Some soggy weekend training

It's gotten cooler this weekend after a particularly balmy week.  It's not really cold--the Fahrenheit highs both yesterday and today are in the 50s--but it's a noticeable change from the 70s we had back in the middle of the week.

One thing hasn't changed with the temperature drop: it's been raining a lot all week.  The good news is that most of the rain has moved eastward from here into the Tennessee and Cumberland River drainages, where it is having an impact on the level of the Mississippi River at Memphis.  This weekend the river has been flowing right at 3.0 feet on the Memphis gauge, and the latest forecast says it will crest later this week at 5.6 feet.  With more rain in the forecast, I expect that prediction will be revised upward.

When I got up yesterday morning I checked the Internet radar and saw a big mass of rain over to the west of Forrest City, Arkansas, moving in this direction.  I hoped that I could eat breakfast and do my other morning chores quickly enough that I'd be able to paddle before the rain arrived, but it didn't work out that way.  It was starting to drizzle as I left the house, and that built into a hard drizzle by the time I got to the riverfront.  Once I was in the boat, the rain really let loose.  I got poured on pretty good for all but just a few of my 60 minutes of paddling, and during that time the chilly north wind picked up as well.  So I was one cold, wet critter by the time I got back to the dock.  What's that I was saying a few posts back, about immersing yourself?  Yes, that's what I did yesterday.

The rain had pretty much moved out when I got up this morning, but it was still overcast and not expected to be much warmer than 50 degrees.  I pondered whether to paddle today, or ride my bike.  At this point in the year I'm still working on general fitness and not dead set on paddling-specific training, and since it wasn't raining I opted for the ride.  I was afraid conditions would be sloppy after all the rain, but the landscape had dried out some by the time I was on the bike.  The Greater Memphis Greenline drains well because it was built on a railroad bed.  Out at Shelby Farms the trails had some puddles, but they weren't hard to skirt.  So I wasn't badly splattered with muddy water when I got back home, and I had a decent cardio workout under my belt.

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