Speeding things up a little

We've had another run of weirdly warm weather for this time of year, with the Fahrenheit temperature rising into the 70s.  And once again, atmospheric conditions have been unsettled and eventually stormy.

On Tuesday I did a gym session at home and then went down to the river to paddle.  I paddled steady for 50 minutes with a one-minute surge at 4-minute intervals.  I wanted to move at 12 kilometers per hour during the surges, but a strong south wind made the G.P.S. readings not so reliable.

Yesterday morning it was warm again, and not so windy, so I took the opportunity to ride my bike for a little over 70 minutes.  I rode the Greater Memphis Greenline out to where it meets the Wolf River Greenway, and then rode the Greenway south for a bit before turning around and coming back home.  My total distance covered was 26 kilometers or 16.16 miles.

Yesterday afternoon the stormy weather arrived.  This time it was heavy rain, mostly.  A pretty strong wind blew, but nothing like what brought devastation to our neighbors in western Kentucky several weeks ago.

This morning it was cooler--around 53 degrees Fahrenheit--and dead calm.  I went down to the riverfront and found that the harbor was smooth as glass.  With some intense downwind paddling just over three weeks off in my future, it was time to start some faster stuff: I got in the boat with the intention of doing six 250-meter pieces, starting every sixth minute.

I hadn't paddled with any real intensity in almost three months, and I discovered that I was not only out of shape, but also out of practice in dreaming up a workout that my body was ready to do.  I went way too hard in the first piece and could barely manage my last few strokes.  My time was about 69 seconds.  For the second piece I backed off the intensity, but I don't think I had entirely recovered from the first piece, and again my arms went dead on me for the last twenty meters or so.  I decided to add a minute to the recovery interval, and from then on I managed to settle into the workout better.  My times were in the 73-75-second range.  It was still hard, but reasonable.  Once it was over I was reminded how good I can feel after one of these intense-but-quick sessions: the endorphins were flowing and I felt good about having this first hard workout in the bank.  Hopefully my body will adapt quickly and I'll be sprinting more comfortably next time.

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Monday photo feature

The paddlers in this photo are navigating the same South African waters I'll be paddling at the end of next month (assuming, of course, that COVID-19 restrictions don't force me to cancel the trip).

The annual Cape Point Challenge took place on December 18.  Racers started at Fish Hoek Beach, paddled southward into the wind for about 25 kilometers until they reached the point of the Cape of Good Hope, and then enjoyed awesome downwind conditions on their return trip to Fish Hoek Beach.  The last 11 or so kilometers of the race comprises the famous Miller's Run.

The leader of the pack shown here is Dawid Mocke, who will be one of my coaches during my visit there. Dawid ended up in seventh place.  Another local paddler, Nicholas Notten, took the overall win.  Melanie Van Niekirk was the women's champion.

Photo by Rob Mousley.

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Some hard work and some holiday "rest"

I started a new gym routine last Tuesday morning: a Smart Bell workout.  I'm scheduled to depart for South Africa just three weeks from this coming Friday, so this is the gym I'll do until then.

After working with the Smart Bell I went downtown and joined Joe for a loop of the harbor.

On Wednesday I went to Overton Park and did another "bike-plus" workout--four laps on the bike and sets of pushups and Hindu squats after the first, second, and third laps.  I'd started the morning feeling a bit more lethargic than usual, and was very tempted to give myself a break.  I was also sorer than expected from Tuesday's Smart Bell workout: even though I'd been doing intense leg work for a few weeks, the lunges hit just enough of a different spot that my quads were really sore.  But once I was on the bike I slowly began to find the energy and even some enthusiasm, and by the end of the workout I felt really good for having done it.  That's something I've experienced many times over the years: that getting started can feel really hard, but once you do get started your body has a way of rising to the occasion.

I spent Thursday in the car, driving with my mother to North Carolina, where we'd be spending the holiday weekend with my sister's family.  I had my Smart Bell with me for some gym work, but otherwise the weekend would be a bit of a break, and I think it came at a good time.  I'd put in a few weeks of good hard cross training, and now my body would get to recover a bit and internalize it all before my return home to start the final push of training before the South Africa trip.

The weekend was restful enough, but I did experience some digestion problems because my eating routine had been thrown off.  I'd hoped to do two gym sessions, but in the end I did just one because we wanted to get on the road home promptly.  Another exhausting drive had me home around 6:30 PM CST, and after some unpacking and a light supper I was in bed.

This morning I weighed myself for the first time in four days, and all my weight-gain progress seems to have been lost even though I ate plenty of rich holiday food at my sister's house.  I was back down to 151.5 pounds.  Sigh.

It's time to settle back into the routine.  My plan for the coming weeks is to do a bit more in-the-boat training, if the weather cooperates--in Memphis in January, you never know what'll happen.

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Monday photo feature

As I paddled down the Mississippi River this past Friday morning, Fancher Smith captured one of those "Where's Waldo?"-style photos from his position in the Greenbelt Park.

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Negotiating the December weather

Once again the weather forecast motivated me to flip-flop my plans for Friday and Saturday.  Friday morning it was rainy but otherwise calm and unseasonably warm, so I decided to go down to the river to paddle.  I spent 80 minutes in the boat.  It was one of those days when sweat stung my eyes badly whenever I was paddling with the wind at my back, and it was very frustrating having to stop and wipe my face with my hat every minute or so.

The rainy conditions continued into Saturday, during which the Fahrenheit temperature fell from the mid 60s into the mid 40s.  Actually, the weather wasn't bad during the time of the morning that I typically would paddle, but I was nevertheless glad to stick close to home with nothing but a gym session to do.

Exercise out in the cold would come soon enough.  It was overcast and 39 degrees when I got up this morning, with the temperature not expected to get above 45 or so all day.  The forecast said the sun would eventually come out in the afternoon, so I waited until then to do my Sunday distance ride.  The sun did finally come out about ten minutes into the ride, but many clouds remained in the sky and I never really had much direct sunlight.  The ride turned out to be a chilly, rather cheerless affair.  I rode the Greenline all the way out to Germantown Parkway and then came back.  My total distance was 35.12 kilometers (21.8 miles), and I was on the bike for just over 100 minutes.  I was glad to be finished and I expect I'll sleep well tonight.

One bit of good news is that today I was at my heaviest since I started paying attention to my weight a few weeks ago: 155.5 pounds!  I seem to be taking a step back for every couple of steps I take forward, but seeing as how I was at 149 pounds when I first started this little weight-watching adventure, I think I'm inching in the right direction.

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More offseason fun

On Tuesday I did a gym session at home and then joined Joe for a lap of the harbor downtown.

Yesterday I got on the bike and covered a little over 24 kilometers (15 miles) in about 70 minutes of riding.

We're having another run of unseasonably warm weather here in the middle of the week.  And as usual it's accompanied by unsettled weather patterns.  Today we've had periods of rain, and it appears that a front will be passing through later.  I think it's the same front that brought severe winds to parts of the Great Plains yesterday, but I haven't heard concerns on the local news about any such thing happening here.

This morning during a break in the rain I went out and did my "bike-plus" workout in the park just west of my house.  I increased the number of bike laps from three to four, but kept the number of sets of pushups and Hindu squats the same as before, for now.

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Monday photo feature

Back in 2005 I participated in the 26-mile FIBArk downriver race on the Arkansas River from Salida, Colorado, to Cotopaxi, Colorado.  For at least the last five years I've paddled nothing but a surfski, and there's a voice in the back of my mind telling me I should re-learn what a whitewater boat feels like.

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Dodging storms

During periods like this one, when I'm paddling only a couple of times per week, I try to keep an eye on the forecast so I can arrange to be on the water when the weather isn't too miserable.  On Friday it was unseasonably warm, rising into the high 70s Fahrenheit, so I went on down to paddle.  When it's freakishly warm in the wintertime like Friday was, that usually means some stormy weather is on its way, and the south wind blew harder and harder during my 80 minutes in the boat.  I paddled out of the harbor and up the Mississippi to the south end of the Greenbelt Park, then returned to the harbor and did the rest of my paddling there.

Late that night a violent front moved across the region, spawning tornadoes that did catastrophic damage in places like northeast Arkansas and western Kentucky.  Here in Memphis we had some power outages, but as far as I know we were spared the suffering of these other areas.

As usual, there was colder air behind the front, and the temperature dropped all day Saturday.  Saturday morning it was just as windy as Friday had been, albeit from the north, and the temperature was 30 degrees colder.  I was glad to have paddled on Friday so that I could stay indoors Saturday and do a gym session.

The temperature had fallen below freezing when I woke up yesterday morning.  This time I had to suck it up and leave the comforts of home for the Sunday distance ride.  It is in fact a lot harder to stay warm on a bike than in a boat, mainly because you're moving at a higher speed on a bike.  Since the main purpose of my riding is some cardio work I'm less concerned with aerodynamics than more serious riders, and I bundled up pretty good.  The ride turned out not to be so bad: the sun was out, and the wind had died down.  I spent a little over 90 minutes riding both east and west of my house, and covered 32.65 kilometers (20.3 miles).

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The winter program continues with soreness and pounds gained & lost

Tuesday morning I did a gym session, and then went downtown to paddle in the harbor with Joe.

I skipped a gym session late last week while I was feeling crummy in the aftermath of my COVID-19 booster shot.  Apparently that allowed my muscles to atrophy enough that my gym session on Tuesday made me really sore.  I was feeling it big-time in my abs and biceps by Tuesday evening and through the day yesterday.

Yesterday I rode my bike out east and back on the Greenline.  I covered 24 kilometers in about 66 minutes.

This morning it was time for another of those intense "bike-plus" workouts.  I think my body is better adapted to this workload than it was a couple of weeks ago, but it's still quite taxing.  In particular my quad muscles have felt like gelatin for the rest of the day.

My weight-gain effort continues.  I'm trying to load up on protein, especially right after a workout.  So far this week I've peaked at 153.5 pounds during my first-thing-in-the-morning weigh-ins, but since then I've registered a couple of pounds less.  Of course, I wouldn't bet my life on the accuracy of my battery-powered bathroom scale.

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Monday photo feature

Jasper Mocke of Fish Hoek, Cape Town, South Africa, competes in the PE2EL Surfski Challenge this past week. The event is a four-day, 250-kilometer stage race along South Africa's Eastern Cape, starting at Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha) and finishing at East London. After finishing second to defending champion Bevan Manson on the first day, Jasper built a commanding lead in winning the second day and then extended his lead slightly on the third and fourth days to take the 2021 title.

Unless the omicron variant scuttles my trip (and there's nothing I can do right now but hope for the best), Jasper will be one of my coaches at the Mocke Downwind Camp at Fish Hoek on the 23rd through 29th of January.

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Riding the bike and trying to get myself right

On Friday morning I didn't feel all-the-way recovered from my booster shot reaction, but I think I was on the way back.  I still had a lump in my left armpit, but it wasn't as sore as it had been earlier in the week, and seemed to have shrunk a bit.  I also was feeling slightly more energetic than in previous days.

I went ahead and dove into another intense "bike-plus" workout.  I was feeling it big-time by the last lap on the bike and the final set of pushups and Hindu squats, but I weathered it well enough.

But then on Saturday I woke up feeling like I'd taken a step backward: my energy was low and I had a hint of cold/flu symptoms.  The closest thing to athletic activity I did was ride my bike at a leisurely pace along the route of the marathon race that was going on here Saturday.

By yesterday I was feeling better again, and the lump was all but gone.  My goal on recent Sundays has been to ride my bike at least 20 miles, and yesterday morning I got on the bike and headed toward the river, eventually crossing it on the Harahan Bridge and doing a big loop in the bottomland on the Arkansas side.  By the time I arrived back at my house I had covered 40.2 kilometers (24.99 miles).

I'm continuing to weigh myself each morning, and I'm still stuck in the low 150s.  Yesterday I'd shot up to 152.5, but this morning I was a pound less than that.

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The booster didn't boost my giddy-up

I got a COVID-19 booster shot on Monday, and it's sort of set the tone for the week.  My body took very little issue with the original two shots that I received last spring, but this booster shot has provoked a reaction.  Not a terrible one--I haven't gotten violently ill like several people I know have--but sort of a low-grade crummy feeling.

By Tuesday morning my left deltoid area, where I got the injection, was wicked sore.  Fortunately it didn't interfere badly with my gym session or my loop of the harbor with Joe.

Tuesday evening I noticed a lump forming in my left armpit area, sort of like a swollen gland.  By yesterday morning the lump had grown and was sore and unpleasant.  I was also feeling some very mild cold/flu-like symptoms.  I'd planned to do an hour bike ride, but I cut that back to 40 minutes and kept the pace easy.

This morning the lump was still there, and still angry and sore.  The cold/flu symptoms weren't so bad, but my energy level was still kind of low.  My original plan was to do another one of those intense "bike-plus" workouts, but besides my sluggish feeling, a couple of factors led me to reconsider.  The weather looked to be beautiful today--sunny with a Fahrenheit high in the low 70s--and the river beckoned.  Lately I've been paddling on Saturday, but the annual marathon race here in Memphis will be shutting down many of the streets between my house and the riverfront this Saturday, and I'd just as soon not fight all that.

So I went to the river and paddled today.  It was another 80-minute distance paddle, but I didn't go any harder than I felt like going.  I even kept the G.P.S. device turned off so I wouldn't be tempted to worry over my speed or my stroke rate or anything like that.  As I paddled I quickened the pace some and took it easy some, but overall I just relaxed and enjoyed the nice day on the river.

Here in the evening that lump in my armpit is still there, but it doesn't seem as sore as it was earlier.  I hope it'll go away soon, and I hope I'll be feeling energetic enough to do the bike-plus workout tomorrow... we'll see.

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Monday photo feature

I reach the finish line just over an hour after I'd started at the Ohio River Paddlefest at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 2019.  Photo by Gerry James.

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Pedaling and paddling

It's taken me all weekend to recover from that "bike-plus" workout I did on Thursday.  My quads and pecs have been quite sore and only today do I feel that starting to ease a little.  On Thursday I increased my number of laps on the bike from two to three, meaning that I had additional sets of pushups and Hindu squats to do; I also increased the number of Hindu squats per set, so maybe it all added up to a bit more than my body was ready for.  Oh well... soreness simply means that your muscles are in the process of repairing themselves, and that's where they get stronger.

I was glad to have nothing but a gym session, which includes no leg work, to do on Friday.  Yesterday I was back in the boat doing another 80-minute endurance paddle.  One of the things the Mocke Paddling School requires for participation in its downwind camps is the ability to paddle 10 kilometers in 70 minutes.  Since they already know me they aren't asking me to provide proof of that, but being the super-regimented guy that I am, I'm keeping an eye on that benchmark anyway.  Now, I know I can do it, no problem--when I've done 10-km races in recent years, my times have been around 50 minutes.  But it helps keep me on my toes during these sessions when it's easy to lapse into a pokey pace.  Yesterday I decided to warm up for 10 minutes and then do 10 km in the harbor in an hour, with a 10-minute cool-down afterward.  That meant watching the G.P.S. device and keeping my speed at or above 10 kph for that hour.  Making that a challenge yesterday was that there was a stiff south breeze blowing.  When paddling into the wind I really had to work to keep it at 10 kph; when paddling downwind I tried to compensate by going more like 11 kph.  The result was a very tiring paddle.  I ended up completing 10 kilometers in about 58 minutes.

This morning it was time to get on the bike again.  On Sundays I aim to go 20 miles (about 32.2 km).  Today I rode for 96 minutes and covered 34.16 km, or 21.2 miles.  My route was to take the Greenline out to Shelby Farms, do a loop around Patriot Lake, and return home via the Greenline.  I felt about as good as I have since starting this bike-heavy training cycle several weeks ago.  Maybe I'm actually getting in shape for some bike riding.

My weight-gain effort continues.  So far I'm still weighing in the low 150s.  I'm making myself eat more, even when I'm not really hungry.  Of course I'm trying to include lots of protein in my additional food intake.

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Working hard and trying to eat more

Tuesday morning I did a gym session and then joined Joe for a loop of the harbor.

Yesterday afternoon I got on the bike and rode the Greenline out beyond the Wolf River, then followed the Wolf River Greenway for a couple of miles before retracing the route back home.  In 82 minutes of riding I covered 28.9 kilometers (about 18 miles).

Thursday seems to have shaped up into my "intense bike-plus" day.  This morning I rode to the park just west of my house and did three hard laps of the paved loop through the forest there, stopping to do sets of pushups and Hindu squats after each lap.  My legs felt like rubber by the time I was done.

I'm weighing myself when I get up each morning now, and my weight continues to be down from what I believe is my healthiest and most energetic.  It's been as low as 149 pounds this week, and I think the high 150s is more where I should be.  I'm trying to increase my protein intake, hoping that will increase muscle mass.

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Monday photo feature

Here she is in all her glory: my Raleigh M-20 bicycle.

I bought this bike back in 1997.  Back then the Atlanta Center of Excellence was putting on its Ocoee Doubleheader whitewater slalom race, and on Saturday night that year they had a silent auction to raise some money, and the bike was among the items.  My winning bid was somewhere around a couple hundred bucks.

For me, bike riding has mostly been just a way to get around the neighborhood, but once in a while I rely more heavily on it for some training.  A couple of months before my trip to South Africa in February of 2020, I realized I had a hairline fracture in a rib (I never have known what caused it).  Because rest is the only way to heal a cracked rib, I had to stay out of the boat for a while.  But I needed to be fit for my South Africa trip, so I came up with a training plan that worked my legs hard, with some squats and some lunges and some running up stairs and, especially, some bike riding.

By the time I arrived in South Africa my rib had healed enough for me to paddle again, and I found that I was adequately fit from the cross training I'd done.  Because I'm still feeling some burnout from this past year of paddling and racing, I'm using some similar cross training along with a small volume of paddling to work back into a training routine as another trip to South Africa awaits in January.  And so, I'm spending lots of time on the bicycle pictured above.

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I'm just a lightweight

I did a gym session Friday morning: the same one I'd started a week earlier and plan to do for several more weeks.  Some bicep curls, some front and lat raises, and some core stuff on the stability ball.

A few months ago the battery in my bathroom scale died, and since then I've been completely out of the habit of checking my weight.  I finally got a new battery for it yesterday, and when I stood on it my weight registered at 153 pounds (69.4 kilograms).  Though I've never kept particularly precise track of my weight, I know that's about 10 pounds lighter than my all-time maximum, and I can remember being up around 159 or 160 pounds during a period several years ago when I was racing very well.

So, I have a feeling that I'm a bit underweight these days, and I wouldn't be surprised if that has something to do with my low-energy feeling for much of this year.  Actually, putting on weight is something I've had difficulty with my whole life, and while I'm sure many people would love to have that problem--believe me, I prefer it to being chronically overweight or obese--it's a health concern in its own right.  If there are any physiologists or sports nutritionists or dietitians reading this who can suggest healthy ways to put on a few pounds, I'd love to hear them.  In the meantime, I need to start remembering to weigh myself each day, and I should probably keep better record of it so I can see what correlation it has to good athletic performance.

Yesterday morning I did an 80-minute paddle down on the riverfront.  I maintained a moderate pace with a few long surges in the second half.

This morning I got on the bike to ride some distance.  I rode from my house to the south end of downtown, where I crossed the Mississippi River via the Harahan Bridge.  Then I rode a loop in Big River Park before re-crossing the river and returning home.  In not quite two hours I covered 36.5 kilometers (22.7 miles).  I pushed the pace at times but most of the time I kept it comfortable.

It's been cool but not cold this weekend: mostly in the 50s Fahrenheit.  It's a rainy afternoon today.  While I was riding this morning the rain mostly held off, but I did ride through a solid shower on my way downtown and had to spend the next ten minutes feeling chilly while my clothes dried out.

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Physical fitness and... a physical

On Sunday morning I went out and did an 80-minute paddle on the Mississippi River.  I'm definitely feeling a bit rusty in the boat right now, and that was no more evident than in the last 25 minutes when I followed a barge rig downriver back to the mouth of the harbor.  I felt sloppy as I tried to keep the boat moving in the squirrelly, confused water, and I was really tired by the time I was back in the harbor..

I started Tuesday morning with a gym session, and then went down to the riverfront to do an easy loop of the harbor with Joe.

Yesterday morning I had my annual physical scheduled at my doctor's office.  For a physical I have to go in fasting because of the lab work, and I like to make my appointment for when the office opens at 7:00 AM.  But the earliest they could get me in yesterday was 9 o'clock, and so I had several breakfastless hours to kill.  Yesterday's workout was a one-hour bike ride, so I went ahead and did that from 6:30 to 7:30 to take my mind off being hungry.  I rode the Greenline out to the Wolf River and back.

Once I finished that I was tired, and my body craved food more than ever.  I fidgeted around the house until my appointment time, and then spent another 90 famished minutes going through all the rigamarole at the doctor's office.  At long last the doctor set me free, and I made a beeline to my favorite coffee shop and had a hearty late breakfast/early lunch.

This morning I did a workout similar to last Thursday's: a couple of bike laps in the park, with some pushups and Hindu squats after each lap.  Then I came back home and did several sets of strides up my back stairs.  After yesterday and today I'm feeling it in my legs, and that's what I'm after.  Ocean kayaking demands solid leg fitness, and I also happen to think that leg fitness makes up a large percentage of overall fitness.

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Monday photo feature

One time the Memphis Daily News put Joe and me on the cover.  This was back in May of 2010.

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Okay, I'm back

It's been an entire month since I last posted something here.  I can't really blame those readers who have given up on me by now.  I'm grateful if you're still here.

I have spent the last month recovering, decompressing, thinking, reflecting, attending to some other areas of life that I'd neglected... doing just about everything but paddling, in other words.  Don't worry, there's plenty of paddling in my future; I just needed some time off to get hungry for it again.

Several weeks ago Dawid Mocke posted on social media that there was an opening in the downwind camp that he and his brother Jasper will be leading at the end of January at Fish Hoek, Cape Town, South Africa.  I thought hard about it for about 24 hours, and decided to sign up.  And so I now have a purpose for my next phase of training.  This week I am settling into a new routine after my nice long break.

For at least the first few weeks, I plan to train mostly out of the boat.  I'll paddle a couple of times a week, but my more strenuous work will consist of bike riding and gym activities.  I did do a good bit of leisurely bike riding during the break, and now I'm ramping up the intensity a bit, with some strong rides of an hour or so and some intervals, too.

This week has been pretty typical of what I plan to do for the next month or so.  On Sunday I rode from my house down to the south end of downtown Memphis, across the Harahan Bridge over the Mississippi River, and down into Big River Park on the Arkansas side, where the annual Outdoors, Inc., Grit & Gravel bicycle race was taking place.  I watched the racers, including my friends Joe and Carol Lee, complete several laps, and then came back home.  My total distance was around 16 miles or 25.7 kilometers... not bad for my clunky old low-tech mountain bike.

On Tuesday I did a somewhat quick 80 minute paddle out on the Mississippi, throwing in a few long surges.  It was my first paddle of any intensity since my last race back on October 9.

On Wednesday I rode my bike east from my house, picking up the Greenline and following it across the Wolf River in east Memphis.  Then I checked out the newly-completed section of the Wolf River Greenway from its junction with the Greenline to just south of Walnut Grove Road.  Then I rode back home.  My distance was around 17 miles or 27.4 km.

Yesterday I rode to the park just west of my house, where there's a paved loop in the woods maybe 2 kilometers long.  I rode two hard laps of that loop, and after each lap I stopped to do a couple of sets of pushups and Hindu squats.  Over the next month-plus I'll increase the number of laps I do, probably topping out around five.

Today I started a new gym routine with a couple of dumbbell exercises (bicep curls and front & lat raises) and several plank-type exercises on the stability ball.

I'm good and sore now after these first few days of harder work.  Tomorrow I might do a nature hike, but keep things easy so I can recover a bit.  I plan to do more weeks like this one for the next little while, and I probably won't paddle more than twice a week until the start of the new year.

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Monday photo feature

This past Saturday morning, Bayou d'Arbonne north of West Monroe, Louisiana, was a colorful plethora of kayaks and canoes.  We were about to start the fifth edition of the River Rat Canoe and Kayak Race that would finish about 12.4 kilometers downstream on the Ouachita River.

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Bringing the pain in Louisiana

I was up just before six o'clock yesterday morning.  After the usual simple breakfast in my motel room, I packed up and headed for the race site.

The fifth River Rat Canoe & Kayak Race would be starting on sleepy Bayou d'Arbonne, a thousand meters or so above its confluence with the Ouachita River.  We would continue down the Ouachita to the finish at Lazarre Park.  The advertised distance was 7.7 miles (12.4 kilometers), though at least one person I know measured it as more like 7.8 miles (12.55 km).  (I forgot to look at my own G.P.S. device when I crossed the finish line.)

Lazarre Park was a new finish location this year; past races finished at the Endom Bridge for a total distance of 6.5 miles (10.5 km).  A tradition was established of awarding a Leatherman tool to any racer who reached the Endom Bridge in less than an hour, and the organizers decided to continue that tradition this year.

So, our work was very tidily cut out for us as we prepared to start up on Bayou d'Arbonne.  Nearly 180 racers in a broad variety of craft lined up, and as soon as the command was given, we were off.  I quickly found myself in third place behind fellow Memphian Adam Davis and Don Walls of Dover, Arkansas.  Adam had just gotten married within the last month, but that apparently didn't stop him from working on his sprinting prowess.  He maintained an astonishingly high stroke rate--around 100 strokes per minute, I'm guessing--all the way out of the Bayou and onto the Ouachita.

It was sunny and warm, with the temperature rising toward a Fahrenheit high in the low 90s.  I pulled even with Don, and the two of us spent the next few kilometers in pursuit of Adam.  I thought surely Adam would come to regret his early intensity, but he continued moving his boat well into the middle portion of the race.

I was two or three boatlengths back and struggling with the general languor I've been dealing with for the last several months: dead arms, no higher gear, not sharp, not aggressive... I think almost every athlete's career goes through some ebb and flow, and I guess that after racing quite well in the 2017-2019 period I'm due for a letdown.  But it's sure not fun, especially considering my investment in a new coach this year and the better-than-ever results I was hoping that relationship would produce.

In short, I was feeling pretty miserable as I gazed up at a seemingly untouchable Adam for some 25 minutes.  I alternated between trying to climb up the train of wakes off his stern and moving over to the cleaner water and trying to gain ground there.  Neither was working.  Making matters even worse was a problem with my grip.  After suffering bad blisters in the race at Ocean Springs back in March, I outfitted my race paddle with some padded grips covered with electrical tape, and that had served me well in the months since.  But yesterday my right-hand grip seemed inexplicably slippery and it felt like I had no control with that hand.  Electrical tape had always provided sufficient friction for me, but now I was wishing I had some surfboard wax or something like that.  I was feeling considerable stress on my right wrist as I searched and searched for a solid grip.

In my mind it seemed like the whole race was spinning out of control, but I told myself that if I could just get onto Adam's wake then maybe I could regroup and salvage a good result.  I moved behind his stern and threw in one agonizing sprint after another to climb from four waves back to three back to two back.  Finally, gears grinding to toothless nubs, I got my my bow right onto his stern.

By this time we had covered about five kilometers, and I told myself to hang out on Adam's stern until the 6.2-kilometer halfway point and then see what sort of challenge I could mount.  Slowly, I began to recover a bit from the sprints and my outlook brightened.  Even my grip felt a bit better.  When we reached 6.2 kilometers I sprinted up onto Adam's starboard wake and then moved into the lead.  I actually was hoping to sit on that side wake for a couple of minutes, but Adam let me move in front and I decided that fair was fair and I should lead for a while.

I was trying my best to conserve energy, but I knew that Don was still not far behind us.  Don is one guy I'd rather not engage in a battle of wills with the finish line in view, so I tried my best not to let Adam and me get lulled into a slow enough pace for Don to reel us in.

Eventually the first of four bridges that we'd be passing under came into view.  Adam, who had done this race at least twice before, remarked that the bridges were a welcome sight.  The Lea Joyner Bridge was first, followed by a railroad bridge.  The Endom Bridge, the finish line for the old race course, was third, and it was only a couple hundred meters below the railroad bridge.  Adam and I were a lock to reach the Endom Bridge in less than an hour, but the old course record of 51 minutes 2 seconds, set in 2018 by Andy Capel of Maumelle, Arkansas, was clearly out of reach.

I decided I wanted to score a moral victory and be the first to reach the old finish line.  As we passed beneath the railroad bridge and approached the Endom Bridge, I began to pick up the pace.  But Adam apparently had similar ideas and he quickened his pace too.  Before we knew it we were in an all-out sprint, and Adam was winning it.  I'm pretty sure he had a quarter-boatlength on me as we hit the old finish line.  I realized that out-sprinting Adam at the new finish line was not going to be a simple matter.

We had about 2 kilometers to go, and I backed off the pace a bit to gather myself for the dash to the finish. But just over my right shoulder I could see that Don was as close as ever, and I ramped the pace back up to defend our lead on him.

The river makes a sharp bend to the right at Lazarre Park, and the finish line was marked by a pair of red buoys against the right bank somewhere around that bend.  In the lead with Adam on my left-side wake, I tried to maintain a solid pace without "going for it" quite yet.  As we rounded the bend there was a fallen tree sticking out from the right bank, and a moment later the left buoy appeared about a hundred meters past the tree.  I hung out for another 45 seconds or so, and then decided it was time.  I surged to the tree with Adam holding fast beside me.  Then I began an all-out sprint, and it was a repeat of what had happened back at the Endom Bridge.  Adam pulled even with me, and then inched ahead.  I paddled as fast and as hard as I possibly could, but I just didn't have the speed to hold Adam off.  I'd have sworn that as we crossed the finish line Adam's lead was no more than a foot, but these photos show that he had almost half a boatlength on me:

Adam's time was recorded at one hour, six minutes, 16 seconds.  My official time was 1:06:18, but I'm quite sure that the gap between us was no more than one second.

Don hung tough and crossed the line in 1:06:35.  The top female finisher was Kim Schulte of Mandeville, Louisiana, who clocked 1:16:44.  The complete results are posted here.

I paddled a slow cool-down and then carried my boat up to where my truck was parked.  I dried off and changed into dry clothes and walked over to the pavilion, where I enjoyed the lunch that the race organizers had provided.  In addition to Adam and Don and me, Phil Capel of Sherwood, Arkansas, had broken an hour in reaching the Endom Bridge.  Don and I received our Leatherman tools, but a grander prize was in store for Adam and Phil because they had both accomplished this feat for the third time.  They each got an axe.  I looked on and re-lived my log-splitting ordeal from last Tuesday.

I socialized a while longer and then hit the road for the five-hour drive back to Memphis.  I got home around 7 o'clock and was in bed not a whole lot later.

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Back to the Pelican State for a race

I have a race coming up this weekend: the River Rat canoe and kayak race on the Ouachita River at West Monroe, Louisiana.  In the past this race has been 6.5 miles or 10.5 kilometers, but I understand they've found a more accommodating place for the finish line that lengthens the course to 7.7 miles (12.4 km).

On Tuesday I did three sets of four (3 minutes on/1 min. off) at stroke rates of 60 strokes per minute/64 spm/68 spm/72 spm within each set.  Then on Tuesday afternoon I found myself engaged in some work that did not constitute good race preparation: a client had just taken down an oak tree from which she wants me to make a piece of furniture, and I tried to split one of the logs in her yard, thinking it would be a simple matter.  It was not.  After more than an hour of pounding wedges and moving the extremely heavy object into various positions, my body ached from head to toe.  Though the soreness has worn off as the week has gone on, as I write this I don't think I'm completely recovered from Tuesday afternoon's epic.

Fortunately I had a calm session to do in the boat on Wednesday, and I think it did my sore muscles some good.  It was four sets of (13 min. on/2 min. off) at 60-64 spm.

Yesterday I did a sprint session: eight 20-second all-out sprints, starting at 4-minute intervals.  Maks said "the feelings will not be the best after a longer block of little to no sprinting," and he was right about that.  Most of the sprints felt rusty, but I did manage to settle into a fluid rhythm for two or three of them.

This morning I went down to the riverfront and did a pre-race workout that Maks had assigned: two times (5 min. on/1 min. off) at 60 spm, two times (2 min. on/3 min. off) at 76 spm, and two times (1 min. on/3 min. off) at 90 spm.  Then I headed south on Interstate 55, and later picked up Interstate 20 west to Monroe, Louisiana.  And that's where I'm spending tonight.  I felt a bit sluggish in the boat this morning, and my arms are still a bit sore from Tuesday's logging.  I've also felt slightly queasy in my stomach for the last two days.  I sure hope a good night's sleep will help all that run its course so that maybe I can put together a decent race in the morning.

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Monday photo feature

It's spring in South Africa, and over the weekend paddlers on the Western Cape ushered in the surfski season with the 3 Beaches race.  Dawid Mocke, my host when I traveled there last year, teamed up with his son Sam to record the fastest overall time on the 16-kilometer circuit.  The results are here.

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Plenty of work for a weekend

Friday was an out-of-the-boat day for me.  Maks assigned what he calls a "non-specific endurance activity": "bike, hike, trek..."  I opted for the bike.  My bike's rear tire has been acting funny lately; I installed a new tube several weeks ago, and it's been going flat in storage even though I can't find any leaks in it.  This morning I re-inflated it and chose a course that wouldn't take me too far from home in case of any problems.  I started out heading east on the Greenline as far as High Point Terrace, then came back west past my place and into Overton Park, where I did several laps in the Old Forest.  A walk home from either far end of this course would have been lengthy, but not unmanageable.  Fortunately the tire held up fine and seemed fully inflated when I returned the bike to its storage spot in my garage.  We'll see how long it stays that way.

Yesterday was a soggy, rainy day, and I had two paddling sessions to do.  In the morning I did a "wake-up" session: 40 minutes at 55-60 strokes per minute.  It rained pretty steadily the whole time, and I was good & soaked afterward.  As I was driving home the rain became torrential, and the Internet radar made it look like it would last all day.  But it slacked off after lunch, and by the time I was back at the dock there was no rain falling at all.  The afternoon workout was three sets of (4 min. at 80 spm/1 min. rest/2 min. at 80 spm/1 min. rest/1 min. at 80 spm/3 min. rest).  As usual, the objective was to be mindful of all the technical aspects of paddling--mechanics, posture, breathing, leg drive--while paddling at a mildly anaerobic pace.

As I arrived at the riverfront this morning it seemed as though the clouds were about to give way to a bright, sunny day.  But just as quickly the cloud cover thickened back up, and I paddled under overcast skies.  The assignment was an easy 90-minute paddle, and I enjoyed the mild temperature while I persuaded my muscles to recover from a rather strenuous week.

One last note: this blog has just gone over 100,000 all-time views.  For that I thank my loyal readers, not to mention thousands of spam-bots.

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The work gets a bit more substantial

The weather has become slightly more humid than it was last week, but it still isn't so hot.  Fahrenheit highs have been below 90 degrees.

I paddled a loop of the harbor with Joe on Tuesday.  Yesterday I returned to the grind with three sets of five (1 minute on/1 min. off) at 60 strokes per minute, paddling at HIGH POWER (emphasis Maks's).  In addition, Maks told me to do two sprints up to 10 seconds during the rest intervals between the sets.  I made those intervals 5 minutes, and did a sprint at Minute 2 and Minute 4 of each of the 5-minute periods.  A main point of the exercise was to get as much power as I could from my legs.

Today was a rainy day, with a system of showers parked over the region.  I went back to the river for a 60-minute paddle at a moderate/strong pace in the "A1" stroke rate zone (up to around 72 spm).  Said Maks, "Strong continuous A1 workouts are slowly starting again.  Make sure to prepare mentally for the suffer-fest of them :)."  Not a subtle guy, that Maks.  I was happy to have some rainfall as a diversion: I think rainy days out on the Mississippi are beautiful.  I also had some interesting conditions created by a barge rig that was well upstream by the time I reached the harbor's mouth.  The waves weren't big but were ridable here and there, and I tried to catch them while keeping my stroke rate in the A1 zone and as steady as possible.  With about 20 minutes left to paddle I returned to the harbor and tried to take solid, strong strokes back to the dock.  Fatigue was definitely settling in but my form held up fine.

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Monday photo feature

That's me in the foreground, wearing a blue shirt.  It sure looks like I have the inside track on the 2017 USCA national title on the Mississippi River at Dubuque, Iowa, but this is no more than several seconds into the race, and the camera angle makes it look like I've got a bigger lead than I do.  I ended up fourth.

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"Away on business"

There hasn't been much posting here lately because I didn't do much paddling last week.  From Thursday through yesterday I was involved in an annual crafts fair where I demonstrate wooden bowl carving.

Last Tuesday I embarked on a loop of the harbor with Joe, only to have it cut short by a storm with much thunder and lightning.  Wednesday was a nicer day and I was back in the boat doing the closest thing to a real workout for the week: four sets of (3 minutes at 64 strokes per minute/1 min. at 80 spm/2 min. at spm/2 min. rest), followed by six times (1 min. on/1 min. off) at 84 spm.  This was a largely technical exercise done near anaerobic threshold.

By this morning my biceps and forearms were quite sore from all the bowl carving.  Monday is usually a day off for me, but Maks gave me an assignment to ease myself back into paddling: four sets of (5 min. at 60 spm/3 min. at 64 spm/2 min. at 68 spm), with a minute rest between pieces and two minutes between sets.  He told me to start slow and concentrate primarily on stroke mechanics and posture.  The session relaxed my body nicely.

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Monday photo feature

I never get tired of seeing the Herbert family when I go out racing.  At the Landing to Landing canoe and kayak race at Branson, Missouri, on Saturday, Mike Herbert and his daughter Savanna both had good days, with Mike taking first place overall and Savanna finishing first among women and fourth overall.

But these weren't the only Herbert clan members present.  Savanna's husband Dylan was the fastest paddler in the 3-mile race, while Mike's other daughter, Michelle, performed admirably at that distance as well.  And of course, Mike's wife Christel was there to drive the shuttle vehicle and keep everybody out of trouble.

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Racing in the heart of the Ozarks

It was a lovely sun-shiny day as a small group of racers gathered for the start of the Landing to Landing canoe and kayak race at Branson, Missouri.  The start was on the White River just below the Table Rock Reservoir dam.  Because of another dam downstream, the piece of water we would be racing on is known as Lake Taneycomo, but its narrow channel made it feel more like a river, and the first couple of kilometers there was a modicum of flow.  The course distance was 8 miles, or not quite 13 kilometers.

The starting area was tight, and the presence of a half-dozen fly fishermen restricted our maneuverability that much more.  As a result I found it difficult to get in my normal warmup.  Once the gun went off I was straining to persuade some blood into my muscles as I sprinted for a good position.

Mike Herbert of Rogers, Arkansas, moved quickly into the lead.  While trying to keep contact with him, I found myself alongside a tandem surfski paddled by the father-son team of Brad and Ethan Daniels, who hail from the nearby town of Hollister, Missouri.

Early on we had to navigate a few shallow stretches where my rudder dragged on the bottom.  My rudder continued to function, fortunately, but it was a distraction as I jockeyed with the Danielses for a decent position.

Eventually the water began to deepen as we entered the pool of Lake Taneycomo.  It appeared that Mike was his old self as his lead on the rest of us grew and grew.  I settled onto the Danielses' wake to conserve energy for some surges later in the race.

I was working as hard as I cared to in a race of this distance, but it seemed like my speed wasn't what I think I should be capable of.  When I looked down at my G.P.S. device it was most often showing about 11.1 kilometers per hour (6.9 miles per hour).  The water we were paddling was quite cool, probably because it came from the bottom of Table Rock Reservoir, and I thought of some research that Maks cited to me earlier this year, that a boat moves more slowly in colder water.  I'd be curious to know what impact it had on Mike's hull speed.

There were many motorized craft on the water, and around the 3-kilometer mark a bass boat moved in front of us.  Ethan and Brad sprinted to catch the boat's wake, so I did the same.  I was aware that what we were doing wasn't exactly fair either to Mike in front of us or the other racers behind us, but it sure was nice to get a breather while still traveling between 11.0 and 11.5 kph.  After a couple of minutes the bass boat began to veer from our race course, so I took the initiative to abandon its wake and encourage the Danielses to follow.

A short while later I began to open a gap on the tandem ski, and I threw in several surges to press the advantage.  It would mean paddling all by my lonesome the rest of the race, but if the Danielses were falling off the pace then it was the right thing to do to preserve my at-least-theoretical chance to reel Mike in.

For the next twenty minutes or so I moved along at the quickest pace I could manage, but with 5 kilometers to go fatigue was beginning to set in, and a few glances over my shoulder revealed that I hadn't really opened much of a gap on Ethan and Brad.  It was pretty clear that catching Mike was not in the cards, so I backed off the pace and allowed the tandem team to regain contact with me.  Now I could do some wake-riding with the hope of finishing strong and being the second boat across the finish line.

As the race wore on our speed dipped down toward 10 kph.  Having never paddled against the Danielses before, I wasn't sure whether they were fading or were just gathering themselves for a strong finish of their own.  As we paddled beneath the U.S. 65 bridge some 1500 meters out from the finish, I got my answer: they began to surge.  I knew I wasn't ready to sprint yet and I tried to hold onto their starboard wake.  We continued along like this to the railroad bridge, and though I was still comfortable with the pace I was definitely working much harder.

Past the railroad bridge we could see the pair of bridges for Veterans Boulevard and Branson Landing Boulevard, with the finish line a couple hundred meters beyond.  Here, Ethan and Brad put the hammer down.  I dug in and tried to hold their side wake, but their advantage in horsepower was clear as they edged farther and farther in front.  I fell back onto their stern wake and tried to gather myself for one last charge.  Mike, who had finished several minutes earlier, was off to the right cheering us on, and I knew I couldn't throw in the towel with him watching.  100 meters became 50 meters, and though I was sprinting hard the confused water behind the Danielses made it feel more and more like my efforts were in vain.  With less than 50 meters left I moved to my right and made one last mad dash, cutting their lead from a full boatlength to maybe seven-eighths of a boatlength, but there wasn't enough race left.  Ethan and Brad's bow broke the finish line five seconds before mine did.

I congratulated the father-son team and paddled easy as my heart rate returned to normal.  I watched as more racers came in to the finish.  Mike's daughter Savanna won a furious sprint with Don Walls to claim fourth place overall and third place among single kayaks.  Don, paddling an outrigger canoe, was the fastest single-blader, with OC1 paddler Stephen Lynn finishing 27 seconds later.

The results are as follows:

1.  Mike Herbert 1:04:32

2.  Ethan Daniels/Brad Daniels 1:09:11

3.  Elmore Holmes 1:09:16

4.  Savanna Wright 1:15:43

5.  Don Walls 1:15:45

6.  Phil Capel 1:16:03

7.  Stephen Lynn 1:16:12

8.  Frank Walker 1:25:53

9.  Karen Kesselring 1:34:05

10.  Andrew Peters 1:37:22

11.  Matt Andrews 1:43:16

12.  Sharlyn Todd 1:53:45

13.  Kyle Todd 1:53:46

14.  Kurt Hallow 2:11:34

15.  Jeff Holley 2:38:35

16.  Linda Blair 2:38:39

17.  Larry Ford 2:54:31

The race officials didn't make any distinction between kayaks and canoes or between women and men in distributing the awards.  Among the top nine finishers, every racer was in some type of kayak except Don and Stephen.  I'm not sure about any of the racers who finished behind Karen Kesselring.

I carried my boat up to my truck, which Karen's husband Dan had kindly helped me shuttle to the finish before the race.  I inspected my rudder and found that it had suffered a bit of damage that I'll have to repair when I get a chance.  Great... another item on my to-do list.

I socialized a bit with my fellow racers, whom I've seen sparingly in Pandemic Times.  Then it was time to hit the road for the five-hour drive back to Memphis.  A while back I mentioned to Maks that a race within five hours of my home is considered "close by," and he couldn't believe it.  Over there in Slovenia he has a lot of events within just a couple of hours.  That must be nice.  After my exhausting trip to the Pacific Northwest and back this summer, I'm only just now finding the gumption to drive even a short distance for a race.

The drive gave me ample time to ponder how my race had gone.  In general I didn't feel great about it, particularly the slowish speed I had maintained.  But obsessing over speed is probably not a good idea.  Besides the cold water, there were many areas of "suck water" (i.e., water that's shallow enough for bottom-drag to be a factor).

And I really had no reason to expect to do any better than I did.  For a few weeks after the big trip in July, Maks gave me (at my request) some easier training plans while I regrouped; and even though the plans are getting a bit more substantial now, they're still not anything that will get me into peak racing form.  Mostly, I'm feeling that the work I'm doing at this point in the year is preparation for 2022.  I hope I can define some clear goals for next year as race dates are announced.

All told, I'm glad I went over and did the race even though I'm not exactly gleeful over how I did.  Hopefully this is a first step toward breaking out of the inertia I've been stuck in for the last couple of months.

This morning I felt pretty chipper when I woke up.  It wasn't until I was down at the river that I realized how tired I actually was.  My oblique abdominals were a bit sore and my back and shoulders were stiff.  Maks had assigned an 80-minute endurance paddle that forced me to pay attention to the stroke rate.  I did four 18-minute pieces with 2 minutes rest after each one, with the first and last pieces done at 60 strokes per minute and the middle two at 64 spm.

Training will be abbreviated this coming week because of an annual crafts fair I'm participating in Thursday through Sunday.  Hopefully I'll be feeling ready to go Tuesday and Wednesday.

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After a long layoff, a race

Each fall I demonstrate bowl carving at a local crafts fair, and with this year's fair coming up next week, I spent several hours Monday morning driving around Midtown Memphis in search of material.  When trees are trimmed or cut down in this city, the standard practice is to leave logs on the curb for collection by a city sanitation crew.  That means free wood for resourceful artisans such as I.  It also means backbreaking labor.  Though I tried my best to rely on my logging tools, I managed to tweak my back a bit while lifting a couple of logs into the back of my truck.

By Tuesday morning the back discomfort had eased, but my hamstrings and quad muscles were achy and sore from the work they'd done.  I went down to the river and did one of Maks's "non-continuous endurance" workouts.  It was 3 times (4 minutes on/1 min. off) at 60 strokes per minute; 3 times (3 min. on/1 min. off) at 66 spm; 3 times (2 min. on/1 min. off) at 72 spm; and 3 times (4 min. on/1 min. off) at 60 spm.

My sore leg muscles didn't bother me too badly during this session, and by Wednesday morning they had largely recovered.  I went back to the river for six 3-minute pieces, within each of which I did a minute at 80 spm, a minute at 90 spm, and a minute at 80 spm.  The idea was to carry the technical precision from the lower stroke rate into the higher one, and make a smooth, focused transition back to the lower rate.

Yesterday morning I made the decision to attend my first race in two months: the Landing to Landing canoe and kayak race on the White River at Branson, Missouri.  It's 8 miles (12.8 kilometers), and while I don't feel like I'm anywhere near peak racing form, I hope getting out to a race will help me snap out of the sluggish feeling I've had since returning from my trip out West this summer.

With a race now on the agenda, I departed from Maks's assignments for the rest of the week in favor of rest and (I hope) some polish to my speed.  Yesterday I paddled for 40 minutes and did six 12-stroke sprints at maximum intensity to boost my ATP-CP system and get some start practice, too.

This morning I did almost exactly the same thing, except I did just four 12-stroke sprints.  Then I got in the car and headed across the river and off to the west.  Now I'm in Branson, one of those places I probably wouldn't ever visit if it weren't hosting a canoe and kayak race.  Here's hoping for a good night's sleep and some good racing in the morning.

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Monday photo feature

The 2001 Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race was one to remember.  Pictured above are the top five finishers.  From left, they are Mike Herbert of Rogers, Arkansas; Greg Barton of Seattle, Washington; yours truly; Peter Braul of Kincardine, Ontario; and Scott Cummins of Indianapolis, Indiana.  Photo by Emerson Wickwire.

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A nice weekend with a dash of high intensity

I started the weekend with a gym session on Friday.  I also spent Friday finishing up a workshop project that had taken me about a month, and it was nice to get that off my plate.

Saturday's assignment was "a bit of a lung and muscle burner": six sets of (30 seconds at 90-95 strokes per minute/15 sec. rest/15 sec. all-out sprint), starting a new set every 8th minute.  Maks said, "Not an easy workout!  That's not a threat, it's a promise!"

Okay, he didn't actually say "That's not a threat, it's a promise."  I sort of read that part in.

Anyway, I went out and did the workout, and it didn't seem too bad until the last couple of sets, when I really had to dig deep to crank out the 15-second all-out sprint at the end of each set.

This morning I did a calm 75-minute paddle.  The "Ida bump" on the river has moved on, and we're back to typical late-summer low levels.

We've continued to enjoy low-humidity weather through the weekend.  But it's been awfully hazy the last couple of days: both at sunset yesterday and at sunrise this morning, the sun has been a dark orange orb in the sky.  I don't know if this is more wildfire smoke from out West, or just routine air pollution.

Because I've been feeling good in the boat lately, I was leaning toward signing up for a race next weekend--an event on Center Hill Reservoir in middle Tennessee that I've attended a couple of times in the past.  But when I visited the registration page yesterday, I learned that the event has been canceled.  Apparently the director's mother is seriously ill and he is turning his full attention to her care.  So, late summer continues without many opportunities to race.

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Early fall on the river

So far this week the weather has been warm but not sweltering hot, and mostly sunny... in other words, gorgeous.  Not coincidentally, my time in the boat has felt quite satisfying the last several days.

On Tuesday Joe and I paddled about two thirds of the harbor.  Then Joe had to go and I commenced this workout: three sets of three (3 minutes on, 1 min. off) at 64 strokes per minute (first set), 70 spm (second set), and 60 spm (third set).  Maks described these as "technical" sets, and he also said that this week we're moving "back to more endurance and grinding workouts."

For yesterday, Maks assigned "an anaerobic workout broken into shorter sets with short rest intervals."  It was four sets of (3 min. at 80 spm/1 min. rest/2 min. at 80 spm/1 min. rest/1 min. at 80 spm), starting a new set every 14th minute.  Maks went on to say "it is supposed to be a moderately hard workout, but not the 'killing' type."  That statement turned out to be accurate: I felt reasonably taxed but not utterly exhausted.  What I did not feel was that I was going anaerobic--breathing hard, yes, but not in oxygen debt.  I decided to play around with this a bit by nudging the stroke rate into 82-84 territory for the third and fourth sets; I didn't want to alter the workout beyond Maks's intentions, but just see if i could get a bit closer to anaerobic.  The higher stroke rate was definitely more taxing, but still not quite anaerobic.  Oh well... I think it was a good workout, all told.

Today I did eight sets of (8 min. on/2 min. off) at 60 spm, with some extra weight in the boat.  It was basically a distance paddle with a heightened sensation of the water pressure against my blades.

The Hurricane Ida rain that fell in the Mississippi watershed is now reaching Memphis.  Yesterday's river level was 11.7 feet on the Memphis gauge, the highest stage we've had in quite a while.  I did my workout out on the big river and it was fun to escape the monotony of the harbor.  The river went on to crest at 12.1 feet and this morning I paddled with a level of 11.9.  Once again I enjoyed the expanded paddleable real estate out on the river.  I don't normally enjoy these grinding sessions, but the higher water combined with lovely weather has lifted my mood.

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Monday photo feature

Four years ago I raced on Fontana Reservoir in western North Carolina, then drove all the way up to Dubuque, Iowa, for the USCA nationals the following weekend.  Along the way I camped one night on Lake Barkley in western Kentucky, where I had a lovely view of the full moon.

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Strength, power, and endurance

Friday was a gym day.  I found time during a busy day in the workshop to do a few strength exercises.

I was back on the water yesterday morning for a "brute power" workout.  I did four sets of four (20 seconds at 100 strokes per minute/20 sec. rest/20 sec. at 100 spm) with moderate resistance on the boat.  Maks didn't specify a recovery time after the second sprint of each rep, so I made it 1 minute.  He told me to "make longer rests between the sets to (almost) fully recover," so I made that 3 minutes.  It was definitely a hard session, but I didn't feel utterly exhausted after it was over.

We've enjoyed some cooler-than normal weather this weekend.  This morning some rain moved into the area, and I paddled in intermittent showers.  I did four sets of (5 min. at 56 spm/4 min. at 60 spm/3 min. at 64 spm/2 min. at 68 spm/1 min. at 72 spm), with a minute break between pieces and 2 minutes between sets.  It was your basic longer endurance session, with the varying stroke rates forcing me to concentrate the whole time, making it pretty tiring.

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So many ways to wear myself out

Well, the remnants of Hurricane Ida missed the Memphis area almost entirely.  From Monday afternoon through Tuesday we had a bit of rain and a few wind gusts, but nothing serious.  The storm moved farther east than forecasters expected, and it sounds much of this country from the mouth of the Mississippi up to the Northeast have not been as fortunate as we.

On Tuesday I had a somewhat taxing endurance workout to do: eight sets of (2 minutes at 60 strokes per minute/1 min. at 72 spm/2 min. at 60 spm/1 min. at 72 spm/2 min. rest), all with some extra weight in the boat.  The added weight enhances the sensations associated with planting the blade and rotation and leg drive, and though I wasn't out of breath by the end of the session, I was feeling the effort in my muscles.

Yesterday I pushed the intensity higher.  I did eight sets of (45 seconds at 80 spm/15 sec. rest/45 sec. at 84 spm/15 sec. rest/30 sec. at 90 spm).  In other words, it was eight two-and-a-half-minute pieces of which two minutes was done at a pretty high intensity.  Per Maks's instructions, I focused on posture and mechanics while paddling hard.  It took me a couple of sets to get a feel for each stroke rate; early on I was paddling at a higher rate than I should have.

After putting stress on my body in these different ways, Maks relented today and assigned a basic 80-minute paddle.  I kept the stroke rate at 60-64 spm and enjoyed the nice day.

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Monday photo feature

My buddy Rob and I check out the Hudson River at Peekskill, New York, in August of 2016.

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Paddling and sweating

On Friday I got in the boat and did another workout involving subtle changes in stroke rate.  It was six sets of (1 minute at 60 strokes per minute/1 min. at 64 spm/1 min. at 68 spm/1 min. at 72 spm/1 min. at 68 spm/1 min. at 64 spm/1 min. at 60 spm/2 min. rest).  The objective was to keep the stroke form and intensity consistent throughout the various rates.  My biggest challenge during a workout like this is concentration: it's so easy to get distracted out on the water.

Yesterday I did two sets of six all-out 15-second sprints at 4-minute intervals.  For the first set I had some extra weight in the boat, and then I removed it for the second set.  The idea was to feel the grip on the water promoted by the extra weight in the first set, and then search for that same sensation without the weight in the second set.  The workout was a reminder that I enjoy going fast even though it's both physically and technically hard to do so.

This morning I did five sets of (13 min. on/2 min. off) with stroke rates of 60, 64, 68, 64, and 60 spm.  The main difference between such a workout and a simple distance paddle?  Concentration.  Maintaining a particular stroke rate for 13 minutes takes concentration.  Those 2-minute rest intervals were mental breaks more than anything else.  One thing I find is that when I'm paying attention to my stroke rate I'm also paying attention to my stroke mechanics and my posture in the boat.

It's continued to be muggy and hot here this weekend, but we're in for a change in the weather shortly: the remnants of Hurricane Ida are expected to arrive up here sometime tomorrow.  Mostly, it'll mean a big bunch of rain for us.  I expect we'll have some gusty winds, but of course nothing like what our friends closer to the Gulf Coast are experiencing.

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Pushing through late summer

I started Tuesday with a half-loop of the harbor with Joe.  Thoroughly warmed up, I then commenced the workout: two sets of four (2 minutes at 64 strokes per minute/1 min. at 72 spm/2 min. at 64 spm/1 min. rest).  Maks told me to "execute the pace changes swiftly and with as little extra moves/stress as possible."  That was tricky to do; I think I was doing it much better by the second set.

Yesterday I returned to the river for a technical session: two sets of (4 times 1 min. on/1 min. off at 56 spm and 4 times 45 seconds on/75 sec. off at 76 spm).  Posture and leg drive were the focus, and I tried to call upon all the power of my legs and core that I could.

Today I did a gym session.  It's been very humid and hot this week, and it's expected to remain so for a couple of more days before abating a bit.

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Monday photo feature

Dana Chladek, a member of the U.S. whitewater slalom team in the 1980s and 90s, sure looks psychedelic in this photo.  But in fact her splash top is blue with a red and white swoosh, and her boat is solid red.

This is a screen shot from an old stroke drills video that I've had in VHS cassette form for almost 30 years.  Lately I've been getting together the things I need to make some mp4 copies of old video tapes: a VCR that plays, the right cable to connect it to my laptop, the right software--all that kind of stuff.  My early digital copies have featured every color of the rainbow, and whether that's something I can fix on my computer or simply a trait of old beat-up video tapes that I have to accept is something I'll learn eventually.  In the meantime I'm not all that worried about it.

I have posted this stroke drills video on my You Tube channel, and you can watch it here.  Along with Ms. Chladek, the video stars Jana Freeburn and Davey Hearn.  The soundtrack features some Dire Straits tunes... I don't know whose idea that was.

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Some fun despite the heat

After a few days of not-so-bad heat it was starting to get rather sweltering by Friday.  I went to the river and did an interesting workout: it started with pieces of 7 minutes/6 min./5 min./4 min./3 min./2 min./1 min., with a minute rest after each one; I started the series at 56 strokes per minute and nudged it up to 68 spm (basically adding 2 spm with each new piece).  Then, after a 3-minute rest, I did the series in reverse, ending with a 7-minute piece at 56 spm.  It was essentially a new variation on an old-fashioned endurance paddle.

On Saturday I paddled to the mouth of the harbor and saw a barge rig coming up the Mississippi.  The towboat was one whose bridge can be raised and lowered, and in my experience those usually generate nice waves, so I went out to see what kind of surfing I could do.  A lot, it turned out: I found myself surfing the nicest set of towboat wakes I've seen since this glorious day last year.

After maybe 20 minutes of fun out there, my spirits were as high as they'd been in quite a while and I returned to the harbor feeling energized for my assigned workout.  It was four sets of four 15-second sprints at 2-minute intervals, with a stroke rate of 100-110 spm.  The efforts were not all-out; the objective was to practice good mechanics and technique at high speed.

Yesterday's session was a calm 80-minute paddle.  I did a loop out on the Mississippi and the only reason it wasn't entirely delightful was that it was very hot outside.

I continue to have a lot of non-athletic things going on that are making me feel swamped and not as enthusiastic about going to the river as I should be.  But for the last several days I haven't felt as physically exhausted as I'd been for a while.  Right now I'm just trying to keep something going in the boat and survive the hot summer.

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