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.
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Monday, June 27, 2016
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.
Sunday, June 26, 2016
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
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.
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, June 20, 2016
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.
Sunday, June 19, 2016
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.
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.
Thursday, June 16, 2016
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.
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.
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, June 13, 2016
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.
Sunday, June 12, 2016
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.
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.
Friday, June 10, 2016
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.
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.
Thursday, June 9, 2016
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.
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.
Monday, June 6, 2016
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.”
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.
Sunday, June 5, 2016
Race schedule update
When a major-league baseball player is working his way back from an injury, he typically plays a few games at the minor-league level before returning to big-league play. In baseball lingo this is called a "rehab assignment," and it gives the player a chance to work on his swing against live pitching and get his timing back and stuff like that before going back to the high-stakes world of the big leagues.
I've got my own "rehab assignment" coming up this Saturday: a race on the White River at Batesville, Arkansas. I hope to get my body used to the idea of racing again before I face some tough competition here at Memphis the following Saturday.
At this moment, my race schedule for the remainder of this year looks like this:
June 11: Batesville Canoe and Kayak Race. White River, Batesville, Arkansas. A race of about 7 or 8 miles downriver from Lock 2 to the U.S. 167 bridge at Batesville.
June 18: 35th Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race. Mississippi River, Memphis, Tennessee. A wonderful event here in my hometown. 5000 meters down the Mississippi, starting at the mouth of the Wolf River and finishing in Wolf River Harbor at Mississippi River Park.
June 25: The Great Chickasawhay Race. Chickasawhay River from Shubuta, Mississippi, to Waynesboro, Mississippi. 21 miles downriver. The name of the river is pronounced chick-uh-suh-HAY.
July 31: USCA Downriver Kayak National Championships. White River, Batesville, Arkansas. The national championships for kayaks that meet ICF wildwater specifications. Held in conjunction with the USCA Stock Aluminum Canoe National Championships. The course will run upriver and downriver, starting and finishing at the U.S. 167 bridge at Batesville.
August 6: The Paddle Grapple. Fontana Reservoir, Bryson City, North Carolina. A 10-kilometer flatwater race.
August 12: USCA Marathon National Championships. Connecticut River, Northfield, Massachussetts. 13 miles both upriver and downriver. I will be competing in the K1 Unlimited class in my surf ski.
September 17: Gator Bait Canoe and Kayak Race. Barnett Reservoir, Brandon, Mississippi. A 9-kilometer flatwater race.
I've got my own "rehab assignment" coming up this Saturday: a race on the White River at Batesville, Arkansas. I hope to get my body used to the idea of racing again before I face some tough competition here at Memphis the following Saturday.
At this moment, my race schedule for the remainder of this year looks like this:
June 11: Batesville Canoe and Kayak Race. White River, Batesville, Arkansas. A race of about 7 or 8 miles downriver from Lock 2 to the U.S. 167 bridge at Batesville.
June 18: 35th Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race. Mississippi River, Memphis, Tennessee. A wonderful event here in my hometown. 5000 meters down the Mississippi, starting at the mouth of the Wolf River and finishing in Wolf River Harbor at Mississippi River Park.
June 25: The Great Chickasawhay Race. Chickasawhay River from Shubuta, Mississippi, to Waynesboro, Mississippi. 21 miles downriver. The name of the river is pronounced chick-uh-suh-HAY.
July 31: USCA Downriver Kayak National Championships. White River, Batesville, Arkansas. The national championships for kayaks that meet ICF wildwater specifications. Held in conjunction with the USCA Stock Aluminum Canoe National Championships. The course will run upriver and downriver, starting and finishing at the U.S. 167 bridge at Batesville.
August 6: The Paddle Grapple. Fontana Reservoir, Bryson City, North Carolina. A 10-kilometer flatwater race.
August 12: USCA Marathon National Championships. Connecticut River, Northfield, Massachussetts. 13 miles both upriver and downriver. I will be competing in the K1 Unlimited class in my surf ski.
September 17: Gator Bait Canoe and Kayak Race. Barnett Reservoir, Brandon, Mississippi. A 9-kilometer flatwater race.
Mending (cont'd)
My injured area is doing better each day. Yesterday I paddled for 50 minutes and felt no pain at all for the first ten or fifteen minutes. Some soreness developed after that, but nothing too bad. Considering how hard I paddled on Friday, I find that very encouraging.
I paddled at easy-to-medium intensity yesterday. I'm taking today completely off, and tomorrow I plan to do another strength routine on the dock followed by a workout in the boat.
I paddled at easy-to-medium intensity yesterday. I'm taking today completely off, and tomorrow I plan to do another strength routine on the dock followed by a workout in the boat.
Friday, June 3, 2016
All told, a strong week
I knew I needed some good recovery time from Monday's more intense workout, so I paddled easy on Tuesday and yesterday, and on Wednesday I did the May-June strength routine but didn't paddle. My injured area has responded in encouraging fashion. There's still a bit of soreness there, but it's seemed less and less like something to worry about each time out.
This morning I went down to the marina and found another dead-calm scene in the harbor. I did the May-June strength routine on the dock and then got in the boat. I ran into Joe down there and he accompanied me on a good long warmup paddle down to the mouth of the harbor and back to the marina. Then I commenced my workout: it was the same as Monday's--six two-minute pieces with two minutes recovery in between--but this time I nudged the pace up from 7 miles per hour to 7.5 mph.
Today's workout felt much harder than Monday's. On Monday I felt taxed but never doubted I would finish it out strongly and smoothly; today, with two pieces to go, I wondered whether I could maintain that 7.5 mph pace and even considered dialing it back to 7. But I bore down and got it done as planned, and I hope that will pay psychological dividends in a race soon.
I was feeling it the most in my legs, especially my thighs. At the end of each piece my thighs throbbed and felt rubbery. Granted, I'd just done Hindu squats as part of my strength routine on the dock. In any case, I hadn't entirely intended today's workout to be an all-out affair, but it sort of turned out that way. I'm still learning just how big a difference a half-mile per hour can make. The hip held up fine... I guess I'm back.
This morning I went down to the marina and found another dead-calm scene in the harbor. I did the May-June strength routine on the dock and then got in the boat. I ran into Joe down there and he accompanied me on a good long warmup paddle down to the mouth of the harbor and back to the marina. Then I commenced my workout: it was the same as Monday's--six two-minute pieces with two minutes recovery in between--but this time I nudged the pace up from 7 miles per hour to 7.5 mph.
Today's workout felt much harder than Monday's. On Monday I felt taxed but never doubted I would finish it out strongly and smoothly; today, with two pieces to go, I wondered whether I could maintain that 7.5 mph pace and even considered dialing it back to 7. But I bore down and got it done as planned, and I hope that will pay psychological dividends in a race soon.
I was feeling it the most in my legs, especially my thighs. At the end of each piece my thighs throbbed and felt rubbery. Granted, I'd just done Hindu squats as part of my strength routine on the dock. In any case, I hadn't entirely intended today's workout to be an all-out affair, but it sort of turned out that way. I'm still learning just how big a difference a half-mile per hour can make. The hip held up fine... I guess I'm back.
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