When I paddled on Tuesday there was a pretty good south breeze blowing and an upstream-bound barge rig had just moved through the Memphis area. When I paddled out of the mouth of the harbor I saw not exactly classic downwind conditions, but lots of surfable bumps out on the river. So I went out and played around a bit. Having just done a workout the day before with another one planned for Thursday, I didn't want to push the intensity too hard. So I got just a handful of decent little rides and then returned to the harbor, where I paddled easy back to the dock.
Yesterday it was time for another set of four 450-meter sprints on my bridge-to-bridge course in the harbor. When I did this workout last week I had a bit more of a tail wind than I had yesterday, so I knew it would be hard to produce the same sort of times. I warmed up and did three 8-stroke sprints and then got with it, and sure enough, I was slower: 1:57, 2:00, 2:00, 2:03. (For a full 500 meters this would be 2:10, 2:13, 2:13, 2:17.)
When doing these sprints I've always sort of "stroked for broke" from start to finish, but after failing to break 2 minutes for the second sprint yesterday it occurred to me that it might be useful to play around with the pacing a little bit. So for the next two sprints I kept it a bit slower and more controlled for the first minute and then tried to bear down for a strong finish. No miracles resulted, but at least my third piece was consistent with the previous one. I was just about spent by the fourth one.
I did the strength routine Wednesday and today. Tomorrow, of course, should be the Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race; but since it has been called off I'm just training right on through this weekend.
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