I got up Saturday morning with the intention of doing another bike workout in the park near my house. Outside it was pouring down rain with the temperature at a fairly balmy 57 degrees Fahrenheit. According to the forecast, later in the day the rain would move out with much colder air taking its place. So I had a choice between doing my workout in the morning while it was warmish and wet and doing it later when would be drier but cold and probably windy. I opted for the former. As we used to say at the summer camp I attended, "Skin is waterproof."
I did five laps of that paved loop through the woods, riding the carless section hard and recovering on the other section. After the second and fourth laps I stopped to do sets of Hindu squats. Its was a taxing workout, particularly on an uphill part of the loop of around 800 meters. But I held up just fine.
The rain was just a drizzle as I pedaled away from the house. But right as I got to the park the heavens unleashed a massive torrent. Within a couple of minutes I was your basic drowned rat. The rain had stopped completely by the end of my first lap, so I was able to air-dry somewhat. The creeks through the park were flowing bank-full, and that always makes the old whitewater paddler in me happy. After I'd finished the workout and was riding back to the house another stiff shower moved through, but I was singin' in that rain, because I knew I had a some lovely dry clothes waiting for me less than a mile away.
I'd hoped to get back in the boat yesterday, but my injured rib was still feeling a little tender, so I decided to give it another rest day. It's killing me to have to be this careful with the South Africa trip looming, but I keep reminding myself that I'd rather be paddling there in less-than-ideal physical condition than go there with pain that could jeopardize my ability to paddle at all.
Anyway, I did another round of the strength routine. There was some pretty deep fatigue in my legs, so I did just one set each of the stair-climbs and lunges while doing the usual two sets of each core exercise.
I wasn't too sorry not to be paddling yesterday because the temperature didn't rise much above 40 degrees and the wind was blowing relentlessly. By this morning the temperature had plummeted into the mid 20s but the north breeze was relatively light. I've said many times that I'd rather paddle when it's 25 degrees and calm than when it's 40 degrees and windy, and today I would be putting my money where my mouth is on that. I got out my fleece-lined pogies for I think only the second time this mostly-mild winter, and headed for the river.
After warming up and doing three 8-stroke sprints, I got right to it. I did eight 30-second sprints at three-minute intervals, half of them at a moderate stroke rate and the other half at the highest stroke rate I could do while still maintaining control. My rib felt mostly okay and I'm now waiting to see how it feels the rest of the day.
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