Back at it

The Mid South has emerged from deep-freeze mode for now, and has returned to the clammy chill that's more typical of winter in these parts.  I came out of hibernation this morning and headed for the river with my patched-up boat.

I did my rubber band exercises on the dock and paddled for 60 minutes.  After a ten-minute warmup, I did eight six-stroke sprints, one at the top of each minute.  Then I spent the half hour from 0:20 to 0:50 doing sort of a fartlek session, surging for various distances and speeds and intensities.

Dry dock

With below-freezing temperatures forecast for the next couple of days, I figure it's a good time to address a couple of minor boat-repair issues that I've been putting off.  I'll be using epoxy resin, which needs a temperature of at least 60 degrees Fahrenheit or so to cure properly, so I've brought the boat into the house, where the thermostat is set on 66 degrees F.  It sure is nice to have a long hallway.

I neglected to mention in Sunday's post that Austin Kieffer has just returned from a two-month training adventure in South Africa, home of some of the world's best surf ski racers.  In this blog post, he talks more about his goals for this year.  He also offers to provide coaching advice to other racers--whether he's willing to do so for just anybody, or only for his friends at Surf Ski Northwest, I'm not sure, but I expect that if you approach him politely he won't just blow you off.

Monday photo feature

With this latest cold snap moving in, I looked for a warm-weather photo for this week.  This one was taken along North Carolina's Outer Banks in 2008.

Some new information... I love it!

I made sure to paddle today before the next big temperature plunge gets here tomorrow.  It was in the mid 50s Fahrenheit this morning, and the wind, though steady from the south, wasn't bad.

I did some sprints today at about four-minute intervals.  Each time I would pick an object in the distance and sprint toward it.  I wanted to keep the sprints in the 30-to-40-second range, so it was a good exercise in judging distances out on the water.

There's an interesting blog post here by a guy named Austin Kieffer.  Austin was a whitewater slalom racer of some note in the last decade, and has now embraced a second career as a surf ski racer.  While true surf ski racing involves a lot more big-wave surfing (hence the name) than most of the racing I do, and therefore has a whole tactical element that I don't get to experience much, Austin does make some interesting physiological points in this post as well.  Elite surf ski races are generally quite long--the winning times in the shorter ones are maybe two and a half hours--but as Austin notes, they involve a lot of long, hard sprints.  The entrant who opts for the slow, steady pace will be left in the dust.

Anyway, more stuff for me to ponder.  So far in this young season I've been sort of making it up as I go, but in the next month or so I'll need to lay out a more precise training plan.

Trying to work with Mother Nature

It was above freezing today for the first time in maybe 50 or 60 hours.  Down in the harbor there was a crust of ice along the banks, and I encountered a good-sized sheet of ice in the cove where Mud Island Marina sits.

I paddled for 60 minutes, doing five 12-stroke sprints at 90-second intervals, and a few balance drills across the harbor in a beam wind.

I'm still doing the rubber band exercises.  I did a set today to go with sets Tuesday and Thursday.

Tomorrow the temperature is supposed to rise into the 50s on the Fahrenheit scale.  It's also supposed to be quite breezy, but I plan to get on the water tomorrow because the forecast calls for more frigid weather from Monday onward.

Sprinting for endurance

It was really cold yesterday and is supposed to be frigid again tomorrow, but we're getting a little bit of a break today, with a high of around 43 degrees Fahrenheit forecast for this afternoon.

It was only 29 degrees when I went to the river this morning, however.  But the wind, predicted to increase as the day goes on, wasn't bad, and I'll take 20s and calm over 40s and windy anytime.  I paddled for 60 minutes; my rudder was frozen at the beginning, but it took just a couple of minutes out in the sunshine for me to work it free.

Anybody who's been reading this blog for a while knows that I'm trying some new things in my training this season, based largely on research that Ron Lugbill has been sharing on his blog.  His latest post sums up nicely the sort of approach I'm taking.  Today I spent the 35 minutes from 0:15 to 0:50 doing 30-second sprints with three and a half minutes of easy paddling in between.  I got in nine sprints during this period.

More January beauty (for one more day)

My original plan was to spend today working and paddle tomorrow.  But today was a beautiful warm day, and the rest of the week is supposed to be freezing, so I went on down to the river this afternoon.  My car's in-dash temperature display read 63 degrees Fahrenheit, the wind wasn't bad, and there was not a cloud in the sky.

I didn't do anything special today.  I was a little tired in the boat, so I just paddled steady for 60 minutes, trying to take good crisp strokes the whole time.

It had been a long time since I'd paddled in the afternoon, and I felt discombobulated with the sun in a different part of the sky.  It was right in my eyes the whole time from the marina down to the mouth of the harbor.  Then I turned north and paddled upriver with the breeze at my back, and my sunglasses fogged up.  There are probably legally blind people whose vision is better than mine was on the river this afternoon.

The sun was about to set by the time I returned to the dock, and the temperature was dropping down into the 50s.  I tried to enjoy this mild weather for as long as I could before the next Arctic blast arrives.

Monday photo feature

Here's an oldie-but-goodie: the start of the Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race in 2001.  I look so young.  And in fact I was young (I was 33).  Photo by Emerson Wickwire.

Several decades ago the United States Canoe Association, hoping to attract more wildwater racers to its national championships, created a "downriver kayak" class specifically for wildwater boats.  In the ensuing years several boat designers came up with boats that met all the specs of a wildwater boat, but were lighter and narrower for greater speed on the Class I-II water of the typical USCA Nationals.  The boat I'm paddling above is one of those boats: the "Apple Turnover."  It's got the wings behind the cockpit to satisfy the width requirement of a wildwater boat, and like a wildwater boat, it has no rudder: you steer it by leaning the boat to the side opposite the desired turn direction.

I think this boat is of 1980s vintage.  I bought it from a friend in 1997, at which time my primary focus was on whitewater slalom but I thought it would be fun to have some kind of flatwater boat to paddle in the Memphis area.  As my interest grew in the flatwater/open water racing I'm doing now, I worked this boat hard, and it was a valuable tool for learning the many nuances of making a tippy boat go fast.

This brings me to the main point of this post: though I am rather fond of this relic, I might be willing to part with it.  Right now it is stored in my old woodworking shop, and as I move things over to my new shop, I'm looking for ways to lighten the load.  The boat has been patched a few times but is solidly seaworthy and in reasonably good shape for a 30-year-old craft.  I would love to see another person have the rich learning experiences in it that I had.

I hope to receive a low-three-figure sum for it.  Interested persons may leave comments here, or contact me directly if they know how.

January beauty

Today was a fairly ideal day for paddling: sunny, mid 40s Fahrenheit, and (finally) not much wind.

I did my rubber band routine on the dock and then paddled for 90 minutes.  After a ten-minute warmup, I did my little power-building drill in the harbor: a few back strokes followed by six hard forward strokes.  I did six of them, one every two minutes.

Then I paddled up the Mississippi to the mouth of the Wolf River, and back down.  I did so at something shy of race pace.  When I got back down to the harbor, I cooled down back to the marina.

Working in higher-intensity paddling, but trying to be smart about it

It's been sort of a busy week, I guess.  A few little nuisance things I had to take care of and some not-so-fun chores.  But still I paddle my boat.

I went to the river on Tuesday and, after a set of rubber band exercises on the dock, paddled for 60 minutes.  After a ten-minute warmup, I did three ten-minute pieces at race pace with five minutes rest in between.  It was not so different from the 30-minute higher-intensity periods I've been including in many of my sessions; just breaking up the monotony a little.

It seems we're going back and forth between cold days and mild days right now.  I paddled in mild weather (Fahrenheit temperature in the 50s) Tuesday, but today it was cold (30s) with a chilly breeze blowing from west-northwest.  After another set of rubber band exercises on the dock, I got in the boat and warmed up for ten minutes, and then did eight 6-stroke sprints, one at the top of each minute.  A little while later I started into five long sprints--each one was between 45 and 90 seconds.  I just made it up as I went, each time picking out two landmarks in the harbor and paddling at sub-max intensity from one to the other.  I gave myself a good long rest in between each two sprints, because at this early stage of the season I want to keep my workouts aerobic as much as I can.

Monday photo feature

Last week the "Polar Vortex" came and went without much precipitation in the greater Memphis area.  I've done my share of paddling on snowy days, like this one in December of 2012, but I won't shed a tear if I get through this winter without that experience.

Going a little longer

In this part of the world we have nice days even in January, and today was such a one.  The Fahrenheit temperature as I drove to the river this morning was in the low 50s on its way to a high in the low 60s, and there was not a cloud in the sky.  Conditions were calm when I arrived at the marina, but the wind picked up as I did my rubber band exercises on the dock, and by the time I was in the boat I had some chop to deal with out on the river.  But in January, I can't complain.

I paddled for 80 minutes today.  Over the next couple of months I hope to put in one "longer" day each week--my first couple of races will be in the ninety-minute-to-two-hour range--and today was my first step in that direction.

I paddled at race pace for the middle half-hour (0:25 to 0:55) of the session, and felt good.

Winter's swinging pendulum

Yesterday I did another set of rubber band exercises and paddled for 60 minutes.

In the boat I did six 12-stroke sprints, one at the top of every second minute.  Twelve strokes felt like a lot after all those six-stroke sprints I've been doing lately.

We have survived the great Polar Vortex and now temperatures are warming up into the 50s Fahrenheit this weekend.  But around here there's usually a price for that in the form of wind, rain, or both, sometimes with some violent thunderstorms thrown in for good measure.  We got quite a bit of rain yesterday (mostly last night), and the next several days are predicted to be quite breezy.

The "Polar Vortex" is receding

According to my car's temperature display, it was just reaching the freezing point as I arrived down at the marina this morning.  The harbor and river were surprisingly free of ice: I think the strong winds we had during the extreme cold of the last two days might have prevented the water from freezing over.  My boat's rudder was frozen, but it didn't take me long to get it free.

The first thing I did at the marina was hook up my rubber band to a post and do the little routine I've worked up for this month.  I'm not sure I can really describe this workout; I don't really know what any of these exercises are called.  But this video is worth watching for any athlete, and in it Daniele Molmenti (the reigning Olympic champion in whitewater slalom K1) does a few of the exercises I'm now doing.  Basically, there aren't many body movements, especially involving your limbs, that you can't rig up a rubber band to provide resistance for.  I think exercises like these are great for injury prevention, and this month I'm working several sets of opposing muscle groups.  It probably wouldn't be bad for me to incorporate a little of this type of work throughout the year.

After working with the rubber band, I paddled my boat for 60 minutes.  After a 15-minute warmup, I did eight pieces where I followed a few backstrokes with six hard forward strokes.  This is a good power-building exercise, but it's not fun to do in cold weather because I always splash water into my cockpit.  I then paddled a pretty quick tempo out on the river before returning to the harbor and cooling down back to the dock.  The air temperature was well on its way to 40 degrees Fahrenheit by then.

"Orca" was gone from the Mud Island Marina dock, so I guess Kev Brady is on his way downriver.  But I saw another canoe with a pair of guys who had put in on the New River in North Carolina and were paddling to the Gulf of Mexico by way of the New, Kanawha, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers.  They told me this was Day 90 of their journey.  I wish I had asked them if they had paddled the New River Gorge in their tandem cruising canoe.

Monday photo feature

Joe Royer took this photo of me four years ago.  Cold air had descended upon our nation, and while we Memphians experienced relatively mild temperatures in the mid 20s, the Midwest had it much worse, evidenced by the ice floes that came drifting down the Mississippi.

I think I have posted this photo here before, but I believe a re-post is in order as this more serious mass of Arctic air could very well send some more ice floes our way this week.

The lesser of two evils

I paddled in some fairly stiff winds both yesterday and today.  Yesterday was nice and sunny, but today I had some occasionally heavy rain to deal with.

At this time of year, when I'm in the boat no more than four times a week, I have the luxury of looking at the weather forecast and picking out the least-miserable days to get out on the water.  So why did I choose to go out in the wind and rain this weekend?  Because it's about to get a lot worse.

The temperature while I paddled this morning was a not-bad-at-all 49 degrees Fahrenheit.  But according to my latest check of The Weather Channel website, the temperature is supposed to drop this afternoon on its way to an overnight low of 10 degrees.  Tomorrow, the high temperature--the high--is forecast to be 13 degrees, followed by an overnight low of 7 degrees.  It's been quite a while since the Mid South has had a single-digit Fahrenheit temperature; our local newspaper, The Commercial Appeal, says this will be the coldest weather we've had since 1996.

So, I got some paddling in this weekend so I can hunker down indoors for a couple of days.  I paddled for 60 minutes both yesterday and today.  Yesterday I warmed up for fifteen minutes and then did six-stroke sprints at maximum intensity at the top of each minute, doing eight of them in all.  Then I did some pieces across the harbor, practicing balance on the beam waves driven by the south wind.

Today I paddled at anaerobic threshold from 0:15 to 0:45.  I did this with the wind at my back until I got to the north end of the harbor (the wind was from the south again), doing about the last five minutes into the wind.

Kev Brady's aluminum canoe, "Orca," was still sitting on the dock at Mud Island Marina this morning.  I wouldn't blame him a bit for choosing to wait out the cold here in the Memphis area.

Yesterday I started up a strength routine for this new month.  I'm doing some rubber-band exercises, and I'll explain it more once I come up with a full routine to stick to for the rest of the month.

Welcome, thru-paddler

Today is one of the days that enable us to say we have mild winters here in the Mid South.  Skies are clear and the temperature was in the 40s Fahrenheit while I was on the water this morning, on its way to a high in the 50s.

Up, up, up comes the river!  As I paddled this morning the Memphis gauge reading was about 21.8 feet.  It's supposed to crest around 22 feet in the next several days.

I paddled for 60 minutes.  After a ten-minute warmup, I did six pieces at one-minute intervals where each piece consisted of eight backstrokes followed by six forward strokes at maximum intensity.  The idea was to get a little power-building exercise by overcoming the backward inertia.

There's a guy named Kev Brady who is currently paddling a canoe down the Mississippi River from its source at Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico.  I've been following his Face Book page; he's raising money for a charity in his native England, and there is information about that here.  Right at this moment he is in Memphis, and I spotted his canoe ("Orca") on the dock at the little gas station next to Mud Island Marina.  I noticed that other people had written notes on the boat in magic marker, so I borrowed a marker from the store clerk and wrote one of my own.