And we're off

I got in the boat Monday morning and did another set of twenty 12-stroke sprints, starting at the top of every minute.  This workout was suggested by Jasper Mocke, who will be leading next week's camp in South Africa along with his brother Dawid, as a way to prepare for the physical demands of the downwind paddling we'll be doing.  In reality, I don't think any flatwater workout in the harbor can simulate all the stresses I'll experience next week on the waters around the Cape Peninsula.  But I did what I can, just like I always do, and my body handled it well.  So that gives me some confidence.

I had planned to wait until yesterday morning to paddle again, but when I looked at the forecast Tuesday morning, I saw that while Tuesday was a bright, if cold, sunny day, yesterday was supposed to be rainy and miserable.  So I got myself down to the riverfront on Tuesday, and did one more set of twenty 12-strokers.

It was indeed rainy and miserable yesterday, so I was glad to have my last bit of paddling in the bank.  Since then I've just been resting, and I expect to continue doing so until the first paddling session of our camp on Sunday morning.

I'm flying out later today, and it looks like I've got it timed perfectly, as there's a winter storm heading this way that's supposed to make things pretty nasty by Saturday.  With any luck at all, I'll be basking in some summer sunshine on Fish Hoek Beach.

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Monday photo feature

Four years ago, either John or Tamsin of Cape Town Sport Photography caught this simply lovely glimpse of me moving onto the sweet spot of a Miller's Run swell near Simon's Town.

Right now I'm enduring another freezing day here at home.  But by this Friday I'm scheduled to be back in the Cape Town area, where the summer weather will be a welcome change.  I've done everything I can do to have my body ready to perform on those swells once again.

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Brrr.

We're in a stretch of much more January-like weather here in Memphis and the Mid South.For the last couple of days the temperature has stayed below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, plunging below 20 degrees overnight.  In another day or two it's supposed to wander up into the high 40s, but that's as warm as it's going to get before I leave for South Africa on Thursday.  To experience summertime in the southern hemisphere will be a welcome change indeed.

After a day off on Wednesday and an easy 50-minute paddle on Thursday, I moved into my last round of intense work.  On Friday I did my last dry-land workout before the trip, and I was glad to get it done.  Those workouts include a lot of running along with some core exercises, and I've been feeling the impact on my legs.  I hope now I'll be able to get my legs back under me.  For those not so familiar with my sport, there's a lot of leg power involved in high-performance kayaking.

The downwind paddling I'll be doing in South Africa requires frequent short, hard sprints.  Yesterday I did a workout to fine-tune my fitness in that direction: twenty starting at the top of each minute.  A 12-stroke sprint takes me around 12-14 seconds, so my recovery interval was 46-48 seconds.  While I was starting to feel a bit more taxed by the end of the session, I still was able to paddle strong throughout, and that was encouraging.

I'd planned to go back down and paddle today, but with sub-freeing temperatures and a harsh north wind blowing all morning, I gave myself a break.  I'll see if I can get back to it tomorrow, even though it looks like it'll be frigid and miserable once again.  At least by now I'm as fit as I'm going to get before the "Camp Mocke" downwind camp starts a week from today.

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South Africa prep is in its late stages

On days when I plan to do my dry-land routine, nudging myself into motion isn't easy because, frankly, those workouts are pretty hard.  They include a lot of running, and running taxes me in ways that paddling never has.  I'm also usually a bit sore for a day or two afterward.  And yet, every time I finish a dry-land workout I feel pretty great.  Some of that is endorphins, I expect, but I think it's also the result of simply completing something that would have been very easy to skip.  

Monday was a scheduled dry-land day, and because the temperature had dropped well below freezing in the early morning hours, that further sandbagged my motivation to get myself down to the Greenbelt Park.  But get down there I did, and by then the temperature had risen to an almost-comfortable 43 degrees Fahrenheit under a lovely clear sky.  Once the workout was underway, my body responded well and I got the work done without any trouble.

Today the temperature was supposed to reach 63 degrees, but it was still in the 40s when I got down to the riverfront this morning.  A strong wind from the south made it seem even chillier.  I got in the boat and paddled into that wind, to the mouth of the harbor, before turning around and commencing my workout.  Once more, I did a set of four bridge-to-bridge sprints, starting every 8th minute.  My times were 2:14, 2:12, 2:11, and 2:10.  Those were a bit slower than I'd clocked doing the same workout last Thursday even though I had a stronger tailwind today.  One might think a stronger tailwind should always produce faster times, but I don't think it's quite that simple.  Today the wind was generating chop on the water, while last Thursday the conditions were smoother, and I think it's easier to make a boat go fast over a smooth surface than over a bumpy one, even if those bumps are moving in the same direction that you are.

In any case, I accomplished my main objective, to give a good consistent effort in all four sprints.  This is the last time I'll do this workout before my departure, and it feels good to have it under my belt.  I plan to do one more dry-land workout before I leave, and it'll feel good to have it in the books as well.  As I've been saying, my overarching goal is simply to be physically prepared for paddling in South Africa, and I believe I am pretty well prepared.  Things aren't ideal, mainly because of the arm soreness, but under the circumstances I think I've put in a solid body of work.  I'm feeling confident, and confidence is the result of good preparation.

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Monday photo feature

My longtime racing friend Scott Cummins, pictured above in a file photo, had big news to share last week.  Scott has purchased the company Venturesport from its founder, Bruce Gipson, and will now be importing surfskis and other racing kayaks from South Africa.

The Venturesport website is here.  As of this writing it appears to need some updating: it still lists Bruce Gipson as the owner.  But I encourage anybody interested in buying a high-performance kayak to stay tuned to it and see what Scott, who is based in Louisville, Kentucky, will have to offer.

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Calm weekend

I've taken it easy this weekend ahead of my final push toward my goal of being fit and ready to go when I arrive in South Africa in a couple of weeks.

On Friday morning I did an easy 50-minute paddle.  It was still quite warm outside for early January, but I could sense a chill in the air from the north.

It rained overnight, and by yesterday morning the Fahrenheit temperature was in the mid 50s and falling.  It was also overcast and breezy.  I had a funeral to attend, and was happy to have that excuse for a day off from training.

I was back out in the chill today, at any rate.  The temperature was in the low 40s and a brisk north breeze had a bite to it.  But at least the sun was shining.  I did a calm 60-minute paddle to close out these several days of light work.  I've got a couple of more harder periods before I start resting up for the trip.

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More friendly weather for outdoor training

It's now just two weeks until I depart for South Africa.  Once again the weather has turned unseasonably warm in Memphis and the Mid South, the Fahrenheit temperature rising into the 60s and even the 70s this week.

On Tuesday I paddled out onto the Mississippi, where I found some waves generated by a barge rig that had passed by downtown not long before.  Even in the mild weather, I was cautious because of the cold water.  I stayed fairly close to the Tennessee bank and threw in some short sprints to see what I could get from the small bumps.

Yesterday I did my workout on dry land.  These days I'm doing twenty uphill sprints of some thirty or forty meters, and I believe this is the most taxing part of the routine.  My goal here is to increase power in my lower body at a high rate of turnover.

My legs were tired last night and today, but I got in the boat and persuaded by body into another set of four bridge-to-bridge sprints, starting every 8th minute.  My times were faster than in last week's workout, but I attribute a lot of that to a pretty strong tailwind that was blowing from the south.  I clocked 2:06, 2:09, 2:09, and 2:10.  I think that first one was faster because I paddled with quite a high stroke rate, whereas I reined it in a little for the remaining three.  In the last sprint I paddled hard but I think my form was deteriorating somewhat.  In the end, I think I achieved my main objective: to work on my cardiovascular fitness while paddling controlled at higher stroke rates.

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Monday photo feature

While I've moved on to other activities, those days in the Grand Canyon remain fresh in my memory.  It's now been four months since I was there.  Here's a shot of me with my buddy Rob Lieb, looking upstream from Bass Camp (Mile 109), where we stayed from the 1st until the 3rd of September.  I can't quite remember who took the picture, but it might have been Kylie Haberman.

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Reporting in, once again

On Friday morning I was feeling tired from Thursday's workout.  I paddled mostly easy for 50 minutes under overcast skies with an occasional drizzle.

Friday went on to be quite a rainy day.  The rain moved out in the evening and some colder air moved in to replace it.  When I got up yesterday morning it was 39 degrees Fahrenheit--not just terribly cold, but with a lot of dampness in the air and on the ground it was that "penetrating" kind of cold.  I went down to the Greenbelt Park and did my dry-land routine, during which the sun gradually came out.  As usual, I put all the effort I could into each exercise and knocked the session out efficiently.

As I drove down to the riverfront this morning, my car's dashboard temperature display seemed stuck, stubbornly, on 39 degrees once again.  But the wind wasn't bad, and the sun was shining, so the conditions were actually pretty decent for paddling.  After warming up I paddled a strong tempo for 35 minutes, and then completed the hour with a cooldown.

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Working hard in a broad spectrum of temperatures

The temperature plummeted on Monday as expected, and Tuesday was pretty nippy as well.  When I went down to the Greenbelt Park Tuesday morning to do my dry-land routine, it was 41 degrees Fahrenheit--not just god-awful frigid, but not very warm either.  I got busy and knocked out my workout of running (on the flat and on an uphill grade) and core exercises.

It was chilly again Wednesday morning when I got back in the boat, but it was warming up toward a high in the mid 50s.  Three barge rigs were moving up the Mississippi River when I reached the mouth of the harbor, and while the air and water were too cold for me to get into the heart of their wakes, I did play around on the smaller waves that were radiating outward toward the Tennessee bank.  I was able to get some brief rides on these little bumps, but my right arm bothered me a bit during the hard sprints.  Back in the harbor I strove for rotation and leg drive to keep the pressure off my arm muscles.

I was in the boat again today with much warmer weather: the temperature would rise into the mid 60s by the afternoon.  After warming up, I did four of my bridge-to-bridge sprints, starting every 8th minute.  My times were 2:17, 2:14, 2:11, and 2:10.  I think the first one was slower because I wasn't entirely warmed up.  It was encouraging to get faster as the workout went on, but I'm hoping to get my cardiovascular system in a better place before I leave town in three weeks.  I know I'm in good shape when I recover quickly from each hard effort in an interval workout--that is, when my heart rate drops and my breathing settles down in short order.  Today I was breathing hard for longer than I would prefer after each sprint.  I'm confident I can get where I want to be in another week or two, however.

It looks like we'll get some rain tomorrow, followed by cooler weather over the weekend.  But as the South Africa trip draws ever closer, motivation doesn't feel like a problem for me these days.

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