Making these short days count

I did a round of the strength routine on Monday, and on Tuesday I paddled a loop of the harbor with Joe.  On Wednesday it was another round of strength work followed by a spirited 60-minute session out on the river.

As we near the end of the month I'm mostly happy with how it's gone.  At the start of the month I was hurting in much of the upper half of my body and not feeling much like an athlete at all.  Now I'm back into a training routine and, while not entirely free of the occasional ache or pain, ready to get into some more serious workouts.  Like I said earlier, the key is to keep moving.  The hardest part always seems to be fighting out of the state of inertia--getting up out of my chair and starting a strength workout, getting myself out of the house and down to the river.  Once I'm actually in motion my productivity seems to flow with little effort.  It sounds like simple physics, really.

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Monday photo feature

Of all the athletes interviewed for my movie that premiered last month, I doubt anybody has a brighter-shining star right now than Teneale Hatton.  She's pictured here racing the 1000-meter final at the 2014 world championships in Moscow, in which her winning time of 3 minutes, 49.42 seconds was (and currently remains) the fastest ever by a female kayaker.  She also won the 5000-meter race at that championships.

Sure, that was five years ago, but the 29-year-old New Zealander has hardly slowed down since then.  Flatwater sprint racing is actually just a small part of Hatton's overall paddling life.  She grew up primarily in ocean-based paddlesports like surf lifesaving and surfski racing, and continues to excel on the sea.  She took the title at the 2015 ICF world championships for ocean racing and claimed the bronze medal at that event this year.

Her appearance in my movie was shot just after she'd won the women's surfski class at the Gorge Downwind Championships at Hood River, Oregon, this past July.  If you look closely, you'll see that she's holding one of those oversize novelty checks that star athletes get to hold up on the podium.


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A weekend to feel good about

It rained all day Friday.  By yesterday morning the Internet radar showed that it had mostly moved out, but a stubborn drizzle lingered for most of the day.  When I got to the river yesterday morning it was overcast with a temperature in the mid 40s Fahrenheit.

My plan was to paddle for 60 minutes and push the intensity during the half-hour from 0:15 to 0:45.  But I wanted it to be more than just a steady-state, metronomic tempo paddle.  So I varied the cadence, sometimes paddling at an unnaturally low stroke rate while exploding through each stroke.  I did the same sort of thing while one-sided paddling, focusing hard on making all the involved muscle groups fire as a single unit.  And then I did some ordinary surges, too.  It all added up to a pretty hard 30 minutes.  I was really feeling it in the last 10 minutes of this period, and my "explosive" strokes seemed to get less and less explosive.  I tried to keep paddling as precisely as possible and not get sloppy.

It was about 34 degrees when I got up this morning, but I was pleased to see clear skies.  By the time I got down to the river around 10 AM, it had warmed up into the mid 40s.  Having done a little workout yesterday, I was looking forward to paddling a relaxed pace and savoring the nice day.  I paddled for 80 minutes, and though it was mostly a fun relaxed session, I did push the pace at times.  What can I say?  I like paddling hard, especially when I'm feeling good, and I'm happy to say that I am feeling good right now.


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I've had better weeks

It's been a week spent dealing with life's minutiae.  My clothes dryer went out, a bureaucrat in the medical practice conglomerate that employs my doctor botched an appointment I was supposed to have, my state's department of revenue notified me of a back-tax amount I owed and promised grisly consequences if I didn't pay up at once... yep, a lovely week.  Getting together with Joe to paddle a loop of the harbor on Tuesday was probably the highlight of the week by far.

I did rounds of the strength routine Tuesday and yesterday.  Hopefully I'll be back into some regular paddling over the weekend.  After a few days of really nice weather we're headed back into some chillier, windier, rainier stuff.


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Monday photo feature

The parade of stars continues as we celebrate the worldwide release of my motion picture.

Terry Smith comes from a whitewater background.  A resident of the greater Chattanooga, Tennessee, area, Terry has done his share of steep-creeking in the Walden's Ridge area of the Cumberland Escarpment.  He even was among the featured boaters in the 1994 Wayne Gentry film Vertical Addiction.

But Terry is also drawn to the adrenaline rush of competitive paddling.  He is pictured above competing in the selection trials for the U.S. wildwater team last month on the Nantahala River at Wesser, North Carolina.  Photo by Chris Hipgrave.


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Feeling better and settling in

The cold I came down with early in the week persisted into the weekend, but the symptoms have been subdued, I guess because of that shot I got at the doctor's office.  Most significant is that I've remained my usual energetic self for the most part.  Those illnesses I had in June and October had stretches where I didn't feel like doing much besides lying in bed.

And I'm pleased to report that my back and obliques have been feeling a lot better in recent days.  I'm not sure I'm ready to pronounce myself completely healed, but I'm encouraged by the way things are going.

As I said before, through all this I'm just trying to keep moving.  It sounds pretty simple, but that attitude has served me well in the past and I hope it will once more.

Yesterday morning I did a round of the strength routine and then headed down to the river.  It was sunny and breezy with a temperature in the mid 40s Fahrenheit.  I went out and paddled a somewhat strong tempo for 60 minutes.

This morning I was back in the boat on a warmer but not quite as sunny day.  Once again I paddled for 60 minutes, pushing the pace maybe even a little higher than yesterday.


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Dancing with another bug

The same arctic blast that had brought snowy, icy chaos to the northern parts of the country gave the Mid South a nice taste of winter, too: when I got up Tuesday morning it was about 22 degrees Fahrenheit with a light snow falling.  After doing a round of the strength routine I headed down to the river, by which time it had warmed up to 26 degrees.  The first chore on such a day is dealing with a frozen rudder.  I put my boat in the water and paddled forwards and backwards near the dock for about five minutes before it finally came free.

The sun was out, but there was also a strong north wind blowing.  I stayed in the northern half of the harbor where there is some protection from the wind because the city and its real-estate-developing chums haven't yet denuded the banks.  I paddled easy while heading north and then surged once the wind was at my back.  To be on the safe side on this frigid day, I didn't venture more than about a mile from the marina.  I did a few backpaddling drills to work my opposing muscles and then called it a morning after 40 minutes in the boat.

By the end of Tuesday I was feeling pretty lousy: my throat hurt and it seemed I was back in the throes of the sort of illness I suffered both in June and last month.  This time I didn't wait to see my doctor: I was in her office Wednesday morning.  She checked me over pretty good and didn't find anything too alarming.  She gave me a shot that was supposed to address the standard cold symptoms and sent me on my way.

By yesterday morning I still felt like I had a cold but the symptoms were subdued, as if the shot had indeed had an effect.  My energy level was decently high and I felt fine as I went through another round of the strength routine.  My plan had been to wait until today to return to the river, but I found myself with some spare time yesterday afternoon and I decided to go on down there.  I do over 90 percent of my paddling in the morning and it always feels a bit strange when I go out in the afternoon: the sun is in a different part of the sky from where I'm used to it being, and most days I'm feeling more tired and sluggish in the afternoon.  But once I'm in the boat and warmed up I usually manage to find a groove, and that was the case again yesterday.  I paddled for 60 minutes at moderate intensity.  The temperature was a balmy 46 degrees, and the wind was light--pretty ideal for paddling, really.

This morning I'm still feeling reasonably good and I'm hopeful that this bug I've got is nothing more than a common cold.  As I've said before, my main goal for November is to get a routine re-established as a springboard for harder training in December and January.


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Monday photo feature

I've been blithely referring to my new motion picture as a "blockbuster," but the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that maybe it's more of an "art-house" film.  Hmm.  If you'd like to do me a favor, you could go watch it and then tell me what you think.

Now matter how low-budget and low-distribution the production may be, the performance of the man pictured above is nothing short of Oscar-worthy.  Michael Meredith, a resident of the greater Detroit area, has been one of my housemates out in Hood River, Oregon, for the Gorge Downwind Championships the last two summers.  Here he's crossing the finish line in the 2019 race.  Photo by Sandy Yonley.


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Back in motion but not free of woes yet

I'm getting with it again, albeit slowly and carefully, as I'm still experiencing discomfort in my back and oblique areas.  It hasn't helped that this week I've had to make some repairs over at my rental property that involve a lot of bending over in a tight space.

I paddled for 60 minutes on Tuesday, keeping the intensity mostly moderate but throwing in a pretty good 5-to-10-minute surge in the last 20 minutes.  I did another 60 minutes today, keeping the intensity moderate and doing some stroke drills and similar technical work.

I did my new strength routine Tuesday and Thursday.  I'm hoping that the core exercises in the routine will have some rehab value.

As I've said before, I'm able to paddle with almost no discomfort, at least at low to medium intensity.  However, I believe that when you're an athlete training for something, your recovery time is every bit as important as the workouts you do, so I shouldn't disregard the value of feeling good when I'm out of the boat as well as when I'm in it.  My inference is that if I'm feeling less than entirely happy and comfortable, my recovery won't be as complete.

Even though my recent sessions with the chiropractor didn't deliver the quick relief I'd hoped for, I probably should give that therapy several more chances.  It took quite a few sessions to get that plantar fasciitis under control last year, after all.  My mother has suggested seeing an orthopedist, but I'm afraid I don't have a lot of faith in those doctors in the case of low-grade nagging aches and pains like this.  If I had something that definitely required surgery, like a torn ACL or rotator cuff, then I'd absolutely see an orthopedist--surgery is what those folks know how to do.  But every time I've consulted one for a sore back or some inflamed soft tissue or some such thing, I've come away disappointed.

Whatever happens, I want to keep moving, putting one foot in front of the other, taking it all one paddle stroke at a time.

Pogies weather has returned.  I didn't wear them on Tuesday, and my hands stayed just warm enough on a breezy day of about 60 degrees Fahrenheit.  A big front came through on Wednesday and Thursday with frigid temperatures behind it.  We're having our first sub-freezing temperatures of the season overnight.  Today dawned around the freezing point, but by the time I got down to the river it had warmed up into the 40s with plenty of sunshine and just a light breeze from the south.  By most standards, it actually was a lovely day to paddle.  But I broke out the pogies.  When it's below 50 degrees, I need them.


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A new strength routine

It's time to start building into a new training cycle.  I'm starting with this strength routine:


1.  Front and lat raises with dumbbells

2.  Stability ball exercise demonstrated by Jing Jing Li at 1:51 of this video

3.  Bent-over rows with dumbbell

4.  4-way abdominal crunches

5.  Dips

6.  Stability ball exercise demonstrated by Jing Jing Li at 1:03 of this video



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Monday photo feature

Paddling the tandem surf ski in the foreground are two of the stars of my movie that premiered last month: Mike and Savanna Herbert of Rogers, Arkansas.

Long-time followers of the sport remember Mike as one of the top 500-meter racers in the world at his athletic peak.  In later life he has continued his career as a force on the domestic race circuit.  His daughter Savanna is a recent college graduate who has become more seriously involved in the sport in recent years and is steadily improving.

Sometimes Mike and Savanna race solo, and sometimes they join to make a formidable tandem team.  In this picture they're competing in the 31-mile "Chattajack" race two Saturdays ago on the Tennessee River at Chattanooga.  Photo by Christel Herbert.


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Healing

I'm not free of pain yet but I think I'm headed in the right direction.  One of the frustrating things about this ailment was that the pain affected a general area and was hard to pinpoint, but in recent days it has receded from all except a rear-left-side abdominal muscle.  I now wonder if this is the sort of "oblique" injury that's dreaded by pitchers in baseball.  Such injuries are notorious for the time they require to heal: whenever a pitcher on my favorite team gets one, the commentators always say "Oh, he'll be out a couple of months."

For several days last week I was proactive about doing some therapeutic stuff like stretching and soaking in the tub, and I think that helped.  Then, later in the week, I got very busy preparing for a work-related event on Saturday and these activities fell through the cracks.  I'm hoping my schedule will calm down again so I can get back into a routine of recovery sessions.

The good news is that unlike a pitcher, I can still go out and do my sport with this injury.  It doesn't seem to bother me in the boat, and I sense that the rotational motions of easy paddling have some therapeutic value.  Whether I can handle more intense paddling remains to be seen.  My tentative plan is to spend the coming month rebuilding some volume so I can spend December and January doing more serious prep for the South Africa trip.


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