Miling

The weather has continued to be humid but not too terribly hot.  When I went down to the river yesterday a line of thunderstorms had just passed through and the sky was still mostly cloudy, the temperature rising toward a high in the high 80s Fahrenheit.  I was feeling somewhat on the tired side, but not too bad.  I paddled for 60 minutes at a healthy pace that included a few surfing attempts behind a downstream-moving barge rig out on the Mississippi.

Some heavy storms moved through the area in the early hours of this morning.  By the time I got down to the marina around 9:30 AM CDT, the rain was gone, the humidity was plentiful, and the sun was trying to come out.  The electricity was out in that part of town, but I didn't need any electricity to make my boat go.

Having spent recent weeks doing lots of hard, fast pieces, I decided I was due for some pace work today.  After warming up and doing three 8-stroke sprints, I embarked on four one-mile pieces in the harbor with five minutes recovery in between.  I had my G.P.S. device on board and my target pace was 7.0 miles per hour; but I did most of the workout with a tailwind (the wind was from the south at 5-10 mph) and had little trouble maintaining 7.2 or 7.3 mph.  During the last piece I reached the north end of the harbor and did the last quarter-mile or so coming back into the wind, and then it was a struggle to reach 7.0.  My times were 8:23, 8:16, 8:12, and 8:18.

The most exciting moment occurred about a minute into the third piece, when I surprised an enormous gar that had been snoozing just below the surface.  The startled fish gave my boat a big smack! with his tail as he dove for deeper water.

By the end of the workout I was hot and tired, but resisted the urge to take a dip in the water.  I expect the runoff from the heavy rain had sent the bacteria and other pollution to peak levels.  Instead, I paddled slowly back to the dock and enjoyed a nice bath under the hose.