It was another burly Tuesday morning, and once again I found myself wondering if I was up for it as I got out of bed. Would it be so terrible, I asked myself, just to take it easy today, and maybe push the tough stuff back to tomorrow? But once I'd had some breakfast and woken up completely, my body and brain came around, just like they usually do. That's largely what being an athlete is about: when it's time to go, you go; but then it's important to give yourself the down time you need so you'll be ready for the next hard effort.
I went for a short run and did a gym session, and then went down to the river. In the boat I warmed up for 15 minutes, and commenced my workout: two 2000-meter pieces at 80 strokes per minute. I told myself to focus on the stroke rate, a crisp catch, and good power in the early phase of each stroke, and not worry about my speed or the elapsed time. But of course it's hard not to peek. For most of the first piece I moved around 11.5 kilometers per hour, and clocked 10 minutes 27 seconds. I took a 10-minute break and began the second piece, and this time my speed was up over 12.0 for much of the time. The stroke rate crept up into the mid 80s several times, and I had to make myself lower it. I was definitely feeling fatigue by the halfway mark, and in the last several hundred meters my legs were screaming. I finished with a time of 10:11, and was pleased with that.
The weather continues to be very nice just a week before the summer solstice. The daily highs have been not much above 80 degrees Fahrenheit, and the extended forecast says they'll be mostly below 90 for quite a few days to come. It's definitely getting more humid, but I'll accept whatever reprieve from the worst of a Mid South summer I can get.
I was back in the whitewater boat this morning, doing some more drills and getting my muscles used to the idea of doing some river paddling this summer.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment