This week we had two lovely warmish sunny days, and I paddled on both of them. On Tuesday Joe and I did a loop of the harbor, and today I paddled for 80 minutes out on the Mississippi. In between those two days the weather was wet and/or cold and blustery.
I started today's paddle by warming up and doing another rusty-feeling set of three 8-stroke sprints. Then I paddled out onto the Mississippi, where an upstream-bound barge rig was creating some good-sized swells. I went out and tried to surf without much success. Part of the reason is that I tend to be conservative with such activities in the wintertime, but even if my attitude had been a hundred percent "Sydney or the Bush," I still might not have gotten any decent rides because the waves' troughs were a little too broad. But at least I got in a few decent sprints. Soon the waves started petering out, so my bit of surf practice didn't last more than maybe five minutes. We take what we can get here in the Mid South.
I ferried over to the Arkansas side and paddled upriver toward the Loosahatchie Chute before coming back down and returning to the harbor. During this period the "thing" I decided to work on was pulling hard through each stroke while keeping the stroke rate pretty low. It was almost like a "hesitation" drill as I had to make myself go slow during each recovery between strokes. It made for some good balance practice out on the river.
I'll be out of the boat for most of next week due to holiday travel. I did the strength routine Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this week, and since my Smart Bell is nice and portable I'll be sticking to that aspect of training next week.
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