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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