Well, it's been more than a month since my last post here. Sorry for the radio silence, for those of you who have been checking in.
I said in my last post that my plan for the remainder of the year was to mix paddling with a couple of dry-land routines, one indoor and one outdoor, that I would do depending on the weather conditions. And that's what I did. I got in the boat a couple of times a week, and I also did some running and some body-weight exercises and some work on a stability ball and some work with a medicine ball.
My goal was to get myself to a decent level of fitness for the next phase of winter training: I plan to leave tomorrow for the state of Florida, where I will participate in an informal training camp with a few other racers. Long-time readers of this blog know that we've been having this camp for the last few years.
I took a few days off last week while traveling to North Carolina to spend the Christmas holiday with my sister's family. Once back home I wanted to spend my time in the boat getting ready for the increased work load I can expect down in Florida. For the first time in months, I did a couple of workouts with resistance on the boat. On Saturday I did two sets of two (5 minutes at 60 strokes per minute/3 minutes at 65 spm/2 minutes at 70 spm). For the rest of the day I felt tired and sore in my legs, and I guess at least that's a sign that I'm doing an okay job with my leg drive and pelvic rotation.
The fatigue was severe enough that I spent Sunday just doing a recovery paddle. Then yesterday I did another workout with resistance on the boat: three times (5 minutes on, 3 minutes off) at 70 spm, and three times (3 minutes on, 3 minutes off) at 80 spm. The session was pretty taxing, but in the aftermath I haven't felt nearly as beat-up as I felt after Saturday.
I've had a cold since Sunday. It's not the worst I've ever had--it's mostly just a stuffed-up nose. My energy level seems to be holding up pretty well. All the same, I sure hope to be on the downhill side of it as I depart for Florida.
I plan to leave home tomorrow and arrive in the town of Dunnellon, Florida, on Friday. The weather forecast is saying that my first several days down there will be quite pleasant for this time of year, with daily highs above 60 degrees Fahrenheit. But most of next week looks not so Florida-like: the highs will be in the 50s, and we'll likely be dealing with temperatures in the 30s during our morning sessions. But it'll still be better than up here in Memphis, where the temperature isn't expected to rise above the 30s during the same period.
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