Monday photo feature

Elaine Harold of Louisville, Kentucky, and Alessia Faverio of Asheville, North Carolina, race in the South Carolina low country last September.  I think I see some palmettos in the background.

This Saturday I'll be joining a couple of dozen other athletes for a race on Taylorsville Reservoir near Mount Eden, Kentucky.  Elaine is among those signed up to race.  The last I checked Alessia wasn't signed up, but I hope she knows we'd love to see her there.

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Fighting through some tribulations

It's the Memorial Day holiday weekend here in the U.S., when people like to fire up their backyard grills.  I was invited to some friends' backyard function yesterday afternoon, so I had to do some shuffling of my training schedule.  That was merely one of the difficulties that cropped up this weekend.

Friday morning I did a gym session and then headed down to the river to do seven sets of (4 minutes on/1 minute off) at a "strong" A1 stroke rate.  Unfortunately, several minutes after I left the dock my G.P.S. device flashed a message that its battery was low, and then shut down on me.  That was odd because I had charged it up just a couple of days earlier, and all spring one recharge per week had been adequate for my seven in-the-boat workouts each week.  Anyway, there I was with no way to time myself and no cadence sensor.  So I had to improvise.  Maks had suggested a "70ish spm" stroke rate, so for each piece I paddled at my best guess of what that rate should be, and did 280 strokes.  Then I took what seemed to me like a 1-minute break.  I doubt that what I did was accurate to the letter of what Maks had assigned, but I got a workout that was in keeping with the spirit of it.

The episode was a reminder that we depend on these gadgets at our peril.  I think I've had my G.P.S. device for close to ten years, and that makes it a Methuselah in the world of modern electronics.

My plan for Friday afternoon was to do the workout scheduled for Saturday morning.  My mail arrived while I was at home having lunch, and that added another item to my afternoon agenda: the surfski that I keep down at the dock was due for new rudder lines, and the new lines, which I'd ordered from the Epic Kayaks east Tennessee office, arrived in the mail.  Changing the lines in a surfski is never as simple as it ought to be; every time I do it it seems to make me want to shout a few expletives at the top of my lungs.  But I wasn't thinking about that as I headed back to the river Friday afternoon.  I figured I would spend 20 or 30 minutes changing out the lines and then fussing with them until the pedals were moving the rudder to my liking, and then I would hop in the boat and execute the workout that my coach had designed just for me.

It didn't go well.  After toiling in vain to get the new lines to feed through the tubes that run through the boat's bowels, I realized that said tubes were broken.  Lacking the tools to address such a problem, I stood there on the dock with a boat that I couldn't really paddle.  So I came back home with a feeling of utter defeat.

I'm a regimented sort who bristles whenever there's a job to do and I fail to get it done.  But skipping that workout might not have been the worst thing for me at that moment.  I was feeling tired to the core, not just from the morning's gym and paddling sessions, but from the last couple of weeks in general, in which I'd faced the hardest training of the year so far.  I'd been trying to grin and bear it, knowing that next week will be easier, but I was feeling pretty beat-up.  My arm and shoulder muscles were achy, and by yesterday morning it felt like I might have strained something in my right shoulder/pectoral area.  Maybe it happened during the gym session, or maybe it happened during the pretty hard paddling I did Friday morning--those lower-stroke-rate "power-paddling" workouts are as tough on my body as anything I do in the boat.

In any case, I knew I had to proceed with caution in yesterday morning's workout.  I took one of my other boats down to the riverfront and eased into a 20-minute warmup.  It didn't seem that I was stressing the ailing area directly, so I proceeded with three sets of (4 minutes at 80 spm/1 minute rest/3 minutes at 80 spm/1 minute rest/1 minute all-out).  Maks described it as a "hard VO2 Max session designed to challenge you when you are the most tired--in the last minute of the set."  And I most definitely was tired by that last minute; I struggled to paddle at more than 100 spm.  But overall I felt pretty good in the boat; there was never that moment when I wondered whether I would make through the whole workout.  Knowing that this was my last hard session of the current training block helped a lot.  Meanwhile, my recharged G.P.S. device seemed to be back working just fine, and I was pleased not to have to go get a new one for the time being.

Yesterday afternoon I had a lovely time in my friends' backyard, thank you very much.

This morning my right shoulder/pectoral area still felt a little off, but perhaps slightly improved since yesterday.  I take it as a good sign that yesterday's hard workout didn't make it worse.  Today's session was a calm 80-minute paddle--just what I needed to smooth my technique back out and let my muscles relax after a couple of tough weeks.  This coming week will be an easier one, and I'll be attending a race on Saturday.  If the race were right now I'd be in big trouble, but with any luck by Saturday I'll be feeling rested, focused, and ready to do well.

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Working to build some power

On Tuesday morning I got in the boat, warmed up for ten minutes, and did two sets of five (3 minutes on/2 minutes off) at 68-70 strokes per minute, with some extra weight in the boat.  I put as much power into each stroke as I could, trying to explode through each one while maintaining good form.  I wasn't halfway through the first piece when I realized that this workout was tougher than it had looked to me on paper.  I wasn't particularly winded but I was really feeling it in my arms, and of course that's how it's supposed to be in these power-building sessions.

It was mostly sunny and hot Tuesday, but yesterday it was overcast and cooler, and a steady drizzle fell the whole time I was in the boat.  I warmed up and did three sets of five (90 seconds on/90 seconds off) at 80 spm.  I had "big" resistance on the boat for the first set, moderate resistance for the second set, and no resistance for the third set.  For the second straight day, my muscles took a beating.  Maks told me to "make sure you catch just as well when the resistance is smaller," and I think I did that--the last set with no resistance seemed just as hard as the first set with big resistance.

Hotter weather was back today.  It was perhaps the closest thing to an "easy day" I'll have this week: a sprint session.  I did four sets of (10 seconds on/110 seconds off/20 seconds on/160 seconds off/30 seconds on).  Maks didn't specify a recovery interval after the 30-second sprint (i.e., between the sets), so I made it 210 seconds, just to keep the arithmetic sequence going.  Maks also didn't say whether to do flying starts or standing starts, so I decided to do flying starts for the 10-second sprints, so I could get as many strokes as possible in those ten seconds, while starting the 20- and 30-second sprints from rest, because I feel like i can never get enough start practice.

The sprints went smoothly enough.  The hardest thing about them was that my muscles were tired from the previous two days.

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Monday photo feature

I've done my share of paddling in the rain, but I never had any decent photos of it because of the obvious issues with using a camera in the rain.  But last Tuesday, as I paddled with Joe Royer in the harbor, a storm cell moved in and doused us for some ten minutes, and Joe decided to capture the joyous moment with his smart phone.  The wet screen gave him some trouble as he tried to get the device to respond to his finger-touches, but at last he was able to shoot this photograph.

Like most people, I tend to cherish the pleasant sunny days out on the water.  But rivers and lakes have a distinct beauty in inclement weather that's well worth whatever small amount of discomfort you might experience when paddling on such days.

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Rising temperatures and intensity levels

The solstice is still a month off, but summer is definitely on its way here in the Mid South.  This weekend the mercury is rising above 90 degrees Fahrenheit for the first time this year.  I think I last had the heat on in my house in mid to late March, and for the last six or eight weeks I've been savoring the time of year when I can be comfortable with the windows open and the ceiling fans running.  But I'm afraid the time has come to turn on the central air conditioning.

Fortunately the Mississippi River, where there's almost always a breeze blowing, is a nice place to be on a hot day.  That's where I went after a gym session Friday morning.  I did four sets of (5 minutes at 60 strokes per minute/3 minutes at 64 spm/2 minutes at 68 spm).  Maks didn't specify how much power I should exert, so I kept it moderate because I was tired from the past several days and I knew some tough sessions were coming up this weekend.  There was quite a stiff wind blowing from the southeast and it was very choppy out on the Mississippi, and maintaining these low stroke rates in those conditions took some extra discipline and focus.  So it was a good balance workout and an exercise for my brain even though I wasn't killing my body.

One thing I've learned is that a typical Maks Frančeškin workout encourages contrasts of one kind or another, and that was the case again yesterday morning.  I did two sets of a pair of (4 times 1 minute on/1 minute off).  Within each set, I did the first four pieces at 50 spm and the second four at 70 spm.  Maks's instructions were to put as much power as I could into the lower-stroke-rate pieces and then paddle smooth and calm at the higher stroke rate.  And so, oddly, the 50-spm pieces hurt a little more than the 70-spm ones.  I wouldn't say they really hurt, actually, but they were rather strenuous just the same.

I did part of the workout out on the Mississippi, and as I was finishing the first set a barge rig was coming downriver generating some decent-looking waves.  So I took a break between sets to surf a little.  The waves weren't the juiciest I've ever seen but they were playful and even a bit downwind-like in their behavior, so I got a tiny bit of practice in the skills I'll need out in the Columbia Gorge in July.  I take whatever I can get around here.

Yesterday afternoon it was time for a workout that would hurt: two sets of four (60 seconds on/60 seconds off) followed by two sets of six (15 seconds on/15 seconds off), all at high intensity.  In the first set of 60-second pieces I paddled around 100 spm; in the second set I lowered that slightly, to around 96-98 spm.  I took a 7-minute break after each of those first two sets.  When I got to the 15-second pieces I paddled at as high a rate as I could--close to 120 spm.  I could feel my form breaking down a bit, and during the 4 minutes I took between sets I paddled very easy with the best strokes I could to get it back.  The first two sprints in the last set felt smooth, but then I started falling apart again.

Then it was over.  I've mentioned in the past that these "lactic capacity" sessions are painful, but they go by quickly.  The endorphin rush had me feeling good once I was back on the dock.  Maks promises that I "will reap huge benefits" from this workout later on, so that's something to be happy about.

Today it was time to calm everything back down with the usual Sunday endurance paddle.  This week it was broken up into five 13-minute pieces with 2 minutes recovery after each one.  The stroke rates were 60 spm, then 64 spm, then 68 spm, then 64 spm, then 60 spm.  At these low rates it was a good time to concentrate on stroke mechanics and good posture in the boat.

That's it for a rather tough week!  I think there's at least one more substantial week in the current cycle, so I'll try to get some rest during my day off tomorrow and dive back in on Tuesday.

For more information on what this blog is about, click here.

No rest for the wicked

Last week's training plan was easier than it might have been because of my race on Saturday.  When Maks sent me this week's plan he said it would be pretty tough, and I do believe he wasn't kidding.

When I went to the river Tuesday morning there was a system of storms moving through the region, and while I got rained on only just a little, there was an east wind blowing that sort of swirled and whipped all over the place, especially under the bridges.  The workout was two sets of five 5-minute pieces with 1 minute recovery, with some extra weight in the boat.  The first set was to be done at 60 strokes per minute, and the second at 68 spm.  In the early going it didn't seem like a big deal, but I was starting to feel it in my arms by the last piece of the first set, and then the second set with the higher stroke rate was more taxing, especially the last piece.

Yesterday's workout was pretty substantial: five 1000-meter pieces at 76-84 spm, starting every 12th minute.  Maks told me to shoot for consistent times for all five.  I was hoping to break 5 minutes for them all, but the weather was still unsettled: a strong, gusty wind was blowing from the east-southeast, meaning I would often be paddling in a beam wind in the harbor.  So I told myself not to get all upset if I couldn't break 5:00 in all of them.

As it turned out, I did break 5:00 in all of them: 4:58, 4:49, 4:53, 4:48, 4:47.  I think the faster pieces took place in a more favorable wind, while the slower ones were the result of beam winds blowing me around.

Going into yesterday's workout I didn't feel particularly fazed, because I'd just done a race last Saturday that amounted to a series of 1000s.  Surely a mere five 1000s with 7 minutes to recover in between would be no big deal.  But nope!  Yesterday's workout was tough.  Last Saturday I had the excitement of competition and the flow of adrenaline, whereas yesterday I had to rely on sheer will to get it done.  I did feel good once it was over with.

Today was yet another windy day.  I went to the river and did a "sprint session with contrast": six sets of (15-second all-out sprint/2-minute rest/150 meters at 80 spm with moderate resistance/3-minute rest).  The idea was to carry the power from the 150-meter pieces into the short sprints.

So far this week of training has me good and tired, with a pretty loaded weekend still to come.

Meanwhile, here's an update on the Hernando DeSoto Bridge situation that I talked about last week: the span remains closed to automobile traffic, but river traffic has been allowed to resume.  Local paddler and friend Adam Davis paddled out there and shot a few photos, including this one:

The steel beam is sheared about 75% through, according to Adam.  Transportation authorities have announced a repair plan, but it could be some months before the bridge is back open.

For more information on what this blog is about, click here.

Race schedule update

Now that another race has been run, it's time to look ahead.  The events listed below are the ones I'm currently aware of and either will or might attend in 2021.

June

5  Taylorsville Lake Paddle Battle.  Taylorsville Reservoir, Mount Eden, Kentucky.  A 10-mile (16-km) flatwater race.  Register

July

15-17  Gorge Downwind Championships.  Columbia River, Stevenson, Washington.  A race (course yet to be determined) in the legendary downwind conditions of the Columbia River Gorge on the border between Oregon and Washington.

August

7  Ohio River Paddlefest.  Ohio River, Cincinnati, Ohio.  A 9-mile (14.5-km) race down this major artery of the Midwest United States.  Register

October

9  River Rat Canoe and Kayak Race.  Ouachita River, West Monroe, Louisiana.  A 6.5-mile (10.5-km) race down a Class I river.

For more information on what this blog is about, click here.

Monday photo feature

At the Chitimacha canoe and kayak race on Bayou Teche from Jeanerette to Charenton on Saturday, Kim Schulte of Mandeville, Louisiana, was the top female finisher.  She's pictured in the foreground here, moving out from the starting line with Denise D'Abundo, Nathanial LeBlanc and Toni Darden, and Elmer Landry.  Photo by Tom Schulte.

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Monday music feature

In Friday's post I referred to the song "Ode to Billy Joe."  It was a hit for Bobby Gentry, but for me the definitive version is this recording by Mr. Yusuf Hazziez (born Joseph Arrington, Jr.), who performed under the name Joe Tex.  Give it a listen and you'll want to go spit some watermelon seeds up there on Choctaw Ridge.

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Racing in the Bayou

I woke up yesterday morning after a poor night of sleep thanks to some particularly obnoxious neighbors in the campground at Morgan City.  There must have been a yahoo convention in town.  I'd set my alarm for 5 AM but woke up around 4:20, and I decided to go ahead and get out of that place.  The race site was still about 40 miles up the road, and along the way I stopped at a gas station for a cup of coffee.  I sat on my truck's tailgate in the parking lot and had some cereal and some fruit as dawn broke in the eastern sky.

I reached the town of Jeanerette, where the race was to start, just before 7 o'clock.  The registration list was small but full of familiar faces, and gradually they began to trickle in.  The race organizers had arranged a shuttle van, so we unloaded our boats and gear on the banks of Bayou Teche at Jeanerette and then moved our vehicles down to the finish at Charenton.

My neck and back were stiff after my unrestful night, and I stretched my entire body and did my best to work out the kinks.  Race directors Ray Pellerin and Scott Moore welcomed the participants in a ceremony that included the mayor of Jeanerette and other local officials.  (Longtime racing friend Tave Lamperez was originally the race director, but sadly was not present as he attended the funeral of his mother.)  As 10 o'clock approached we were in our boats drifting toward the starting line for the 10-mile (16-kilometer) journey down the bayou to Charenton.  From what I could tell, the river seemed to be flowing at about 0.9 mile per hour.

At 10 AM sharp the mayor blew a loud air horn, and off we went.  I sprinted into the lead and checked my peripheral vision to see who would give chase.  200 meters in it was clear that my main competition was just who I'd expected it would be, Christian Massow of Cypress, Texas.  A native Hamburger who now works as an engineer in the Houston area, Christian was a member of the German national team several decades ago.  In more recent years he has been taking masters titles at the 200-, 500-, and 1000-meter distances at the U.S. national flatwater sprint regatta.  In short, he's a formidable adversary.

I led with Christian on my starboard wake for the first two kilometers.  Then I backed off and let him take the lead.  I was feeling good in the boat and boldly I made a plan to control the plot line of the race: I would draft for a kilometer, then lead for a kilometer, then draft for a kilometer, and so on.

But not long after I retook the lead at the 3-kilometer mark, the unexpected happened: Christian dropped off the pace, leaving me all alone.  Sure, it was a lucky break for me in a way, but now I had the challenge of staying focused and keeping my boat moving with authority for another 12-plus kilometers.  I decided to stick to the same basic plan: push the pace every other kilometer while backing off ever so slightly during the other kilometers.

So that's what I did, and as the race went on I realized that I was averaging faster than 5 minutes per kilometer.  I was excited about that until I remembered that I had almost a mile-per-hour current helping me along.  Then again, I was paddling into a pretty good headwind for the entire race that probably offset some of that benefit.  I tried not to overthink it and just appreciate the fact that I was feeling good.  While a racer never likes a headwind, it was nice to have it keeping me cool as the temperature rose toward 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

By 12 kilometers I was definitely feeling some fatigue setting in.  I lowered the stroke rate a bit during my "on" kilometers while trying to continue taking powerful strokes.  As I moved past the one-hour mark, I set a goal of finishing the race under 80 minutes, assuming it was a precise 16 km.

As it turned out, the course wasn't quite 16 kilometers: my G.P.S. device measured it at about 15.2 km (9.4 miles).  I crossed the finish line with a time of one hour, 15 minutes, 14 seconds.

Pleased with my effort, I ferried to the far bank and paddled easily back upriver to watch the other competitors come in.  I fully expected to see Christian not far back, but it turned out he had faded back into third.  The fourth-place overall finisher was also the first female: Kim Schulte of Mandeville, Louisiana, looked strong as she finished under an hour and a half.

The complete results are as follows:

1.  ELMORE HOLMES, K1 race male 1:15:14

2.  BRAD REX, K1 race male 1:22:48

3.  CHRISTIAN MASSOW, K1 race male 1:26:04

4.  KIMBERLY SCHULTE, K1 race female 1:27:40

5.  ELMER LANDRY, K1 race male 1:32:55

6.  MATTHEW BONDURA, K1 race male 1:35:16

7.  DENISE D'ABUNDO, K1 race female 1:46:02

8.  JOEY STRUM, C1 race male 1:50:58

9.  TONI DARDEN AND NATHANIAL LEBLANC, K2 rec mixed 2:02:08

10.  JILL SHOREY, K1 rec female 2:02:22

11.  CYNTHIA BOYER, K1 rec female 2:39:14

Christian had in fact "bonked" in the race--he cited an inadequate nutrition plan--and was understandably frustrated afterward.  I assured him that I'd had a few such days myself and probably will have a few more before I'm all done racing.  He's a quality athlete and person and I have no doubt he'll be back.  I first raced Christian nine years ago at Ocean Springs, Mississippi, and he beat me by some three and a half minutes on that 15-kilometer course.  Since then he and I have been pretty evenly matched, with him beating me sometimes and me beating him sometimes.  I suppose I could think of yesterday's victory as payback for that spanking he laid on me back in 2012.

I loaded my boat on the car, changed into dry clothes, socialized a bit with the other racers, and enjoyed the hamburger lunch that the race organizers provided.  There were a few burgers left over and Mister Ray insisted I take a second one, and I gladly wolfed it down.  As soon as the awards had been handed out I embarked on the trip home.  The hardest part was getting out of the state of Louisiana: because of the swampy terrain of southern Louisiana, there's no direct way to drive anywhere, and a wreck on Interstate 10 near Baton Rouge slowed my progress to a crawl for a while.  Once I was headed north on Interstate 55 I finally began to click off the miles.  Once the sun went down I was able to pick up KMOX from Saint Louis on my AM radio: the Cardinals were playing a late-evening game on the west coast, so I had that for entertainment north of Jackson.  I arrived home around 10 PM.  I was grateful to be crashing in my own bed.

I woke up this morning still feeling the effects of all the stress my body had experienced both in and out of the boat.  I took the time to do some full-body stretching, and it was late morning by the time I got down to the river.  Maks had assigned some "easy endurance" paddling for the day after my race, 60 to 75 minutes in duration.  I made it 70.  I've spent the rest of today unpacking the car and putting gear away and settling back into normal life.

For more information on what this blog is about, click here.

Race week training

The week started overcast, breezy, and cool with some occasional showers.  It was a little annoying having to get some of my cooler-weather clothing back out, but the truth is we’ll be missing this kind of weather by mid-summer.

On Tuesday I went out and did what Maks called an “aerobic pyramid”: three 18-minute pieces with 2 minutes recovery in between, paddling at 64 strokes per minute for the first and third pieces and at 68 spm for the second.  The biggest challenge over an 18-minute piece is keeping my mind on task so that my stroke rate doesn’t wander all over the place.  I used the time to visualize what this Saturday’s race might be like.  I’ve always been pretty good at staying laser-focused on what’s happening in a race, but one can never get too much practice.

Wednesday was breezy and cool again but the sun was out.  My workout was four sets of four (1 minute on/1 minute off) at 80 spm, with "big resistance" (all three golf whiffle balls) for the first set, no resistance for the second set, "moderate resistance" (two balls) for the third, and no resistance for the fourth.  It was the latest of many power-building workouts, this time at the pace of a longish race like the one this Saturday.  The pieces with resistance were tough, but not as painful as I thought they might be.

Yesterday morning I went out for a sprint session: eight 15-second sprints, with a flying start every 4th minute.  It was a good workout to do two days before a race.  Maks told me to put all the power I had into them, and I also focused on staying smooth.  I've long thought a smooth sprint is a good sprint, just like in my woodworking shop I believe that seamless joinery is strong joinery, and just like a rock climber will tell you that a neat knot in a rope is a strong knot.

It was beautiful down on the riverfront yesterday morning, with clear blue skies and a lighter breeze than we'd had the previous few days.  It was dead calm on the Mississippi, and I did a couple of my sprints out there.

Readers here in the U.S. have likely heard the news about the Hernando DeSoto Bridge that carries Interstate 40 over the Mississippi here at Memphis: it's shut down indefinitely, for reasons detailed in this article.  Even barge traffic on the river is suspended while authorities determine whether the bridge can continue supporting its own weight.  I've paddled under the part of the bridge that spans the harbor, but I haven't yet tried to paddle under it out on the main river, so it remains to be seen whether any law enforcement types have a problem with me doing that.  Whatever the case, it's a serious disruption of both a major road artery across this nation and the continent's biggest waterway.

This morning it was time to hit the road, bound for the Louisiana Bayou Country for tomorrow's race.  Maks had given me a pre-race workout to do, so I planned to do that en route.  When I’m traveling down through Mississippi my go-to training site is usually Enid Reservoir in Yalobusha County, but today I had a small item of business to take care of in the Delta town of Sumner, so I looked for another alternative.  The Tallahatchie River, made famous in the Bobby Gentry song “Ode to Billy Joe,” flows near Sumner, so when I crossed a bridge over what looked like a river on my way out of town, I decided to stop and paddle.

The water was muddy, just as Ms. Gentry sang.  But once I was on the water I noticed there was very little current even by Delta standards, and several hundred meters from the highway bridge the riverbed disappeared into dense vegetation.  I suspected that I must not be on the main Tallahatchie, but one of its oxbows (a check of the Google map later confirmed this).  Fortunately there was plenty of water from the recent storms in the area, and the oxbow was long in the other direction, so it worked just fine for my workout.  It was two sets of (6 times 1 minute on/1 minute off at 60 spm and 4 times 45 seconds on/75 seconds off at 76 spm).  I used light resistance on the boat so I could really feel the pressure on the blades.

I expect not too many surfskis get paddled in the Tallahatchie watershed or anyplace else in the Mississippi Delta.  In any case, thanks to all my moseying around in northern Mississippi, it was dark by the time I got to where I’m spending the night, at a campground in Morgan City, Louisiana.  My site was hard to find in the dark—just my luck, I didn’t think to bring a flashlight—and the place is crowded with noisy people.  Sigh... Time to try to get some rest.

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Monday photo feature

It's just about time for my second race of 2021.  This Saturday I plan to participate in the Chitimacha canoe and kayak race on Bayou Teche in southern Louisiana.  The 10-mile (16-km) race starts at the town of Jeanerette and finishes at Charenton, passing through a part of the Chitimacha Nation.

The current weather forecast for the Bayou Country calls for mostly-sunny skies and Fahrenheit temperatures in the low 80s this weekend.

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A mostly laid-back weekend

As the easy week continued, I had just a gym session to do on Friday.

Friday was a gorgeous day, but by yesterday morning it had turned overcast and chilly with some rain moving through the area.  In the boat I wore the same thing I'd been wearing all week--a pair of swim trunks and a short-sleeve shirt--and at first I thought I was underdressed, but once I got going I felt fine.  The workout was three sets of four (90 seconds on/90 seconds off) at 76-80 strokes per minute.  I did the first set with moderate resistance on the boat, the second set with small resistance, and the third set with no resistance.  So it started hard but got easier with each set.  I focused pretty hard on my stroke mechanics; I'd been working on those bugs in my stroke a lot at lower stroke rates, and now I had a chance to carry whatever progress I'd made to a higher rate.

This morning a thunderstorm with strong winds blew in just as I was walking down the ramp to the dock.  The rain didn't last more than ten minutes or so, but I ended up paddling in a 15-20 knot south wind.  I stayed in the harbor where I would have some shelter.  I concluded my "easy" week with a scaled-back version of the typical Sunday workout: three sets of (5 minutes at 60 spm/3 minutes at 64 spm/2 minutes at 68 spm).  Just a nice aerobic session with a lot of stroke practice.

Tomorrow is a day off, and then I guess I'll be back to serious business Tuesday.

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Taking it easy

Joe and I did a very easy loop of the harbor Tuesday morning.  It had rained heavily overnight and more storms would pass through in the afternoon, but we enjoyed a nice window that morning.  When the messy weather finally moved out there was some cooler, drier air behind it, and yesterday and today have been sunny and delightful.

This is an "easy" week between more substantial training blocks.  Such a week typically includes the same types of workouts that I do during a harder week, but the intensity is lower or the reps are fewer or the recovery intervals are longer.  Yesterday morning I did three sets of two (5 minutes on/1 minute off) with some extra weight in the boat--an "aerobic power session."  I did the first set at 56 strokes per minute, the second at 60 spm, and the third at 64 spm.

Today it was time for what Maks called "a true speed session--long breaks, short efforts, and flying starts."  I did twelve 10-second all-out sprints at 3-minute intervals.  I did what I always try to do during short sprints: move my body as smoothly as I can, with all muscles firing in unison.  I was getting in about 20 strokes in each sprint, meaning I was doing about 120 spm.  That's about as fast as I can make my body turn over while still having a decent amount of control.

The easy week continues through the weekend.  I'm hoping it'll be restful and enjoyable.

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Monday photo feature

For those of you just tuning into this blog, allow me to re-introduce the coach I'm working with over the Internet this season: Maks Frančeškin of Ljubljana, Slovenia.  Anybody interested in learning more about Maks's coaching services should visit his website.  Also, Face Book users can "like" his page, "MaksFit," on that social media platform.

This might come as a shock, but I am not Maks's highest-profile athlete.  He's just wrapped up a few weeks of selection trials in which his Slovenian athletes were vying for the chance to compete internationally in flatwater sprint, whitewater slalom, and downriver (wildwater) racing.

As a result of these trials, one of Maks's athletes is now an Olympian: Eva Terčelj (pictured above) will compete in women's kayak slalom at Tokyo this summer.  She comes in as the reigning world champion, having taken the title at La Seu d'Urgell, Spain, in 2019.

Maks will be busy the rest of the summer as well, as at least a dozen of his athletes will represent Slovenia in other international competitions.  Simon Oven, Anze Urankar, Tim Novak, Ana Steblaj will race in the senior world championships and European championships; Ana Steblaj, Urban Novak, Ziva Jancar, Nejc Gradisek will race in the under-23 worlds and the World Cup series; and Tjas Til Kupsch, Matevz Kampjut, Nika Ozimc, Sara Globokar, Helena Domajnko have qualified for the junior world championships.

If I ever make it over to Slovenia, perhaps I'll have the honor of getting spanked in a workout or two by some of these athletes.

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Another loaded weekend

I started off Friday with a gym session before heading down to the river.  I did a speed session in the boat: two sets of five 20-second sprints.  Within each set I started at 2-minute intervals, and I took a 5-minute break between sets.  Per Maks's instructions, I did a flying start for three of the sprints in each set, and started from rest in the other two.

When paddling "all-out" it's hard to focus on all the various stroke mechanics, but in general I feel like I'm sprinting well if my body is moving fluidly.  My first couple of sprints felt a bit sloppy, but eventually I smoothed things out.

Yesterday morning's session consisted of six times (2 minutes on/1 minute off) at 50 strokes per minute and four times (3 minutes on/1 minute off) at 64 spm.  I used these lower-stroke-rate pieces to concentrate on the mechanics that I'd had to breeze over on Friday.

Yesterday afternoon's workout was one I'd been eying with some trepidation all week.  It was two sets of four (30 seconds on/30 seconds off) followed by two sets of six (15 seconds on/15 seconds off), all done at an A3 stroke rate (more than 90 spm).  The objective, as described by Maks, was "developing lactic capacity via short bursts of heavy intensity efforts combined with equally short breaks.  To put it short--your goal is to 'kill' yourself doing it!"  At least he put "kill" in quotation marks.

In the first set of 30/30s I used a stroke rate a little under 100 spm, and while it was plenty tiring, I didn't feel like it "killed" me.  So when I started the second set about five minutes later, I bumped it up to around 106-108.  Now I was starting to get killed.  Once I was doing the 15/15s I nudged the rate up even a bit more, and my heart rate went with it.

And then... the workout was over.  That's the good thing about these intense lactic sessions--they go by quickly.  There's not much time to think about how miserable you are.  I did a nice long cool-down, and once I was back on the dock I felt better than I'd felt before paddling.  When I paddled with Dawid Mocke in South Africa last year, he called it the "post-workout chill."  It's endorphins, basically.  By the time I was back home the endorphins had worn off and I was tired, but it felt good to have another good workout in the bank.

I wearily got myself back to the river this morning for the last session of the training block: a 90-minute paddle.  It was calm out on the Mississippi with just a mild south wind and no barge traffic in sight.  I tried to relax, take good strokes, and enjoy the river.  There's an easier week coming up--a chance for my body to rebuild itself.

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