My non-athletic life clashes with my athletic one

I probably didn't get as much rest as I should have on my "rest day" (Monday).  I spent several hours doing some small-scale logging as part of a project for my woodworking business.  Even small-scale logging is some heavy-duty work, for the simple reason that logs are heavy.  I was careful and managed not to tweak my back, but I wore out my arms swinging a sledge hammer at steel wedges.

It was a rousing start to the last week of the current training block.  Next week will be an easier week, but for now, things are gonna get harder before they get easier.  Tuesday morning I put some extra weight in the boat for the following workout: five sets of (4 minutes at 50 strokes per minute/3 minutes at 60 spm/2 minutes at 70 spm/1 minute at 80 spm).  The rest intervals were 1 minute between pieces and 2 minutes between sets.  As usual, a main objective was to carry the precision and power of the lower stroke rates into the higher stroke rates.  I was sore from Monday's labor and it took a while for those muscles to loosen up; by the end of this long, grinding workout I could feel my power giving out.

I was still a bit on the sore side as I headed back to the river yesterday morning.  The workout was a tough one: three sets of two 750-meter pieces at 76 spm.  The first piece of each set was to be done with moderate resistance (two golf whiffle balls) and the second without resistance (well, except for the bungee cord).  Said Maks, "It will feel like suffering, flying, suffering..."  Maks didn't specify a recovery interval, so I figured that out on the fly: I started the second piece of a set 8 minutes after I'd started the first piece, and I started the first piece of a new set 9 minutes after I'd started the second piece of the previous set.

"Suffering" is the right word for what those pieces with resistance felt like.  I tried not to stress myself over the lack of glide and just take the best strokes I could.  As for the pieces without resistance, Maks told me "It is extremely important that you maximize your stroke efficiency--that you really anchor well." If anything struck me as a bit surprising, it was that my no-resistance pieces were not all that faster than my pieces with resistance.  I was clocking just over 4 minutes with resistance and just under 3:50 without. Then again, the 15-second-or-so difference is a lot, I guess, for 750 meters--if you get beat by 15 seconds in a 750-meter race, you've been beaten bad.

This morning I woke up to pouring rain.  By the time I got down to the river the heaviest rain had moved out, but light rain continued to move in and out as I paddled.  I did two sets of four (4 minutes on/1 minute off), alternating between 60 spm and 70 spm.  I tried to put solid power into each stroke and maintain good mechanics.  The workout was straightforward enough, but I was disheartened by all the floating trash that the rain had washed into the harbor.  Between the Hernando DeSoto Bridge and the harbor mouth the surface was covered in a thick layer of bottles, cans, toys, grocery bags, and styrofoam.  I believe it had washed out of the Wolf River and drifted down the Mississippi River, and then been blown by the south wind up into the harbor.  In other words, I was paddling in litter that had originated everywhere from north Mississippi to Fayette County to Shelby County both inside and outside the city of Memphis.  Sometimes I just about have to hang my head and cry because it seems like we've lost this fight.

Anyway... it's been a substantial training week, and the weekend is yet to come.

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Monday photo feature

In case any readers don't know what I'm talking about when I talk about adding resistance to the boat, here's a photo of how I do it.  It's just a thin bungee cord with several golf whiffle balls on it, wrapped around the boat just aft of the seat bucket where I can reach it.  Sliding one or more of the balls down below the waterline creates drag, forcing me to put more power into my strokes.

The bungee cord itself creates a bit of drag.  If the workout calls for "small resistance," I slide one whiffle ball down underwater.  For "moderate resistance," I use two.  For "big resistance," I use all three of the balls shown here.  For any greater resistance than that, I'll have to go pick up some more whiffle balls.

I'd love to tell you that this method of adding resistance is my original idea, but it's not.  Canoe and kayak racers have been doing it this way for many, many years.

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Some hard training along with some "posture and technic"

On Friday morning I did a gym session and then headed down to the river.  It was a cool 55 degrees Fahrenheit, but warming up toward an afternoon high in the high 60s.  It was cloudy with some intermittent drizzle.  After a 15-minute warmup, I did two sets of eight 10-second sprints, starting at the top of each minute.  Maks told me to use "small resistance" on the boat, so I made it one golf whiffle ball. In between sets I gave myself seven minutes of easy paddling to move some fresh blood into my muscles and smooth my stroke back out.  I felt more fluid and efficient in the second set than in the first.

A decent amount of rain fell overnight and yesterday morning it was cloudy and damp and about 60 degrees.  I got in the boat and did a calm 40-minute paddle--Maks called it a "wake up" session, and that was what I needed because I was feeling pretty lethargic.

The cool, gloomy, rainy-ish weather continued all day yesterday.  I'm not sure I had much more giddy-up in the afternoon than I'd had in the morning, but I had a bigger workout to do regardless.  It was four sets of (3 minutes at 76 strokes per minute/1 minute rest/2 minutes at 80 spm/1 minute rest/1 minute at 84 spm), starting every 12th minute.  For some reason I hadn't thought the session looked like a big deal on paper, but once I was doing it I realized it was a bear.  Maks instructed me to work the 3-minute piece hard and then "try surviving" the higher stroke rates; it hurt a bit, but I did survive.  Maks also reminded me to "maintain the posture and technic."  Posture in the boat is something I've been paying more attention to lately at the behest of the physical therapist who's helping me with my neck ailment.  She said that by rolling my pelvis back a little and sitting more erect, I would encourage more abdominal involvement while paddling and take some stress off my arms and shoulders.  This has of course been known for decades in the sport, but it's an easy thing to slack off on if you're not giving it your specific attention.  My therapist also urged me to keep my neck in a more neutral position, with the ears aligned with the hips, if that makes any sense.  It's another measure to keep stress off my sore trap muscle.

This morning it was warmer and not a cloud in the sky, and I felt more pep in my step.  As usual, Maks gave me a longer, steadier session to do on a Sunday.  It was five sets of (5 minutes at 56 spm/3 minutes at 60 spm/2 minutes at 64 spm).  "Same as always," Maks said, "technic is the first focus during this session!"  So I went out and worked some more on sitting erect and keeping my neck in that neutral position, as well as on the stroke components I need to improve, planting the blade precisely for the catch while my top hand is near my head.  As the session went on I tried to do all those things not so mechanically but more fluidly, so I wasn't bobbing the boat or jerking it around or anything like that.  Whew.  The rest intervals were 1 minute between pieces and 2 minutes between sets, and I think those were mental breaks more than anything else.  Focusing hard on every move the body makes can wear a guy out.

I'm not feeling quite as beat to the socks as I felt this time last week.  Maybe that's because I didn't do some extracurricular surfing like I did last weekend.  Whatever the case, it was a pretty substantial training week and I'll enjoy a rest day tomorrow before getting back at it on Tuesday.

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Three days with a little of everything

On Tuesday I did a workout with some pretty extreme stroke rate variation: two sets of four (1 minute at 50 strokes per minute/1 minute at 80 spm/1 minute at 50 spm/1 minute at 70 spm/2 minutes rest) with some extra weight in the boat.  The idea was to put high power into each stroke at 50 spm and then carry that into the higher stroke rates, and somehow I had as good a "feel" for that as I've had all spring.

I paddled in gorgeous weather on Tuesday: sunny skies with the temperature warming up toward an afternoon high of 75 degrees.  It was the sort of day when I didn't want to be anyplace else as I sat in my boat on the water.  Then early Tuesday evening a front came through, bringing gusty north winds and a small amount of rain, and the temperature plummeted some 25 degrees in the space of a half-hour.  It dropped into the 30s overnight, and when I got to the river yesterday morning at was 43 degrees.  Fortunately the sun was out, keeping the day from feeling too miserable.  Actually, once I was up in the north end of the harbor, where there's some shelter from the wind, it was right pleasant, if not as glorious as Tuesday had been.

Yesterday's workout was two sets of three (3 minutes at 76 spm with moderate resistance/2 minutes rest/1 minute at 76 spm without resistance/3 minutes rest).  That 3-minute piece with resistance was hard.  Looking at the workout on paper, I thought the 3-minute rest interval at the end seemed long, but I wanted every second of it once I was in the boat doing the workout.  The fun part was that the 1-minute piece without resistance felt like I was flying.

It got cold again last night, but today the sun was out again and by the time I got to the river this morning it was warming up nicely.  I did another one of those "bread & butter" workouts: three sets of (5 minutes at 60 spm/4 minutes at 64 spm/3 minutes at 68 spm/2 minutes at 72 spm), with a minute rest between pieces and 2 minutes between sets.  As I usually do during this kind of workout, I tried to put solid power into each stroke but also work on mechanics and staying smooth.  There was no barge traffic out on the Mississippi and I enjoyed doing most of the workout out there.

I'm still feeling tired from yesterday's resistance workout.  I hope I can get recovered a bit more for what should be a hefty weekend of work.

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Monday photo feature

The selection trials for the U.S. national team in whitewater slalom took place last week at Charlotte, North Carolina.  The team is now set for competition in the 2021 World Cup series.

It is also now known who will represent the U.S. in women's kayak and women's canoe at the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer.  In both classes it'll be 17-year-old Evy Leibfarth of Bryson City, North Carolina.  The photo above, shot by Wayne Meverden, shows a 10-year-old Evy racing at Wausau, Wisconsin, in 2014.  At that time she was showing all the signs of a child prodigy.  When she reached age 15--the minimum age to compete internationally at the senior level--in 2019, she immediately began winning medals in World Cup competition.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Olympians in men's kayak and men's canoe are yet to be determined, as no athlete has a decisive lead in the points system that the U.S. uses for selection.  These Olympic team spots will be settled at the World Cup event at Prague in June.

As for flatwater sprint racing, my understanding is that the U.S. will have one athlete in the regatta at Tokyo: 18-year-old Nevin Harrison of Gig Harbor, Washington.  Harrison is the reigning world champion in women's 200-meter single canoe.

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A lot of work with a fun-ish moment thrown in

Friday was a day for stressing some muscles.  It started with a gym session, after which I went to the river for a hard resistance workout.  I did six 150-meter pieces in the A3 (more than 90 strokes per minute) zone.  Maks said do them with "big resistance," so I slid all three of my golf whiffle balls under the boat.  The session was hard.  Not lactic-acid hard--each piece took me between 45 and 50 seconds, and starting every sixth minute, I had plenty of time for my body to recover for the next piece--but hard on the muscles.  Maks urged me to look for a stroke rate that struck the right balance among intensity, speed, and power; I did the first several up near 100 spm, while for the second three I tried to ease the rate down below 95.

Yesterday morning I put some extra weight in my boat and commenced paddling.  I did four sets of (3 minutes on/1 minute off) at 48-50 spm, and four sets of (3 minutes on/1 minute off) at 60 spm.  48-50 spm is quite a low stroke rate, and the biggest nuisance is that there's plenty of time between strokes for water to drip off my blade and onto my feet.  I had a nice puddle going after a half-hour or so.  It was cool--around 60 degrees Fahrenheit--but fortunately not freezing cold.  The upside of the low stroke rate is that it gave me a chance to work on my stroke mechanics: I had time to make sure I was immersing my blade while my top hand was near my ear.  Meanwhile, 60 spm is not a very high stroke rate either, but it felt high after paddling at 48-50.

That was just a warmup for a more stark juxtaposition of stroke rates yesterday afternoon.  The workout was four sets of (4 minutes at 60 spm/2 minutes at 80 spm/3 minutes at 64 spm/1 minute at 84 spm/2 minutes rest).

I started the first set in the harbor and continued it as I headed out onto the Mississippi.  There was a barge rig heading upriver and creating some nice-looking waves.  When I finished the first set, I hit "pause" on my workout and ferried out to see what kind of surfing I could do.  The towboat was a fair distance upstream of me and I couldn't get to the best waves, but with a lot of hard sprints I managed a handful of brief rides on the smaller bumps.  I finally tore myself away and returned my attention to the 75 percent of my workout that remained.  I started the second set out on the river but quickly returned to the harbor where I would have no more distractions.  It wasn't until the third set that my body had settled down from the surfing and my head was back into the task at hand.

As the weather and the water both get warmer, those towboat wakes will be more and more tempting.  Oh well... at least today it didn't stop me from completing the assigned workout.  By the time I was back at the dock I had that pleasantly tired feeling after laying down a pile of hard work on the Memphis riverfront.  Supper tasted good last night, and the night's sleep was even better.

I was definitely tired this morning as I settled into the usual Sunday longer paddle.  I did four sets of (6 minutes at 56 spm/4 minutes at 60 spm/3 minutes at 64 spm/2 minutes at 68 spm).  Maks encouraged me to use this session "to 'fix' all the little glitches that have happened to the stroke during an intensive week."  Once again I focused on keeping my top hand near my head at the catch.  The lower the stroke rate, the easier this was to do.  Another thing I spent some time with was trying to move my body fluidly throughout each stroke, and that was harder to do at the lower stroke rates because of the long pause between strokes.

Once again, Friday through Sunday was the part of the week that wore me down.  A gym session and four in-the-boat workouts (and some wake surfing, too!) is a lot to cram into three days, at least for this 53-year-old non-world-class talent.  I'll be savoring tomorrow's day off.

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Doing my part to (a) end the pandemic, and (b) make boats go fast

On Monday I received my second of the two Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine shots.  I understand that it'll take a couple more weeks for the concoction to reach its full effect, but it feels good to have jumped through the last hoop en route to "fully vaccinated" status.

The concern now, at least in my country, is the number of people who remain unvaccinated.  If we don't get the critical percentage of the population vaccinated to achieve herd immunity, then viral transmission will continue at a level that facilitates the development of variants that might break through the vaccine.  And that affects me and the millions of others who have done right by their duty as citizens of this nation and this world.  If you're refusing to get vaccinated on the grounds that it's "your right" or "your personal choice" or whatever, stop it.  Seriously.  Your behavior is a very real threat to the health and well-being of others.

I spent the rest of Monday sitting around waiting to see what the after-effects of my shot might be.  I think most people have had no major problems, but I do know a handful of people who felt quite ill for a day or more after that second shot.  It appears that I have gotten off light: all I ended up having was some soreness and some itching in my left deltoid area where I got jabbed.

On Tuesday it was time to get back down to business on the water.  Maks promises that this new training cycle will put an emphasis on power-building.  He started me off with one of his bread-and-butter sessions: three sets of (5 minutes at 60 strokes per minute/4 minutes at 64 spm/3 minutes at 68 spm/2 minutes at 72 spm), with a minute rest between the pieces and 2 minutes between sets.  I felt fresh and ready to go after last week's light training load.

We'd had a few days of deliciously warm weather, but by yesterday morning that was over.  It started raining not long after I woke up, and the temperature didn't rise above 60 degrees Fahrenheit until around lunchtime.  Most of my paddling session would take place in a steady light rain.  The workout was two sets of three times (2 minutes on/2 minutes off) at 76 spm with moderate resistance on the boat, and then two sets of three times (1 minute on/3 minutes off) at 76 spm with heavier resistance.  For moderate resistance I used two golf whiffle balls, and then I slid a third ball down beneath the boat for the heavier resistance.  The pieces were quite taxing, but I recovered quickly from each one and felt reasonably fresh for the next one.

The daily high temperatures are expected to stay in the 60s until the middle of next week.  That's really not bad at all even though it's not quite the beach weather we've been having recently.  This morning was sunny and beautiful despite a stiff wind blowing from the north.  I went out and paddled for 60 minutes in the A1 stroke rate zone.  Maks said to make it a "moderate to strong" session, and I think I did that.  I did a nice loop out on the Mississippi, where you sort of have to paddle strong at times just to get where you want to go.

So far I'm feeling great.  Some heavy-duty work awaits this weekend.

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Monday photo feature

Spring has arrived for sure in the Mid South.  Last Tuesday was a day that simply sparkled.  Photo by Joe Royer.

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Relaxing a little

I'm nearing the end of a much easier week.  It's given my body a chance to recharge and internalize the benefits of the last several weeks' hard work.  I'm pleased to add that the blister that made me miserable for nearly a week following the Ocean Springs race is doing much better now.

On Tuesday I paddled with Joe for the first time in many weeks.  We did a loop of the harbor.  I used resistance on my boat and aimed to paddle around 56 strokes per minute, and worked on keeping my top hand closer to my head.

On Wednesday I did six sets of (10-second all-out sprint/2 minutes rest/1 minute at 80 spm/3 minutes rest).  I put as much power as I could into the 1-minute pieces, and they were just enough to get me breathing hard.  The idea was to carry the power of the A2 stroke rate into my all-out sprints.

Thursday was a 50-minute "calm" paddle in the A1 stroke rate zone.  Once again I worked on my stroke mechanics.  It's hard to work on your stroke during a hard training week; ideally, overhauling your stroke is something you do in the offseason.  But this easy week is giving me a chance to tweak the small details that have been giving me trouble.

Yesterday all I had was a gym session to do.  I focused on strength work and addressing the ailment I discussed in my last post.

This morning I did two sets of (4 times 1 minute at 60 spm with 1 minute recovery and 5 times 45 seconds at 76 spm with 75 seconds recovery).  It was the latest variation on the sort of "contrast" workout that Maks likes to assign--the idea is to paddle with power and precision at the lower stroke rate, and then carry that into the higher rate.  I did this workout with some extra weight in the boat: Maks specified 5 to 10 kilograms, so I put some barbell plates in the footwell that amounted to 13.75 pounds, or 6.24 kg.  The weight adds to the inertia you have to overcome with your stroke but it also enhances the boat's glide.

I'm out of the boat again tomorrow.  I think Maks sensed that I was ready for a mental break from paddling, and he wasn't wrong about that.  I haven't decided yet what I'm going to do, but it'll be some kind of easy and fun aerobic activity like riding my bike or going for a hike.  Monday will be a day off as usual, and I expect I'll be back to some more substantial training on Tuesday.

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So, what kind of "gym" am I doing these days?

It's been a long time since I've talked about it here, mostly because I just haven't felt like talking about it.  But I'm still having problems with the right trap muscle in my neck that started bothering me last fall.  It doesn't really interfere with my paddling, but it's tight and sore and generally unpleasant to live with.

Back in November and December I spent many sessions with my chiropractor, letting her have at it.  But for whatever reason, the ailment just never got any better.  She told me the next step would be to see an orthopedist and get referred for some physical therapy, and see what good that might do.  So I got in to the doctor about a month ago, and since then I've been visiting a physical therapy clinic that fortuitously is located just a short walk from my house.

My therapist, a young woman named Sharwil, is quite the taskmaster.  She's done some dry-needling and some deep tissue massage, but most of the therapy involves putting me through all kinds of stretches and weight exercises.  I have a list of dynamic stretches that she recommends I do before getting in the boat, and I have several exercises to do at home several times a week that are designed to strengthen the supportive musculature in my neck and shoulders area.  The exercises include a sort of sitting military press with dumbbells, shrugs with dumbbells, and an exercise I do with my arms while lying on my stomach.

Meanwhile, Friday has been my "gym" day since I started working with Maks.  So lately on that day I've been doing my rehab exercises and supplementing them with a couple of core exercises and some lunges to work my legs.

I'm now about four weeks into this rehab effort, and some days my neck feels significantly better while other days it seems as bad as ever.  Meanwhile, the extra work seems like a lot on top of the extra training load I've taken on in Maks's program.  For now I'm just trying to be patient and give all this work a chance to have an effect.

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Monday photo feature

The harbor comes to life with critters when springtime rolls around, and it's not unusual for a few waterfowl to take up residence at the marina for a while.  In recent weeks I've been seeing this American coot, a truly winsome bird.

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Improving weather and good, honest work

On the race schedule I posted this past Tuesday, there's an event listed for next Saturday, April 10.  I was thinking pretty seriously about attending this race even though it's a longish distance from here, over in South Carolina.  But what I hadn't noticed on the event's website is that there is a cap on the number of people allowed to enter (a COVID-19 protocol), and registration is now full.  I went ahead and put my name on the waiting list, but unless I hear something about that in the next day or so, I'll probably just plan on staying home next weekend because of all the arrangements I need to make to be away.  The next event I'm currently aware of in this part of the country is on Bayou Teche in Louisiana on May 15.

On Friday I did a gym session and then went out and paddled on another chilly, breezy morning.  But the sun was shining bright and the forecast said warmer weather was on the way, and that did a lot to elevate my mood.

After a long warmup paddle to the north end of the harbor, I commenced the workout: two sets of ten 15-second all-out sprints with 45 seconds recovery--"Close to a lactic workout!" said Maks.  I did the first set, rested 5 minutes, and then did the second; indeed I did get "close" to going lactic without quite getting all the way there.  My stroke rate in the first set was in the 110-120 strokes-per-minute range--that's about as high as I can go and still have some control.  For the second set, I made a conscious decision to lower the rate into 100-110 territory and pull as hard on each stroke as I could.  I don't think I sacrificed much speed (it's hard to measure that accurately over such a short sprint), and I was less winded at the end of each sprint.

Yesterday morning it was sunny again, and the wind had shifted to the south, a sign that the day would be warmer.  I did a calm 40-minute paddle that I used to work on my stroke.  The main problem is that I'm still punching too far forward with my top hand, and I need to keep it closer to my head so that I can catch the water at a smaller angle, making the whole working angle of the stroke bigger.  That's how Maks describes it, and I mostly understand what he's telling me, but I could use some kind of diagram to get it fully.  The drill Maks has suggested involves touching my ear with my top hand before each stroke, and yesterday morning it felt slightly less awkward that it had before, but it still didn't seem totally natural.  Improvement to one's stroke is never accomplished in one day.

A bear of a workout was on tap for yesterday afternoon: four timed 1000-meter pieces.  There was a south wind blowing maybe 6 or 7 knots, so as a warmup I paddled to the mouth of the harbor in order to do the 1000s with the wind at my back.  The pieces were to be done in the A2 zone, with a goal "to repeat four similar efforts," so I aimed for a rate in the low 80s; I ended up doing them mostly around 82-86 spm.

I started a new 1000 every 10th minute.  The session turned out to be nowhere near as painful as the two 2000-meter pieces I did back on March 4.  The pieces were hard, sure, but I just knocked them out, and that was that.  My times, along with the 500-meter splits, were as follows: 2:33/5:02, 2:30/4:52, 2:24/4:49, 2:25/4:47.

The weather was lovely yesterday afternoon, and there was more of the same this morning.  I wrapped up the latest training cycle with a "distance trial" of sorts: a "strong" 60-minute paddle in the A1 zone.  Maks made the purpose clear: "How much can you do in 60 minutes?  ...last workout of the harder cycle, you can give it your all!"  So I went out and did just that.  I tried to keep the stroke rate in the 60s, and put as much power as I could into each stroke.  About 15 minutes in I had to stop and back paddle because it felt like something was caught on my rudder; and later on I had to stop briefly several times to wipe sweat out of my eyes.  Besides those little setbacks I kept the boat moving reasonably well.  The last 10 minutes was the toughest, as my power seemed just about depleted.  When an hour had elapsed, my G.P.S. device reported this information:

The time is in the upper left corner (1.00 hour) and the distance is at lower left (10.88 kilometers, or about 6.76 miles).  I don't know why it says I'm moving at 0.1 mile per hour, since I was sitting on the dock when I took this photo.

In any case, I'm probably more tired from this workout than I was after those four 1000s yesterday.  Today's session was a grind.  I'm grateful to have a day off coming tomorrow.

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Fighting through some doldrums

Last week I got Joe to shoot some video of me in the harbor so that Maks could have a look at how my stroke is doing these days.  Unfortunately, I seem to be suffering from the same flaws that I was when Maks and I started working together in January.  Maks suggested a drill that promotes the mechanical improvements I need to make, and so it continues... my forward stroke is forever a work in progress.  I really shouldn't let it gnaw at me, but sometimes I do.  If my stroke never gets any better than it is now, at least it'll still be decent.  But I hate this feeling that I've taken a big fat step backward.

By Tuesday the blister at the base of my right thumb had healed some, but remained tender.  Once I was in the boat paddling it was uncomfortable if not as painful as it had been on Sunday.  As I warmed up I tried the stroke drill that Maks had suggested, and it felt flat-out awkward, as though I would have to learn to paddle all over again.

Those issues made Tuesday's workout seem much harder than it should have.  It was four sets of (5 minutes in the A1 stroke rate zone/2 minutes in the A2 zone/4 minutes in the A1 zone/2 minutes in the A2 zone/2 minutes rest).  One of the objectives was to make the lower-intensity efforts seem like recovery intervals even though they weren't.

(Just a reminder to those unfamiliar with Maks's stroke rate zones: A1 is around 60-75 strokes per minute; A2 is around 75 to 90; A3 is over 90.)

It was sunny and lovely when I got to the river Tuesday morning, but it clouded over as I paddled, and by that afternoon there were showers moving through with some heavy rain falling in the evening.  Behind all that, winter was flexing its muscles one last time.  When I got to the river yesterday morning it was overcast and 52 degrees Fahrenheit and the wind was howling out of the north.

For my warmup I paddled to the north end of the harbor so that I could do my workout with the wind at my back.  The assignment was five 500-meter pieces.  The first one was to be done entirely in the A2 zone; the second one, A3 for the first 100 meters and A2 for the rest; the third, A2 for 400 meters and A3 for the last 100; the fourth, A3 for the first and last 100s and A2 for the middle 300; and the fifth, A2 all the way through.

Maks didn't specify a recovery interval, so I started a new 500 every 6th minute.  That gave me a little over three and a half minutes to recover.  I shot for 80-82 spm in the A2 zone and 92-94 spm in the A3 zone.  My times for the pieces, all wind-aided because I was paddling toward the south, were as follows: 2:28, 2:23, 2:24, 2:24, 2:23.  Oddly, the higher-intensity pieces didn't seem to produce any significant improvement in time, but in those blustery conditions there were all kinds of things that could have been speeding me up or slowing me down.

That blister was still bothering me a lot as I paddled yesterday.  With the frustration over my stroke and the unsettled weather piled on top of that irritant, I have spent this week in a lousy mood and feeling like a complete klutz in my boat.

The temperature dropped into the 30s overnight, and this morning it was 48 degrees when I got to the river, made chillier by another stiff north wind.  But the sky was clear and sunny, and while the blister was still causing me some pain, it seemed more bearable today.  I did another of those variable-rate workouts that seem to be the bread and butter of Maks's training program: it was four sets of (4 minutes at 60 spm/2 minutes at 68 spm/3 minutes at 64 spm/1 minute at 72 spm).  There was 1 minute of rest between pieces, and 2 minutes between sets.  I felt about as good in the boat as I have since I raced last Saturday.  Maybe my mojo is back on the upswing.

Maks promises an easier week next week, but first I've got some tough sessions looming this weekend.

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