Florida is letting us down

The weather has turned nippy down here in Florida.  To full-time Floridians, I reckon it's downright frigid.  To me, these daytime Fahrenheit highs in the 50s fit into the "nuisance" category: such days are at the mild end of the winter weather spectrum back home, but are not what I come to Florida for.

The worst part has been the morning sessions, during which the temperature has been in the 30s.  As the week has gone on it's gotten harder and harder to get myself going in the morning.  But so far I've done it each time.

And what, exactly, have we been doing?  Well, Monday morning we did some technique work at stroke rates ranging from 60 to 72 spm, and that afternoon we did some longer pieces with short recovery at low-70s stroke rates.  Tuesday morning (the first cold morning) we did a "calm" 75-minute paddle, and in the afternoon we did some pieces with resistance on the boat.  Yesterday we traveled to the Silver River near Ocala for a relaxed 2-hour paddle with a lot of wildlife around, including birds, alligators, turtles, and manatees.  And this morning we did some more technique work at mostly-low stroke rates, while this afternoon we did three 9-minute pieces at a stroke rate in the mid 80s with 6 minutes recovery in between.

That last workout was definitely our most intense of the camp.  There were four of us--Chris Hipgrave, Royal McDonnell, Terry Smith, and me--and we started at 30-second intervals, with me going first, then Terry, then Chris, then Royal.  That meant that I did each piece with Terry in hot pursuit.  I think he gained some ten seconds on me in the first piece, but our times were close to dead even in the second and third.  I was pleased with my stamina: early in the third piece I thought maybe I had nothing left after the first two, but then I settled into a good rhythm and finished strong.

All good work, but again, I'm having a hard time savoring it because of the cold weather.  Yes, I know it's not as cold here as it is up north (in Memphis a winter storm is expected to move in tonight and continue through tomorrow), but it's as cold as I ever care to paddle in.

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