I was up bright and early Tuesday morning. On most days I start the morning with some non-athletic work and then get to the river between 9 and 10 o'clock, but on Tuesday a contractor was scheduled to meet me at my house between 10 o'clock and noon, so I went downtown early and was in the boat just before eight. It was overcast and 40 degrees Fahrenheit. I was slightly underdressed because in my haste to leave the house I'd forgotten to bring a shell to pull on over my one shirt, so I had all the more reason to get the prescribed workout done without any dilly-dallying around.
The workout was three sets of (4 minutes at 56 strokes per minute, 2 minutes at 76 spm, 3 minutes at 64 spm, and 1 minute at 80 spm). The recovery was 1 minute after each piece and 2 minutes between sets. While not unlike other workouts I've done in the last several weeks, this one was shorter because this entire week is intended to be lighter than the first few that Maks drew up. Per Maks's instructions, I worked to apply power and generate glide during the lower-stroke-rate pieces, and carry that power into the higher-stroke-rate ones while staying smooth.
Yesterday I paddled on another dreary day with the temperature in the high 30s. The workout was three sets of four 3-minute pieces at 66 spm. The recovery was 1 minute between pieces and 2 minutes between sets. I did the second set with resistance on the boat, and the first and third with out resistance. It was another of the many workouts I'm doing these days intended to build stroke power.
Up to this point, we'd mostly been having a mild winter in Memphis and the Mid South. There had been plenty of gloomy cold days, sure, but we hadn't yet had a day with a sub-freezing high temperature or any significant frozen precipitation. That changed in the early hours of this morning. Freezing rain fell and by dawn the city was covered in a layer of ice. It was not the worst ice storm we've ever had; there were power outages and trees down here and there, but nothing like what happened here in February of 1994. I opted to stay close to home, just the same. Streets were rife with hazards this morning and the bridge over to Mud Island, where my boat is stored, was closed. Instead of paddling today I did the gym session that I normally do on Friday.
Getting in the boat will likely be a challenge for the next few days. Unfortunately I don't have a kayak erg, and I don't know of anybody in my area who has one. According to the current forecast, the daily high temperatures look like this: 31 degrees tomorrow, 27 Saturday, 17 Sunday, 15 Monday, and 24 Tuesday. The ropes that secure my boat to its rack down at the dock are surely frozen solid right now, so my best move is probably to use one of my other surfskis that live in my garage here at home. And then there's the stress of simply trying to paddle in sub-freezing weather. Getting in just two of my four not-yet-done paddling sessions for this week might be an impressive feat.
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