A balmy break

We've enjoyed a nice weekend for this time of year--sunny skies with Fahrenheit temperatures in the 50s.  I've tried to savor it because colder weather is set to return in the next day or two.

It was already 40 degrees when I got down to the river to paddle yesterday morning.  I warmed up and did three 8-stroke sprints in the harbor, and then paddled up the Mississippi to the lower reaches of the Greenbelt Park before heading back downriver and back to the harbor.  In the harbor I did a few stroke drills on the way back to the dock.

It was well on its way to 50 degrees when I arrived at the river this morning.  The plan was to do a longer paddle, and with balmy temperatures, hardly any wind, and the Mississippi flowing at a robust 26.8 feet on the Memphis gauge, conditions were ideal for paddling around the Loosahatchie Bar.

I'm not a big believer in "overdistance" paddling as a regular training staple, but in the winter and spring I do like to get in a few long paddles to establish a good endurance base for the year.  "Long" for me means two to two and a half hours.  If I paddle much longer than that my stroke form starts to break down, and then I'm just practicing poor mechanics.  Meanwhile, I do have several two-hourish races on the schedule, and a few training paddles in that time frame benefits me mentally as much as anything, reassuring myself that I can push through that tough last half-hour or so.  I always try to focus hard on taking good strokes when I'm tired like that and it's easy to let them get sloppy.

When I reached the mouth of the harbor I found three barge rigs moving up the river.  The nearest one was just above the Harahan Bridge, and fortunately it wasn't running full-throttle.  I was able to widen my lead on it during the paddle upriver and have a comfortable amount of space for the ferry across.

The hardest part of going around the Bar is fighting the current while rounding the upper end.  I always think of this moment as the paddling equivalent of summiting a mountain.  Once I'm heading down the Loosahatchie Chute, I'm always getting tired but at least have the current working with me.

I always like to to this paddle in less than two hours if I can.  Today I hit the 90-minute mark as I approached the lower end of the Bar, and I knew I'd have to paddle strong the rest of the way to break two hours.  And that's what I did.  I was pleasantly surprised at how well my energy held up.  I arrived back at the dock about an hour and 56 minutes after I'd started.

I knew I'd be tired the rest of the day, but I consider this the good kind of tired.



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