Hanging on a little longer

It's low-water season on the Mississippi River.  The level was two and a half feet below zero on the Memphis gauge when I paddled on Tuesday and -3.5 feet yesterday.  It's still plenty of water for paddling, but the commercial (barge) traffic has more trouble.  We'll likely see some dredges in operation soon if the water continues to drop.

That's the least of my worries as I try to keep myself sharp for one more race on October 7.  I've been racing well and feeling fit and strong for more than three months now, but the average human being can sustain that for only so long.  Both my body and my brain are ready for this season to be over.

I did a round of the new strength routine on Wednesday.  Having done lunges in the previous routine, I thought my body would be pretty well conditioned to handle the Hindu squats.  But when I woke up yesterday my quadriceps muscles were big-time sore.  I guess the squats hit a muscle group that's just different enough from what the lunges hit.

On Tuesday I did a pretty typical 60-minute paddle, warming up and doing three 8-stroke sprints and then paddling a healthy pace out on the river before taking it back in.

I believe our "Thursday evening sprints" have petered out for this year, as participants have kids back in school and are tapering off for late-season races and stuff like that.  But I want to get in a couple more good sprint workouts myself in these next two weeks, and that was my plan as I headed down to the river yesterday afternoon.  I really didn't feel like doing it, and it took all the discipline I've got to make it happen.

The stretch in the harbor between the southern edge of the monorail bridge and the southern edge of the Hernando DeSoto Bridge is right at 450 meters (when I measured it with my G.P.S. device several weeks ago, it came to about 450.62 meters).  My plan was to do this sprint four times, like we typically do during Thursday evening sprints.  I would take five minutes for recovery in between, during which I'd paddle back to the monorail bridge to start the next one.

I knew as soon as I started the first sprint that it would be a tough workout.  My sore thighs were screaming, and the afternoon heat (above 90 degrees Fahrenheit) wasn't giving me a break.  I managed to keep it together for two sprints, but by the third I could feel myself falling apart a little bit.  The fourth was a true struggle.  In the end my times were 1:59, 1:58, 2:01, and 2:05.  Historically anything under two minutes is a very good effort for me, so I was happy, at least, that I'd managed two sub-two clockings.

450 meters is 90% of 500 meters, so by dividing each of the above times by .9, I get my projected 500-meter times: 2:12, 2:11, 2:14, and 2:19.  Those times won't win me a spot on the flatwater sprint national team, but seeing as how I'm a 50-year-old guy who was feeling not so in-the-pink yesterday, I'll take them.

My thighs are still sore this morning, but not as bad as yesterday.  I did the strength routine again but went easy on the Hindu squats.