It got cold midweek, but today we had a high in the 50s Fahrenheit with partly sunny skies. I paddled Thursday in a brisk north wind, but today it was almost dead calm and I was plenty warm in the boat. Today's 80-minute session took me down below the Frisco Bridge, back upriver along the Arkansas bank above the Hernando DeSoto Bridge, and then back to the harbor. After warming up and doing three 8-stroke sprints, I paddled a quick cruising pace with several long surges.
Yesterday I did the February strength routine again, and I'm still getting used to the more complex movements, notably the "rolling squat burpee." It takes quite a burst of power right at the beginning to get myself on my feet and over into the pushup position. Because all the exercises, besides maybe the "super crunches," emphasize bursts of power, they are low-rep affairs. Power isn't something you can build with endless repetition.
I hope that doing these exercises that involve exerting power while in awkward positions will translate into some paddling success: canoe and kayak racing, after all, requires the application of power on a paddle blade while balancing in a tippy race boat. Many of the strength routines I've done included exercises that I could barely pull off at first but had much better command of by the end of the month, and that gives me some hope that I can improve what I do in the boat, too.
Of course, there are in-the-boat power-building drills one can do, and I'll talk more about that soon.
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