deck and gazed out over Mississippi Sound, read my book, had some lunch, took a nap...

By mid afternoon I decided I should finally grind the gears into motion a little bit, and I managed to get through a round of the strength routine.  Then I put my boat in the water and paddled easy for a half hour or so.  I actually felt better after doing these things than I'd felt before.

By yesterday I had some pep back in my step.  I got in the boat and paddled for 70 minutes.  After warming up for 10 minutes and doing three 8-stroke sprints, I embarked on a workout that I hope will get my long sprints more up to speed: ten 1-minute sprints at two-minute intervals.  By the time I started doing this workout I was out past the Dauphin Island Bridge that carries highway 193 over from the mainland.  There was enough wind to create some decent-sized waves, and a big cabin cruiser came though trailing some huge wakes of its own.  So I was doing my workout in some fairly rough conditions.  I was reminded of the differences between paddling into the waves and paddling with a "following sea"--the latter is quite a bit trickier as far as balance and control is concerned.  I definitely need to get a surf rudder for my boat before the Gorge Downwind Championships in July--I normally use a calm-water rudder.

Yesterday's workout was a premeditated, "organized" sort of thing.  I'll probably do one more such workout later this week.  For the rest of the week I have resolved to "play" in my boat and do whatever I feel like doing.  If any decent downwind conditions present themselves and I'm in a mood to get out in them, I will.  If I'm feeling tired and want to do a short, easy paddle, I will.  If any of my sister's kids wants to paddle, I'll take him or her out.

This morning I did another round of the strength routine and then went out for what I thought would be a fun "play" workout: the wind had picked up and it looked like there might be some good waves out in Mississippi Sound.  But once I was paddling away from our rental house I could tell the conditions were dying down.  I paddled maybe a mile and a half offshore and there wasn't much doing, so I turned around and went back.  Epic surf is one thing for which the Gulf Coast is not famous.

This afternoon I walked across to the Gulf side of the island and took a swim at the beach.  The aqua-therapy felt good.