According to the current forecast, the temperature will stay below freezing until next Friday. The harshest stretch appears to be from now through Tuesday: there's been light but steady snowfall all day today, and more significant snow is supposed to move in tonight and tomorrow. The temperature is supposed to drop to 3 degrees Fahrenheit in the early hours of Tuesday morning. We're not expected to rise back above freezing until Saturday. It has become obvious that my ability to paddle will be severely limited for a while. This winter storm is big enough that the national news outlets are talking about it, so I suppose that makes me feel a little better about putting the training on hold.
It was a balmy 28 degrees when I went down to the river Friday morning. Thinking I could avoid the hassle of a frozen rudder, I took one of the surfskis that live in my garage down there with me. But I discovered a major flaw in that idea: the steep ramp down to the marina was coated in ice. It was tricky business just walking down it with my bag and paddle; trying to carry a boat down it would likely result in a broken boat, with a broken bone or two to boot. I decided to try my luck with the boat I keep down on the dock. It greeted me thusly:
I managed to get the ropes untied without too much trouble. The boat was frozen to its pads on the rack, and I gingerly wrenched it free, with only thin bits of minicell coming off with the boat. As expected, the rudder was frozen. I positioned it as close to center as I could so that I'd at least have a skeg.
Off I went toward the south end of the harbor, and the boat tracked a straight line quite well. When I turned around and paddled into the north wind, I had a bit more trouble. At times I had to do sweeps on one side to keep the boat steered the way I wanted.
I began the workout that Maks had assigned for Saturday morning: three sets of two 5-minute pieces with 1 minute recovery. I did the first set at 56 strokes per minute, the second at 60 spm, and the third at 64 spm. The first set was lower-quality than it should have been because of the frozen rudder, but the rudder came free right at the end of the second 5-minute piece, so I was able to do the rest of the workout with no such hindrances. I actually felt pretty good in the boat, especially after I'd reached the harbor's north end and was headed back south with a tailwind. The only unpleasant things left to do were back at the dock--changing out of my wet clothes and getting the boat put away before my hands were completely numb.
After this session I sent an e-mail to Maks letting him know of the situation here. Yesterday morning I received a reply in which he told me to skip paddling for a couple of days and do some light aerobic activity instead. Yesterday I took a vigorous hike of a maybe 4 or 5 thousand meters around my part of town, including the big city park that I hadn't visited in months even though it sits a short distance west of my house.
Today I did a gym session and otherwise tried to be ready for hunkering down once the blizzard arrives. I hope to get in some snowy hikes over the next several days.
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