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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