The first half of this week has been relatively warm; the next Arctic blast is set to arrive tonight and tomorrow. So I've made sure to paddle Monday, yesterday, and today.
It was overcast and chilly Monday morning, but with an intense workout to do, the chill didn't concern me for long. I basically did the same workout I did two weeks ago: three sets of seven 20-second sprints, with the recovery interval decreasing from 60 to 50 to 40 to 30 to 20 to 10 seconds. The only different thing I did this time was put medium resistance (two golf whiffle balls) on the boat for the first set. Once again I started to tie up a little in the last couple of sprints of each set, but I otherwise held up well and recovered quickly. I was in the north end of the harbor when I finished the last set, so once my heart rate returned to normal I paddled a good brisk pace for the 2500 meters or so back to the dock.
Yesterday morning I did a gym session, and then went to my doctor's office to get the PCR test that I must have to be admitted into South Africa. Once that was done I headed down to the river and paddled a steady 50 minutes in mostly sunny 50-degrees-Fahrenheit weather.
The forecast said today would be very rainy with plummeting temperatures. When I went to the river this morning some showers were moving in, but the temperature was still a balmy 52 degrees. I paddled in a couple of heavy showers, but nothing to get too upset about. I did the same workout I did two weeks ago Monday: 10 strokes on, 10 strokes off, 20 strokes on, 10 strokes off, 30 strokes on, 10 strokes off, and so on until I reached 100 strokes on. This workout is just plain tough. Once you've committed to it there's no way out except out the far end. I tried to keep the "on" pieces as consistent as possible in terms of speed and stroke rate.
We continued to get a lot of rain this afternoon, and now in the evening the temperature is quickly dropping toward freezing. It's not expected to rise above freezing tomorrow. So it feels good to have all my paddling in the bank.
This afternoon I got my PCR test result, and it's negative. So that's a big hurdle cleared. Now I need to get through Friday and Saturday without any flight disruptions, and here in Pandemic Times that's anything but certain. But if it all works out, the next time I put up a post here I'll be in the Republic of South Africa.
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