We're having a break from oppressive heat here in the Mid South. For the last couple of days the Fahrenheit temperature has been in the high 80s and low 90s, as opposed to the high-90s readings we'd been having. According to the forecast we've got several more pretty nice days coming up. The most notable thing is that it's getting down into the low 70s an even high 60s overnight. During the worst of the dog days of summer, it sometimes doesn't drop below 80 degrees at night.
I got pretty good and sweaty on my bike ride Wednesday, just the same. My ride out to Shelby Farms and back takes me around 90 minutes on average; some days I get all motivated to push the pace, and other days I'm happy just cruising. On Wednesday I pushed the pace and did the ride in about 87 minutes.
Yesterday I was back on the riverfront to do some paddling. If you've been reading this blog lately, then you know I've been paddling the surfski to the mouth of the harbor to check the Mississippi River for barge traffic; if there's traffic I go out and try my luck with some wake-surfing, and if there's not I go back to the dock and get in the whitewater boat. Yesterday the river was deserted, so back to the dock I went. In the whitewater boat I did some rolls (as a rule I do ten on the left and ten on the right), some forward paddling drills, some backpaddling drills, and some spin drills. In less than two weeks I plan to do a river run or two in east Tennessee and/or western North Carolina, and I'm looking forward to that.
At the world-class level, U.S. canoeist Nevin Harrison opened her Olympic competition yesterday in the 200-meter C1 event. She made quick work of it, winning her first-round heat and thereby bypassing the quarterfinal round straight to the semifinal. Her time of 45.70 seconds was the fastest of all the first-round heats; you can see the results of those heats here. Her semifinal heat is scheduled for the early hours of tomorrow morning.
Early this morning the tandem kayak team of Aaron Small and Jonas Ecker were back in action in the 500-meter K2 event. The top four finishers in each semifinal heat would advance to "Final A" (the heat in which medals would be awarded), and the bottom four would move to "Final B" (sort of like a consolation bracket). Small and Ecker finished fourth in their semifinal, becoming the first U.S. kayakers to make an Olympic "Final A" in 24 years.
The eight boats in "Final A" raced later today, and Small and Ecker finished eighth. I don't think they performed poorly; their time, while not their fastest, was consistent with what they've been doing throughout this regatta. There simply were other boats in the final that were capable of going faster. Small is 23 years old, and Ecker is 21, so I hope we haven't seen the last of these two in elite-level competition. The semifinal results are posted here, and the final results here. And you can watch the video footage of "Final A" here.
Back here in my humble dojo I did a gym session today, and contemplated how I might enjoy some paddling in the milder weather this weekend.
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