Yesterday morning I did my last gym session before I race in the Columbia Gorge next week. The side effects from my COVID-19 shot last week were more or less gone by then.
After the gym session I headed down to the river. Another spell of oppressive summer heat is upon us: the temperature hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday, with heat index values up around 110. It wasn't that hot yet when I got in the boat, but it was well on its way. It was definitely a day to go out and do my planned workout without any dilly-dally, and come in out of the heat.
After warming up and doing three 8-stroke sprints, I did basically the same workout I did last Saturday: three sets of 20-second sprints with the recovery intervals decreasing from 60 seconds to 10 seconds. This time I didn't add any resistance to the boat like I did for the first set on Saturday. I did the first set out on the Mississippi, and the other two sets in the harbor. The workout was tough, and this time the heat was the main reason. The sun beat down relentlessly. I flipped the boat to cool off after the first and second sets, and after the third set I headed back to the dock and took a cool hose bath and drank lovely cold water from my insulated bottle. There was a pleasant south breeze blowing, and I was able to cool back down quite a bit in the shade of the marina's roof. While I exchanged a couple of text messages with my friend Scott in Louisville (he was asking me about my race next week), I ate a nectarine, a protein bar, and a peach. The peach wasn't fully ripe, but the nectarine was perfect... just one of the reasons I really like summer training in spite of the brutal heat.
It was another hot one today, and I had a list of chores to do before I get out of here in the wee hours of tomorrow morning. It took me a while this morning to make up my mind whether to paddle at all, but in the end I did go down there and get in the boat for 30 minutes. I paddled easy, got some blood moving to help my muscles heal from yesterday's workout, did some stroke drills and relaxation drills, and, lacking any firm plans to paddle before next Monday, logged a bit more muscle memory into my brain.
I hope that I will be in Anchorage the next time I check in here. As I mentioned before, tomorrow's flights must go off on schedule for that to happen. So... we'll see.
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