A bit of New England whitewater

Today I went over and ran a section of the Deerfield River near Charlemont, Massachusetts.  I was very tempted to skip it: after yesterday's exhausting race and the ensuing soreness, I could very easily have spent today lying around like a slug.  But there's no telling when I'll get to this part of the country again, so I decided to take advantage of the opportunity.

As luck would have it, there was a water release on the "Dryway" section today.  The Dryway is a de-watered section whose flow is diverted by canal and tunnel to a powerhouse downstream.  For decades there were never scheduled releases on it, but thanks to the work of American Whitewater the power company now provides a few each year.

So, I ran the Dryway.  It's a nice four-mile-long section of Class III-IV whitewater.  I paddled my old Superglide slalom C1, the only viable whitewater boat I have at the moment since my plastic Atom C1 got stolen back in April.

I'm pretty sure the C1 paddlers who raced down in Rio this past week would have had nothing to worry about if I'd shown up to race there.  To say my whitewater skills are rusty is an understatement.  But I had fun doing a few ferries and eddy turns and using a slightly different set of muscles.

Here's a shot of the Deerfield River looking downstream from the Dryway putin:

The USCA Nationals

I've spent this past week working my way from North Carolina up to western Massachusetts.  I spent a night with a friend in Alexandria, Virginia, and enjoyed a nice 60-minute paddle on the Potomac River there the next morning.  I warmed up and did six 12-stroke sprints and pushed the tempo for 20 minutes or so before cooling back down.

I completed the long journey Thursday and arrived at the Connecticut River race site a few miles south of Northfield to find Day One of the U.S. Canoe Association Nationals in progress.  This first day featured youth sprints over the whole range of boat classes and age groups.  I found a few of my neighbors from Arkansas in attendance, including Becky and Dale Burris, Barbara and Don Walls, Mike Herbert and his daughter Savanna.

I got checked in at the registration area, did a 40-minute paddle with four 12-stroke sprints, and retired to my friend John Kazimierczyk's house a few miles away in New Hampshire to get ready for my race on Friday.  According to the buzz, this was going to be the best-attended USCA Nationals in years.  The rumor was that over a hundred single canoeists were signed up, and in my own class, Unlimited Kayak, the number was over fifty.  When I last attended the USCAs back in 2007 and '08 there weren't more than maybe fifteen or twenty of us in K1 Unlimited.

K1 Unlimited is just what the name suggests: any kayak that will float is welcome to enter, basically, with no restrictions for length or width or weight.  The great majority of entrants paddle surf skis, but ICF-sanctioned flatwater K1s are eligible as well.  There's a valid argument that that's not fair: the USCAs also include a class specifically for ICF K1s, and the popularity of surf skis is so high these days that they probably merit a class all their own.  But I'll save that for another day.  Suffice it to say that I probably wouldn't do any better if I swapped boats with any of the K1 paddlers.

I got to the race site about 90 minutes ahead of the 8:50 start time Friday morning, and went through my usual routine of equipment readiness, stretching, hydrating, warming up, and so on.  Once I was on the water along with the dozens of other K1 Unlimiteds, I could see that it was indeed the biggest class I've entered so far this year.  Even with all my years of racing, many distractions beckoned: it was tempting to look at another racer and think, "That guy looks really good, and his warmup routine is entirely different from mine... maybe I'd better do what he's doing!"  At times like that it's very important to have faith in your own race-readiness and stick to the routine that's worked for you in the past.

One thought I did allow myself was the fact that I was probably not going to win.  There were several fairly elite athletes on the water who would just about have to drop out of the race for me to beat them.  There was Mike Herbert, the three-time Olympian and world championships medalist from Rogers, Arkansas; there was Mike Dostal, an accomplished K1 paddler from over in Albany, New York; there was 21-year-old Pennsylvanian Jesse Lishchuk, a rare young adult excelling in surf ski and flatwater marathon racing in this country; there was Roei Yellin, an Olympian for Israel in 2000 and 2004 who made the 500-meter K1 final in 2004.

The gun went off and we embarked on the 13-mile journey up and down the Connecticut River.  I found myself in a similar situation to that at Fontana Reservoir six days earlier, surrounded on all sides by surf skis.  Just like at Fontana, I tried to work my way as far up the ladder as I could.  In the first couple of miles I felt great and couldn't quite believe that I would ever tire.

Reality would set in soon enough, though, as the field began to separate into smaller and smaller packs.  I spent a large portion of the upriver pull trying to move up onto the wake of Scott Cummins of Louisville.  I could make out the waves behind his boat and I would throw in a sprint to draw five waves behind, then four waves behind, then three waves behind; then something weird would happen and I'd get knocked back to four waves behind.  When I finally got up onto his stern, I should have just sat there for a good long while, but in my usual brash way I had my eye on the boat up ahead of him and I continued to push the pace, thinking maybe he was getting tired and I could drop him.

In short, I was using a ton of energy in the first half of the race.  Scott stayed in contact with me, while the racers ahead of us seemed to be increasing the gap.  Finally, about a mile before the turn-around point at the Highway 10 bridge, I let Scott retake the lead and gave myself a long break.  During this period Tim Dwyer of Jamestown, Rhode Island, moved up to join us.  As we approached the bridge we could see the lead pack coming back down, and it was no surprise who was up there: Herbert, Lishchuk, and Dostal were duking it out up front, with Yellin a few boat lengths back.

Once we were heading back downriver Scott and I took turns pulling while Tim stayed in contact on our sterns.  For me the fatigue was setting in with a vengeance, but I couldn't detect that my two competitors were feeling any better and I held out hope that I might be able to pull away at the end.  But then Tim moved up front and began to push the pace himself, apparently fresh from all the wake riding he'd been doing.  When he began suggesting, in a chipper tone of voice, that the three of us rotate pulling duties at three-minute intervals, it was obvious that he was feeling a lot better than I was.  I was well into "survival" mode while it seemed that he was just getting started.  I tried my best to take my turn in the lead, but when it was clear that I wasn't setting a fast enough pace for the other two they took over and I finally let them break away with about two miles to go.

Up front, Mike Dostal broke away from Herbert and Lishchuk and glided to the K1 Unlimited national title.  Lishchuk, paddling a surf ski, managed to outsprint K1 paddler Herbert to take second "by a nose."  Yellin, paddling a borrowed surf ski, finished strong to take fourth.

In front of me I could see Tim breaking free from Scott.  Scott was a good 50 meters ahead of me and I had no illusions of running him down.  I just maintained the most respectable pace I could and brought my race to a close.  As of this writing the results have not yet been posted online.  My guess is that the winning time was somewhere around 1 hour and 40 minutes.  I think my time was a minute or two under two hours, and my finish was around 15th place, perhaps.  I will post a link to the results once they are available.  The event actually continues for two more days, with mixed tandem canoe, men's tandem canoe, K1 ICF, numerous youth- and junior-level classes, and much more going on.

Sometimes I finish a race like this and agonize over the "coulda-shoulda-woulda" aspects of it all, but I wasn't in the mood for that this time around.  There's no question I could have done at least a little bit better; maybe if I'd paddled a bit more conservatively in the first half of the race I'd have been capable of a stronger finish and possibly beat Scott or Tim or both.  Then again, even if I had done that, I'd still have been in the middle of the field, one paddler among many.  So I'd say my post-race attitude is that it's all good... it's cool.  You win some and you lose some.  And whatever other platitude might come to mind.

I've mentioned the top four finishers above.  On the bank after the race I had the opportunity to meet the fifth-place finisher, Mr. Greg Lesher of South Hamilton, Massachusetts.  He actually came up to me and introduced himself, and told me that he was a reader of my blog.  I've mentioned in the past that I am always flattered and honored anytime somebody I've never met before tells me he's a reader, and I felt that way once again.  I wish I'd had the presence of mind to ask him how he'd even heard of this blog, seeing as how we're in completely different parts of the country.  Whatever the case... thank you for reading, Greg, and it was a pleasure to meet you.

Olympic slalom concludes with K1W and C2 classes

Thursday was the final day of slalom racing at Deodoro Whitewater Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.  Fifteen ladies' kayaks and eleven men's double canoes took to the water for the semifinal round.

Neither U.S. entrant was on the short list of expected medal contenders, but both were highly capable of capitalizing should the favorites falter in the watered-down Olympic field.

Ashley Nee put down a respectable semifinal run but was a bit off the pace even without her three gate-touch penalties.  Her 14th-place finish was not good enough to make the final.  She's already saying on Face Book that she's ready to sign up for another four years.  The ten women who did move through got to do one more run, and here is how it turned out:

Maialen Chourraut has been among the elite women in the world for at least the last half-dozen years.  An Olympic medal eluded her in 2012, and then she took some time off to give birth to a child.  Clearly she has returned to top form.  Meanwhile, the fact that two of the three medalists are non-European gets my attention.  While I don't expect the Europeans are going anywhere, I hope this result will be a boost to slalom racing in distant parts of the world.

The C2 final consisted mostly of traditional powers, with Devin McEwan and Casey Eichfeld the only non-European pair to crash the party.  They had squeaked into the final by taking tenth place in the semifinal, and were unable to improve that position in the final.  Here are the final results:

It was a repeat performance for the British team of David Florence and Richard Hounslow: they took second in London four years ago.  Florence was second in C1 in the 2008 Beijing Games, so the man now owns three Olympic silver medals.

This was, sadly, the last time C2s will race at the Olympics, as the class will be replaced with women's single canoe in Tokyo four years hence.  I'm a hundred percent in favor of greater gender equality in our sport, but I'm sorry it has to come at the expense of such a magnificent boat class.

Olympic slalom K1 class: Smolen 12th in semis

The final results are in for yesterday's Olympic slalom K1 class:

I'm not sure why there is an asterisk on Jakub Grigar's 5th-place finish.

U.S. entrant Michal Smolen, the bronze medalist at last year's world championships and the under-23 world champion in 2014, finished 12th in the semifinal round and did not advance to the final.  He is only 22 years old and I expect to see more of him on the international stage.  His father Rafal is a U.S. team coach.

C1 slalom Olympic final: Eichfeld 7th

U.S. racer Casey Eichfeld and nine other paddlers made the final today in the Olympic slalom C1 class.  Eichfeld was the first on the course in the final round and laid down a good solid run, but two gate-touch penalties left the door open for six competitors to better his score.  Here are the results:

Congratulations to the three medalists.  While C1 Olympic medals are nothing new for the French and Slovakian teams, this is the first-ever medal in whitewater slalom for a Japanese racer.

It would have been nice if Casey Eichfeld had followed up his almost-world championship last year (he ended up fourth after committing a time error near the bottom of the course) with an Olympic medal this year, but anything can happen in an Olympic final.  Simply making the final has been a tall order for the U.S. team in recent Olympic slaloms, and I hope the other U.S. racers will be inspired to achieve the standard that Casey has set in Rio.

Olympic update: slalom K1W and C2 prelims

I spent yesterday driving so I missed it all, but U.S. slalom racers Ashley Nee (K1W) and Casey Eichfeld and Devin McEwan (C2) have made it out of the prelims and into the semifinal round.  These two classes will resume on Thursday, with Eichfeld and McEwan's run starting at 11:30 AM EDT and Nee's run starting at 12:15 PM EDT.

Monday photo feature

Because of travel I'm missing the live telecasts of the whitewater slalom racing at the Deodoro Whitewater Stadium in Rio.  I guess when I get a chance I'll watch whatever archived footage they post over at www.nbcolympics.com.

When I got back online yesterday afternoon, quite a few people on Face Book had posted photos and videos they had shot of their TVs.  Here's one of U.S. C1 racer Casey Eichfeld taken by a Ms. Dawn Beitzel.

Racing resumes

The road trip is underway.  I arrived in the Nantahala River and Fontana Reservoir area Friday afternoon and camped there Friday night and last night.  I'm now visiting my sister's family in Lincolnton and getting caught up with Internet chores.

After making camp at Tsali Campground Friday I went down to the reservoir to paddle for 40 minutes.  I did four 12-stroke sprints and worked out the kinks from the long drive.  Though I'd paddled on the Nantahala many times before this weekend, I'm not sure I'd ever actually paddled on Fontana.  One thing I can say is that a person could get lost on it pretty easily: the lake backs up into many different valleys and hollows that contained the rivers and creeks that fed the "main" river that was dammed to create Fontana, the Little Tennessee.  I was careful to memorize landmarks as I paddled along so that I could find my way back to where I put in.

Yesterday was race day, and I was greeted at the site of The Paddle Grapple by numerous familiar faces along with other people whose names I knew but had never met.  We all checked in and signed waiver forms, readied our gear, put our boats in the water, and assembled at the starting line.  The six-mile race was to be two laps of a three-mile loop.

When the gun went off at least a dozen paddlers charged off the line to set a quick pace for the first mile.  I just tried to settle into the pack and get my bearings amid all the mayhem.  Eventually some guys began to drop back after going out too hard, and I started working my way up through the field.  I kept hopping from one wake to the next until I found myself on the stern of a racer who wasn't slowing down.  That racer was Pete Greene, a veteran of many Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Races at Memphis.  I knew from experience that I would do very well if I could manage to stay in contact with him.

Up front the early leader was Chris Hipgrave, the director of the "Grapple."  Chris had gone out very fast and forced Eric Mims, who's having an excellent season in the boat, to try to reel him in from a few boatlengths back.  K1 paddler Sven Jonsson sat in third place with Terry Smith in fourth, Pete in fifth, and me in sixth; behind us a pack of racers including Ted Burnell, Rick Carter, Cory Hall, and Bruce Poacher lurked.  Having been caught by Rick at the end of the race at Vicksburg back in April, I was extra motivated to stay on Pete's wake.

Eventually Pete pulled even with Terry, and the two of them began to take turns "pulling" in an effort to close the gap on Sven.  I continued to work very hard to stay on their stern wakes, several times coming perilously close to falling off and exposing myself to the vultures in the following pack.

At the end of the first lap Hipgrave dropped off the pace and let Mims take the lead.  Apparently Chris had decided ahead of time to go hard for only one lap and spend the second lap watching over and encouraging the other racers.  So now the top five consisted of Eric, Sven, Terry, Pete, and me.  Some six boatlengths ahead of our pack, Sven continued to tantalize Terry and Pete and the two of them kept throwing in surges to reel him in.  I continued to fight for my position right behind Terry and Pete.  I actually was feeling pretty good even though I was working hard, and I knew we had a pretty good lead on the next pack back because I'd seen them after the buoy turn at the end of the first lap.  Nevertheless, I'd been burned before and didn't want that to happen again.

With about a mile to go, Pete made his move and took off after Sven, leaving me and Terry to fight it out for fourth place.  I tried to move up onto Terry's left-side wake but Terry responded and pulled a boatlength or so ahead of me.  As the finish line came into view I could sense that he had a bit more left than I did.

Eric Mims cruised to a convincing victory with a time of 46 minutes, 3 seconds.  About a minute and a half behind him Sven and Pete duked it out for runner-up honors, with Sven holding off the hard-charging Pete by one second.  Terry took fourth six seconds ahead of me.

Bruce Poacher, Rick Carter, and Ted Burnell came into the finish in a pretty tight pack to claim sixth, seventh, and eighth.  Chris Hipgrave completed his second-lap "jog" in ninth overall, followed by Cory Hall in tenth.

Eric Mims makes his home in Isle of Palms, South Carolina;  Sven Jonsson and Chris Hipgrave both live in the vicinity of Fontana Reservoir;  Pete Greene is from Beaufort, South Carolina; Terry Smith, Ted Burnell, and Cory Hall are Chattanoogans; Bruce Poacher hails from Charleston; and Rick Carter gets his mail in Eutawville, South Carolina.

The top overall female finisher was Lindsey O'Shea of Gainesville, Georgia.  A pair of Ashevillians were the top single canoe racers, with Andy Kluge edging out Lecky Haller, a whitewater slalom world champion and Olympian, for the win.  The complete results are as follows:

I was happy to claim fifth place in a good, solid, competitive field.  It was probably my best race of this year so far, and I hope I can continue the good performance next weekend in Massachusetts.

This morning I put in at the NC 28 bridge over the Nantahala River branch of Fontana Reservoir, and did a pretty solid-paced 90-minute paddle.  Since my paddling schedule is a bit uncertain with all the travel I'm facing in the coming days, I wanted to get a substantial session in.  Tomorrow will probably be a recovery day.

Here in North Carolina it's warm and muggy but nowhere near as bad as Memphis has been lately.  The sun was beating down on me a bit in the last half-hour of today's paddle, and when I got back to where my car was parked I fell out of the boat and took a nice swim.

Olympic update: slalom C1 and K1 prelims

I'm just now getting back online after a couple of days of camping.  I understand that U.S. slalom racers Casey Eichfeld (C1) and Michal Smolen (K1) have both advanced to the semifinal round at the Olympic Games at Rio.  Eichfeld will race next on Tuesday at 12:36 PM EDT while Smolen's semifinal run will be Wednesday at 12:45 PM EDT.

Almost ready to travel

This morning I went downtown and paddled on the Memphis riverfront for the last time before I leave on this road trip.  I kept the session short--40 minutes--because of the heat as much as anything else.  It was already 90 degrees Fahrenheit when I got down there, and the radio was predicting a heat index of around 110 today.  Wanting to arrive at Fontana Reservoir Saturday feeling rested and ready to go, I didn't need to sit out there and slow-cook under the blazing sun any longer than I had to.  I know how it must feel to be food under those heat lamps at Luby's Cafeteria.

I did eight 12-stroke sprints with full recovery in between.  The main objective is of such a workout is to work my ATP-CP energy system, but it's also simple practice paddling as hard as I can.  I'm more of an endurance athlete than a speedy, powerful, fast-twitch sort of athlete, but at least I can practice the skill of taking precise, controlled strokes at a high rate.

Paddlers at the Olympics!

With my big road trip coming up I haven't had much time to think about it, but the opening ceremonies for the Games of the 31st Olympiad are this Friday at Rio de Janeiro.  The whitewater slalom competition will take place during the first week of the Games, while flatwater sprint is scheduled for the second week.

The U.S. Olympic canoe and kayak team roster is as follows:

Casey Eichfeld, Drums, Pennsylvania.  Whitewater slalom single and double canoe.
Maggie Hogan, Huntington Beach, California.  Flatwater sprint single kayak, 200 meters and 500 meters.
Devin McEwan, Lakeville, Connecticut.  Whitewater slalom double canoe.
Ashley Nee, Darnestown, Maryland.  Whitewater slalom kayak.
Michal Smolen, Gastonia, North Carolina.  Whitewater slalom kayak.

I'll be on the road, probably camping much of the time, so it's anybody's guess how much attention I'll be able to pay to the Olympics.  Chances are I'll be watching archived footage later at www.nbcolympics.com (The live stream schedule is here).

In any case, here's the schedule for the U.S. canoe and kayak racers.  This is that one time every four years that the eyes of the world are on our little sport, so tune in and check it out!

SUNDAY, AUGUST 7
Casey Eichfeld (C1M Slalom): Heats 1, 11:30 AM EDT
Casey Eichfeld (C1M Slalom): Heats 2, 1:30 PM EDT
Michal Smolen (K1M Slalom): Heats 1, 12:20 PM EDT
Michal Smolen (K1M Slalom): Heats 2, 2:20 PM EDT

MONDAY, AUGUST 8
McEwan/Eichfeld (C2 Slalom): Heats 1, 11:30 AM EDT
McEwan/Eichfeld (C2 Slalom): Heats 2, 1:20 PM EDT
Ashley Nee (K1W Slalom): Heats 1, 12:10 PM EDT
Ashley Nee (K1W Slalom): Heats 2, 2:00 PM EDT

TUESDAY, AUGUST 9
*C1M Slalom Semifinals: 12:30 PM EDT
*C1M Slalom Finals: 1:10 PM EDT

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10
*K1M Slalom Semifinals: 12:30 PM EDT
*K1M Slalom Finals: 1:15 PM EDT

THURSDAY, AUGUST 11
*C2 Slalom Semifinals: 11:30 AM EDT
*C2 Slalom Finals: 1:15 PM EDT
*K1W Slalom Semifinals: 12:15 PM EDT
*K1W Slalom Finals: 2:00 PM EDT

MONDAY, AUGUST 15
Maggie Hogan (K1W Sprint 200M): Heats, 8:45 AM EDT
*K1W Sprint 200m Semifinals, 10:07 AM EDT

TUESDAY, AUGUST 16
*K1W Sprint 200m Finals, 8:47 AM EDT

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17
Maggie Hogan (K1W Sprint 500m): Heats, 8:58 AM EDT
*K1W Sprint 500m Semifinals: 9:55 AM EDT

THURSDAY, AUGUST 18
*K1W Sprint 500m Finals: 8:56 AM EDT

Monday photo feature

The Nantahala River at Wesser, North Carolina, is the site of many, many learning experiences in my 35-year paddling career, including lots of slalom races like this one in 1995.  Photo by Julie Nouwen.

I'll be back in the area this Saturday, albeit a few miles downstream on Fontana Reservoir for a flatwater surf ski race.  The Paddle Grapple race will be a good test of my fitness and sharpness after six weeks of uninterrupted training.

Racing will heat up again soon

I've continued to have less-than-perfect nights of sleep both Saturday night and last night.  I hope this isn't the start of some prolonged pattern of insomnia.  My mother suggested that maybe my upcoming long road trip is weighing on my mind, and at first I didn't buy that, but now that my departure is just three days off I think maybe she was right.  I'm feeling like time is running out for me to tie up all the many loose ends before I leave.

I felt a little bit more rested this morning than I'd felt the previous couple of mornings.  I went downtown and paddled for 60 minutes, doing three 8-stroke sprints in the harbor and a few good surges out on the river.  The Fahrenheit temperature is moving back up into the high 90s this week, and the sun sure was beating down today, so I paddled up to the Hernando DeSoto Bridge and ferried back and forth across the river in its shade.

The prevailing wind was from the south, as it typically is in the summertime here.  That means when I return to the harbor and paddle the 2000 meters or so back to the dock, I've got the wind at my back and the heat is oppressive indeed.  Today I cooled off in that stretch with a bit of re-mount practice.

Zzzzzzzzz

I have spent this entire day feeling sleepy.  I woke up around 3 o'clock this morning and I don't know how long I lay there awake, but I think it was quite a while.  I ended up sleeping in about a half-hour later than usual, and ever since then I've been feeling sluggish and lethargic.  It didn't stop me from getting a decent paddle in this morning--I paddled a strong tempo for 80 minutes in the harbor and out on the Mississippi--but the rest of the day has been sort of a lazy and listless affair.

As an active person I consider it important to get a full night of sleep, night in and night out.  I aim for eight hours, but it often seems I end up with seven or a little less because I either take a long time to fall asleep or I wake up for a long time in the early morning hours or both.

Putting one more week of summer behind me

A pattern of storms across the southern states has kept the temperature down this week, but not the humidity.  I welcome the break from dangerous heat but I'm still sweating up a storm anytime I go outside and engage in the slightest bit of physical exertion.

Joe and I paddled for 80 minutes in the harbor on Tuesday.  We talked about every topic under the sun and I believe we came up with solutions to the world's most pressing problems; unfortunately I had forgotten them by the time we'd been back at the dock for five minutes.

Today I went out to Walnut Grove Lake for "Thursday evening sprints" one last time before I embark on the big road trip next week.  Kata, Ralph, and Sonny rounded out the group.  The sprints were tiring and I think I was a tick or two slower than last week--I failed to break 2:20 on a couple of them--but otherwise I was satisfied with how the workout went.

Monday photo feature

It's been a big couple of weeks for surf ski racing in North America.  A week ago Saturday the Canadian Surf Ski Championships took place near Squamish, British Columbia, and this past Saturday the action moved south to the Columbia River Gorge on the Oregon-Washington border for the Gorge Downwind Championships.  Pictured here is Austin Kieffer of the U.S. en route to his fifth-place finish in the Gorge Downwinds.  Photo lifted from the Vaikobi website.

A not-so-unbearable weekend

We've gotten a reprieve from the oppressive heat this weekend.  Though it's still quite warm and steamy, overcast skies and some scattered showers have toned down the withering heat that beat down on us for most of the week.

Yesterday I did a steady 80-minute paddle in the harbor and on the river that included some long surges.  Today I had a late-morning commitment that allowed me time to paddle for an hour.  After warming up for ten minutes and doing three 8-stroke sprints, I switched on the G.P.S. device and started a set of intervals where I maintained 6.0 miles per hour for a quarter-mile, 6.5 mph for the next quarter-mile, 7.0 mph for the next quarter-mile, back to 6.0 mph for the next quarter-mile, and so on.  I did this until I reached the 50-minute mark and then spent the last ten minutes cooling down.  I completed six cycles in the space of about 37 minutes.

While being as careful as I can to avoid water intoxication, I have nudged up my water consumption throughout the day while this hot summer drags on.  Normally every day I have a glass of water before breakfast, a glass with breakfast, a glass after breakfast, a glass with lunch... I stick to a pretty predictable routine, in other words (I'm stubbornly set in my ways, to put it another way).  So I'm well aware of what my "normal" consumption is and I can easily incorporate an extra glass here and there.

A timely thunderstorm

Yesterday I spent the day bracing myself for withering conditions out at "Thursday evening sprints."  I tried to drink a little extra water throughout the day.

As I negotiated the rush hour traffic out to Cordova the in-dash temperature display in my car read 97 degrees Fahrenheit, and I heard on the radio that the heat index was up around 105.  I hoped that the conditions on Walnut Grove Lake would be simply bearable as the sun got lower in the sky.

But then as I got within a mile of the lake I found myself driving into a thunderstorm cell.  As the rain came down, I watched gleefully as the temperature dropped to about 80 degrees in the space of several minutes.  The rain continued to fall as I parked the car and got my boat off.  By the time I was on the water the cell had just about moved out, but it left us with an air temperature that was most pleasant compared to what it's been lately.

Kata and Jason were back again this week, and we also had Jason's dad Sonny and Kata's husband Ralph on the lake with us.  After a good warmup we lined up for some 500-meter sprints.

I don't know if it was the cooler air, or the fact that I'd taken Wednesday completely off; but I felt as good in the boat as I've felt in a long time.  Whereas previous Thursday sessions had felt like frenzied paddle-for-all-I-was-worth sort of affairs, last night I found I had a couple of gears at my disposal that allowed me to relax and pace myself a bit.  My times were quite a bit faster: I broke 2:20 for all four sprints, hitting 2:15 in a couple of them.

It was still plenty humid outside, and the sweat was flowing in abundance.  By the time I was back in the car leaving the parking area the temperature was back up to 91 degrees.  The break we got from the storm was all too temporary, but it couldn't have happened at a better time.

One extreme vs. the other

Yesterday the heat was getting to me badly enough that I had to cut a workout short.  I don't recall ever having to do something like that in the wintertime.

The way training is supposed to work is you go out and do some mild damage to your muscles by exercising, and then during recovery your body repairs those muscles and makes them stronger and more fit to handle the task that did the damage.  But after working out in the boat on a very hot day I feel as though my body has more to recover from than just the paddling, making the whole process less efficient.

I've long considered winter a better season to train than summer (I prefer spring and fall, actually, but I'm comparing extremes here).  More people tell me I'm crazy for paddling in the cold, but people unfamiliar with our sport like to overlook the fact that paddling takes place on the water, not in it.  Basically, we confront the same challenges in both winter and summer that athletes in land-based outdoor sports confront.

I am not an expert physiologist--and I welcome comments from anybody who is--but I think the human body keeps itself warm in cold weather a lot more efficiently than it keeps itself cool in hot weather.  Heat is a natural byproduct of vigorous exercise, and in cold weather you can use that body heat to your advantage with layers of insulating clothing.  But when it's hot your body has to use extra energy to expel that heat by producing sweat that carries the heat away as it evaporates from your skin.  And the more humid it is (it's typically very humid here in the Mid South), the less well that cooling system works.

Furthermore, I think the average athlete is more likely to be exposed to extreme heat in summer than to extreme cold in winter.  The coldest moments of winter usually occur at night, when people like me are nestled all snug in their beds.  The hottest moments of summer, on the other hand, are in the daytime hours.  And paddlers are less likely than other athletes to train in truly dangerous cold simply because they can't: the water freezes up in climates where it gets that cold.

So... here we are at the most potentially dangerous time of year for training.  In years past I've done most of my racing in the spring and laid low in July and August; but in just the last two or three years some events have sprung up in the late summer and fall that I really enjoy competing in, and so I find myself dealing with the challenge of doing some good work in the boat without succumbing to the heat.  Like I said before, I'll consider other times of day to paddle and I'll also be extra conscientious with hydration.  I'll continue to paddle thinking of nothing but the cool bath under the hose that awaits back at the dock.  And soon--just over two weeks from now--I'll be on my way to what I hope will be more tolerable climates.

This morning Joe and I did an 80-minute paddle in the harbor, and some cloud cover gave us a welcome break from the scorching sun, a formidable adversary when you paddle mostly on an open body of water like I do.  I was tired from yesterday--from both the workout I did and the heat I endured--and I tried to relax and take good strokes and let the blood flow through my muscles and replenish them for the next challenge.

Monday photo feature

I look about thirteen years old in this photo, but I think it was taken in 1990 when I was going on 23.  I'm paddling the first boat I ever owned, a Dancer kayak manufactured by the Perception Kayaks company of Liberty, South Carolina.  It had been a gift from my parents for my 19th birthday in 1986, and I got at least a half-dozen years of good use out of it.  In this photo I'm running a rapid not so far from Liberty, South Carolina: Bull Sluice on the Chattooga River just above the U.S. 76 bridge.  Photo by John Chapman.

Tough days

After Thursday night's hammering high-stroke-rate affair, I went out Saturday to do a steady 90-minute paddle and smooth my strokes back out.  On my way out of the harbor I saw my friends Joe and Carol Lee coming back in, so I turned around and accompanied them back to the dock.  After that I was good and warmed up, and I did three of my backpaddling-then-forward-paddling power-building drills.  I went out on the river and paddled mostly at a moderate pace but threw in a few strong surges.

July is now more than half over, and I guess that's encouraging.  It appears we have a tough week ahead here in the Mid South, with triple-digit Fahrenheit temperatures possible later in the week.  This morning I did a round of the current strength routine and then went down to the river hoping the heat wasn't too bad yet.  I warmed up for fifteen minutes and did three 8-stroke sprints, and then started my workout.  I intended to do four one-mile pieces, maintaining 6.5 miles per hour for the first half of each and 7.0 mph for the second half of each.  For recovery in between, I planned to paddle for a half-mile at 6.0 mph.

That was the plan.  But by the time I'd finished the second one the heat was really taking its toll.  During each recovery interval I hopped in the water and remounted with the hope that that would help, and it did somewhat, but not enough.  I was beginning to worry about my safety out there and so I ended the workout after just three pieces.

Maybe I need to consider paddling earlier in the morning, or in the evening... I'll have to think about that.  The late morning has always suited me, but under the current conditions I may have to take more precautions than I'm used to.

A good week shaping up

Life goes on here in the steamy Mid South in the month of July.  I'm not enjoying the heat but I'm generally enjoying the pace of life during this lull in my race season.  I'm feeling pretty good about the paddling and related activities that are going on these days, and I'm also doing some good shop work and enjoying the happenings here in my little inner-city neighborhood.

On Tuesday I paddled with Joe in the harbor for about 80 minutes.  I paddled my old boat, which still lives down at the dock.  I'm thinking I'll keep it down there at least for the rest of the summer and use it for my riverfront paddling.

Right now the new boat is stored in my garage, where I can easily grab it for paddling elsewhere.  That's what I did yesterday when I took it out to Walnut Grove Lake for "Thursday evening sprints."  Only three people showed up--Kata Dismukes, Jason Salomon, and me--but we were an evenly-matched group and in the four 500-meter sprints we did I don't think there was ever more than three seconds or so between first place and third place.  Kata led the first one from the start, and my late surge wasn't enough to get by her at the finish; she and I finished the second one in a dead heat--the sun was in my eyes and I couldn't see whether she actually beat me or not; and then I took the third and fourth sprints.  Jason was right there in the hunt on all four: in a couple of the sprints his bow was right there by my side from start to finish.

500 meters is of course a standard competition distance in flatwater sprint racing, and it is an intense, lactic affair that demands that you keep paddling as hard as you can while gasping for breath.  I hope these Thursday night meetings will fortify my mental toughness a bit.  I came away from last night feeling particularly good about the last sprint, in which Kata led for about the first half and I really had to dig deep to move into the lead.

I didn't pay close attention to my times, but I think they were all between 2:20 and 2:30.  I took my G.P.S. device in the boat with me out of curiosity to see what sort of speeds I was achieving: most of the time I was moving between 8 and 8.5 miles per hour.

Back here at home I've done my strength routine on Monday and Wednesday this week, and I plan to do it again later this morning.

Monday photo feature

My sister's family spent some time paddling on the upper James River near Lexington, Virginia, over the weekend.  They were visiting one of my nephews, a student at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington.

My sister got a nice shot of my other nephew, Ben, manning the bow in this photo.  My niece Rachel, paddling the kayak in the background, could use a shorter paddle, but the typical canoe livery fleet doesn't always have the best choices.

Something new

On Friday afternoon I took delivery of a new race boat: a V-10L surf ski manufactured by the Epic Kayaks company.  As always, it was a pleasure doing business with the folks at Outdoors, Inc., the greater Memphis area's dealer for boats and paddles and many other kinds of outdoor sports equipment.

For the last seven seasons I've raced in a V-12, also manufactured by Epic Kayaks.  The V-10L is designed for a slightly smaller paddler.  These days I'm weighing in at not quite 160 pounds (72.6 kg), and that's supposedly right in the ideal range for a V-10L.  I paddled a V-10L the whole time I was in Hawaii in February and liked it pretty good, so I'm giving it a go as my next race boat.

This morning I took it out for its maiden voyage: a 60-minute paddle on our wonderful harbor, where the placid conditions were a good setting to get the footboard and the footstrap and all that stuff adjusted the way I like it.  So far it feels a little different from the V-12 but I think I'll get used to it.

Once that was all set and I'd warmed up for ten minutes, I embarked on the day's workout: six half-mile pieces.  I tried to maintain a 7 mph pace throughout each piece; I started each piece at the top of the second full minute after the end of the previous piece, so my recovery interval ended up being about 2:45 to 2:50.  My times ranged from 4:06 to 4:14.

It certainly wasn't an easy workout, but because I had time to paddle for only 60 minutes today I got right to it and knocked it out quickly.  Finishing an epic endurance session can be satisfying too, but there's something exhilarating about doing a crisp, efficient workout and not feeling dead tired the rest of the day.

Balance and control in the boat

The south wind that I paddled in on Monday has persisted all week.  Even though it's been very hot in the middle of town, the wind has helped keep things bearable out on the river.  I paddled for 70 minutes on Thursday and 100 minutes yesterday.  I also did a round of the current strength routine before paddling yesterday.

Earlier this week the Surf Ski News website posted an interview with Austin Kieffer, probably the best surf ski racer in the U.S. these days.  I'm a fan of the guy for a couple of reasons.  For one, he comes from a whitewater background like I do; and for another, he's positioned for success at the top levels of surf ski racing--very rare for a North American in this sport dominated by South Africans and Australians and the like.

The interview is worth reading under any circumstances, but I bring it up here because of one particular passage--the one in which Kieffer mentions South African great Dawid Mocke and his ability to glide through rough conditions as if he were paddling on flatwater.

The sort of absolute confidence in one's balance and boat control is something I've worked on for quite a few years now.  I wish I could tell you I've mastered it.  But at least I've developed a few drills that I think have helped raise my balance and control to something better than terrible.  My favorite drill is to paddle in a beam wind on flatwater, and try to keep the boat moving through the waves and chop without letting it roll right and left or pitch up and down--back when I was racing slalom we called this "keeping a quiet boat."

Out of the boat I always include some work on my core muscles, since those are the ones that keep my boat rightside-up.  I've described many such exercises on this blog over time, and I'll do so again whenever I talk about my strength routines.  I'll just mention that the stability ball is one good tool for working specifically on balance.

Having worked on all those basics in low-risk environments, I was eager to get out on the river Thursday and yesterday and see how well I could keep the boat moving in those south-wind-driven conditions, just like Dawid Mocke would.  I doubt anybody would have mistaken me for Mocke, but I did feel good out there.  In this hot weather the consequences of a swim were as low as one can ask for, and because of that I was able to relax and take effective strokes with full rotation.  I never flipped or even came that close to flipping.

Thursday was the more "fun" of these last two days: there were all kinds of little bumps I was able to get brief rides on.  By yesterday the wind had diminished a bit and I spent the second 50 minutes feeling the heat while dealing with the usual fatigue of a long, hard paddle.  Paddling upstream out in the middle of the Mississippi was a pokey affair: every time I glanced down at my G.P.S. device it was showing about two miles per hour.

Whatever the case, I've come away from these last two days feeling good.  I had some fun, I beat the heat a little bit, I got in some good mileage, and I gained some confidence in my boat control.

"A healthy life is a good life"

These days the Internet and other mass media are bursting at the seams with "healthy living" advice, and as an athlete I'm tempted to dismiss it all as irrelevant to me, as intended for a more sedentary audience.  But every now and then something does get my attention.  Every Wednesday my local public radio station runs a brief "healthy living" segment with Sheila Harrell of the Church Health Center, and this week she presented us with a list of statements that each of us is supposed to evaluate with "Strongly agree/Agree/Not sure/Disagree/Strongly disagree."

• I don’t usually rush from one commitment to another.
• I take care of myself as well as others.
• I nourish myself with a well balanced diet.
• My home and workspace are organized.
• I feel positive most of the time.
• I spend more time doing what I want than what I should.
• I use my annual vacation time.
• I get adequate sleep.
• I have at least one strong relationship with someone who supports me.
• I don’t smoke, drink to excess, or have any other addictive behaviors.
• I take at least 15 minutes daily to do something I enjoy.
• I have a hobby.

I can "strongly agree" with the majority of these statements--after all, I'm an athlete and keeping myself healthy is more than just a casual endeavor--but there are a couple that I could do better on, and that's why this particular radio segment got my attention.

Unexpected variety on the riverfront

The weather report on the radio yesterday morning made it sound like a typical July day--hot and humid--but it wasn't until I got down to the river that I realized how windy it was.  I'd planned to do a two-hour paddle and was counting on a long grind, but instead I spent the first hour enjoying some Memphis-style downwind action out on the Mississippi between the mouth of the harbor and the Hernando DeSoto Bridge.  I wasn't getting any long, sweet rides, but I had fun catching all kinds of bumps for a few seconds at a time.  I got plenty wet, with waves crashing into my bucket and footwell, and along with the south breeze that kept me cool.  There aren't but a couple of months each year when I actually enjoy getting drenched while paddling, and that time has arrived.

At the end of the first hour I went back into the harbor and paddled steady to the north end and then back down to the dock.  This was more the "grind" I'd been expecting.  I was tired from the downwind stuff, and also from the strength exercises I'd done on the dock before getting in the boat.  I did two sets of pushups and two sets of the core exercise I'd learned from the Lèa Jamelot video on Face Book--in other words, I did the two exercises from this month's strength routine that require no equipment.

When I'm paddling tired like that, I focus hard on maintaining good stroke form.  The hope is that in the late stages of a race when fatigue has set in, I'll still be taking good strokes.

After yesterday's endeavors I was tired in the boat today.  Joe and I paddled an easy-to-medium pace in the harbor for 80 minutes.

Monday photo feature

Five years ago I joined a bunch of gulls on the water along the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Weekend exercise

Those comfortable days we had in the middle of last week are over, and the humidity is creeping on back up there.  But it's still not as bad as it was last weekend, and it definitely isn't as bad as those couple of days right before the OICK race.

Yesterday I paddled for 70 minutes out on the Mississippi, pushing the pace pretty hard now and then.  Considering the hurt I'd put on myself on Thursday, I felt pretty good in the boat.

Under normal circumstances I'd have paddled today, but I had to make a two-hours-one-way trip over into Arkansas to pick up some white oak logs to use in my woodworking business.  Right now my pickup truck isn't rigged to carry a boat, or else I'd have taken one and paddled it on the Spring River near where the logs were.  Instead I took a swim in the Spring, and it felt great after getting very sweaty and dirty dealing with those logs.

I'll make up for the missed paddling tomorrow.

Summer pace work

We've gotten a break in the weather this week: since Tuesday the Fahrenheit highs have been in the high 80s or low 90s, and the humidity is down.  It's significantly more comfortable than it was last weekend.

Not sure how much longer the nice conditions would last, I made sure to get in a good workout in the boat yesterday.  I warmed up for ten minutes and did three of my backpaddling-then-forward-paddling power drills.  Then I paddled up the Mississippi to the mouth of the Wolf River.

I started my G.P.S. and did a one-mile piece up the Wolf, trying to maintain 7 miles per hour.  At yesterday's Mississippi level (12.7 feet on the Memphis gauge) I expected to have flatwater for at least a mile up the Wolf, but I suspect I might have been fighting a slight current in the second half of my piece.  I finished the piece in 8:42.  I recovered by paddling back toward the mouth of the Wolf, and the ease with which I moved around 6.7 mph supported my belief that there was a bit of current flowing.

I started my next one-mile piece at the power lines that mark the OICK race start and headed out down the Mississippi, where I definitely had some current flowing.  Because of that I wasn't really paddling a true mile, but I tried to keep the intensity the same.  I maintained about 11.4 mph on the G.P.S.--on flatwater that would be around 7 mph since the Mississippi River flows at 4-ish mph.  My elapsed time for this mile was 6:43.

I finished the piece and paddled/drifted downriver in recovery.  I was quite tired by the time I reached the mouth of the harbor and gathered my courage for one last piece on what I knew would be dead flatwater.  Once again 7 mph was the target pace.  I was feeling it bad as I gazed longingly at the landmark where I knew my mile would end, and I attempted to comfort myself with reminders that it wasn't as god-awful hot as it was last weekend.  At last I completed the piece 8 minutes and 32 seconds after I'd started, and it felt good to know that I'd pushed through the pain with an effort consistent with the previous two pieces.

I arrived back at the dock with a total in-the-boat time of 100 minutes.  If I can get this kind of workout in at least once a week through the heart of summer, I'll have accomplished something.

Another strength routine

I've started up a new strength routine to run to the middle of July.  I've actually been doing it since the beginning of last week.

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned here before that strength work is my least favorite part of training.  The only reason I do it at all is that I do think it's beneficial.  But I try to keep my routines pretty simple and brief.  The less pleasant something is, the more tempted I'll be to skip it.

This new routine mostly works my core: two exercises use the stability ball, and another one is an exercise I learned watching a video posted on Face Book by a French flatwater racer named Lèa Jamelot.  (Thanks to slalom racing friend Billy Hearn for sharing it).  Jamelot does a number of neat exercises in the video and I'll probably work them into future strength routines.

The routine goes like this:

1.  Kneeling atop the stability ball
2.  Pushups
3.  Stability ball exercise demonstrated by Chinese slalom kayaker Jing Jing Li at 2:56 of this video
4.  Lèa Jamelot's exercise: involves standing on one hand and same-side foot, and touching the other-side elbow to the knee


I would love to share the entire Lèa Jamelot video here, but it's posted on Face Book (not You Tube or Vimeo or something like that) and there doesn't seem to be a way to embed it in a blog post.

Monday photo feature

We had a long, lovely spring here in the Mid South so I can't really complain about it, but it does seem that the dog days have settled in here before July has even begun.  Down at the dock that means a bath under the hose after paddling.  Paddling on a stifling hot day, I typically spend the last half-hour or so longing for this moment, and I doubt showering on granite slabs overlooking the Mediterranean Sea could feel any more luxurious.

I don't care for temperatures at either extreme, but I especially dislike hot weather, and when a spell like this one sets in I try to relish every little positive thing I can.

The dish-soap bottle contains Dr. Bronner's soap.

Reloading

Anybody who knows me or who has read this blog for a long time knows that I crave a comfortable routine.  And it feels like I've lacked one for at least the last month, with the pain in my hip and the resulting down time followed by a hurried attempt to get back into decent racing form for last weekend's OICK race.

Now, with six weeks to go before I race again, I'm trying to settle back in for a while and put together some days and weeks I can feel good about.  This past week I did a 70-minute paddle with Joe in the harbor on Tuesday, four 500-meter sprints with a group out on Walnut Grove Lake Thursday, a 90-minute paddle out on the Mississippi yesterday, and a 60-minute paddle on the riverfront today.

The sprint session on Thursday was an exhausting but overall good workout.  We've got close to a dozen or so paddlers interested in racing here in the Memphis area, but we're sort of spread out all over town and paddle in different places and we don't see one another that often.  These weekly sessions on Walnut Grove Lake (and eventually Patriot Lake, once it reopens) are a good remedy for that and I'm hoping to get out there maybe every other Thursday this summer.

This past Thursday Kata Dismukes's husband Ralph remarked that it looked like I wasn't getting my paddle blades fully submerged, so when I paddled today I shot some video of myself with my Go Pro camera mounted on my stern to see what was going on.  I tried my best to paddle like I normally do and not do any faking for the camera.  The footage revealed that on maybe every fifth stroke my right blade wasn't going all the way in.  It's not the first time I've spotted that in videos of myself, but I thought I was doing better these days.  So there's something for me to work on.

We're having a run of hot weather here, and I took my camel back full of icewater with me on yesterday's longer paddle.  I drank up the whole thing, and I don't often do that.

Until next year...

Here's a final observation about the Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race before I move on to other things.

My opinion is not unbiased, of course, but I simply can't imagine a better event for the city of Memphis.

When it comes to things like tourism and entertainment and culture and so on, it seems that our city too often tries to swing for the fences.  In the downtown area alone in the last fifteen years, the city, which does not have a particularly wealthy tax base, has built an arena to lure a pro sports team, given millions in tax breaks and subsidies to persuade a large retailer to convert the old arena to a destination store, and financed an incompetently-managed, colossally over-budget construction project on the riverfront to serve large passenger riverboats.

I'm not here to make provocative political statements, and I'm willing to say yes, pro sports teams and destination retail stores and big capital projects can be good for a city.  But the point I'd like to make here is that all the millions of dollars in the world cannot create the sort of community spirit I saw down on the riverfront on Saturday.

No event happens for free, and a good bit of money got spent to make the OICK race happen (no small portion of it on fees levied by the city bureaucracy).  But it was the people, not the amenities, that made the event.  And those people were participants in a joyfully healthy endeavor: propelling human-powered craft down the city's greatest natural resource, the grandest river in North America.

The event brings together subsets of the canoe and kayak racing population who don't often see one another.  Surf ski racers tend to gravitate toward open-water venues near the coast.  Marathon canoeists have their own races on small, mostly flat rivers.  Wildwater racers prefer... wild water (i.e., whitewater on mountain streams).  But the OICK race has hosted all these types of racers, and more.

And all these racers get to mingle with a slice of the Memphis population that doesn't even race except this one time each year, when they drag their canoes out of their backyards to spend a beautiful June morning paddling, socializing, cheering, and laughing down on the riverfront.

I'm not suggesting that the city should bankroll events like the OICK race; on the contrary, I think that would diminish their grassroots spirit.  But it would be nice if our leaders would show a bit more appreciation of their value, and perhaps remove a few of the hoops that organizers have to jump through to put them on.  To put it another way, I'd like to see the city and its business elites trust us to entertain ourselves.  We sure had a blast doing it last Saturday.

Here's a look at this year's race tee shirt:

At least in my opinion, it's delightfully un-fancy.  Very basic.  As my friend Joe, who happened to be the race director last weekend, put it, "The tee shirt doesn't make the event.  The event makes the tee shirt."  I'll be wearing mine proudly not because of its pizazz but because of the quality event it represents.

As a general rule, the OICK race takes place the day before Father's Day each year.  That means you can at least pencil it in for June 17, 2017.

Monday photo feature

Eric Mims (in the blue hat, with his back to the camera) was part of the winning boat in Saturday's Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race, but he was also on the job as a representative of Epic Kayaks.  After the race Eric manned a booth with his company's boats on display, and on Sunday he worked the annual post-race boat demo, helping dozens of potential customers try the boats out on a lake at Shelby Farms.

In the photo, taken after the race on Saturday, Peyton and Conrad and Carson Pellerin try not to look too bored as their father Andre talks boats with his friendly Epic rep.

Giving it my best in the 35th OICK race

As the 10:15 AM start time for yesterday's Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race approached, it appeared we had lucked out with the weather: even though the Fahrenheit temperature was climbing toward the 90s, the humidity wasn't nearly as bad as it had been Thursday and Friday, and a pleasant northwest breeze caressed us as we warmed up and took our positions on the starting line.  The river was a bit low--7.6 feet on the Memphis gauge--but somehow we found enough room for two-hundred-plus boats in the mouth of the Wolf River up at the north end of Mud Island.

I was feeling about as good as I could ever hope for: I was rested, my strokes seemed to have a nice "pop" to them, and my left hip was virtually pain-free thanks in part to the adrenaline flow.  I think a part of my psyche was still smarting from my struggles of a week earlier, but in general I felt ready to get out there and mix it up with what I knew would be a competitive field.

The gun went off, and I got off the line as well as I have in a long time.  In the first 50 meters the only boats in my peripheral vision were the single surf ski paddled by Mike Herbert over to my left and the tandem surf ski paddled by Eric Mims and Waylon Willis on my immediate right.  Those two boats were the pre-race favorites and I wasn't at all surprised as they quickly moved out ahead of the rest of us.

As we navigated the squirrelly water where the Wolf gives way to the Mississippi, things got a bit crazy as the boats I was counting on for my main competition began to assert themselves.  The Pellerin triplets--Carson, Conrad, and Peyton--propelled their K3 out onto the main river with a confidence beyond their 14 and a half years.  Rick Carter was close behind, trying with all his might to take control of the "second pack."  Kata Dismukes nudged in from my left and I briefly got my bow hung up on her stern while trying to stay on her wake.  To my right, the rapidly-improving Shane Kleynhans surged ahead of me.

It all happened so fast that I can't even begin to pinpoint the critical moment, but I found myself a couple of boat lengths behind this four-boat pack and I would spend the rest of the race sprinting in vain to get up on their stern wakes.

Up front, Mims and Willis pursued their bid to take down the defending-champion Herbert.  Herbert sat on their left-side wake, and bow paddler Mims waited for an opportunity to break away.  Finally, between the Hernando DeSoto Bridge and the southern tip of Mud Island, it came: the Mississippi's swirling currents kicked the tandem ski far enough to the right to leave Herbert teetering on the fragile outskirts of the wake, and Mims threw down a ferocious flurry of strokes.  Willis followed Mims's lead, and the pair began to pull away as they headed up into the harbor.

Meanwhile, the Pellerins continued to lead the second pack with Rick Carter, Kata Dismukes, and Shane Kleynhans in tow.  I attempted sprint after sprint after sprint, but simply couldn't attain Kleynhans's wake.  I finally saw an opportunity to close the distance when the four boats ahead of me went wide around the tip of Mud Island.  Knowing just how tight I could make the turn without scraping the muddy bottom, I moved within a boat length of Shane's stern as the finish line came into view some five hundred meters away.

Fully aware that they were dealing with a three-time Olympian, a winner of three world championships medals, a Pan American Games champion, and an almost-winner of an Olympic bronze medal--all in the person of one Mike Herbert--Mims and Willis kept the pressure on all the way to the finish line, winning the overall title by 24 seconds.  After Herbert clocked in, more than a minute would pass before the chase pack would sort itself out.  Rick Carter swung to the right of the Pellerins confident that he could outsprint them in the closing meters, but the triplets refused to give an inch and finished three seconds ahead.

Exhausted from all my surge attempts out on the river, I figured Carter and the triplets were beyond my reach in the harbor and I focused my attention on making a run at Kata and Shane.  Each of them was bent on beating the other, however, and even my most valiant efforts couldn't prevent them from pulling away.  Shane sprinted furiously in the final 50 meters to overtake Kata right at the line, clocking in less than a full second ahead of her.  Mercifully, my own race came to an end thirteen seconds later.

Mims and Willis both live in the Charleston, South Carolina, area, where they work for Epic Kayaks. Herbert calls Rogers, Arkansas, home.  The Pellerin brothers hail from Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, while Carter lives in Eutawville, South Carolina.  Kleynhans is a native South African now living in Brandon, Mississippi.  Kata Dismukes grew up in Hungary, but just this past week she was awarded her United States citizenship; she lives in an eastern suburb of Memphis.

Paddlers competed in dozens of boat classes Saturday, and many outstanding performances were put forth on our majestic river.  Dale Burris (Russellville, Arkansas) and Don Walls (Dover, Arkansas) were the fastest overall canoe.  Bill Cains (Altus, Arkansas) and his daughter Amanda (Dallas, Texas) won the tandem kayak (sit-inside) class.  Phil Capel of Sherwood, Arkansas, was the top finisher in a non-race-boat kayak.  The complete results are posted here.  (Note: "Murray Ortega" is in fact Rick Carter.)

This morning I went out to Shelby Farms for the annual post-race boat demo, where I tried out a couple of the other surf skis on the market.  I had a chance to talk to Kata Dismukes out there, and she told me she doesn't feel like she's racing particularly well so far this year.  That's not what I wanted to hear from her, seeing as how she had just beaten me for the first time ever, but it's a worthwhile topic of discussion because I'm not feeling in very good form either right now.

The fact is that it's very difficult, if not impossible, for an athlete to be at the top of his game year in and year out no matter how hard or how wisely he trains.  I've met many Olympic hopefuls over the years, and many of them have told me that in a given quadrennium it's not a bad idea to back off from the sport a bit for a season--you can still race, but you should take it easier in training and not have such high expectations every single season.  That sort of makes sense to me because it seems that my body chooses to have "up" years and "down" years even if my brain doesn't want to make that choice.

Pre-race stuff

It's been a week of rest, short sprints, and mojo repair.  Now, some 38 hours before the start of the Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race, I'm feeling reasonably rested and ready.  There's still some soreness in my hip area, but I don't feel nearly as beat-up as I felt last weekend.

The weather has been more and more humid in the last week or so, and today was easily the least-pleasant day of the year so far.  The temperature reached about 98 degrees Fahrenheit with the heat index exceeding 110 degrees.  It was already quite oppressive when I got down to the river around 10:30 this morning.  I hope Saturday won't be as bad as today, but I'm counting on a hot one.

Paddling this week has been mostly easy with a few sprints each day.  On Tuesday Joe and I paddled together for about 70 minutes and I did eight 12-stroke sprints with plenty of recovery time in between.  Yesterday and today I was down at the river by myself, and did nice long full-body stretching sessions before getting in the boat each day.  I paddled 40 minutes both yesterday and today, doing six 12-stroke sprints yesterday and four 12-stroke sprints today.

I was discussing the race with a friend recently and she asked me if I do any particular mental preparation.  I haven't talked much about that here lately, but the answer is yes, and I try to do a lot of visualization before a big race.  Pre-race visualization was a very important part of the slalom racing I did back in the 1990s and I find it useful for the racing I do these days as well.

For good visualization, get off by yourself in a quiet place, and relax your body as completely as you can.  Then go through the race in your mind, from your own point of view as you're sitting in your boat.  I always visualize the situation at the starting line and the things I need to do to have a good start.  As for the rest of the race, I visualize things unfolding exactly as I'd like them to, and I also visualize possible unexpected developments and how I might deal with them.  I visualize myself settling into a good mid-race tempo and also those moments when it's time to "put the hammer down."

I even try to visualize the things I want to be doing before I'm in the boat: going by the check-in booth, getting all my gear together, stretching, drinking water, putting on sunscreen... visualization is a good time to get all these details organized in your head, and that way they just sort of "happen" the morning of the race.

So... we'll see how it goes.  There are some good racers registered and I think it'll be an exciting contest.

Video from Batesville

There was one of those drones buzzing around the start of the race last Saturday, and we can now view the resulting footage:



I'd forgotten the actual name of this event: the "Spring Time Sprint."  I'd been calling it the Batesville Canoe and Kayak Race here.  Thanks to Robert Latus for the video.

Monday photo & video feature

At the end of my race on Saturday I saw a part of the town of Batesville I'd never seen before: the old White River Stadium.  A river stadium... how cool is that?

The now-forested piece of land that separates this narrow channel from the main river is manmade; before it was built a person could sit here and view the whole expanse of the White.  The venue hosted boating and water-skiing events that were probably similar to the ones that took place on McKellar Lake here at Memphis.  The townspeople even crowned a White River Queen on the stage surface in this photo.

What a shame that such events have fallen by the wayside in this part of the country.  I'd be in favor of bringing them back--provided, of course, that they include lots of canoe and kayak racing.

Here at Memphis today we might not have a river stadium, but we do have an event that's worthy of a legion or two of fans.  The 35th Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race is coming up this Saturday.  Here's some footage from the race in 2012:



My favorite part of this video happens around the 30-second mark, when a bunch of surf skis leads the parade down the Wolf River toward its confluence with the mighty Mississippi.

Right now it looks like the Mississippi will be between 7 and 8 feet on the Memphis gauge Saturday. That's some nine vertical feet more water than what you see in this video.

Racing out of the Ozark foothills

I made the trip over to Batesville, Arkansas, yesterday, and not only am I still struggling in the downriver boat, but also I think it might not be a good idea to be paddling it with the hip troubles I've had.  My injured spot was hurting badly during the last several miles yesterday.  I may have to abort my trip down to the Chickasawhay River race.

We lined up below Lock & Dam No. 2 some seven and a half miles (11 kilometers) upstream of town, and off we went.  Phil Capel of Sherwood, Arkansas, led me by 30 or 40 meters in the early going, and I worked hard to try to pull even with him.  I was trying to avoid his wake so it wouldn't mess with my rudderless boat, but on the meandering White River I had to cross it several times.  With several hard sprints I finally managed to get up on his stern, and then I took the lead with a strong surge.  I knew I was working hard, but I thought maybe I could pull this one off.

My lead didn't last long, however.  Phil took a better line than I did around the next bend, and with a strong surge of his own he shot back into the lead.  In the blink of an eye he had a hundred meters on me, and the wind was gone from my sails.  By this time the pain and fatigue were taking their toll and I limped to the finish line in total survival mode.

This morning I'm feeling a bit stiff but not too bad overall.  I plan to go downtown for a short easy paddle in the surf ski just to loosen up and help my muscles recover.  I think my greater challenge for the coming week is to get some confidence back.  Less than a decade ago I was racing quite well in my downriver boat in events like the USCA Nationals and the Hatchie River Race, and to be struggling so now has dampened my mojo.  It's a clash between my traditional attitude--a somewhat brash and not entirely rational belief that I can hop in any race boat and be one of the better racers in this part of the country--and several realities, such as my lack of practice in that boat in recent years and my less-than-sound skeletomuscular health.  And, yes, my slow but inexorable age advancement.  I never like to admit it to myself, but maybe there are some things I just don't do as well as I used to.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't wallow in some self-pity in that last mile or so yesterday, but I refuse to look back on the weekend that way.  In fact, I had a pleasant drive across the Arkansas Delta, saw some good friends on the water, and paddled a lovely section of the White River.  And with my favorite event of the year, the Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race, just six days away, I have a chance to get myself back on track athletically.

I should've thought about this sooner

Last night I joined a half-dozen or so other local paddlers for a few sprints on Walnut Grove Lake on the east side of Memphis.

I paddled my old Apple Turnover boat (shown above in a file photo) for the first time in a long time.  It was my main race boat back in the late 1990s and early 2000s before I got my first surf ski.  After I got the surf ski I continued to use this boat at least once a year in the Hatchie River Canoe and Kayak Race over near Bolivar, Tennessee.  Since that race folded, I have paddled it only very occasionally.

This season I have a couple of races I want to use it in--the one on the Chickasawhay River in eastern Mississippi a couple of weeks from now, and the USCA Downriver Kayak Championships (for which this boat was originally designed) at the end of July.

But until last night I'd failed to realize just how out of practice I am in paddling such a boat.  The boat has no rudder--it's basically a wildwater boat designed for Class I-II water--and so the paddler must lean it right or left to steer it.  Once upon a time I totally had the hang of this skill, but by last night the relevant muscle groups hadn't done such duty in a long, long time.  "Awkward" was the word for how I felt as we went out and did five 500-meter sprints.  I didn't even bother looking at my times because I knew they were slow.

Tomorrow I will give this boat another outing on the White River at Batesville, Arkansas.  Then I'll be back in my surf ski all next week doing my final tuning for the Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race on the 18th.  After that I'll worry about how quickly I can be ready for that Chickasawhay River race.

Turning up the heat in more ways than one

Our long, pleasant spring is giving way to summer here in the Mid South.  The last few days have been sort of a transitional period--hotter but not so humid, sort of like in the desert Southwest, where it's tough out in the sun but delightful in the shade.  But now the humidity is beginning to creep upward, and soon we'll be in the middle of another sweltering summer.

I think the best way to cope with a hot summer (or a cold winter) is just immerse yourself.  Those days when you have to grit your teeth as you step out of your comfortable home are actually not so bad once you're out and moving, assuming you're properly dressed in the winter and adequately hydrated in the summer.  I honestly think that my climate-controlled house feels much lovelier on those days when I've been outside working hard for part of the day.

This week I'm doing the last couple of workouts that my body will be able to process by the 18th of June, when the Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race takes place.  On Monday I did a set of eight pieces of "45 seconds on, 30 seconds off," doing each "on" piece at sub-maximum intensity.  It was a very tough workout, but it was over quickly.

On Tuesday I paddled easier in the harbor for 80 minutes.  My left hip felt quite sore from the stress of Monday's workout.  I knew I needed to give it a break yesterday.

I did the May-June strength routine both Monday and yesterday, and will do it tomorrow for the last time before the big Memphis race.

This evening I plan to join a few other paddlers in this area who have started a "Thursday night sprint" series.  We'll do a few 500-meter sprints out at Walnut Grove Lake.  I'll paddle just a little bit tomorrow, and then I'll do my "rehab assignment" on the White River at Batesville, Arkansas, on Saturday.

So, there's plenty going on.  I haven't raced since the 30th of April, and I'm looking forward to getting back at it and seeing some friends along the way.

Nice article on the U.S. Olympic slalom C2

“I’m not sure it was my dad’s Olympic history per se that inspired me to compete, but rather his abiding and contagious love for the sport,” Devin McEwan said. “So much so that his success in international competition seemed almost incidental.”

The full article is here.

Monday photo feature

Eric Mims of Isle of Palms, South Carolina, competes in the Paddle Bender race at Prosperity, South Carolina, this past Saturday.  In less than two weeks, Eric will be making the trip to Memphis to participate in the 35th Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race.  Photo by Elizabeth Poacher.