We've enjoyed cooler weather in the Mid South this week.
My assigned workout for Tuesday was "non-specific endurance"--hiking or bike-riding or some such thing. But Tuesday is also when I paddle with Joe. So I combined some easy paddling with out-of-the-boat endurance by riding my bike to and from the riverfront.
Yesterday I did a workout that wasn't super-hard, but not exactly easy, either. It was three sets of four (90 seconds on/90 sec. off), with the first and third sets done at 75 strokes per minute and the second set done at 85 spm. Maks explained that 90 seconds would be short enough for me to focus hard on all the technical aspects of paddling without too tired. He was right, but I was feeling pretty tired nevertheless once I got deep into the workout. I tried my best to do all the right things: sit upright, anchor my stroke well, and have all my muscles firing in unison from my arms and shoulders through my pelvic area and legs.
This morning I did a somewhat unusual endurance session: pieces of 9 minutes/8 min./7 min./6 min./5 min./4 min./3 min./2 min./1 min. at 60-64 spm. Maks didn't specify a recovery interval between sets, so I made it a minute. I concentrated once again on all the technical stuff and tried to put solid power into each stroke.
I'm glad I told Maks to give me some workouts for this more laid-back period I'm going through. I like having something to do and it helps motivate me to get to the river each day.
In other news, an athlete from the United States has won the gold medal in the Olympic flatwater sprint regatta for the first time since 1988. 19-year-old Nevin Harrison of Gig Harbor, Washington, posted the fastest times in the heats, semis, and finals en route to claiming the women's 200-meter single canoe title. Harrison had come out of nowhere to win this event at the 2019 world championships, and her performance in Tokyo this week erases any doubt that she is for real. She is also the first female single-blade gold medalist in Olympic flatwater history, as this is the first Olympics in which women are allowed to compete in canoe classes.
Harrison is the only U.S. athlete in this Olympic regatta. When I was growing up the U.S. always had a large contingent in flatwater sprint, with K2s and K4s and C2s and the whole nine yards. But in both 2008 and 2012, only two U.S. athletes qualified for the Olympics, and the number has shrunk to one in 2016 and this year. The U.S. flatwater sprint program has not been strong in recent decades, but I believe the biggest reason for such tiny rosters in the modern-day Games is the increasingly stingy athlete quotas imposed by the I.O.C. As more and more made-for-TV events are allowed onto the Olympic programme, I can't help but be infuriated by the I.O.C.'s treatment of sports like mine, and I'm feeling less enthusiastic than ever about the Olympic paddling events (through no fault of the athletes). I'm glad, at least, that my country's lone entrant this year is an extremely good one.
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