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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