Treading water

First, a dispatch from the aches and pains department:

That wrist ailment that I mentioned just before I left for the Pacific Northwest has returned.  I'm not sure it ever truly left: regular doses of ibuprofen eased the pain, but once I laid off the ibuprofen it came back.  I suppose I could just keep on taking ibuprofen, but I don't think that's good for me to do so indefinitely.  So... hmm.

My upper-body muscles are a bit achy, probably from the work I've been doing in my woodworking shop.  The projects I have going now are not as imposing as that big table I finished several weeks ago, but the early stages of any project typically involve handling some big heavy planks as I cut out the rough-sized furniture parts.

Finally, just this morning I woke up with some pain in my left groin area.  I guess I strained it somehow, but have no idea how or when.

I was hoping that an easy few days here at home would have me rarin' to go after my week of intense paddling out in the Columbia Gorge.  But the woes listed above, along with the uncertainty of my upcoming race schedule, have me searching for motivation.  With the big races in Memphis and in the Pacific Northwest now behind me, my season appears in danger of fizzling out like it did last year, when all three events I'd wanted to do in September got called off.

In the meantime, I'm still going down to the river.  Yesterday I had a somewhat intense 90-minute paddle.  After warming up and doing three 8-stroke sprints in the harbor, I went out on the Mississippi and paddled a strong tempo down to the old bridges and back up along the Arkansas bank to the Hernando DeSoto Bridge.  Then, as I headed back toward the harbor, I saw an enormous barge rig, driven by two towboats, coming upriver.  I paddled down to check out its stern wake and found waves that were bigger than any of the swells I'd seen out on the Columbia.  I was paddling the V12 surf ski I usually train in--less stable than the V10 Sport I used in the Gorge--and when I started chasing runs I found myself struggling to do the hard sprinting required because of the tricky balance.  It was especially bad in the "zone of uncertainty" when the boat was perched atop a crest.  I was also tired, and I eventually gave it up and headed back into the harbor and returned to the dock with a vague feeling of defeat.

Today I went back downtown, warmed up and did three 8-strokers in the harbor, and then found no barge traffic on the river.  That was probably a good thing, because what I needed was a relaxed paddle with no agenda besides enjoying the nice day.


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