A new strength routine

Here's the set of strength exercises that I'll be doing for the next little while.

1.  Supine extension (demonstrated at 3:29 of this video)

2.  Hindu squats (demonstrated in this video)

3.  Pullups

4.  Kickback (demonstrated at 4:03 of this video)

5.  4-way abdominals

6.  Power plank-ups (demonstrated at 1:09 of this video)

Monday photo feature

It hasn't really sunk in yet, but the start of a new race season is now less than three weeks away.  The ninth annual Battle On The Bayou race is scheduled for March 17 on Old Fort Bayou at Ocean Springs, Mississippi.  In this photo racers are preparing for the start of the 2011 edition.  I won the race easily that year, but since then the competition has been solid and wins have been hard to come by.  Some good racers are registered for this year's race and I'll have my work cut out for me once more.  Photo by Robbie Capel.

The fine arts are killing me

When I got up Saturday morning the Fahrenheit temperature was in the high 60s.  It felt warmer out on the back porch than it did inside the house.  When I got down to the riverfront there was a steady breeze from the south but it was nothing too ferocious.

After warming up and doing three 8-stroke sprints, I did a set of ten 30-second sprints at three-minute intervals.  I've been doing this workout for several years now since learning of research (cited in this post on Ron Lugbill's blog) that suggests that sprints like these are better than long, steady paddles for developing endurance.  I do my share of long, steady paddles, of course, but I've had some good results since I started mixing in some workouts like this one.

I'd spent the previous day doing a bunch of scraping and sanding at the rental property where I've been painting, and my arms felt tired from that.  My lower back is a bit sore from the bending, too.  But I held up just fine through all ten sprints.

My workout took me almost to the north end of the harbor, and it began to rain as I turned around for the 15-minute paddle back to the marina.  I got good and soaked as I paddled along, and the rain picked up even more intensity once I was back at the dock.

Saturday evening we got the heavy thunderstorms the weathermen had been predicting, but we were spared violent weather here in Memphis.  A tornado or two did touch down over in Arkansas.

The handbell group I play with had a gig yesterday morning, so I waited until today to do my weekly "longer" paddle.  And as luck would have it, today is what I would call our first "picture-perfect" day of 2018.  When I got to the river this morning there was not a cloud in the sky, the breeze was light, and the temperature was in the low 50s on its way to a high in the mid 60s.  With the Mississippi River at 30.0 feet on the Memphis gauge, there was plenty of water for a good smooth trip around the Loosahatchie Bar.

As I paddled away from the dock I felt some soreness in my upper left biceps.  I'd noticed it while lying in bed last night too, and I wondered what I'd done yesterday to irritate that area.  Then it hit me: on one of the pieces we played with our handbells yesterday I was ringing the biggest bell our group owns--the third octave G note--and the last page of the music had me ringing some thirty consecutive quarter notes with my left hand.  And I had to ring softly, so I had to use some extra muscle to control that.  As a result, I paddled today with a handbell injury.  Actually I would describe it more as a bit of soreness than a real injury, but it's kind of fun to say you've got a handbell injury.

The area bothered me less once I was all warmed up.  The trip around the Bar went just fine, with no drama of note.  There was some barge traffic out on the river but fortunately it wasn't creating any terribly rough conditions.  I glided back alongside the dock an hour and 58 minutes after I'd started.

Water from the sky and from the higher elevations

It's been a rainy week and it's shaping up to be a very wet month of February here.  Last night the weatherman on the Channel 5 news said we've received over eight inches this month, about twice what's normal.  It rained some more overnight and a little bit this morning.  There's more rain and possibly some severe weather in the weekend forecast.

Rain right here in Memphis doesn't really affect the level of the Mississippi, but usually the rain systems we have here stretch northward and move eastward into watersheds like the Ohio and the Cumberland and the Tennessee, and those rivers feed the Mississippi upstream of here and drive the level upward.  The other day I predicted that the NOAA's crest prediction would rise, and it has: right now the river is predicted to rise to 34.5 feet on the Memphis gauge.  Official "flood stage" is 34 feet; at that level uninhabited bottomland starts to flood.  The core city of Memphis sits on a high bluff, so it would take a flood of truly epochal proportions to threaten the city.  Even the great 2011 flood, which topped out over 48 feet, didn't affect but a few low-lying wards of the city.

When Joe and I paddled on Tuesday, the rain hadn't arrived yet but it was warm (70s Fahrenheit) and incredibly windy.  Our usual relaxed paddle in the harbor was quite tiring.  On Wednesday it poured down rain all day and I was happy to stay in and do the strength routine.  By yesterday morning that rain had moved out but it was still overcast with a temperature in the 40s when I did a 60-minute paddle.

I did the strength routine again today and now I await the meteorological drama that's on the way.

Monday photo feature

At this time two years ago, I was in the Aloha State!  Here I am paddling in Kaneohe Bay on the east (windward) side of Oahu.

Atmospheric unrest and plenty of surface water

The Fahrenheit temperature rose all the way into the 70s on Thursday.  When it gets that warm at this time of year, it's usually accompanied by strong winds, and that was the case Thursday as the wind blew from the south at 15-20 miles per hour.

I started my 60-minute paddle Thursday by heading south, into the wind.  As I reached the Mud Island marina, about a thousand meters south of my own marina, I starting doing my three 8-stroke sprints.  I was starting the third one as I was looping around the marina and heading back north, and a wave moving in from my right upset my balance.  Into the water I went, and I was right next to the marina's store and I'm sure somebody saw my mishap.  How embarrassing.  I remounted in a matter of seconds and continued on my way, hoping that maybe it would look like I'd actually meant to flip.

Now, with the wind at my back, I began the day's workout: ten 30-second sprints at 3-minute intervals.  I tend to want to take as many strokes per minute as possible during short sprints like this, and I had to make myself back off the stroke rate a bit and focus instead on making each stroke as good as it could be.

A front moved through on Friday with a strong north wind that pushed the temperature downward some 20 degrees during the day.  I was happy to stay in and do the strength routine.  By yesterday the wind had died down but there was plenty of rain.  It didn't rain for all of the 60 minutes I paddled, but a heavy shower moved in during the last five minutes and so I was good and soaked when I got back to the dock.

The Mississippi is on a big rise right now.  In the last week the level has come up from below 12 feet on the Memphis gauge to 22.6 feet this morning.  Right now the forecast says it'll go up to 27 feet, but I expect that to be revised upward, as there's apparently been a lot of rainfall in the eastern U.S. lately.  Yesterday's rain moved eastward into the Tennessee and Cumberland and Ohio watersheds, all of which feed the Mississippi upstream of Memphis.  A day or two ago somebody on Face Book posted a picture of high water on the Youghiogheny River at Ohiopyle, Pennsylvania, and that, too, will eventually flow by Memphis.

Along with a rising river we got a bit of a surprise here this morning: sunshine.  The weather forecast has been looking overcast, rainy, and bleak, but the sun managed to break through for a while.  I decided today was a good time for a trip around the Loosahatchie Bar.  Starting and finishing at Harbortown Marina, this paddle typically takes me around two hours; I think the fastest I've ever done it is around an hour and 50 minutes, but I never do it as an all-out time trial.  I push the pace during parts of it and back off during other parts of it.  Today I paddled strong from the dock up to the mouth of the Wolf River, and then I eased up for ten minutes or so to gather myself for a fast ferry across the river.  With the east wind at my back during the ferry, sweat ran into my eyes and I had to stop paddling and wipe them off several times--kind of a chore with pogies on.  So I lost some time here because whenever I wasn't paddling I was drifting back downriver.  Once I had "summited" the north end of the Bar I had the current in my favor again as well as a nice breeze to keep my eyes dry.  I paddled pretty hard for the last 50 minutes or so, hoping maybe I could still duck under two hours.  I pushed the pace until about the last 400 meters, and reached the dock at almost exactly the two-hour mark.

I'm always utterly worn out for the rest of the day after paddling around the Bar, and today is no exception.  The distance of this paddle is about 12.6 miles, and it's a fairly wilderness-intensive 12.6 miles with exposure to wind, sun, and strong currents.

Court is in session, but not for me

On my first day of jury duty Monday I never made it out of the general pool.  Seven or eight times the commissioner called up groups of forty people to go to courtrooms where they would be narrowed down to actual twelve-member juries, but my name never got called.  The highlight of this mostly-boring day was when I spotted one Dave Wottle among my fellow juror candidates.  Mr. Wottle was the 1972 Olympic champion in the 800-meter run, a moment preserved in this video:



I'm a little too young to remember the 1972 Games, but I've known Mr. Wottle's story for a long time because he lives right here in Memphis, where he's been the dean of admissions at Rhodes College for the last 35 or 40 years.  He came and spoke at my school when I was in the eleventh grade.  I realized he was in the jury pool when his name got called to be a grand jury alternate, and I managed to chat with him for a minute before he was whisked away to his duties.  He seemed very nice and genuinely appreciative of this fan's acknowledgement.

I wasn't required to report until 9:30 yesterday morning, and I got up early enough to get in a quick round of the strength routine.  Having defied the odds on Monday I figured things would trend back toward the mean yesterday, and sure enough my name got called among the first group of forty.  Now I was a little worried that I'd be seated on the jury for a trial that wouldn't start until the afternoon, and I'd be tied up for the rest of the week.  But that worry came to an abrupt end when I didn't survive the peremptory challenges.  One of the lawyers must not have liked the cut of my jib.  Or, as my mother remarked later, one of the lawyers didn't think I would be suitably biased in favor of his client.

The bailiff informed me that I was excused from jury duty for the next ten years, and just like that my time was my own once more.  I was largely relieved, but there was a hint of disappointment: the right to a trial by a jury of one's peers is as precious as any right we enjoy in this nation, and there's a certain satisfaction in serving on a jury now and then.  I suppose I will have more chances.

I went home and had some lunch, and went down to the river a little bit later.  I almost never feel as keen to paddle in the afternoon as I do in the morning, but after a good long warmup I eventually found a groove.  By paddling yesterday I managed to stay on my regular schedule for the week in spite of the jury duty.

Monday photo feature

In observance of my jury duty that starts today, here's a photo I took of my friend Lanier Fogg back in 1994, as he was running El Horrendo on the Russell Fork of the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River near the Virginia-Kentucky state line.  Lanier is a lawyer here in Memphis, and I guess there's a chance I could end up in the same courtroom as he this week.  I wouldn't be empaneled on that jury, of course, 'cause he's my bud.

Wet and cold this weekend

Yesterday morning the rain fell on me for all sixty of the minutes I paddled.  Fortunately, it was not absurdly cold; with the temperature around 54 degrees Fahrenheit, I even decided to ditch the pogies. Y'all know how much I cherish a pogie-less day at this time of year.

The Mississippi was shrouded in a thick fog, and I stayed close to the Tennessee bank to avoid brushes with whatever motorized vessels might be hiding in there.  It was quite beautiful: foul weather gives us some of our prettiest days out on the river.

I had my good long-sleeved paddling shell on, and the rain didn't really bother me at all as I paddled. It was back on the dock that the chill began to set in.  When you're soaking wet out in nature in the wintertime, it's just not easy to be anything other than cold.

When I returned to the river this morning to do a longer paddle, the rain had moved out but the sky was overcast and the temperature had dropped into the 30s.  I paddled to the mouth of the harbor and found heavy commercial traffic out on the Mississippi: there were three barge rigs moving upriver and two more coming down.  I usually like to do my longer paddles out on the river because it's more interesting and fun than staying in the harbor, but today, not wanting to expose myself to a lot of rough water on a cold day, I limited myself to a short time out there.  One of the downstream-bound rigs was producing some sweet surfing waves and I wished it were a hot summer day when I have no excuse not to surf my brains out.

Instead I returned to the harbor and did a couple of long surges.  I pushed the pace heading north for about 15 minutes, then paddled easy until I reached the north end of the harbor.  Then I timed myself paddling from the north end back down to my marina.

Every spring I do a time trial over one lap of the harbor, and for years I've been aiming for the 50-minute barrier.  A few years ago I clocked about 50:30, but more recently I haven't been able to break 52 minutes.  From the north end of the harbor to the marina's southeast corner is a little more than a quarter of a lap, and my time today was 13:55, so at best I was on pace for a time of 52 minutes or so.

As usual, I did my 8-stroke sprints both yesterday and today.  My new and (hopefully) improved stroke is feeling more and more natural at my normal cruising pace, but it's been slower to come at high intensity.

All training activity will likely be on hold for at least the next two or three days.  I am on jury duty in my state's judicial system this coming week.

A matter of degrees

Fairly often I tell somebody that 32 degrees and sunny and calm is a better paddling day than 10 degrees warmer and windy and overcast.  The last two Tuesdays have provided a perfect case in point.  When Joe and I put our boats in the water back on January 30, the temperature was right at the freezing point, but because of the bright sunshine and calm conditions it turned out to be a lovely day to paddle.  On this past Tuesday the temperature was up around 42 degrees, but a stiff north wind and overcast skies gave the day a more hostile winter feel.  But neither day was less satisfying than the other once our boats were put away and we were walking up to the parking lot with dry clothes on and another good paddling session under our belts.

Yesterday I enjoyed the best aspects of each of those Tuesdays.  The temperature was rising into the 40s when I arrived at the river, and the sun was out and the north wind was light.  I warmed up and did three 8-stroke sprints in the harbor and then paddled up the Mississippi a ways before coming back.  As I was heading back toward the marina, on a whim I decided to time myself from the monorail bridge to the Hernando DeSoto Bridge, a distance of about 450 meters.  I was paddling not all-out, but maybe at 85% or so intensity, and I was trying to take the best strokes I could as I have been practicing them this winter.  The north wind was strong enough that it was probably slowing me down some.  In any case, my time was right about 2 minutes, 30 seconds--pretty slow considering that last summer I was doing sets of four of these sprints at or below 2 minutes each.  Oh well... there's plenty of time to get faster.

I did the current strength routine on Monday, Wednesday, and today.  For pushups, I'm trying to do all the different kinds I know: regular pushups, Hindu pushups, decline pushups, and so on.

Monday photo feature

For several years in the middle of the last decade, early February was a time for me to escape to the Florida Keys.  Back then there was an event at Key Largo called the Bogey & Bacall, and it consisted of a 13-mile "Bogey" race on Saturday and a 6-mile "Bacall" race on Sunday.  In this photo I'm crossing the finish line in the 2006 "Bogey" race.

A pleasant weekend

It was around 50 degrees Fahrenheit when I got down to the river yesterday.  It seemed delightfully warm after a day in the 30s on Friday. The south breeze was gentle and the river was calm.  I did a 60-minute loop out on the river in front of the downtown Memphis skyline.

Today was another nice day.  I got in my boat and warmed up and did three 8-stroke sprints in the harbor.  Those sprints are back to feeling sloppy this weekend.  So it goes.

This being another Sunday, it was time for a "longer" paddle.  I paddled up the Mississippi to the mouth of the Wolf River, and continued up the Wolf.  With the Mississippi at 11.5 feet on the Memphis gauge, I paddled against some current for about the last half-mile before my turnaround point at the Danny Thomas Boulevard bridge.

This was shaping up to be my longest paddle of the calendar year so far, and I was feeling pretty worn out in the last 20 minutes or so.  I tried to focus as hard as I could on maintaining good form and taking good strokes all the way back to the dock.  The river was a bit choppy from some barge traffic but back in the harbor the water was glassy-smooth and as lovely as could be with the clouds giving way to some sunshine.  I got back to the dock to wrap up a 120-minute session.

Underestimating my multitasking capabilities

Joe and I did a loop of the harbor on Tuesday.  It was cold--mid 30s Fahrenheit--but the bright sunshine and calm conditions made it an otherwise ideal morning for paddling.

Today I was scheduled to meet with an insurance adjuster at 9 AM to look at some damage at my rental property.  I typically tend to consider something like that enough to consume my mental energy for the whole morning, and I thought about waiting until this afternoon or tomorrow to paddle.  But the forecast showed the temperature dropping all afternoon from its morning high in the mid 50s, on its way to an overnight low in the 20s.  It occurred to me that the meeting with the adjuster probably wouldn't last more than an hour or so, and I'd have plenty of time to paddle before lunch.  So I threw my paddling clothes in the car, and as it turned out I was done with the adjuster and on the water by ten o'clock.  I paddled for 60 minutes, doing three 8-stroke sprints and several long surges.

It was beginning to drizzle as I left the marina and walked back up to my car--the first line of this mass of cold air that's moving in.

I started my new strength routine yesterday and plan to do another round tomorrow.

A new strength routine

It's time for a new routine.  Several of the exercises that follow come from Lindsey's video, and I've listed the time in the video at which each occurs.  The other two are pushups, familiar to everyone, and "wrist rollers," the old exercise involving a weight tied to a dowel that you rotate with your wrists.

Since I do my strength work at home without a lot of equipment, I use rubber bands to do the "rope pull-down" and the "straight-arm pull-down."

1.  Pushups

2.  Ball back extension (seen at 1:15 of the video)

3.  Rope pull-down (0:59)

4.  Wrist rollers

5.  Straight-arm pull-down (3:06)