I've been busy with all kinds of stuff this past week, but I've managed to maintain a general fitness routine. I paddled for an hour both Tuesday and Friday, just steady sessions in which I tried to take good strokes and not get distracted enough for my form to get sloppy. While I do keep an eye on speed, I try not to get bent out of shape if I don't go that fast. All kinds of things out there in nature can slow a boat down.
I did bike rides Thursday and yesterday. I'm trying to heed the advice that the Mocke brothers offer in their instructional video series--that cross-training activities should feel like a break from training, not training workouts themselves, even though they do have training value.
This morning I did another loop around the Loosahatchie Bar. With the Mississippi flowing at 22.7 feet on the Memphis gauge, the course measured 19.76 kilometers and I covered it in one hour, 58 minutes, 10 seconds. I think the fastest I've ever done this course is around an hour 50 minutes, or maybe even a little under that, but once again, I try not to get too obsessed with my time; anything under two hours is a strong effort. The water at the north end of the Bar was shallow and that slowed me down a little.
In another week or so it'll be time to intensify the training a little, now that my next big race (the Gorge downwind race in the Pacific Northwest) is less than three months off.
The weather has been quite warm for the last few days: the temperature has exceeded 80 degrees Fahrenheit each day since Thursday. But summer's not here yet. I think we're supposed to get some rain tomorrow, followed by some highs in the 60s for a couple of days.
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