Enduring high-intensity efforts

When I got up Tuesday morning another chilly spell had moved into the Mid South.  I did a round of the strength routine and then headed downtown for a loop of the harbor with Joe.  I've paddled in much worse winter weather than what we had Tuesday, but it seemed awfully gloomy and cheerless nevertheless.  The sky was overcast and the temperature hovered around 37 degrees Fahrenheit.  By the last couple of miles my feet were freezing and I was eager to get back to the dock and change into dry socks and shoes.

I was also feeling a little pain in my chest, sort of below my right pec muscle, while I paddled.  At first it almost seemed like a simple stitch or some such thing, but it has persisted since then and I now think I must have pulled or strained something during Tuesday's strength workout.  A quick glance at a Wikipedia diagram leads me to infer that maybe it's one of my intercostal muscles, muscles between the ribs that are involved in the mechanical aspect of breathing.  It hurts when I inhale deeply and especially when I cough, and that supports my suspicion.

Hopefully it's nothing too serious, just a strain that'll be better in a few days.  But I can definitely feel it when I paddle, partly because of the breathing and partly because of the torso rotation.

Today I did another round of the strength routine and then returned to the river.  The sun was out and it was breezy but warmer (around 50 degrees).  I warmed up and did several of those "paddle power" drills, and then commenced my workout.  I mentioned in a recent post that I struggled with the frequency of hard sprints I was having to do on the Columbia River last summer, and today I experimented with a workout that I hope will remedy that.  Basically, I did a series of 20-second sprints while decreasing the length of the recovery interval.  It went like this:

20-second sprint
60-second recovery
20-second sprint
50-second recovery
20-second sprint
40-second recovery
20-second sprint
30-second recovery
20-second sprint
20-second recovery
20-second sprint
10-second recovery
20-second sprint

I did two sets of this series, with a good long recovery in between sets.  By the end of each set I was gasping for breath.  But it's a start.  I hope to make some version of this workout a regular occurrence between now and the end of January.


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