Blowing in the wind

On Tuesday I paddled for 60 minutes.  The session was utterly unstructured; just a chance to get out and use my muscles for a while.

I spent the rest of the week out of the boat.  Part of the reason was a lot of work to do at home; part of the reason was a lot of not particularly inviting weather; and part of the reason was the desire to take some time off.  The time to fire up the training again will come soon enough, and in the meantime I never seem to lack other things to do.

I did get out on a bike ride Thursday afternoon.  I rode for an hour, covering a little over 20 kilometers.

This is the time of year when I've had it with winter, but the weather isn't quite ready to give me what I want.  Since Thursday the annoyance has been primarily the wind.  Friday was the worst day, when the temperature stayed below 60 degrees Fahrenheit, the skies were overcast, and the wind screamed outside all day long.  No, these conditions are not exactly Arctic, but right now anything shy of blissful sunshine and warmth is unacceptable to me.  I barely even ventured outside Friday, mostly just hunkering down in the shop.

Yesterday was quite a bit nicer: the sun came out and the temperature rose into the 60s.  But the wind persisted.  I got myself out for another bike ride.  I rode downtown and across the river to the Arkansas side, where I did a nice loop on the Big River Trail.  All told I covered between 35 and 40 kilometers.

The wind continued today, this time from the south, and that has brought some warmer temperatures.  I'm still trying to get in a longer paddle each week, and with the river getting a bit too low for paddling around the Loosahatchie Bar (it was 17.1 feet on the Memphis gauge this morning), I decided to paddle up the Mississippi and up the Wolf River to the Danny Thomas Boulevard bridge and back.I could feel the south wind picking up as I paddled upriver, and I was afraid it would be a monster to paddle against on the trip back down, but it wasn't so bad.  I just relaxed and let the current carry me.  My distanced covered was 19.69 kilometers, and I completed it in two hours.  When I paddled around the Bar last Sunday I covered 20.09 km and did it several minutes faster than two hours.  The difference maker, I'm guessing, is that today's paddle included more flatwater.

The forecast calls for more windy days with some storms this coming week.  Not unusual for this time of year.  Soon enough we'll be having those tranquil hot days that Mid South summers are known for, and I'll be yearning for some cooler, breezier days.

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