Alessia Faverio, Cam Thacker, and Royal McDonnell settle into a two-hour training paddle on the Rainbow River at Dunnellon, Florida, back on January 5. Dunnellon is located in central northern Florida, 24 miles southwest of Ocala.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
Yesterday I paddled a moderate-to-strong 60 minutes in the harbor. I kept the stroke rate low and tried to put good power into each stroke, sort of like the sessions I did on Tuesday and Wednesday of my week in Florida.
It was cold yesterday--around 34 degrees Fahrenheit--but the sun was out and the wind was light, so once I was in the boat it really wasn't bad at all. It reminded me of the last couple of mornings in Florida, when we had very nice paddling conditions despite chilly temperatures. The only reason that it wasn't just as nice as that yesterday morning is that the water is cold in the Mississippi River and the harbor, while the spring-fed Rainbow River is around 72 degrees all year long.
I'm feeling a bit tired and my left arm still hurts, and since returning home I've just been trying to keep something going until I've fortified myself for another good training block that will build on the one in Florida. One question I'm occasionally asked is "If your arm still hurts, shouldn't you just be resting?" My answer is that I've tried that. After coming home from the Columbia Gorge race last summer I pretty much shut down for a while, and saw no improvement in my condition. I really don't think paddling is what caused my arm woes, and the ailing muscles don't seem directly involved in the act of paddling, so I feel pretty confident that I can continue at least a moderate level of paddling while I keep searching for relief.
This morning it was cold again, but sunny and forecast to rise into the 50s. Once again I used the memory of those cold but lovely mornings in Florida as motivation to get down to the river. It was breezier today, meaning that it wasn't quite as nice on the river as yesterday even though it was some 10 degrees warmer. But it was fine. I did another steady 60-minute paddle in the harbor.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
Here's a short film I put together to commemorate last week's training camp experience. We're on the Rainbow River at Dunnellon, Florida.
The reason the music is so good is that I played it myself!
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
I got in the boat Tuesday morning and paddled a calm 60 minutes. I tried to focus on a good catch like I had done in our workouts at training camp late last week.
The Mississippi River was up to 16.5 feet on the Memphis gauge Tuesday, and of course it carried its usual sediment load and was nothing like the clear-as-a-bell spring-fed Rainbow River. Oh well... I'm always preaching at people to paddle whatever water they've got. They'll grow to love it and they'll have a keener appreciation for what's different about the waters they visit in their travels.
In fact, I'm very glad to be back home. But of course, being back home means being back with all my real-world responsibilities and the attendant duties and chores. Since getting home I've had a long to-do list to deal with, partly catching up on things I neglected while I was away, and partly rectifying problems I created during my trip--most notably the disabled driver's side door handle on my car. Yesterday we had very un-January-like sunshine and Fahrenheit temperatures in the high 60s, and I felt like I needed to be out paddling or riding my bike or something like that, but I was simply too busy with nuisance stuff. I kept reminding myself that this is supposed to be an easy week to recover from the stress of the training camp, but I hated not to take better advantage of such a nice day.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
I really wasn't planning to lift one of Steph Schell's photos from social media for a second week in a row, but I just couldn't resist this one. The Rainbow River was absolutely gorgeous Saturday morning as we put our boats in the water and prepared for our time trial, and Steph took this photo at KP Hole County Park. The Fahrenheit temperature was in the high 30s, and the fog over the 70ish-degree water was so dense at times that it was hard to see more than ten feet ahead as we paddled up to Rainbow Springs. The springs is a pretty place all the time, with large swaths of the phosphorous-rich bedrock showing through the marsh grasses, but with the weather conditions we had Saturday morning, it was hauntingly beautiful. I was sorry to have to start my time trial and leave the place.
I'm back home in Memphis now, and while I love my home water on the Mississippi River, at the moment I'm missing that crystal-clear spring-fed river in the Sunshine State.
I did in fact shoot some photos and video of my own this past week, and I'll be sharing some of that here as soon as I get a chance.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
As training camp in Florida continued Thursday morning, I found myself in a foursome with Cam, Alessia, and Royal. We did a "calm to moderate" 120-minute paddle, and while the pace wasn't what I would call torrid, it was solid enough, and doing anything physical for two hours is sure to wear you out. We paddled up the Rainbow river from Blue Run Park to Rainbow Springs State Park, site of the natural springs that feed the river. Then we came back downriver, and had to continue past Blue Run Park and then paddle back up to fill out the two hours.
We were out of the boat Thursday afternoon, and I chose to do a mostly-leisurely bike ride. I started on the Blue Run Trail, merged onto the Dunnellon Trail, and then, via a recently-finished connector, I picked up the Withlacoochee Trail. I followed this path as far as Citrus Springs before turning around and coming back.
A front came through overnight and we had a very un-Florida-like temperature in the mid 30s Fahrenheit when I got up yesterday morning. It had warmed into the mid 40s by the time I got to the river; I normally consider that quite chilly, but the sun was shining bright and there wasn't much of a breeze, so once I was in my boat it was surprisingly pleasant. It helped that the Rainbow River's water is warm, too.
Yesterday morning's workout was a set of ten 4-minute pieces with 1 minute recovery; we had light resistance on our boats (just a rope), and did each piece at a stroke rate at or below 60 strokes per minute. The idea was to feel the "catch" phase of each stroke, and put a lot of power into it. The rope served to kill the glide to that every stroke had an enhanced catch on the water. I started out with Chris H. and Royal and Cam; they quickly pulled away from me and I was all by myself for several pieces. Then Chris N., who had started a few minutes after us, caught up to me and I focused on staying with him. That made the workout more enjoyable, and it gave me a better feel for what I needed to do to keep my boat moving as quickly as possible.
The temperature had risen well into the 50s by the time we got off the water yesterday morning, and it was an absolutely gorgeous day by lunchtime. When we reconvened for our afternoon session it was 68 degrees with plenty of sunshine. The workout had a very similar focus to the morning's: Alessia, Royal, Chris H., Cam, and I did two sets of 6 x (2 min. on, 1 min. off) with moderate resistance (one golf whiffle ball) on the boat; then we took the resistance off and did two sets of 4 x (2 min. on, 1 min. off). The stroke rate with the resistance on was 60 spm, and once the resistance was off we raised it to 70 spm.
Just like in the morning, the workout demanded that we focus on our catch and put a lot of power into the early phase of each stroke. It was a taxing workout, but I held up quite well. Oddly, my success relative to my training partners went down a bit once we took the resistance off: with the resistance on I was faster than everybody but Cam and Chris, while with it off I was the slowest of the five even though I tried my best to work the same components of my stroke I'd been working with the resistance on.
I went to bed last night hoping I would recover enough to handle the final workout of the camp for me: a time trial from Rainbow Springs to the County Road 484 bridge next to Blue Run Park. We met this morning at Blue Run Park, ran a shuttle to KP Hole County Park about five and a half kilometers upriver, and did a warmup paddle another two and a half kilometers to the springs. The temperature was in the high 30s and a fog hung over the water. Up at Rainbow Springs the river was especially beautiful.
Chris H. started first, followed by Cam, Alessia, me, and Royal. I tried to get a good sprint out of the starting gate and then settle into a comfortable pace around 80 strokes per minute. I've mentioned in the past how much more painful a time trial is than a head-to-head race: it's just you and the clock, without much in the way of distraction or diversion. Alessia had started some 40 seconds before I had, and I kept my sights on her, knowing that reeling her in would be a slow process.
In the early going I struggled to move my boat much more than 11.5 kilometers per hour, but as time went on I started getting more help from the current and eventually was moving well over 12 kph. (I've heard at least one person say that the Rainbow River flows around 0.9 miles per hour or 1.45 kph.) Royal caught me about two kilometers in, and I was briefly able to ride his wake before he overtook me and pulled away.
The next several kilometers were the toughest mentally. I kept focusing on Alessia, but when Royal caught her I think she got some good rides on his wake and increased her distance on me. That was the height of the mental taxation for me.
I passed the sign marking the town limit of Dunnellon, located just barely over a mile from the finish, and I started to find a second wind. I was moving the boat over 13 kph in the smoothest stretches of river, and I knew I didn't have much longer to endure the discomfort. I imagined myself entering the harbor back home, where there's only about 2000 meters between me and the dock.
As I entered the final kilometer, Alessia seemed quite within reach. I bore down and raised my stroke rate into the 85-90 spm range. I inched closer and closer, but it soon became clear that she was a little too quick and the course wasn't quite long enough for me to catch her. I crossed the finish line two or three boat lengths behind her. My elapsed time was 39 minutes, 20 seconds. My G.P.S. device measured the distance at 8.12 kilometers (just a hair over 5 miles). Overall I felt good for having given the trial a good consistent effort from start to finish.
Officially, the camp isn't quite over yet: most of the other athletes are sticking around for another session this afternoon and two tomorrow. But I've got to get back. And I think it's been a productive experience for me in a variety of ways. I wasn't as physically prepared for this camp as I like to be and it felt like a struggle at times, but the main objective was to beat ourselves down a bit so our bodies can recover and come back stronger in the coming weeks, and I think I accomplished that. I just hope my body will respond well as I move forward, and that maybe these muscle pains will heal at last.
It was also good to renew some friendships and exchange some ideas with other athletes, and find some inspiration and purpose for this thing that we all like to do. I still don't have a clear idea of what this coming race season will look like for me. In my part of the country, there simply aren't many races anymore. I expect I'll go to Ocean Springs at the end of March, and after that... who knows. But the better my training base, the more numerous my options will be, and that's a big reason I decided to come on down here and put myself through this boot camp.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
I started Monday morning with a gym session. It was the same one I'd been doing at home except for the bent-over rows because I hadn't brought any dumbbells with me. Probably just as well for me not to do too much arm stuff after Sunday afternoon's hard workout in the boat.
After that I got on my bike and rode for about an hour. The Air B&B I'm staying in is located sort of in the countryside between Dunnellon and Ocala, and I had a network of quiet country roads to ride on. I saw a few signs advertising "Lots for Sale," so in another 50 years this area might be a dreadful suburban wasteland, but right now it's mostly piney woods and was a pleasant setting for my ride. It was a gorgeous day, too: it had rained during most of my drive down here, and Sunday had been somewhat overcast, but Monday morning was sunny with a crystal-clear blue sky.
Yesterday morning we were back in our boats doing a steady 75-minute paddle. Though the workout specified a low stroke rate (I tried to keep mine at or below 70 strokes per minute), the effort was supposed to be quite a bit more substantial than the easy session we'd done Sunday morning. By the end of it my arms were feeling as achy as they've felt so far this week.
That made the outlook all the more painful for yesterday's afternoon session. We did three 9-minute pieces at 10-kilometer race pace, or 80+ spm. We started every 16th minute (in other words, the recovery interval was 7 minutes). I tried to keep my rate right at 80 and just survive. Actually, I held up okay through the first two; it wasn't until the last several minutes of the last piece that I felt myself falling apart.
Whatever the case, I was dead-dog tired, and with more tough sessions on the schedule, I headed for bed early last night and hoped I could somehow keep myself going. One would think I'd have fallen fast asleep without delay, but, well, one would be wrong: I tossed and turned and couldn't nod off for at least two hours.
I managed to get reasonably rested, however, and I returned to the river for another hard, steady, low-stroke-rate paddle. This one was only 60 minutes, but it was unpleasant enough. To me, these sessions are much harder than ones like yesterday afternoon's: at least faster interval-type workouts get some endorphins going, whereas all these slow grinding workouts do is wear me down. And of course, that's the point: you have to beat yourself down so the body can build itself back up during recovery. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.
This afternoon's session was mercifully easier. Intense, but not particularly taxing. We did twelve short sprints starting every third minute. The odd-numbered sprints were 20 seconds starting from rest, and the even-numbered sprints were 10 seconds with a moving start. Not having sprinted or practiced any starts in many months, I felt incredibly rusty, but the workout felt good compared to all the other stuff we've been doing lately.
A torrential rain began to fall right at the tail end of our workout--part of the same system that apparently visited violent storms upon the South from Louisiana through Georgia. But the biggest drama occurred back at the parking lot, where I'd locked my keys in my car. Chris Hipgrave kindly made a run to the auto parts store and got one of those "slim jim" things that are supposed to trip the lock, but neither he nor Chris Norbury nor Cam Thacker could get it to do the trick. Meanwhile, Cam and Alessia Faverio and Royal McDonnell and I were unsuccessful trying to wedge the door open enough to stick something in and push the "unlock" button. In the end we called a locksmith, who (for a fee, naturally) accomplished in 30 seconds what we six paddlers could not over the better part of an hour. He didn't do any actual locksmithing; he simply had better equipment than we did for wedging open the door and hitting that button.
Now the handle on the driver's-side door no longer works--somebody managed to mess that up while working the slim jim--and that's going to be a real hassle to live with for the rest of this trip. But it's better than being still locked out of my car.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
I haven't gotten around to taking any photos at training camp yet, so here's one I poached from social media. It's fellow camper Steph Schell, moments before she started a time trial on the Rainbow River Saturday afternoon. I'm not sure who the photographer is, but I'm betting it's Chris Norbury.
The training camp continues from now until Saturday. Most days this week are expected to see Fahrenheit temperatures in the 70s and low 80s.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
I arrived in the town of Dunnellon, Florida, yesterday in the late afternoon, and this morning I joined my fellow training campers on the Rainbow River. A few of my companions had been here since the middle of last week and had a few brutal workouts under their belts already. Fortunately the scheduled session this morning was an easy one: a calm 60- to 90-minute paddle. I had no trouble blending right in with the group, but I knew that tougher tests were still to come.
Sure enough, there was a burlier workout on tap for this afternoon: two sets of 3 x (3 min. on, 3 min. off) with moderate resistance (one golf whiffle ball) on the boat. The "on" pieces were to be done at an approximate 10-kilometer race pace, or around 80 strokes per minute. The workout was definitely taxing, but I didn't feel in over my head. Actually, I felt pretty good considering it was the first true in-the-boat workout I'd done since before the Columbia Gorge race last summer, and that was encouraging.
My arm muscles held up reasonably well, but I'm keeping my eye on them. Tomorrow is an out-of-the-boat day (I'll probably do a gym session and ride my bike), so hopefully I'll be ready to paddle hard again Tuesday.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
My mother and I decided to come home Monday, and I'm glad we did. I've had a bunch of nuisance chores to deal with this week, and with my departure for Florida scheduled for tomorrow, having an extra day to work with has helped a lot.
If we'd waited until Tuesday to drive home I'd have been hard-pressed to get even one paddling session in before leaving, but coming home Monday freed me up to do two. On Tuesday I paddled for 50 minutes, and did three 5-minute tempo pieces with five minutes recovery in between. I nudged the stroke rate up a bit with each one, and was pleased with how my body responded. I was back in the boat this afternoon, paddling for 60 minutes in a steady drizzle, and felt more tired and sluggish.
I did a gym session before both Tuesday and today's paddles.
I've got another crick in my neck, and this one is a lot more stubborn than the one I had a couple of weeks ago. That first one was in the left side of my neck, and the current one is in the right side. It's making my everyday existence a lot less pleasant than it should be. The aches in my left arm muscles continue as well.
But... I'm headed off for training camp anyway. I hope my body will respond well and it will be a good experience.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
Since I've been in North Carolina this weekend I suppose a paddling photo from that state is appropriate. This is from 1989, and I'm running a drop on the Cullasaja River near Highlands. I don't think steep-creek paddlers had really discovered the Cullasaja yet, but my friend Randall and I were exploring the area, spotted this rapid that looked runnable, and grabbed our boats off the car. Randall shot the photo while I took my run.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
The big winter blast arrived right on schedule Thursday afternoon, and the Mid South got quite a bit more snow and ice than I'd expected. My mom and I had planned to leave Friday morning to spend the holiday weekend with my sister's family in North Carolina, but we decided to push our departure to yesterday. By yesterday the streets of Memphis were still quite icy but Interstate 40 was totally clear. The traffic wasn't bad and the trip was about as painless as a nine-hour trek can be.
Today, of course, was designed for a sedentary existence, but in the mid afternoon I managed to shake off the ennui of Christmas brunch and do a gym session.
We'll be heading back to Memphis either tomorrow or Tuesday... I'm not sure which. If it's Tuesday then I'll spend tomorrow doing some rehab exercises and general self-care.
I guess my biggest news is that I'll be attending a training camp in Florida starting next weekend. I'd been holding off on committing myself because of all my ailments and lack of any training intensity, but I've decided to give it a try. It remains to be seen how my body responds, and I'm prepared to beg off certain workouts if I have too, but I hope that being around some fellow paddlers will enhance my enthusiasm and focus for the coming year.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
My left arm continued to hurt as the week got underway, especially the biceps area. I woke up in the early hours of Tuesday morning and found it particularly painful and throbbing.
Once I was up later that morning, I did a gym session and was very mindful of how the ailing area responded. The main exercise I'm doing that engages the biceps muscle is the bent-over rows, and I did that slowly with a moderate amount of weight. I could feel some soreness in the muscle but the pain wasn't unbearable.
After that I went down to the river and paddled for 60 minutes. As I've said before, I can feel the soreness while I paddle but the affected area isn't directly involved in paddling. I actually pushed the intensity a bit for the first time in months: I did three long surges of some 1500 meters each; I kept the stroke rate low and just tried to put a lot of power into each stroke. I didn't time myself. Though I got a bit winded in each piece, I otherwise felt great. The sun was shining and the temperature was rising toward 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and that added to the positive feelings of the session.
It was a reminder that for all the recent muscular woes I've been dealing with, I generally seem to have a lot more "giddy-up" these days than I had over the last couple of years. I mentioned a while back that my weight is back up near 160 pounds, and I think that has something to do with my overall energy level.
With a Fahrenheit high in the low 50s, yesterday was the warmest day of the week, so I went out for a bike ride in the afternoon. I did my usual 34-kilometer ride out the Greenline to Shelby Farms, around the lake there, and back home on the Greenline. I spent the evening in a pleasantly-tired state.
Today Winter Storm Elliott and its dreaded "bomb cyclone" is exploding upon the entire nation, bringing blizzards and extreme cold to almost every state. This morning the deep freeze hadn't arrived yet, and I took the opportunity to get in a paddle while the temperature was in the mid 40s. There was a fine drizzle and a somewhat strong south wind, but it wasn't really a bad morning to paddle.
It's now mid afternoon and it still isn't so bad outside, but any time now the wind will be shifting to the north and the temperature will go into free fall. By early tomorrow morning it's supposed to be about 4 degrees out there.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
Austin Kieffer of Asheville, North Carolina, competes in the 2012 U.S. Olympic trials for whitewater slalom at Charlotte. Photo by Jon Nelson.
These days Austin, who now lives in southern California, is much better known as an elite-level ocean surfski racer. And he's part of the "expert panel" interviewed in my film A Paddler's Journey. The film is available for free viewing for the entire month of December, and you can watch it here.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
I woke up Friday morning with a painful crick in my neck--the sort of thing you get when you sleep in a bad position, I think. It sort of set the tone for my entire weekend. Though the pain has gradually eased, I'm still having some discomfort as I write this, and it has a severe impact on my mood and my attitude toward my athletic pursuits.
Making matters worse is that the muscle ailments in my left arm that flared up badly in the middle of the week have continued through the weekend. Earlier in the week I'd felt like I was making some real progress in that area of my body, but now it feels as bad as ever.
Friday was the worst day. Somehow I managed to get through a gym session in the morning, but all day I felt like a hopelessly-falling-apart old man. It was overcast and chilly most of the day and that added to the gloom.
Yesterday the neck pain had improved somewhat, and the sun was shining bright, so that helped my motivation as I headed down to the riverfront. I had a reasonably good 60 minutes in the boat, though the arm and neck pain were a burden throughout.
This morning was rather frigid: the temperature dropped below freezing overnight, and according to the temperature display in my car, it was only 38 degrees Fahrenheit when I got down to the river. In recent years I've gone into winter vowing to find some kind of out-of-the-boat activity for the freezing days, but the truth is that I enjoy paddling more than most other things, even when it's really cold. It's actually easier to stay warm in my boat than, say, on a bike. It was sunny again today and not very windy, so it was actually a lovely morning to paddle.
The arm and neck discomfort persisted, however. As I've noted before, the ailing arm muscles don't seem directly involved in paddling, so they're more of a nuisance discomfort than a real impediment. I just try my best to do the work with my core muscles and put as little stress on my arms as possible. This morning's paddle turned out to be the most enjoyable activity of my weekend, so I'm trying to savor some kind of moral victory in that.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
I started up a new gym routine Tuesday morning. I replaced the bench press I'd been doing with pushups, and instead of doing dumbbell rowing exercises chest-down on the stability ball, I started doing rows with a hand and knee on a bench.
There was heavy rain in the forecast for later in the day Tuesday--the same system that brought snow to the upper Midwest and some violent storms to Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma. Ordinarily I'd have paddled in the morning, well before the rain's arrival. But I had some nuisance bureaucratic stuff to deal with Tuesday morning, so I went out in the afternoon hoping I wouldn't get rained on like I had the previous Saturday. It turned out I had nothing to worry about: the rain didn't move in until after 7 o'clock in the evening. I paddled for 60 minutes, trying my best to use good stroke mechanics and get a comfortable cardio workout. I went home feeling dead tired from all the paddling and lifting.
I believe the low-water woes on the Mississippi River are behind us for this season. The rain that came through here on Tuesday moved on into the Tennessee River watershed, and now the Mississippi is forecast to reach 10.5 feet on the Memphis gauge about a week from now.
The rain continued through the mid afternoon yesterday before finally moving out. Today we had our first sunny day in what felt like forever. The trade-off was a temperature some 20 degrees lower than it had been. When I went down to paddle this morning it was in the mid 40s Fahrenheit. It was a little breezy as well, but the sunshine made it not such a bad day to paddle. Unfortunately my left arm was really bothering me today in the biceps and forearm area. Just when I think I might be healing at last, I have a really bad day in that department. I don't know what to do besides keep doing my rehab work and keep moving and have faith that somehow I will get through this. I certainly want to believe that there is some great paddling still ahead for me.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
When I paddled last Tuesday, this critter was on the bow of my boat when I put in from the dock. She stayed there as I paddled out of the harbor and did a loop out on the Mississippi, and she was still there when I returned to the dock after an hour of paddling. So I'd given her an outing, and I walked away from the dock feeling rather good about that. I hope she was able to settle back into her domestic life once the boat was back on the rack.
Note: I'm merely guessing that this thing is a "she." I actually have no clue about determining an arachnid's gender.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
It's gotten cooler this weekend after a particularly balmy week. It's not really cold--the Fahrenheit highs both yesterday and today are in the 50s--but it's a noticeable change from the 70s we had back in the middle of the week.
One thing hasn't changed with the temperature drop: it's been raining a lot all week. The good news is that most of the rain has moved eastward from here into the Tennessee and Cumberland River drainages, where it is having an impact on the level of the Mississippi River at Memphis. This weekend the river has been flowing right at 3.0 feet on the Memphis gauge, and the latest forecast says it will crest later this week at 5.6 feet. With more rain in the forecast, I expect that prediction will be revised upward.
When I got up yesterday morning I checked the Internet radar and saw a big mass of rain over to the west of Forrest City, Arkansas, moving in this direction. I hoped that I could eat breakfast and do my other morning chores quickly enough that I'd be able to paddle before the rain arrived, but it didn't work out that way. It was starting to drizzle as I left the house, and that built into a hard drizzle by the time I got to the riverfront. Once I was in the boat, the rain really let loose. I got poured on pretty good for all but just a few of my 60 minutes of paddling, and during that time the chilly north wind picked up as well. So I was one cold, wet critter by the time I got back to the dock. What's that I was saying a few posts back, about immersing yourself? Yes, that's what I did yesterday.
The rain had pretty much moved out when I got up this morning, but it was still overcast and not expected to be much warmer than 50 degrees. I pondered whether to paddle today, or ride my bike. At this point in the year I'm still working on general fitness and not dead set on paddling-specific training, and since it wasn't raining I opted for the ride. I was afraid conditions would be sloppy after all the rain, but the landscape had dried out some by the time I was on the bike. The Greater Memphis Greenline drains well because it was built on a railroad bed. Out at Shelby Farms the trails had some puddles, but they weren't hard to skirt. So I wasn't badly splattered with muddy water when I got back home, and I had a decent cardio workout under my belt.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
I did a gym session Monday afternoon, and Tuesday morning I was back in the boat. This has been a rainy week here in the Mid South, and on Tuesday I paddled in some drizzle and mist. I've said it before and I'll say it again: wet, misty days might be the most beautiful I have experienced out on the Mississippi River.
As for the aches and pains in my left arm, sometimes I think they're doing a lot better and other times they continue to bother me. My chiropractor recommended some exercises to do, and I think they have helped some.
All told, I've been feeling better about training in general lately. A few weeks ago I posted here that even when you're feeling at your lowest it's important to do at least a little something--anything--each day, and string together some days and weeks of doing that something. Now, here I am a few weeks later and I think that advice to myself is paying off. I've been doing some gym work, some bike riding, some running, and some paddling, and with the exception of the running it's gone well and I'm feeling good about it.
I'll just add that my weight has come up again over the last couple of months: it had fallen into the low 150s and even the high 140s (that's pounds, for you international readers), and I was feeling weak and listless. Now I'm back up in the high 150s, and feeling more energetic. This is all anecdotal observation; I haven't kept meticulous records of my weight over many years. So I don't know for sure that there's a genuine connection between what I weigh and how I feel. But I do remember that when I was racing really well several years ago my weight was up, and in the last couple of years as I've felt not so in-the-pink, my weight has been down. Take from that what you will.
Anyway... this morning I did another good gym session, and now I'm feeling good about it. The endorphins are flowing.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
As I mentioned in a post last week, my film "A Paddler's Journey" is now available for viewing. This screening will last for the entire month of December. You can watch the film here.
This past Friday evening I went out to see the guy who played all the music on the film's soundtrack. Jason Freeman played his guitar and sang some tunes at the B-Side room on Madison Avenue here in Memphis. Photo by Jonathan Finder.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
