The Loosahatchie Chute, located on the far side of the Mississippi River from downtown Memphis, is a beautiful place to paddle, but it's possible to do so only when the water is pretty high. If the river isn't flowing much above 20 feet on the Memphis gauge, expect to find some ankle-deep water there. Adam Davis shot this photo of me in July of 2020.
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Aside from a gym session Tuesday afternoon, I took a few days completely off. I felt like I needed to clear my head a bit. I didn't get back in the boat until Thursday morning.
One of my big challenges is relaxing my body in the boat. It's not a new challenge. I've always been sort of a tightly-wound, spasmodic mess. But I think it's been more of an issue in recent months, and I think it's at least part of the cause of all the muscle soreness and aches and pains I've been dealing with.
Why can't I relax? Well, I reckon I'm no more immune to all the things that cause stress than anybody else. I think my own angst might be rooted in the state of our society where it seems more and more people dislike one another and a global oligarchical cabal that's leveraging that animosity to chip away at democratic institutions, all while the planet careens toward uninhabitability... not to get too specific about it or anything. Oh, and let's not forget this pandemic that's been thrown in just for yuks.
I was tense again during my 60-minute paddle Thursday morning. Once I'd re-entered the harbor and was heading back to the dock, I made a conscious effort to settle down with a little drill. Basically, I just started taking ten strokes at a time while keeping my body as relaxed as I could make it. After a while I bumped that up to fifteen strokes, then twenty; then I was back at the dock.
I stayed home Friday and did another gym session. Yesterday morning I did some stretching at home, trying to focus on breathing deeply and keeping my muscles relaxed, and then went to the river and did some more relaxation drills while warming up in the boat. Then I did three 8-stroke sprints and commenced a hard-but-not-too-hard workout: six 5-minute pieces in which I paddled at medium intensity for 3 minutes, harder intensity for 90 seconds, and sub-maximal intensity for 30 seconds. I kept the stroke rate below 70 strokes per minute during the medium-intensity parts, between 80 and 90 spm during the harder-intensity parts, and above 100 spm during the sub-maximal-intensity parts.
This morning I paddled a steady 80 minutes, going out of the harbor and up the Mississippi to the mouth of the Wolf River before returning to where I'd started. As I paddled I pondered what I might be doing to cause the muscle soreness in my left shoulder/biceps area. I doubt there are too many kayakers out there who are truly symmetrical in how they paddle, and I paid close attention to how well I was using my larger muscle groups as I stroked on my left side.
Yes, I'm doing a lot of thinking about all this: my physical struggles, my mental struggles... all of it. And maybe that itself is part of the problem. This afternoon I read this article in the Memphis newspaper about Memphis Redbirds shortstop Paul DeJong. DeJong (pronounced "de-young") broke into the major leagues with the Saint Louis Cardinals in 2017 and was one of the team's rising stars; but in the last two seasons his batting prowess has abandoned him and now he's been sent down to the minors, where he's trying to rediscover the magic. The last part of the article contains some advice that maybe I should heed:
DeJong was a pre-med student who majored in biochemistry at Illinois State. He’s intelligent. Maybe too intelligent. His mind, and the instinct to overthink, became his worst enemy in recent years.
“They say a lot of dumb guys are good at baseball, and that’s very true because you’re not questioning yourself,” DeJong said. “For me, I think when things go wrong, I go searching for video fixes or mechanical issues, and I think that’s just a trap. It’s having that plan and sticking to it, and then letting my natural ability take over. That’s the biggest thing. Getting out of my own way.”
So when DeJong joined the Redbirds, [manager Ben] Johnson just told him to have fun. He told him this is what you’re supposed to be doing, even though you’re also supposed to be the Cardinals’ shortstop. He told him to find “joy for the game to start” because only then can DeJong find what he’s searching for in Memphis.
Can I get out of my own way? I don't know, but I'll try.
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Paddling into the shore break is one of the fun little challenges of ocean kayaking. That's what I'm doing in this picture at Fish Hoek Beach on the Western Cape of South Africa this past January. Photo by either John or Tamsin of Cape Town Sport Photography.
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This past week has had its share of ups and downs. That's definitely been true of the weather, as the week started out rather cool, then the temperature rose into the 90s later in the week, then some heavy thunderstorms moved through last night, and now it's unseasonably cool again.
How I'm feeling physically has been sort of a roller coaster ride as well. My energy level has been up and down, mostly down; and I continue to have aches and pains in my left shoulder/biceps area and, late in the week, in my wrists and forearms. Meanwhile, my weight continues to be all down: I've been weighing in at 149-152 pounds, some ten pounds lighter than what experience tells me is ideal for athletic performance.
It's in my head that I feel I've been my own worst enemy lately. Ideally, an athlete should have a training plan, and execute that plan a day at a time, letting each day's challenges be sufficient for that day without worrying too much about what he "should" be achieving at any given moment. I've had periods when I've done a good job of that, but lately I've let myself become overwhelmed by the task of preparing myself to perform well in the Pacific Northwest in July without any nearby races to do between now and then. At times like this I should probably focus on the fun aspects of paddling, but instead I've been anxiously wondering how I can get myself sharp for racing and achieve what I think I "should" achieve.
After a gym session Tuesday morning, I got in the boat and did some 100-meter sprints. Rather than doing them on flatwater I did them while ferrying across the Mississippi. I decided to do them that way somewhat on a whim, but I guess it was some good balance and control practice at high intensity. Certainly, it took longer to cover 100 meters that way: on flatwater a good 100 time for me is between 20 and 30 seconds, whereas some of those "ferrying" 100s took me as long as 45 seconds.
The soreness in my arms was pretty bad during a steady 60-minute paddle Thursday, and I had a hard time relaxing my arms as I paddled. I was tense and just... not relaxed.
I stayed home and did another gym session on Friday, and yesterday I was back in the boat. After warming up and doing three 8-stroke sprints, I timed myself over 5 kilometers in the harbor. My plan was to paddle at a medium-hard pace for 700 meters of each kilometer, and then push harder for the last 300. Doing the piece from the south end of the harbor to the north end, I had a good tailwind the whole time, so my target numbers were 11.5 kilometers per hour for the 700-meter segments and 12.5 kph for the 300-meter ones.
I knew that this would put me at a little over 5 minutes per kilometer. I feel like I "should" be able to average 5 minutes per kilometer without any trouble for 5 km, but this season that's proven to be too tall an order. I was hoping that with the tailwind perhaps I could exceed my expectation, but by the 2-km mark I was hurting pretty bad. For the last several kilometers I struggled to maintain 11.5 kph during the "easier" segments, and I found myself pushing the stroke rate higher than I wanted to (80 per minute) during the 300-meter "hard" segments.
I ended up with a time of 25:45 for the 5 km, and I felt a bit demoralized that that was the best I could do, even with a tailwind.
I know it's not healthy to obsess over what I think I "should" be doing, and it's making me wonder if I shouldn't just forget racing for a while... or even forever. I mean, it's not like the sport won't survive and thrive without me. Then again, I do like having a purpose... the experiences I have traveling to races make it all worthwhile.
Today the handbell group I play with had its last performance before we break for the summer, so it seemed like a good time to forget about paddling and think about some other things for a while. I hope I can use the next couple of days to refocus on the things I should be concerned with while letting go of the things that I shouldn't.
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In July of 2008, my nephew Joel and I did some canoeing on the White River. That's the town of Calico Rock, Arkansas, on the bluff in the distance.
Joel is ten years old in this photo. He's now an EMT and a firefighter preparing for the wildfire season out West.
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The hot weather relented a bit on Friday. This weekend the Fahrenheit highs have been in the 80s, with bits of rain here and there.
I did a gym session Friday. Yesterday morning I was back in the boat looking to up the intensity a bit. I usually do measured intervals in the harbor, but this time I decided to try something different and do several 1000-meter pieces out on the Mississippi. Not knowing the exact speed of the river's current (at yesterday's level of 23.5 feet on the Memphis gauge, I'm guessing it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 kilometers per hour), I wasn't sure how fast I could do a kilometer, but I thought I'd see if I could do it in 3 minutes--that's an average speed of 20 kph.
I didn't quite succeed in the first two pieces: I clocked 3:15-3:20 for both. At times I would go 20.5 kph or faster, but at other times I was slower. The current on the Mississippi is anything but uniform; there are boils and swirls and little eddies and stuff that can slow the boat down. For the third piece I managed to maximize the help I got from the river and finished in 3:00 flat.
I started the 1000s at every 6th minute, so my recovery intervals were between 2.5 and 3 minutes. The workout was as taxing as a 1000-meter workout on flatwater. If the river was in fact flowing at 8 kph, then I had to generate 12 kph of my own to move at 20 kph. 12 kph on flatwater would get me through a kilometer in 5 minutes, a benchmark I'm always shooting for. 12 kph out on the river is probably more taxing than 12 kph in the harbor because of the extra balance-and-control challenges.
I was very tired in the boat today. I did a smooth, steady 80 minutes out on the river, and I hope that'll help me recover for the week ahead.
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We're getting an early taste of full-on summer here, with the mercury rising above 90 degrees Fahrenheit this week. I'm not crazy about the hot weather, but I do like it for paddling. It's nice to wear shorts and short sleeves and have no qualms about getting wet. It won't be long before I'm taking hose baths on the dock after paddling.
I was feeling lethargic again Tuesday morning as I plodded through my little gym routine, and I worried over my ability to kick it into a higher gear once I was in the boat. My left deltoid/biceps area bothered me a lot as I warmed up and did three 8-stroke sprints, but eventually these muscles loosened up to the point that they almost didn't bother me at all.
My workout for Tuesday was a set of six 200-meter pieces starting every 5th minute. In calm conditions my target pace would have been 12 kilometers per hour, but with a tailwind I aimed more for 12.5-13.0 kph. I think the wind picked up a bit because by the last piece I was exceeding 13.0 kph with no trouble.
I did the whole workout near the mouth of the harbor, doing each piece headed north and then looping back to where I'd started. There was a barge rig coming upriver as the workout went along, and I kept telling myself that it wasn't a day for wake surfing, but after the fifth piece I gave in to the temptation and paddled out there. The waves weren't the best I'd seen and no surf lasted long, but I managed to get several good rides before I returned to the harbor. I did my last 200-meter piece and headed back to the dock. Having inserted a bit of "play" workout into my "work" workout, I was feeling pretty good.
As I returned to the dock this morning, we were well on our way to another hot day: it was over 80 degrees when I got in the boat just after 9:30. But out on the river there was a lovely layer of cool, misty air that I usually associate with a mountain stream like the Nantahala.
I'd hoped maybe I could do some more wake surfing today, but there was no barge traffic in sight when I left the harbor. I did a strong loop out on the river instead. As I returned to the harbor I saw a barge rig approaching the old bridges downriver, but by that time I felt that I'd done enough. Maybe I'll get to have some fun with that this weekend.
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Today the Mississippi River is flowing at about 18.4 feet on the Memphis gauge. Recent storms in the Tennessee, Cumberland, Ohio, and Missouri watersheds have fueled a rise toward a high around 25 feet. That's a pretty good healthy level.
Eleven years ago, the river crested at 48.03 feet on the gauge. Given that the river spreads out onto a vast floodplain, the actual volume of water at that time, in cubic feet per second or whatever other unit you like to use, was probably many times what it is at 25 feet.
In this photo we see the intersection of Beale Street and Riverside Drive in downtown Memphis. Riverside Drive, which runs parallel to the river, is high enough that it practically never floods, but this low-lying section of it got submerged in May of 2011.
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I haven't mentioned it lately, but I'm still feeling a lot of soreness in my left deltoid/bicep area. I think it's flared up a bit in the last week or so. I've also just wrapped up a rather intense project in my woodworking shop that contributed some soreness and achiness to the muscles in both my arms.
That, along with some feelings of sluggishness I've had the last few days, and some cool breezy weather here in the Mid South, has had an impact on my motivation. It hasn't stopped me from getting out there and going through the motions, but I haven't been excited about it lately.
On Friday I stayed home and did a gym session. I dragged myself to the river Saturday morning, and after warming up and doing three 8-stroke sprints, I did a workout that's a variation on the 30-second sprint workout I've done a lot in recent years. I did ten 100-meter sprints starting every 4th minute; my goal was to move at over 12 kilometers per hour, but the way the wind was swirling around I either had no trouble exceeding that or really had to fight to achieve it. In the end it felt good just to lay down some hard efforts, and I was proud of myself for doing it despite my lack of enthusiasm.
Adam was out of town and couldn't join me yesterday, so I was on my own for a longer paddle. I left the harbor and paddled up the Mississippi, ferried across above the Hernando DeSoto Bridge, and paddled up into the Loosahatchie Chute before heading back. My elapsed time was 100 minutes, and it was a decent outing even though I still wasn't feeling much giddy-up.
My next big race is still two months off and there's still plenty of time to get myself ready. But I wish I could find something to get excited about in the nearer term.
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Tuesday morning I got in the boat and warmed up and did three 8-stroke sprints, and then did sort of a variation on the tempo workout I'd done the previous Tuesday. I did five 1000-meter pieces, starting every 8th minute, and tried to maintain 11.5 kilometers per hour while keeping the stroke rate below 80 strokes per minute and preferably in the low 70s. I chose 11.5 kph as my target rate because I thought I'd have the wind at my back, but in fact the wind seemed to be swirling around from all directions, so at times I was moving more like 11.0 kph.
Past performances suggest that I really ought to be able to maintain 5 minutes per kilometer in a 5- or 10-kilometer race. That's an average speed of 12.0 kph. But wishing something doesn't make it so, and back in February I learned that it was counterproductive to set goals for pace workouts based on what I wish I could do rather than on what I can actually do. So I'm dialing back the expectations a bit for these pace workouts, hoping that they'll be good solid aerobic sessions and that I can elevate my speed capabilities in shorter, faster workouts.
Actually, with a big downwind race coming up in July, the focus on pace will probably give way to an emphasis on speed and power sooner rather than later. But at the moment I'm still working on general fitness and saving the more specific stuff for later.
This morning I went out and paddled a steady loop on the Mississippi for 60 minutes. Some heavy rain was on the way, but it didn't arrive until the afternoon. After dropping for a couple of weeks, the river is about to start rising again as a result of storms that have moved across the watershed upstream. The current forecast says it'll get up to 24.6 feet on the Memphis gauge, and I expect that'll be revised upward once this rain we're having here now moves on across the Tennessee, Cumberland, and Ohio basins.
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Adam Davis shot this photo as we paddled downriver back toward the harbor yesterday. You can see me just to the left of the left-most bridge piling.
The stats shown here are Adam's. Since I put in about a half-mile farther north in the harbor, I covered about a mile more, and my elapsed time came to about 125 minutes.
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Yesterday morning was warm and a strong wind was blowing from the south. I paddled out of the harbor onto the Mississippi, where I found some low-grade downwind conditions. It was mostly like a washing machine out there, but there were definitely some small runs hidden in the chaos and I had fun trying to catch them. I wasn't exactly styling it out there, but it felt good to throw in some sprints after a whole month of nothing but steady paddling.
An isolated thunderstorm came through town last night, and this morning the sun was back out and conditions were calm and still quite warm. I went back down to the river, where I had some company: Adam Davis met me for a couple of hours of paddling. We went up the Mississippi to the mouth of the Wolf River, and then up the Wolf to the Danny Thomas Boulevard bridge before turning around and coming back. We talked about all the stuff we've been up to since we'd last seen each other, but we also got in a good solid aerobic session. We're hoping to meet again on weekends for the next little while.
The most exciting moment this morning occurred as we were paddling upriver just above the Hernando DeSoto Bridge: a big fish (probably an Asian carp) jumped up and hit me in my right side, causing me to flip. I've had my share of encounters with those invasive fish, but this was the first time I'd ever been flipped by one. Actually, a few years went by when I hardly saw any Asian carp, but their abundance seems to be ticking back upward these days, and today they were very active near the bank. Fortunately, I don't think one of those carp is capable of inflicting the kind of harm on me that that seal almost did back in January.
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