Monday photo feature

I reach the finish line just over an hour after I'd started at the Ohio River Paddlefest at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 2019.  Photo by Gerry James.

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Pedaling and paddling

It's taken me all weekend to recover from that "bike-plus" workout I did on Thursday.  My quads and pecs have been quite sore and only today do I feel that starting to ease a little.  On Thursday I increased my number of laps on the bike from two to three, meaning that I had additional sets of pushups and Hindu squats to do; I also increased the number of Hindu squats per set, so maybe it all added up to a bit more than my body was ready for.  Oh well... soreness simply means that your muscles are in the process of repairing themselves, and that's where they get stronger.

I was glad to have nothing but a gym session, which includes no leg work, to do on Friday.  Yesterday I was back in the boat doing another 80-minute endurance paddle.  One of the things the Mocke Paddling School requires for participation in its downwind camps is the ability to paddle 10 kilometers in 70 minutes.  Since they already know me they aren't asking me to provide proof of that, but being the super-regimented guy that I am, I'm keeping an eye on that benchmark anyway.  Now, I know I can do it, no problem--when I've done 10-km races in recent years, my times have been around 50 minutes.  But it helps keep me on my toes during these sessions when it's easy to lapse into a pokey pace.  Yesterday I decided to warm up for 10 minutes and then do 10 km in the harbor in an hour, with a 10-minute cool-down afterward.  That meant watching the G.P.S. device and keeping my speed at or above 10 kph for that hour.  Making that a challenge yesterday was that there was a stiff south breeze blowing.  When paddling into the wind I really had to work to keep it at 10 kph; when paddling downwind I tried to compensate by going more like 11 kph.  The result was a very tiring paddle.  I ended up completing 10 kilometers in about 58 minutes.

This morning it was time to get on the bike again.  On Sundays I aim to go 20 miles (about 32.2 km).  Today I rode for 96 minutes and covered 34.16 km, or 21.2 miles.  My route was to take the Greenline out to Shelby Farms, do a loop around Patriot Lake, and return home via the Greenline.  I felt about as good as I have since starting this bike-heavy training cycle several weeks ago.  Maybe I'm actually getting in shape for some bike riding.

My weight-gain effort continues.  So far I'm still weighing in the low 150s.  I'm making myself eat more, even when I'm not really hungry.  Of course I'm trying to include lots of protein in my additional food intake.

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Working hard and trying to eat more

Tuesday morning I did a gym session and then joined Joe for a loop of the harbor.

Yesterday afternoon I got on the bike and rode the Greenline out beyond the Wolf River, then followed the Wolf River Greenway for a couple of miles before retracing the route back home.  In 82 minutes of riding I covered 28.9 kilometers (about 18 miles).

Thursday seems to have shaped up into my "intense bike-plus" day.  This morning I rode to the park just west of my house and did three hard laps of the paved loop through the forest there, stopping to do sets of pushups and Hindu squats after each lap.  My legs felt like rubber by the time I was done.

I'm weighing myself when I get up each morning now, and my weight continues to be down from what I believe is my healthiest and most energetic.  It's been as low as 149 pounds this week, and I think the high 150s is more where I should be.  I'm trying to increase my protein intake, hoping that will increase muscle mass.

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Monday photo feature

Here she is in all her glory: my Raleigh M-20 bicycle.

I bought this bike back in 1997.  Back then the Atlanta Center of Excellence was putting on its Ocoee Doubleheader whitewater slalom race, and on Saturday night that year they had a silent auction to raise some money, and the bike was among the items.  My winning bid was somewhere around a couple hundred bucks.

For me, bike riding has mostly been just a way to get around the neighborhood, but once in a while I rely more heavily on it for some training.  A couple of months before my trip to South Africa in February of 2020, I realized I had a hairline fracture in a rib (I never have known what caused it).  Because rest is the only way to heal a cracked rib, I had to stay out of the boat for a while.  But I needed to be fit for my South Africa trip, so I came up with a training plan that worked my legs hard, with some squats and some lunges and some running up stairs and, especially, some bike riding.

By the time I arrived in South Africa my rib had healed enough for me to paddle again, and I found that I was adequately fit from the cross training I'd done.  Because I'm still feeling some burnout from this past year of paddling and racing, I'm using some similar cross training along with a small volume of paddling to work back into a training routine as another trip to South Africa awaits in January.  And so, I'm spending lots of time on the bicycle pictured above.

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I'm just a lightweight

I did a gym session Friday morning: the same one I'd started a week earlier and plan to do for several more weeks.  Some bicep curls, some front and lat raises, and some core stuff on the stability ball.

A few months ago the battery in my bathroom scale died, and since then I've been completely out of the habit of checking my weight.  I finally got a new battery for it yesterday, and when I stood on it my weight registered at 153 pounds (69.4 kilograms).  Though I've never kept particularly precise track of my weight, I know that's about 10 pounds lighter than my all-time maximum, and I can remember being up around 159 or 160 pounds during a period several years ago when I was racing very well.

So, I have a feeling that I'm a bit underweight these days, and I wouldn't be surprised if that has something to do with my low-energy feeling for much of this year.  Actually, putting on weight is something I've had difficulty with my whole life, and while I'm sure many people would love to have that problem--believe me, I prefer it to being chronically overweight or obese--it's a health concern in its own right.  If there are any physiologists or sports nutritionists or dietitians reading this who can suggest healthy ways to put on a few pounds, I'd love to hear them.  In the meantime, I need to start remembering to weigh myself each day, and I should probably keep better record of it so I can see what correlation it has to good athletic performance.

Yesterday morning I did an 80-minute paddle down on the riverfront.  I maintained a moderate pace with a few long surges in the second half.

This morning I got on the bike to ride some distance.  I rode from my house to the south end of downtown, where I crossed the Mississippi River via the Harahan Bridge.  Then I rode a loop in Big River Park before re-crossing the river and returning home.  In not quite two hours I covered 36.5 kilometers (22.7 miles).  I pushed the pace at times but most of the time I kept it comfortable.

It's been cool but not cold this weekend: mostly in the 50s Fahrenheit.  It's a rainy afternoon today.  While I was riding this morning the rain mostly held off, but I did ride through a solid shower on my way downtown and had to spend the next ten minutes feeling chilly while my clothes dried out.

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Physical fitness and... a physical

On Sunday morning I went out and did an 80-minute paddle on the Mississippi River.  I'm definitely feeling a bit rusty in the boat right now, and that was no more evident than in the last 25 minutes when I followed a barge rig downriver back to the mouth of the harbor.  I felt sloppy as I tried to keep the boat moving in the squirrelly, confused water, and I was really tired by the time I was back in the harbor..

I started Tuesday morning with a gym session, and then went down to the riverfront to do an easy loop of the harbor with Joe.

Yesterday morning I had my annual physical scheduled at my doctor's office.  For a physical I have to go in fasting because of the lab work, and I like to make my appointment for when the office opens at 7:00 AM.  But the earliest they could get me in yesterday was 9 o'clock, and so I had several breakfastless hours to kill.  Yesterday's workout was a one-hour bike ride, so I went ahead and did that from 6:30 to 7:30 to take my mind off being hungry.  I rode the Greenline out to the Wolf River and back.

Once I finished that I was tired, and my body craved food more than ever.  I fidgeted around the house until my appointment time, and then spent another 90 famished minutes going through all the rigamarole at the doctor's office.  At long last the doctor set me free, and I made a beeline to my favorite coffee shop and had a hearty late breakfast/early lunch.

This morning I did a workout similar to last Thursday's: a couple of bike laps in the park, with some pushups and Hindu squats after each lap.  Then I came back home and did several sets of strides up my back stairs.  After yesterday and today I'm feeling it in my legs, and that's what I'm after.  Ocean kayaking demands solid leg fitness, and I also happen to think that leg fitness makes up a large percentage of overall fitness.

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Monday photo feature

One time the Memphis Daily News put Joe and me on the cover.  This was back in May of 2010.

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Okay, I'm back

It's been an entire month since I last posted something here.  I can't really blame those readers who have given up on me by now.  I'm grateful if you're still here.

I have spent the last month recovering, decompressing, thinking, reflecting, attending to some other areas of life that I'd neglected... doing just about everything but paddling, in other words.  Don't worry, there's plenty of paddling in my future; I just needed some time off to get hungry for it again.

Several weeks ago Dawid Mocke posted on social media that there was an opening in the downwind camp that he and his brother Jasper will be leading at the end of January at Fish Hoek, Cape Town, South Africa.  I thought hard about it for about 24 hours, and decided to sign up.  And so I now have a purpose for my next phase of training.  This week I am settling into a new routine after my nice long break.

For at least the first few weeks, I plan to train mostly out of the boat.  I'll paddle a couple of times a week, but my more strenuous work will consist of bike riding and gym activities.  I did do a good bit of leisurely bike riding during the break, and now I'm ramping up the intensity a bit, with some strong rides of an hour or so and some intervals, too.

This week has been pretty typical of what I plan to do for the next month or so.  On Sunday I rode from my house down to the south end of downtown Memphis, across the Harahan Bridge over the Mississippi River, and down into Big River Park on the Arkansas side, where the annual Outdoors, Inc., Grit & Gravel bicycle race was taking place.  I watched the racers, including my friends Joe and Carol Lee, complete several laps, and then came back home.  My total distance was around 16 miles or 25.7 kilometers... not bad for my clunky old low-tech mountain bike.

On Tuesday I did a somewhat quick 80 minute paddle out on the Mississippi, throwing in a few long surges.  It was my first paddle of any intensity since my last race back on October 9.

On Wednesday I rode my bike east from my house, picking up the Greenline and following it across the Wolf River in east Memphis.  Then I checked out the newly-completed section of the Wolf River Greenway from its junction with the Greenline to just south of Walnut Grove Road.  Then I rode back home.  My distance was around 17 miles or 27.4 km.

Yesterday I rode to the park just west of my house, where there's a paved loop in the woods maybe 2 kilometers long.  I rode two hard laps of that loop, and after each lap I stopped to do a couple of sets of pushups and Hindu squats.  Over the next month-plus I'll increase the number of laps I do, probably topping out around five.

Today I started a new gym routine with a couple of dumbbell exercises (bicep curls and front & lat raises) and several plank-type exercises on the stability ball.

I'm good and sore now after these first few days of harder work.  Tomorrow I might do a nature hike, but keep things easy so I can recover a bit.  I plan to do more weeks like this one for the next little while, and I probably won't paddle more than twice a week until the start of the new year.

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