The next race I intend to enter is six weeks from this Saturday, a 13.7-kilometer flatwater affair down at Ocean Springs, Mississippi. For the next several weeks I plan to get in some old-fashioned endurance base training.
I started Tuesday with a set of six 1000-meter pieces, starting every 8th minute. My goal pace for each one was 11.5 kilometers per hour. There was a south breeze blowing, and whenever it was at my back I moved at more like 11.8 kph, while I struggled to do even 11.0 kph when I paddled into the wind. This workout is tougher than it sounds, but I'm going to do it once a week for the next little while and I hope maybe I can work up to 12.0 kph for each piece.
This morning I went out and did a mostly-steady 70-minute paddle out on the Mississippi, keeping my stroke rate below 70 strokes per minute. I felt tired in the boat, because of both Tuesday's workout and the tree branch cleanup work I've been doing at my rental property. An upstream-moving barge rig created a bunch of waves out on the river, and while I might welcome that in the summertime, today it made me tense up a bit and paddle defensively. I felt that much more tired by the end of the session as a result.
Meanwhile, the online portion of the National Paddling Film Festival is underway from now until February 26. I've bought my ticket and am working my way through the 17 films that make up the lineup alongside my own film, "A Paddler's Journey." There's all manner of interesting subject matter: rivers in Iceland, multi-day trips in wooden dories out West, a bike/paddling expedition in the Alps, paddling with dolphins in Norway, downriver racing in British Columbia... and more!
I hope everybody reading this will consider buying a ticket and joining in the fun. The ticket allows you not just to view all the movies, but also to vote on your favorite. I'm sort of hoping that my film might be a lot of people's favorite, but regardless... watch and vote. I think the vote winners will be announced at the in-person event on February 19, so be sure to vote before then. The place to buy tickets is here.
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