Paddling hard and enjoying it

I took some time off from strength routines, partly because of the achiness in my arms and partly just because I needed a mental break.  I've written here many times how strength work is my least-favorite part of training.

But now that my arms are feeling better I'm finding some motivation again.  I'm still doing the achy-arm exercises that my chiropractor showed me, and I'm starting to work in some more stuff slowly.  So far I've added pull-ups and plank-ups, and I plan to add a couple of more things in the next week or so to form a full routine.  I'll post more about that later.

Meanwhile, the weather here has been not particularly hot, and I'm glad about that, but it's not what I'd call delightful because of high humidity, overcast skies, and on-and-off rain.  It's been feeling rather swampy.  But I'll take it over the triple-digit heat indices we typically have this time of year.

I paddled this week both Tuesday and yesterday.  On Tuesday I joined Joe for a loop of the harbor.  Yesterday I got in the boat for an intense 60 minutes: after warming up and doing three 8-stroke sprints, I started my main workout: ten 30-second sprints at three-minute intervals.  I did the first six of these sprints while paddling up the Mississippi along the Tennessee bank.  Then I went out and tried to surf behind a downstream-moving barge rig that was producing good-size waves.  I never quite managed to achieve any lengthy rides, but I threw in a lot of short- hard sprints in the attempt.  Once the commercial craft had outdistanced me I returned to the harbor and did the final four 30-second sprints.  So in a 60-minute session I got in both a "work" workout and a "play" workout.  I got back to the dock with that "elated tired" feeling that I described Sunday.

Getting back into some more intense training has me feeling my mojo coming back.  But what exactly am I training for?  Well, it's possible that I'll attend a race three weeks from tomorrow, depending on how some things in my non-athletic life work out.  I'll talk more about that later.

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