I've sort of crashed since my return home on Sunday. Aside from several bike rides around the neighborhood, I did nothing athletic all week. On Wednesday I thought I was getting sick--I had a hint of a sore throat all day. I wondered if perhaps the COVID-19 virus had gotten me at last: every airplane and airport I'd been in was packed, and I found myself in a couple of dense crowds during the race week, too. I went down to the drugstore and picked up one of those home test kits. The kit consisted of two antigen tests, and I took one of them on Wednesday and the other Thursday. Both registered a negative result. Since Wednesday I've been feeling fine, so I guess I evaded that virus once again.
A couple of chores have kept me from being a complete shut-in. One of those was going to the doctor Tuesday morning. My cholesterol level has been on the high side my whole adult life, and when I visited the doctor in May my LDL had shot up high enough that she decided it was time to put me on one of those "statin" drugs. The purpose of Tuesday's visit was to re-check the level and see if the drug was doing any good. My LDL was down dramatically, so I guess I'll be popping that pill each day from now on.
Another chore was dealing with a crew that removed a couple of trees over at my rental property yesterday. They of course did all the work while I just stood there and watched. We've had another few days of triple-digit Fahrenheit temperatures, and fortunately they seemed to be well-acclimated to such conditions and experienced in dealing with them. They made quick work of the two trees, wrapping up the whole job in less than five hours.
This morning I finally got back in the boat for the first time since my last downwind session in the Columbia Gorge last Saturday. It was hot and getting hotter outside, but I was glad to be back on my home water. I felt rusty and sluggish in the boat. I wasn't used to the tippiness of my V12 after spending the week in the Gorge paddling a V9. I was even having to brace a little on some of my strokes, and that put some stress on my left wrist. If I had gotten in the boat maybe 20 minutes earlier I would have had some barge wakes to try to surf; as it was, the barge traffic was well off in the distance to the north by the time I reached the mouth of the harbor. I ended up playing around in some bumps and otherwise paddling easy for 70 minutes.
It felt good to take my hose bath back at the dock. For anybody who wonders how I stand these hot, humid summers, that's as good an answer as any.
I'm not sure what remains for me in terms of racing this year, and at the moment I don't really care. I'll start caring again soon enough, but for now my focus is on getting a little exercise and surviving another hot summer.
For more information on what this blog is about, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment