Ramping back up

After being abnormally high all winter and spring and well into the summer, the Mississippi River is now dropping to the kind of levels that we're used to in late summer and fall.  This week the river fell below ten feet on the Memphis gauge for the first time since maybe last October or November.  I'm seeing objects along the riverbank for the first time in months because they were buried deep underwater.

We're also having the sort of weather we're used to in August in the Mid South.  While the air temperature hasn't gotten as high as it sometimes does here--I think the highest so far is 97 degrees Fahrenheit--the humidity has been plentiful and pushed the "heat index" well up into the triple digits. I'm trying to grin and bear it and hope that fall weather is not too far off.

On Tuesday I did a round of the strength routine, and then joined Joe for a loop of the harbor.  Yesterday I did the strength routine again, and then returned to the riverfront for a fairly hard 60-minute paddle.  I warmed up and did three 8-stroke sprints in the harbor, and then paddled out onto the Mississippi to see what was going on.  A big barge rig was coming downriver trailing some decently-surfable waves, so I fell in behind it to see what I could do.  Just like last Sunday, I struggled to generate the sort of turnover necessary to catch a wave, but I did manage to grab a couple of brief rides.  I'm hoping that with some persistence I can get my top gear back in the next week or so.

In the last two or three seasons I've done my strength work on the days I don't paddle, but you'll notice that this week I've paddled and done strength work on the same days and done nothing on the other days.  I've done it this way in the past and now I'm trying it again.  The drawbacks of doing it this way are that I have to dedicate a whole morning to doing athletic stuff rather than my job and other chores, and that I'm tired by the time I get in the boat; the upside is that the "off" days are complete recovery days and days I can devote entirely to non-athletic stuff.


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