Working and resting and preparing to race

I mentioned in my last post how worn out I was from the previous two weeks of training.  I finally had a day off on Monday, and I basically crashed.  I got a modest amount of work done around the house and in the workshop, but I spent much of the day just lying around like a slug.

The rest did me some good: by Tuesday morning I was feeling fresh again.  I went to the river and did eight sets of (1 minute at 60 strokes per minute/1 min. at 50 spm/1 min. at 70 spm/1 min. at 50 spm/1 min. at 60 spm).  I did this with some extra weight in the boat.  The main objective was to maintain good posture and stroke mechanics and keep my blade pressure consistent throughout all the various stroke rates.  It was a pretty easy workout; it took more mental concentration, thinking about the varying stroke rates, than physical exertion.

This entire week is intended to be an easy week, both because of the harder weeks I've just done and because of the race I've got coming up this Saturday.  In keeping with that, yesterday was a break from paddling: Maks told me to go out and do some "non-specific endurance" activity.  I got on my bike and rode the Greenline out to Shelby Farms and back.  I always enjoy riding the elevated section of trail through the Wolf River bottoms just east of Interstate 240.  I was expecting the Wolf to be swollen from the heavy rain we'd had overnight, but it wasn't really.

I was back in the boat this morning doing another session with extra weight in the boat.  For me, the "extra weight" is a few barbell plates stacked in the space just fore of my surfski's footboard.  Usually I make it 12.5 pounds, which is about 5.67 kilograms.  Putting extra weight in the boat increases blade pressure on your paddle without killing your glide like a resistor does.  As Maks puts it, its purpose is "to stimulate you into feeling the catch and pull phase of the stroke even better."

Today's workout was five sets of (8 minutes on/2 minutes off).  It was a somewhat tiring endurance session but it didn't beat my body up too badly two days before a race.

I leave in the morning for Taylorsville Reservoir in Kentucky.  I expect it to take me around six hours.

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