It's just about time for my race season to resume! I have a competition each of the next three weekends. Next Saturday is the Music City SUP and Kayak Race on Nashville's J. Percy Priest Reservoir. A week after that is The Paddle Grapple on Fontana Reservoir near Bryson City, North Carolina. And then on the 11-13 of August I'll be racing in the USCA National Championships on the Mississippi River up at Dubuque, Iowa. I plan to make a little two-week vacation of it all and see what kind of summer this particular portion of America is having.
A forecast heat index up around 110 was good motivation for me to get down to the river promptly yesterday morning. I didn't do anything too special in 60 minutes of paddling; I warmed up and did three 8-stroke sprints and then just tried to maintain a good solid pace.
Today's agenda was pretty similar. I actually felt tired in the boat, and I'm not sure why because I hadn't done anything intense since Thursday evening. But I went through the motions for 70 minutes and tried to achieve the best quality paddling I could. Once again I warmed up and did three 8-strokers, and then I went out on the river and tried to paddle strong. A barge rig was coming downriver and I followed it for a while and managed a couple of brief surfs, but nothing I'd describe as surfing ecstasy.
There was a pretty good breeze blowing from the south this morning and it felt good whenever I was paddling into it. When it was at my back I got very hot. As I paddled from the mouth of the harbor back toward the dock I stopped a couple of times to baptize myself.
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