Still trying to recover my vim

My arm, shoulder, and abdominal muscles felt slightly better yesterday morning, but they were still sore and my range of motion still limited.  I continued to be taken aback by the extent to which Wednesday's activities had done me in.  Soreness is normal anytime I start a new strength routine, but this was ridiculous.  (Again, I think cleaning those gutters did a lot to exacerbate the problem.  The glum truth is that my body doesn't withstand such chores quite like it used to.)  In the back of my mind I wondered if I'd done irreparable damage and will never be free of pain in these areas again.

I tried to push such thoughts aside as I headed down to the river.  The weather was helping to lift my spirits: after miserable rainy days Thursday and Friday, the sun was out at last, albeit with a stiff northwest wind blowing.

I wasn't ready to do a serious workout, but I was determined to paddle with something closer to my usual gusto no matter how my muscles were feeling.  I headed out of the harbor and up the Mississippi.  Progress upriver was slow as I paddled into the teeth of that wind, and I tried to stay relaxed and not fight it.  There was much discomfort in the area around my biceps, and I had to keep reminding myself that it wasn't the paddling that was causing it.

This morning, once again, I detected a slight abatement of the soreness, but it was still around.  So it was another day of nursing myself and being patient in the boat.  At this time of year I'm wanting to get in some good workouts, but today I still wasn't ready.  But I did spend a good 70 minutes out on the Mississippi, where aggressive paddling is required just to get around.

It was sunny again today, and warmer and less windy than yesterday.  With the river on another rise from all the recent rain in the watershed, I paddled to the outflow channel from Dacus Lake to see what was going on there.  A road crosses the channel and with the river at 30.7 feet on the Memphis gauge, it was just barely underwater.  So I didn't paddle onto Dacus Lake.  But the water flowing over the road formed a nice riffly little rapid, and I hung out for a minute and savored the sound of the rushing water along with the chatter of birds and the breeze in the trees.  We've got some peaceful outdoor spots within sight of the downtown Memphis skyline.

I guess you could say I've been in a holding pattern this weekend, able to paddle but trying to let all this soreness run its course.  How I feel in the next few days will determine what I'll do in the strength department and in the boat.


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