Thursday, March 17, 2022

The hardest race prep is over for now

My first North American race of the year is fast approaching: it's a week from this Saturday at Ocean Springs, Mississippi.  Several weeks ago, when I hit a low point in my energy level and quality of training, I questioned whether I should stick with my plan to go; but I've been feeling much better since then and I think I will.

On Tuesday I did a gym session and then headed down to the river for my last hard pace workout before the race.  After warming up and doing three 8-stroke sprints, I commenced with twelve 250-meter pieces, starting every 4th minute.  My target pace was a little over 12 kilometers per hour (7.5 miles per hour), and I tried to keep the stroke rate under 90 strokes per minute.  The wind was uncharacteristically calm for this time of year, meaning I could get some reliable data from my G.P.S. device.  The workout was tough but never seemed insurmountable.  I had a nice endorphin high going by the time I was back on the dock.

We had a rainy afternoon on Tuesday, but the sun started coming out yesterday, and today was mostly sunny with a Fahrenheit high in the 70s.  I was very happy to go down to the river and paddle a relaxing 60 minutes during which I just enjoyed the nice day and got some blood flowing through my muscles.


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