Plodding along

After not doing any gym since just before my trip to South Africa, I finally started up a new routine on Friday.  It includes some Hindu squats, some pushups, some power pendulum planks, some pull-ups, and some "superman" back-ups.

February is easily my least favorite month of the year, and the last few days have epitomized just what a drag this time of year can be.  It could be worse, of course--just look at this post from a year ago to see how bad February can be around here--but it's been overcast, rainy, and icy, with the temperature not getting much above the freezing point in recent days.

Saturday is a day I normally paddle, but with cloudy skies the temperature not expected to rise above 38 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday, I chose to skip it.  Yeah, yeah, I know there's a race coming up in a few weeks and all that, but I don't do this sport to make myself miserable, and I just didn't see much hope of anything but misery out on the water yesterday.  So I stayed home.  What I did instead was get started on a new project in my woodworking shop.  The early stages of a project typically involve moving heavy planks of lumber or other big hunks of wood around.  As I did so yesterday, I realized how sore I was from Friday's gym.

The weather remained not so appealing this morning.  But it was supposed to be warmer: the afternoon high was forecast to be up near 50 degrees Fahrenheit.  And I felt a bit fresher after yesterday's day off even though my muscles were still sore.  I went down to the river for the usual Sunday over-distance session.  The wind wasn't bad, but a north breeze was blowing just hard enough to make paddling up the Mississippi feel like a chore.  It took me some five minutes longer than usual to reach the mouth of the Wolf River.  I'd considered doing another loop around the Loosahatchie Bar, but I decided to let that wait for a warmer, sunnier day.  Instead I continued up the Wolf to the Danny Thomas Boulevard bridge, and then came back down the Wolf, back down the Mississippi, and back up the harbor to the dock.  My elapsed time was right at two hours.

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