It's been a fairly light week as far as paddling goes. I sort of crashed mentally when I got home from Ocean Springs Sunday night, and I didn't paddle for the next several days. We had a chilly start to the week, and that didn't help my motivation. I'd originally planned to paddle Tuesday morning, but it was cool and breezy and I realized as I was getting my clothing and gear ready that I just didn't feel like it. So I bailed. I paddle because I want to, not because I have to.
Actually, I could have easily crashed this way when I got home from South Africa. By then I'd been working quite hard for several months, after all. But I knew I wanted to race at Ocean Springs, so I kept myself going a few weeks longer. Once that event was behind me, I couldn't ignore my need for a break.
It's also not helpful that my neck muscle continues to nag me. My chiropractor has been working on it for a month now, but we haven't achieved any lasting relief at this point. I'm pretty sure this is all part of the nerve impingement that an MRI revealed back in 2023, but I did feel pretty good for about a year from 2024 into 2025, and I'm longing to get back to that.
Finally, I currently have a hospitalized family member, and that's taking up a great deal of my time and attention right now.
By Thursday we were back to some unseasonably warm weather here in the Mid South, and I got myself back to the river for a relaxed hour of paddling. I did so again Friday morning, when the temperature was in the mid 60s Fahrenheit but dropping toward the 40s by later in the day.
Conditions improved this weekend, fortunately. It was on the cool side when I got to the river this morning, but the sun was out and the wind was calm. With the temperature rising quickly toward an afternoon high in the high 70s, it was really a lovely morning to paddle. I went out and did an easy 40 minutes before returning to the dock and heading back to the hospital.
This might be what I do for the next little while. For a couple of months after my return from the Grand Canyon last fall, I mostly did easy sessions of less than an hour. It gave me a chance to focus on technical stuff, and I think it set me up well to ramp the volume back up in December in preparation for the South Africa trip.
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