I put my boat in the water amid mild temperatures but a pesky southeast wind. As I paddled southward toward the mouth of the harbor my bow kept getting blown to the right. But it didn't stop me from doing three of my backpaddling-then-forward-paddling "power" drills.
Once out of the harbor I paddled up the Mississippi to the mouth of the Wolf River, and began the main part of today's workout, a "pyramid": pieces of 1', 2', 3', 4', 5', 4', 3', 2', 1' with two minutes recovery in between. I did the first half of this workout on the flatwater in the bottom mile or so of the Wolf, where I tried to maintain about 7 miles per hour on my GPS during each piece. This part of the Wolf was pretty well protected from the wind and I didn't have much trouble keeping the pace steady.
I was almost exactly halfway through the five-minute piece when I paddled out of the Wolf and onto the Mississippi. Out here I'd hoped to maintain a pace near 12 mph, but the wind kept me closer to 11 mph. By this time it was almost a direct beam wind, and I tried to relax and resist the urge to lean into the wind for stability. Under the circumstances I was pleased with how well I managed to keep the boat moving.
I did that last one-minute piece back in the harbor, where again my target pace was 7 mph.
Incidental data: the river level was 15.0 feet on the Memphis gauge, and I was in the boat for 100 minutes total.
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