Winter is trying its best to hang around. The middle portion of this week was chilly and wet. It poured down rain for much of Tuesday, so I stayed in and only did a gym session.
By Wednesday morning the rain had moved out, but it was overcast and blustery. As I headed down to the river I was glad that this week's sessions in the boat aren't long--just 40 minutes or so. I warmed up and did eight 12-stroke sprints at maximum intensity, starting every other minute. I tried to start each sprint from rest so I could get some start practice, but it was hard to get the boat completely stopped the way the wind was blowing.
It stayed cool all day Thursday and into this morning. I packed up my gear and prepared to head south. Often when I travel down through Mississippi I stop at a river or reservoir and do a light pre-race paddle there; for a guy who paddles so exclusively on the Memphis riverfront, it's a nice change of pace. But today I wanted to get that out of the way early rather than interrupt the drive. I went downtown and paddled for 30 minutes in the harbor, doing six 12-stroke sprints.
I had some business to take care of in the town of Sumner, Mississippi, and from downtown Memphis it was easy to get on that old 61 Highway, a slightly more direct route to Sumner than Interstate 55. Once I'd completed that errand I got on down to Ocean Springs as fast as I could. It's about 10 degrees warmer down here on the Gulf Coast than it is in Memphis right now.
My friend Nick Kinderman and I had supper at an Italian restaurant and then retired to his house. The race starts at 9 AM, so we'll be up bright and early tomorrow. I've had a mostly-good several months of training, so we'll see how my body and brain respond.
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