The weekend arrived with sunny skies but cool temperatures and chilly breezes from the north. I did a gym session Friday morning. Yesterday I got in the boat and did a longer steady paddle--100 minutes. I went to the north end of the harbor first, then paddled all the way back to the harbor's mouth and up the Mississippi just above the Hernando DeSoto Bridge. I'd been feeling good and paddling with good mechanics for the first 75 minutes or so, but barge traffic out on the river created bumpy conditions that messed with my balance and control, and I was probably just getting tired, too. Back in the harbor I tried my best to pull myself back together for the last couple of kilometers back to the dock.
In general, I think I'm seeing some improvement in the hip-rotation component of my stroke, but I'm not at all sure whether somebody outside my body will see it. It was Coach Chris Norbury who first informed me of my false rotation down in Florida last month, and I'm fearful that the next time he watches me paddle he'll tell me I'm doing all the same wrong stuff I'd been doing before. In my lonely sessions here on the Memphis riverfront all I can do is strive for that magic connection between my legs and my torso the best I can. And again, I think I'm doing it better, albeit not with every single stroke. In other words, I'm getting it right more often than I used to, but in the spirit of this post several months ago, I need to keep practicing until I can't get it wrong.
By this morning the wind had shifted to the south-southeast. The March winds have arrived a few days early. I went out and paddled for 60 minutes, practicing my stroke mechanics at a variety of easy-to-medium intensity levels. By the time I finished it was about 66 degrees Fahrenheit and rising toward a high in the 70s. Another weather pattern we don't normally expect in February.
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