Yesterday I went down to the paddle for the first time in two weeks. Paddling was out of the question last weekend because of my involvement in the Pink Palace Crafts Fair here in Memphis. My weekdays continue to be occupied by work in my woodworking shop and at my rental property.
There was a succession of downstream-traveling barge rigs out on the Mississippi yesterday, and I went out to see what kind of surfing I could do. The waves behind downstream-moving towboats are usually less solid for surfing than those behind up-bound rigs; and because of the way the pilots have to maneuver beneath all the bridges at downtown Memphis, the water is typically swirling and confused. Nevertheless, I did manage to get several good surfs yesterday.
Throwing down the sprints to get on those waves definitely taxed my body. My breathing held up just fine, but I could feel it in my muscles. Both my deltoids were sore this morning, and when I returned to the river and found it free of barge traffic, I was happy to do just some steady paddling. During this period of weekend-only paddling I'm trying extra hard to take the best strokes I can when I'm in the boat. This morning I focused on doing most, if not all, of the work with my abdominal muscles, letting my arms be nothing more than the connection between the paddle and my core body. Of course, it's hard not to employ the arm muscles at least a little, especially in unstable conditions out on the river. But just the same, I tried to use the core muscles as exclusively as possible. That meant intense leg drive--after all, torso rotation starts at the feet!
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