Starting off with a bang in the Columbia Gorge

I landed in Portland just before midnight Saturday, and yesterday morning I joined up with Michiganers Marie MacNee, Michael Meredith, and Ulli Sherer for the hour-long drive east to the town of Hood River.  The four of us are sharing a rental house not far from the race site down on the bank of the Columbia River.  Also in our house are Ulli's daughter Brie Sherer; Kristina Meskauskaite of Melbourne, Australia; and Sally Wallick of Kelowna, British Columbia.

It was warm and sunny yesterday afternoon, but this morning we started the week with cool, sort of rainy conditions.  Having watched the weather forecast all last week, I believe that not-so-hot temperatures might be the norm while I'm here.  I'm generally okay with that, having just left triple-digit (Fahrenheit) heat index conditions back in the Mid South.

There's definitely a social aspect to this week's activities, and I'm looking forward to visiting with friends old and new, many of whom I likely won't see again the rest of the year.  But I also want this to be a good week for paddling.  What I don't want is to look back on this week later and think, "I could have gotten in one or two more good downwind runs if I hadn't stayed up past midnight drinking beer," or "I might have raced better if I'd stayed a little more focused," and so on.  So, I'll be balancing the fun stuff with the athletic stuff, and I hope I'll do a good job of getting my rest and resisting some of the FOMO ("fear of missing out") impulses on the social side.

As if reading my mind, the Mocke Paddling Company of Fish Hoek, South Africa, posted the following message on their Face Book page this morning:

Race Happy!  What does it mean to race happy?  When one lines up to compete it's natural to run through all factors that could influence your performance.  Unfortunately, many of these factors are variables beyond your control--i.e. weather conditions, other competitors, official decisions.  It's easy to get our minds bogged down by these.  Then, of course, there is the psychological need to perform well which, when done for the wrong reasons like searching for significance, can actually be a negative driver.
But to Race Happy means to adopt an attitude of gratitude and thankfulness.  You are privileged to be able to line up and compete, you are on the start line and so much went into getting there.  Now show up, give your best, and enjoy it!  Be grateful for it.
RACE HAPPY!

So... that was my attitude as I embarked on this first full day in the Columbia Gorge.  And a busy day it would be.  Job One was to walk down to the riverfront and go through the check-in process for the race.  Job Two was to pick up my rental boat from the Epic Kayaks personnel on duty.  Only then could I go about the business of paddling.  My plan was to do two downwind runs from Viento State Park to Hood River, and I wanted to get the first one in sooner rather than later, because I was signed up for a four o'clock session in a tandem surf ski with--speaking of the Mocke Paddling Company--world-class racer Dawid Mocke.

For the first run I got together with a couple of friends who had flown out from New England: Greg Lesher of South Hamilton, Massachusetts, and Tim Dwyer of Jamestown, Rhode Island.  We rode the shuttle to Viento and were on the water a little after one o'clock.  My boat for this week is a V10 Sport ski, and I believe I have made the right decision to go with a more stable boat than what I use back home, even if it is supposedly a touch slower.  Last year, paddling the V10L I'd brought on top of my car, I was frequently sitting on braces when I should have been paddling.  But today I hardly had to brace at all.  I still have volumes to learn in downwind racing skill--there still seems to be so much going on out there in the waves that I can't really express in writing at this point--but that extra bit of stability liberated me to be aggressive and keep trying to advance from one run to the next.  Greg and Tim are both strong paddlers and I was able to keep them in sight, and sometimes even lead, all the way to the finish.

I was a bit fatigued after this first run but I felt I had enough still in the tank for my session with Dawid.  I walked back up to the house for a quick snack and then got back down to the race site just in time for our four o'clock meeting.

Dawid Mocke is among the top surf ski racers in the world.  There were a few years a decade or so ago when it seemed that he was unbeatable.  Since then a handful of other racers have caught up to him, but he remains an athlete whom nobody counts out.

I'm not going to get too specific about the things Dawid told me today because he offers several online video courses to which each of us can subscribe and study on his or her own (I intend to subscribe myself to solidify my understanding of what we covered today).  But I will say that he provided some articulation of some of the concepts I'd been sensing intuitively, and pointed out many things I hadn't yet thought of as well.

Furthermore, Dawid is--how else can I put it?--a beast.  When he puts the hammer down, he really puts it down.  Paddling in the bow seat, the South African would occasionally spot a run that I, paddling solo, would have no hope of catching, and throw down a savage sprint that made me reach into reserves I didn't know I had to keep up with.  By the time we reached the finish at Hood River I was practically catatonic, and I've spent this evening slowly recovering.

Oh well... with the race possibly happening as early as Thursday, today was the day to blow myself out.  With any luck I'll get a good night's sleep and have a more flexible schedule to pace myself into race day.


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Ready to head for the Northwest

I got a scare in the first half of this week when I started feeling some sharp pain in my right wrist.  I don't know for sure what caused it, but my strongest suspicion is that it happened when I was moving that big heavy table to the front of my workshop so it would be ready for the client to pick up Tuesday morning.  The pickup happened as scheduled, and while the table turned out beautiful, if I may say so, I'm glad to have it out of my life.

The pain was at its worst on Tuesday.  I did an easy paddle in the harbor with Joe, and while the injury didn't directly hamper my paddling, I could nevertheless feel it, and I worried about how it would affect me in the more challenging conditions of the Columbia River Gorge next week.  Not knowing whether the condition was a short-term thing or a long-term one was the greatest cause of anxiety.

Now, two days later, I'm feeling optimistic.  By yesterday morning I could tell that the pain had abated some, and even though it's not gone yet today, I believe it's moving in the right direction.  I've been taking ibuprofen since Tuesday, and I think it's helped.  This morning I did a set of ten 12-stroke sprints at two-minute intervals, and even at maximum intensity the injury didn't bother me.

Also this week I did rounds of the strength routine Monday and Wednesday.  Now, I intend to take the next three days completely off from training activities--that was the plan even before this injury occurred.  I'm in for a lot of hard paddling all next week on the Columbia River, so I think a planned break now is a good idea.

The thoughtful folks at Outdoors, Inc., knew just what I needed for my trip: a neon-yellow hat that will be highly visible out in the Gorge and, I hope, save my head from being taken off by a kiteboarder or windsurfer:

Company president Joe Royer delivered it himself.  I'll wear it with pride!


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Monday photo feature

Barring some horrible disaster, a week from now I'll be paddling in the Columbia River Gorge on the state line between Oregon and Washington.  Some athletes are already there getting ready for the big race at the end of next week.  Long-time racing friend Chris Hipgrave of Bryson City, North Carolina, posted a video online of one of his downwind runs, and what you see above is a screen shot.  It looks like there's a nice wave forming up off the starboard bow.  Beyond that wave you can see a kiteboarder sailing along--surf ski paddlers aren't the only ones who are drawn to the legendary winds of the Columbia Gorge.


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The surf's not up on the Memphis riverfront

I've been dealing with some pain in the left side of my neck this weekend.  It's a pinched nerve or some such thing, caused by sleeping on it wrong, or maybe by dealing with that massive table I've been working on.  I get something like this several times a year.  It'll run its course.  But until it does, I'm hating it.  It doesn't interfere with paddling, but it makes the rest of my daily existence much less pleasant than it should be.

Yesterday I headed out in Joe's V10 Sport surf ski hoping to find some wake-surfing action out on the Mississippi.  But there was none: the only barge traffic was a rig heading upstream far up the river, out of my reach.  My body was sort of tired from the week's strength work and table-wrestling, so I decided it was just as well that I make it a semi-recovery day.  I made a couple of nice spirited ferries across the river and then returned to the harbor and paddled easy back to the dock.

I felt fresher in the boat this morning and I headed back out to the river, thinking surely I couldn't be unlucky with the barge traffic a third straight time.  But in fact, I could: the river was empty as far as the eye could see.  I paddled all the way down to the big bend south of downtown and saw no powerful commercial vessels of any kind.  Now I had to paddle back up the river to the harbor, so today's paddle turned out to be more of a long-distance slog than I'd intended.  I threw in several hard surges to make sure I wasn't just practicing going slow, but it wasn't as much fun as surfing.  The next wave I surf may well be in the Pacific Northwest.

Speaking of which, on Friday I started doing some packing--gonna be a spendthrift and pay the fees to check two bags.  The yellow and black one is for paddles and whatever paddling clothing/gear I can cram in there, and the green one is for street clothes and stuff:

My flight is scheduled to take off Saturday evening.  So, yes, I started packing eight days in advance. I'm not getting excited about my trip or anything.


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Training continues apace

After the fairly substantial weekend paddling I'd done, I was ready for a recovery paddle when I went down to the riverfront on Tuesday.  I paddled easy for 60 minutes.  The Mississippi River is still very high here (35.5 feet on the Memphis gauge Tuesday), and I was able to paddle in the slack water of the flooded Greenbelt Park.

I went back downtown yesterday and got out Joe's V10 Sport surf ski with the hope of doing a "play" workout on some towboat wakes.  But after warming up and doing three 8-stroke sprints in the harbor, I headed out onto the mighty Mississippi and found no barge traffic whatsoever.  Maybe the towboat pilots were all observing the national holiday.  I paddled all the way down to the big bend in the river below the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge just to make sure there were no northbound rigs approaching; there were none.

So, a "work" workout it would be.  I headed back upriver along the Arkansas bank and commenced a set of twelve 30-second sprints at three-minute intervals.  This is a workout I've done a lot in recent years; I usually do ten sprints, but yesterday I stretched it out since I've got a downwind race looming that will require a lot of short sprints.  Sometimes this workout feels brutal, and sometimes it feels good; yesterday was one of the better days.  The fatigue was definitely getting to me in the last three or four sprints, but my form held up well.

I did the strength routine Monday, Wednesday, and today.  I'd say my muscular health has been mostly good lately, though my current woodworking project has provided some occasional strain: I'm making a table with some very heavy oak slabs that the client provided.


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Monday photo feature

Adam Davis shot this photo during our trip around the Loosahatchie Bar yesterday.  It looks like I could be waxing eloquent about something, but that can't be the case because I never wax eloquent.

As you can see at the bottom of the photo, Adam's G.P.S. device measured the distance at 10.5 miles. That seems about right to me.  In the past I've measured the trip at 12.6 miles on my own G.P.S. device, but that's starting and finishing about a mile farther north in the harbor than Adam started and finished yesterday.


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A solid weekend of work

The weather this weekend has been warm and muggy, but nowhere near as bad as Memphis summer weather can be.  Thunderstorms in the area have kept the temperature at a tolerable level.

Yesterday I went down to the riverfront with the intention of doing a "work" workout.  The smarter readers among you might infer that I consider "play" workouts more fun than "work" workouts, and they would be correct.  But I feel a need to get in a few "work" workouts just to stay honest... something to do with my Calvinist work ethic.

Anyway, I warmed up by paddling down to the mouth of the harbor, and that's where I had not one, but two, klutzy moments.  I was doing the first of three 8-stroke sprints across the squirrelly water where the harbor meets the Mississippi, and I was even congratulating myself on how well I was keeping the boat moving, when ker-PLUNK!  I flipped to my right.

I did the quickest, snappiest remount I could, hoping to save face in front of whatever pedestrians in Tom Lee Park had witnessed my gaffe.  I opened the drain valve in the footwell so the water would drain out, and paddled the two-minute recovery interval before the next sprint.  As the start time approached I reached down to close the drain valve, and the left blade of my paddle "caught a crab" in the water, and over I went to my left side.  Wow.  I hope this means I'm done flipping for the rest of the year.

With that silliness out of the way, I headed back north in the harbor and commenced my workout.  I did a set of 12 three-minute pieces.  For the first two minutes of each piece I kept the speed above 6.0 miles per hour on my G.P.S. device; then I took it up to around 7.5 mph for the next 40 seconds, and over 8.0 mph for the last 20 seconds.  The toughest mental moments of the workout, especially in the second half, occurred at the end of each sprint, when my body really wanted to stop but I had to keep paddling hard enough to keep the speed over 6 mph.

The last several pieces were tough but overall I held up well.  I hope a workout like this will pay off in my downwind race next month, where I can expect to be doing solid aerobic paddling with a lot of intermittent hard sprinting.

I was up bright and early this morning.  I'd agreed to meet another local racer, Adam Davis, on the riverfront at 8:30 AM.  Most mornings I go paddle between 9:30 and 10:30, and it takes an extra bit of gumption to get myself down there much earlier than that.  But I never regret it when I do, and it was nice to beat the heat of the day today.

We did a loop around the Loosahatchie Bar.  I may or may not have ever posted a map of this route in the past, but here's the one Adam's G.P.S. device generated today:

The Mississippi was flowing at 35.3 feet on the Memphis gauge this morning.  At this level most of the Greenbelt Park is flooded, so we were able to avoid paddling against the stronger current as we passed through points 2 and 3.  There was a barge rig headed upriver, and even though its waves were starting to peter out by the time we were ferrying across the main channel after point 4, we both managed to get a couple of brief rides.  As usual, the hardest stretch was the slog against the brunt of the river's force though point 5.  I was feeling some fatigue as we came back downriver, but we kept up a good, solid pace.

Between yesterday's workout and today's strong distance paddle with a few sprints thrown in, I'd say this has been a weekend I can feel good about.


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Hard at play

I usually paddle with Joe on Tuesdays, but this week Joe wasn't feeling well, so I was on my own.  When I got down to the dock, I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to paddle a V10 Sport surf ski of Joe's that he told me I'm welcome to borrow.  This boat is a bit more stable than the ones I usually paddle, and in fact I've rented one to use in the Gorge Downwind race next month.  The boat's hull speed is slower, but I'm hoping that a bit of extra stability will help me produce a net gain in speed in a downwind setting.

When I reached the mouth of the harbor I saw a barge rig heading upriver from below the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge.  Having paddled pretty hard on Sunday, I'd planned to go a little easier Tuesday; but I decided I had to see how the V10 Sport performed in those waves.  The towboat was producing nice ones and I got three or four really sweet rides.  The boat is definitely not touring-boat stable; its initial stability might even be less solid than what I'm used to.  But I think overall I was in better control on the waves.

I should note that barge wakes aren't really an ideal simulation of downwind conditions.  The wave trains sort of wander back and forth across the river, so that after you've surfed one wave, the next wave might be way off to your right or to your left.  And you can't really work your way forward in the waves like you can in a true downwind setting.  But it is a good chance to work on balance and control while surfing, along with the intense sprinting required to catch a wave.  I definitely got a hard workout on what was supposed to be an easy day.

I started a new strength routine Monday and did another round of it Wednesday.  This new demand on my muscles, combined with the hard paddling of Sunday and Tuesday, resulted in one dead-dog-tired human being here at my house.  By Wednesday evening my energy level was over toward the catatonic end of the spectrum.

I planned to go back to the river yesterday morning, but it was pouring down rain.  Rain alone isn't enough to stop me from paddling, but this storm was accompanied by some pretty spectacular lightning.  So I didn't get in the boat until the afternoon.  I got the recovery session I'd been needing, paddling very easy for 50 minutes.

Today I did another round of the strength routine.  My muscles seemed to be more comfortable with their new job.


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A new strength routine

I've started up a new strength routine to carry me though these several weeks leading up to the Gorge Downwind Championships.  It's my "Smart Bell" workout, which I demonstrate in this video:






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Monday photo feature

On the downtown Memphis riverfront, there's no surer sign of spring and early summer than the purple martins.  Most of the residential property down there was developed by one of our local real estate tycoons, and perhaps the best thing he did was place purple martin houses all up and down the riverfront.  There's one at the marina where I keep my boat.  Joe Royer took this photo outside his home on the South Bluffs.

The birds start showing up around April each year.  I think the males come first to scout out good breeding territory.  Soon the females show up and the mating takes place.  Once the young are able to take flight, they'll be out of here until next season.


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Feeling the heat

Summer has arrived in Memphis and the Mid South.  That amazing weather we had seems something of the more distant past than the week before last.  Now the humidity is up and the overnight temperature barely dips below 80 degrees Fahrenheit.  The solstice occurred on Friday and with it came a weekend forecast featuring a triple-digit heat index.

And so, once again I settle in for the duration.  I'll have a break or two along the way, including my trip to the Pacific Northwest next month, but around here I'll be paddling in sweltering heat and taking hose baths on the dock afterward.

When I paddled yesterday I was reminded that the river is often the best place to be on a hot summer day here.  There's almost always some kind of a breeze, and yesterday we had a good one from the south.  I was still feeling the effects of Thursday's workout and I just did a steady paddle for 80 minutes.  The Mississippi has come up in the last several weeks--it was 32.3 feet on the Memphis gauge yesterday--and I was able to paddle up onto Dacus Lake for a few minutes before heading back toward the Tennessee side.

Today we had an even stronger south breeze on the river.  I warmed up and did three 8-stroke sprints in the harbor, and then went out onto the river looking to do some kind of "play" workout.  There was no barge traffic in the area, so surfing was out; but a northbound rig had passed through some 20 minutes earlier, so I had small seas driven by the south wind.  I paddled up to the Hernando DeSoto Bridge and did a few fast ferries across the river there.  The river is typically a bit rougher near the bridge because of the Loosahatchie Chute rejoining the main channel just upstream, and at the current high water level the eddy below the center piling is big and boily with some mondo-size whirlpools exploding along the eddy lines.  My main objectives during the ferries were to keep paddling, keep the boat moving, and ride any bumps that I could.  I wouldn't say it was a pure downwind workout, but it was good practice staying relaxed and in control in decidedly un-placid conditions.


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Eagerly looking ahead

I've bought my plane ticket to Portland, Oregon.  The Gorge Downwind Championships are about an hour east of there at the town of Hood River.  The actual race will be July 18, 19, or 20, depending on which day has the best wind forecast.  I'm scheduled to fly out there on the 13th.  That's just three weeks from tomorrow, so the trip is beginning to feel like a real thing.

I'm feeling more or less back to normal in the health department.  I'm still coughing some, but not having coughing fits like I was a few days ago.  I'm also happy to report that the muscle achiness I was dealing with in my arms and shoulders a month or more ago seems to have run its course.

So, I'm feeling optimistic that I can get myself rounded into good form for the world-class event on the Columbia River.  I hope to put myself on a good diet of both "work" workouts (intervals, hard sprints, and so on) and "play" workouts (surfing towboat wakes and impromptu playing around out on the Mississippi) during the next three weeks.

My non-athletic life (also known as my job) has been rather crazy this week, but I was able to stick to my paddling schedule.  I paddled a loop of the harbor with Joe on Tuesday.  I went back to the riverfront yesterday planning to do a good "work" workout.  After warming up and doing three 8-stroke sprints, I did a set of eight 1-minute pieces with three minutes recovery in between.  My target pace for each sprint was 8.4 miles per hour; that's about the speed required to break two minutes for one of my 450-meter bridge-to-bridge sprints.  So yesterday's workout was sort of a variation on the bridge-to-bridge workouts I've done earlier this season: each sprint was only about half the duration, but I did eight of them rather than four, with a shorter recovery interval.

All told, I'd say the workout went pretty well.  The sprints were definitely taxing, and my speed was falling to 8.2 or even 8.1 in the last several.  But I didn't completely fall apart like I did in those earlier workouts.  My form held up well, and I still had some "fight" in me at the end.  And I recovered quickly during the cool-down paddle.  By the time I was back on the dock I wasn't feeling like I'd ruined myself for the rest of the day.

I did rounds of the strength routine Monday, Wednesday, and today.  I'm thinking I'll start up a new routine next week.


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Improve your skills to improve your racing

After we'd finished the race at Batesville last Saturday, Andy Capel and I spent a few minutes in an eddy catching our breath, and we chatted about how the race had gone.  I remember one observation of Andy's that I thought was interesting: he remarked that whenever we encountered chop or motorboat wakes, I paddled right through it while he had his rhythm interrupted by moments of instability.  "Each time you'd gain a little on me, and I'd have to sprint to catch back up," he said; "Over time, that added up and took a lot out of me."

That kind of insight on Andy's part is exactly why I take him seriously as a competitor.  He recognizes that canoe and kayak racing is full of subtle skills that each racer can practice and improve.  His attitude stands in stark contrast to the one I see way too often in racers who are not getting the results they want: "I need to go get a faster boat."

To me, that's just intellectual laziness.  When I look at the racers who are competing at a higher level than I am, the athletes I see are not just faster and more powerful that I.  They are better paddlers.  There are dozens of little things that they are doing better than I am.  Their boat control over the full range of water conditions is better than mine--sometimes a little better, sometimes a lot better.

To raise my own competitive level, I have to work on all those little things and try to make myself better at them.  I don't know if I'll ever be competing with the world's elite; at 51 years old, I'm thinking that's not likely.  But I can always strive to paddle a little bit better each day than the last, and that's a big reason that I continue to find this sport interesting and fun after all these years.

Based on the few chats I've had with Andy, I sense that he gets it, too.  He's asking the right questions and noticing the right things.  That's why I have a feeling sooner or later he'll be beating me if I don't stay on top of my game... or even if I do.


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Monday photo feature

I snapped this photo moments after the Batesville Canoe and Kayak Race on Saturday.  The man in the red shirt is Dale Burris of Russellville, Arkansas, and he's one of the true pillars of the sport of canoe and kayak racing.

The photo really says it all about the kind of guy Dale is.  The two boys Dale is talking to are members of a scout group he's been coaching for many years, and they have just edged out Dale and his partner for the win in the aluminum canoe class.  But that doesn't stop Dale from going over the race with them and giving them advice on how they could have done better.

Even though Dale is now 64 years old (his birthday was yesterday!), and even though he didn't get the win Saturday, he's an athlete you bet against at your peril.  Few stern paddlers in North American-style marathon canoe racing are as skilled and as tough as Dale.  But don't expect to hear any elaboration on that from Dale himself.  I don't think I've ever heard Dale toot even the meekest of notes on his own horn.


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Racing on the mighty White

I was up before dawn yesterday to make the two-and-a-half-hour drive across the lovely Arkansas Delta to Batesville, Arkansas.  Located about where the White River makes the transition from the Ozark foothills to the Arkansas Delta, Batesville calls itself the "Gateway to the Ozarks."

I drove to where the race would start, just below a dam some eight miles up the White from Batesville.  A small but eager group of racers had congregated, and after a brief meeting with director George Latus we put our boats in the water for the 9:30 AM start.

Andy Capel of Maumelle, Arkansas, sprinted into the lead off the starting line.  This was my third time racing Andy this year, and he has started very fast all three times.  This time I couldn't even hold on to his stern wake for the first couple of minutes, and I just had to let him go and hope he would back off the torrid pace soon.  Eventually he did, and it took several hard sprints for me to move from several boatlengths back to a position on his left-side wake.

That's where I sat for a good long while, recovering from my sprints and sizing up the situation.  This section of the White River meanders quite a bit and finding the fastest current was not always a simple matter.  For once I had my G.P.S. device on board, and our speed seemed to average around 8.5 miles per hour.  At one point we wandered too close to the inside of a bend and the shallow water dragged us down below 7.0 mph; at another moment we cruised through a constricted chute at over 12.0 mph.

Andy was hanging tough.  As the race wore on I took the lead and pushed the pace at times but couldn't open a gap.  A "safety" guy in a speed boat was following along, and a couple of times we both managed to ride his wake a little, but I didn't want something like that to determine the outcome of the race.

About two miles above Batesville the river makes a big bend to the left.  Andy and I had gotten separated a bit so that neither was on the other's wake, and I decided it was time to commit to a move.  I threw in a big surge and opened a bit of a gap, but not an obvious one.  I knew it was too early to blow out everything I had, and I tried to apply consistent hard pressure and build my lead inch by inch.

The U.S. 167 bridge, where the finish line awaited, came into view with a good mile still to go.  I continued to paddle the hardest pace I thought I could sustain for such a distance.  I knew that failing to pull away would mean losing the race because I'd be a sitting duck for Andy to sprint by me in the last 50 meters.  I wasn't seeing much with glances over my shoulder, but it felt like my gap was getting bigger.  Each stroke seemed harder than the last, and I wondered if I was putting my tenuous recovery from the recent health woes in jeopardy.  The dreaded sight of Andy's bow to my left or right never materialized, and with a couple dozen meters left I knew I had it.  I passed beneath the bridge with a time of 58 minutes, 19 seconds.  My G.P.S. device had measured the course at about 8.3 miles.

Andy crossed the finish line less than half a minute later.  The man is getting harder and harder to beat every time I race him.  We congratulated each other on a hard-fought contest and spent the next couple of minutes just gasping for breath.  Eventually I found the energy to paddle back up above the bridge and cheer on folks like Mike Vaughn, Dale Burris, Becky Burris, Doug Pennington, and Phil Capel as they finished their races.

Here are the results:

We made our way up the bank to a pavilion in Kennedy Park, where we enjoyed a hot dog lunch and received wooden trophies made by the shop class at the local high school.  I got a ride up to the start to retrieve my car, loaded up my boat, and headed back to Memphis, arriving home in the mid-afternoon.

I woke up this morning with some slight soreness in my shoulders, but otherwise feeling remarkably fresh.  I went downtown and paddled for 60 minutes.  There was a pretty good south breeze blowing and I found myself bobbing among a bunch of half-foot waves out on the Mississippi.  The idyllic weather of last week is gone and we've got warm moist days ahead.


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Proceeding with caution

By the beginning of this week I was feeling energetic enough to resume most normal activities.  On Monday I did a round of the new strength routine, on Tuesday I paddled a loop of the harbor with Joe, and I did another round of strength work Wednesday.

Yesterday I returned to the river and revved the engines for the first time since the Outdoors race back on June 1: in the middle of a 60-minute paddle I did a set of eight 12-stroke sprints at two-minute intervals.  I felt reasonably okay after it was over.

And yet, I had a nagging feeling that I was not completely well.  Most notably, my bad coughing fits continued.  The whole scenario was reminiscent of an awful experience I had back in June of 2001.  I'd just gotten out to Colorado and done a downriver race on the Animas River at Durango.  Then I came down with a bad cold or flu that forced me to take it easy for several days.  Then I started feeling better, and being on vacation, I told myself that times were a-wastin' and I launched back into all the paddling and racing activities.  After maybe a week or so of this behavior, I relapsed with a vengeance, coming down with a wicked fever and a severe sore throat.  At that time I'd been paddling on the Crystal River and I found a doctor's office in Carbondale that would see me.  It turned out I had either bronchitis or strep throat--I'm not entirely sure which--and I was prescribed a course of antibiotics.  A kind racing friend who was traveling for a few days let me crash at his apartment in Snowmass Village, and there I lay until I was ready to rejoin the living.

Not wanting a repeat of that miserable episode, I decided to go to the minor medical clinic yesterday afternoon.  The nurse practitioner who checked me out thought some bronchial infection was plausible and prescribed me an antibiotic, along with a couple of medications to remedy my coughing.

Today I'm feeling no worse, if not a little better.  I'm at least feeling more upbeat for having been proactive and sought some help.  I went back to the river today and did another 60-minute paddle, this time doing six 12-stroke sprints at two-minute intervals.  Once again I felt fine when it was over. I think I will go ahead and attend the race at Batesville, Arkansas, tomorrow.

One bright side of this week is the glorious weather we have had.  It's been mostly sunny and delightfully cool with a nice dry breeze--I doubt any other place on the planet has had nicer weather than the Mid South this week.  I've been trying to savor every minute of it because, of course, all good things must come to an end: our customary oppressive heat and humidity is expected to move back in starting tomorrow.  There are worse places I could be than on the clear, cold water of the White River.

I mentioned before that I'd planned to spend the first half of June keeping the training moderate while racing on three consecutive weekends, and then build from that foundation into a substantial training block, culminating in the big Gorge Downwind event in the Pacific Northwest next month.  My illness forced me to keep things even more moderate than I'd planned, not to mention miss a race.  But as long as I can persuade my body to keep getting better, there's still plenty of time to get some good work done.

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A new strength routine

My health woes have kept me from diving into this routine as vigorously as I would have liked, but I've been doing at least a light version of this routine for the last ten days or so:

1.  Lateral abdominals (demonstrated by Michele Ramazza at 3:52 of his video on this page)

2.  Front and lat raises with dumbbells

3.  Core exercise: kneeling on a stability ball

4.  Bicep curls with dumbbells


For more information on what this blog is about, click here.

Monday photo feature

I'm not somebody who posts "memes" on social media, but this one spoke to me.  I fail to understand why some people think it is okay to leave their trash on the ground.  The litter in this photo appears to be right at the water's edge, but I consider it just as bad to litter in the middle of town, because eventually that waste makes it into our waterways as well.


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Groping for better health

By Friday evening it seemed that I might be through the worst of my illness, but yesterday I woke up feeling as grim as ever.  Nevertheless, having spent a couple of days lying around the house, I was determined to have something akin to a normal Saturday morning.  So I went to the farmers' market and then headed down to the river.  On the dock I tried to relax and do a full stretch routine.  My whole body felt achy and tight.  I got in the boat and spent a half-hour paddling to the mouth of the harbor and back.  It wasn't much, but at least I could go back home and collapse in bed feeling like I'd accomplished something.

This morning I felt more energetic.  I went back to the river and paddled for 50 minutes, and even though I had to stop for a coughing fit several times, I generally felt good in the boat.  I came home and took a nap, and then spent the afternoon doing some light chores in the workshop.  I'm definitely not at a hundred percent, but maybe the end of this ordeal is in sight.


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Illin'

Well, my plan to race up in Kentucky this weekend has been scuttled.  I've gone and gotten sick.  It started as sort of a chest cold early in the week and by Wednesday evening it had advanced into flu territory.  I don't have a thermometer to take my temperature but I have felt feverish at times, and my energy has gone missing entirely.  Yesterday I didn't feel like doing much besides lying in bed, though I did have to go over to my rental property and babysit some contractors there for a couple of hours in the afternoon.  I'd reserved a motel room for tonight up in Taylorsville, Kentucky, but I went ahead and canceled it yesterday morning.  I'd held off on registering for the race itself because of those symptoms early in the week.

I guess this isn't the worst time for something like this to happen.  But it would have been fun to go race and see some friends this weekend.  With any luck I'll be mended in time for the race at Batesville, Arkansas, next weekend.

My general plan for this first half of June is to keep the training volume moderate with these races going on.  After the Batesville race I plan to build into a good solid training block for the Gorge Downwind race next month.

This week I started doing a light version of a new strength routine that I'll elaborate on later.  Other than that, I've been in the boat twice this week--Sunday and Tuesday.  I did generic steady paddles both days.


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Race schedule update

Now that racing has resumed, it's time to take a look at what's coming up.  There's a race each of the next two weekends, and I would like to attend them both.  I've heard good things about the event in Kentucky.  And having won the race over in Arkansas last year, I've got the "traveling trophy" and I guess I'm obligated to take it back.


June
8  Taylorsville Lake Paddle Battle.  Taylorsville Reservoir, Taylorsville, Kentucky.  A 10-mile flatwater race.  Register

15  Batesville Canoe and Kayak Race.  White River, Batesville, Arkansas.  An 8-mile race down a Class I river, starting at Lock 2 near Locust Grove and finishing at the U.S. 167 bridge at Batesville.  No online registration; on-site registration from 8-9 AM on race day.  Race starts at 9:30 AM.


July
6  The Lovely Laurel River Lake Paddle Blast.  Laurel River Lake, Corbin, Kentucky.  A 10-mile flatwater race.  Register

18-20  Gorge Downwind Championships.  Columbia River, Hood River, Oregon.  A 14-mile race in the legendary downwind conditions of the Columbia River Gorge.


August
3  The Paddle Grapple.  Fontana Reservoir near Bryson City, North Carolina.  A 6-mile flatwater race.  Register

3  Ohio River Paddlefest.  Ohio River, Cincinnati, Ohio.  A 9-mile race on this Midwest artery.  Register

7-10  U.S. Flatwater Sprint National Championships.  Lake Lanier, Gainesville, Georgia.  A regatta to determine national champions in numerous boat classes and age groups over 200 meters, 500 meters, 1000 meters, and 5000 meters.  Registration information


September
28  River Rat Paddle Challenge.  Ouachita River, West Monroe, Louisiana.  6.5 miles down a Class I river.


October
5  Big South Fork River Dash.  Big South Fork of the Cumberland River near Whitley City, Kentucky.  A 12-mile mostly-flatwater race.

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Monday photo feature

No task is too menial for Joe Royer, the founder and director of the Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race.  Late last week he could be found just down the hill from River Garden Park, in the water up to his armpits at times, pruning brush to provide an easier takeout for the race's finishers.  Such attention to detail helped make Saturday's race as enjoyable as any in the event's 38-year run.


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The OICK race is back

We've had lovely, not-so-humid weather here in the Memphis area for the last couple of days.  The heat and humidity are supposed to be creeping back upward over this weekend, but this morning it was hard to ask for lovelier conditions for a 5000-meter race down the Mississippi River.  There was plenty of sunshine, but a mild west-northwest breeze was keeping things cool.

A couple of hundred registrants assembled at the mouth of the Wolf River for the 38th Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race, and after a few instructions from director Joe Royer and a blessing from chaplain Dr. Scott Morris, they got in their boats and positioned themselves in the traditional starting area beneath the power lines.

I was feeling butterflies aplenty as I awaited the starting gun.  I think most athletes feel some version of nervousness in the moments before competition begins, no matter how experienced they are.  There's the anticipation of of the strenuous effort the race will demand, the hope that you will execute all the things well that you've been practicing, even some fear of possibly not performing as well as you think you should.

I didn't have my best start ever.  Four or five boats shot into the lead ahead of me, and the butterflies in my arms that usually disappear once the race is underway persisted for a tense few minutes as I fought my way into some sort of contention.

Three-time Olympian, three-time world championships medalist, and Pan Am Games champion Mike Herbert of Rogers, Arkansas, quickly opened a solid gap on the rest of the field.  Nobody was surprised to see that.  A chase pack formed consisting of Christian Massow of Cypress, Texas; Andy Capel of Maumelle, Arkansas; and Adam Davis of Memphis.  I sat a couple of boatlengths behind these guys, trying to settle my nerves and get down to business.  I think I was even talking to myself: "Come on, man.  The race has started.  Stop being such a head case and just paddle!"

We entrants in the race-boat class were all in surf skis except for Christian, a lifelong sprint racer, who'd opted for a flatwater K1.  Even though the Mississippi was about as smooth as it ever gets, I could see that the swirly currents were giving Christian some trouble with his balance.  He'd had a good fast start out of the Wolf, but now he was having to throw down some braces as he dropped back onto Adam's stern wake and did his best to maintain contact with the pack.

I decided to move to the right a bit where the water was undisturbed by the churning paddles.  I began to settle into a fast but comfortable rhythm at last, and over the next few minutes I inched my way up into second place.  I didn't have my G.P.S. device in the boat with me, but with the river registering 28.1 feet on the Memphis gauge, I knew we were getting plenty of help from the current.  I clocked about a 10:22 split at the Hernando DeSoto Bridge, the fastest I can ever remember.

Up front Mike had taken longer than usual to build his lead; for the first third of the race I don't think he was more than maybe 20 seconds ahead of me.  Maybe he was having the same trouble finding his rhythm that I was.  But eventually he began to pull away, and probably had more than a minute on me as he approached the entrance to the harbor.  It certainly was a comfortable enough lead for him to take a safe, conservative line around the southern tip of Mud Island, where there were some patches of very shallow water at the current river level.

By the time I reached the bridge I'd moved far enough ahead of my pursuers that I couldn't see anyone in my peripheral vision.  I told myself to keep paddling hard.  My lousy sprint workouts in recent weeks had shaken my confidence a bit, but I reminded myself that I'd raced well in races of 8 miles or less in March and April and that there was no reason I wouldn't stay strong all the way to the finish today.

I got to the harbor entrance and took a tighter line around the tip of Mud Island than Mike had.  I'd scouted the area yesterday and was confident I'd found a good clear path.  I hit the bottom with my paddle one time but otherwise had no trouble.  As I turned up into the harbor I stole a glance over my left shoulder and saw two boats not far back.  I wondered if one of them was Christian.  Christian is the reigning Masters national champion in the 200-, 500-, and 1000-meter sprints, and if he was anywhere in striking distance he would be able to zoom right past me in the flatwater of the harbor.  And even if Christian wasn't nearby, the boats I'd seen at the turn looked a little too close for comfort.  I would have to lay down the best finishing sprint I could muster to preserve my second-place position.

The finish buoys taunted me as I strove to reduce the distance between them and me to zero.  Those agonizing sprint workouts were on my mind as I pressed on, but no other boats appeared to my left or right and I became ever more confident that second place--my best finish ever in this race--was all mine.  Mike had claimed first place with a time of 15 minutes, 57 seconds, and I pushed myself across the line just 40 seconds later--the closest to Mike I've ever finished in this race.  My tighter line at the harbor entrance paid off, at least in a moral-victory sort of way.

I maneuvered my boat around and learned the identities of the two paddlers I'd seen back at the harbor entrance.  Andy Capel took third place in 16:54, and Adam Davis gave us a second Memphian in the top four with a time of 17:09.  Joseph DiChiacchio of Rising Fawn, Georgia, rounded out the top five in 17:23.  Christian Massow had indeed struggled out on the big river and had to settle for sixth place in 17:46.  If this had been entirely a flatwater race I think Christian would have made a good run at Mike.

Mike's daughter Savanna Herbert was the top female finisher, clocking 18:58.  She'd emerged from a thrilling duel with the race's top tandem kayak paddled by Carol Lee and Joe Royer.  Myrlene Marsa of Rising Fawn, Georgia, was Savanna's nearest solo female competitor, finishing 54 seconds back.  The complete results are posted as follows:

Solo kayak results
Tandem kayak results
Solo canoe results
Tandem canoe results
Standup paddleboard results

We all congratulated one another and made our way up the grassy bank to the post-race festivities in River Garden Park.  It was great to have canoe and kayak racing back here in Memphis, Tennessee.


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Almost time to RACE at Memphis!

On Tuesday morning I put my boat in the water behind our rented house overlooking Mississippi Sound, and paddled for 40 minutes.  In the middle of it I did eight 12-stroke sprints at two-minute intervals.  The sprints felt pretty nice and fluid.

I spent the rest of Tuesday driving back to Memphis, and now I'm making final preparations for tomorrow's Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race.

Yesterday I paddled in the harbor for 40 minutes, doing six 12-stroke sprints.  The achiness in my upper arms has been somewhat better lately, but not entirely gone.

Today I had some company on the water: Mike and Savanna Herbert arrived from their home in Rogers, Arkansas, in the early afternoon, and the three of us paddled together and checked out the course.  The river is high, as it has been all winter and spring, but not outrageously so.  The level at race time tomorrow should be around 28.3 feet on the Memphis gauge.  It looks like the weather will be warm but beautiful.


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Monday photo feature

Here I am charging down the Mississippi River in April of 2014.  That's Rick Carter of Eutawville, South Carolina, just a boatlength or two back.  The occasion was the Bluz Cruz Canoe and Kayak Race, a 22-miler from Madison Parish Port, Louisiana, to Vicksburg, Mississippi.  Photo by Paul Ingram.

This coming weekend I'll be racing on a different section of the mighty Mississippi: the one that flows right by my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.  The 38th Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race is set for Saturday morning, and if you're reading this, you're invited to be there.  Online registration is available here.  The registration deadline is Friday evening at 6 PM CDT.


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Grabbing a bit of practice on the Gulf Coast

I've had a mostly-lovely couple of days at Dauphin Island.  The warm, muggy, sunny weather is conducive to a whole lot of lazing around.

Yesterday I didn't get in the boat until mid-afternoon.  I felt pretty tired and paddled in Mississippi Sound for less than an hour at moderate intensity.  The weather was calm, but there were plenty of motorboat wakes generated by people here for the holiday weekend.

When I woke up today there was a bit more of a breeze blowing.  The online forecast I checked listed a wind velocity of around 11 miles per hour.  I decided to drive my boat over to the Gulf side of the island and see what kind of downwind action I could find.  There was quite a bit, as it turned out.  With the wind blowing in from the south I had to paddle out from the beach for five minutes or so, ride the surf back in, and repeat.

My intellectual understanding of ocean waves and how to use them in a downwind race is fair, not great.  But the biggest obstacle between me and downwind proficiency is the same one I've encountered in every other paddling discipline I've tried: confidence in my balance.  Fitness and stamina have always been right up my alley, but acrobatic agility has never been a reliable part of my skill set.  It was hard for me even when I was a little kid: I couldn't turn cartwheels or dive off the diving board.  And when I start competing with paddlers who are comfortable with that sort of thing, I run right smack into the ceiling of what I'm able to achieve.

For much of my downwind session this morning, I watched good surfing opportunities slip away because I was sitting on a brace or otherwise off balance when I should have been paddling.  I had my G.P.S. device on board and watched with dismay as my speed plummeted.  Finally, on my last trip in to the beach, I managed to link together some good rides and my velocity got up over 10 miles per hour for a measurable length of time.

I made myself stop after about 40 minutes.  I don't need to be wearing myself out with the Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race coming up this Saturday, and with the beach starting to get crowded, I also didn't want to take some little kid's head off.  But with the Gorge Downwind race less than two months away, it was nice to have hopped on this small practice opportunity.

I plan to head back to Memphis tomorrow.  I hope to do an easy paddle in the sound before I go.


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Still not doing great at high intensity

The beat goes on with my arm woes.  I'm managing them the best I can.  I don't think my achy biceps are as bad as they were before my trip to Virginia, but the tennis elbow in my left arm has returned with a vengeance.

I spent the first half of this week doing stuff of moderate intensity--paddling with Joe in the harbor on Tuesday and doing rounds of the strength routine Monday and Wednesday.

Then yesterday I went back downtown to do another set of four bridge-to-bridge sprints.  I've been frustrated by my lack of stamina in this workout so far this year, and was hoping maybe this time I could crank out four fairly consistent times.  For this latest go-round I tried a different boat: a V10 Sport surf ski of Joe's that he told me I could paddle if I wanted to.  The V10 Sport is slightly wider and more stable (and therefore slower, at least on paper) than the V12 that I normally train in.  But Joe's V10 Sport is a lighter layup than my V12--it's what Epic Kayaks calls the "ultra" layup, while my boat is the heavier "performance" layup.  And Joe's boat feels light even by "ultra" layup standards.  So my spirits were buoyed just knowing I had a bit less weight to push around.

I warmed up and did three 8-stroke sprints, and then lined up under the monorail bridge.  The first piece got off to a good start--I hit that roof edge right at the one-minute mark.  I stroked as hard as I could and finished the piece in 2:02.  It still wasn't the sub-two-minute time that I shoot for, but it was my fastest time so far this year.

I took a 5-minute rest interval, during which I paddled back to the monorail bridge.  My goal now was to produce three more times in the neighborhood of 2:02.  The second piece seemed much like the first, but this time I could only manage 2:05, and I was starting to hurt by the end of it.  I gave myself an extra recovery minute, but in the third piece I was really starting to fall apart.  I limped across the finish in 2:11.

Feeling defeated, I did just a half-piece for the fourth sprint (from the monorail bridge to the roof edge).  I sprinted as hard as I could and did it in 63 seconds.

Once again, I'm trying not to obsess over it too much.  Fortunately, few races demand a lot of time in the lactic zone.  But I am a bit puzzled with my inability to get through this workout like I did last year and the year before.

This morning I did another round of the strength routine, and then went back to the river for a steady paddle at medium intensity.  I paddled to the mouth of the harbor and then up the Mississippi to the mouth of the Wolf River, where next Saturday's Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race will start.  Today's river level was about 31.2 feet on the Memphis gauge, and one bright side of this fairly high level is that racers won't have to carry their boats down any steep grades to get to the water.  The forecast says the river will be at 29.2 feet on race day.

Tomorrow morning I'm heading down to the beach!  My mother and my sister's family and I typically get together at Dauphin Island on the Alabama Gulf Coast around this time each year.  I'd been wavering on whether to make the trip at all this year--the idea of yet another long drive isn't something I'm thrilled about--but I've decided I shouldn't pass up several days of relaxing beach time.  The paddling I do there will be whatever I feel like doing.  Any hard paddling I do will be in the service of FUN (i.e., downwind surfing).  Let us never forget that paddling is always fun, whether I'm in top racing form or not.

I plan to return home Tuesday and get myself rested and ready for the big race.


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Monday photo feature

Here's another photo from the 2012 Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race, taken by Roger Cotton Photography.  Linda Weghorst charges toward the finish line as the sun beats down.  This was Linda's last OICK race, as she moved away from Memphis later that year.

We miss Linda terribly.  But maybe we'll discover that we love YOU just as much!  All you have to do is come to this year's race and let us get to know you!  The 2019 OICK race is set for June 1--a week from this Saturday.  Online registration is available here.


For more information on what this blog is about, click here.

Back in training mode, no thanks to Delta Airlines

I saw my nephew get his degree on Thursday, and my mother and I began the journey home on Friday.  And what a horrible journey it turned out to be. We were booked to fly on Delta Airlines from Roanoke to Memphis by way of Atlanta, with a scheduled arrival time in Memphis of around 9 PM.

As it turned out, we didn't land in Memphis until around 8 o'clock yesterday morning.

Our flight from Roanoke to Atlanta was delayed more than seven hours--something to do with a flight crew that had used up the number of duty hours allowed by the FAA.  Landing in Atlanta after midnight, we'd missed the last flight to Memphis and were forced to sleep on the floor of the airport even though the Delta agent in Roanoke had assured us the airline would put us up in a hotel.  The agent we dealt with in Atlanta was, to put it mildly, rude.  I doubt I got more than a half-hour of sleep the whole night.

As air-travel horror stories go, our ordeal was probably fairly average.  But the Delta Airlines personnel could not have handled the situation more poorly, and I will be avoiding Delta at all costs for the foreseeable future.

Once home I slept for several hours, had a small lunch, and headed down to the river to paddle.  It took some willpower to drag myself down there, but once I was in the boat I felt surprisingly good.  I paddled for 50 minutes, going fairly easy aside from three 8-stroke sprints.

I got a much-needed full night of sleep last night, and went back to the river today intending to get refocused on my preparation for the OICK race.  After warming up and doing another three 8-strokers, I did a set of eight hard sprints at 75 seconds on, 30 seconds off.  The short recovery interval makes this a lactic tolerance workout, and by about the sixth piece I was really feeling the pain.  In the late stages of the workout I tried my best to keep taking good strokes even though I was slowing down a bit.

I'm still feeling some soreness in both biceps, as well as the deltoid area of my right arm and shoulder.  But it doesn't seem quite as bad out of the boat, as I go about my non-athletic business each day.  I've got a couple more hard workouts scheduled between now and race day, and I need to be extra-conscientious about letting myself recover fully from each one.


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Downtime report

I'm staying with my mother and my sister's family in a rented house in a rural area outside Lexington, Virginia, where my nephew is graduating from college.  As I mentioned in my last post, these few days include no paddling for me.  So far they haven't included much else, either: I've felt sleepy and completely devoid of energy, my digestion is out of whack because of the deviation from my normal diet, and I have a hint of a sore throat as though I've got a cold coming on.  I am most definitely not feeling like the guy who's supposed to go out and kill it in the Outdoors race and the summertime competitions that follow.

I was hoping I'd reach the end of this little break feeling reinvigorated and ready to go get 'em.  But it seems that my body has taken this opportunity to crash much harder than I'd expected.  Now I'll have to put the pieces back together when I get home.

At the moment it's hard to tell if there's any improvement in the way my arms are feeling.  Some soreness is still present.  So far I've done a very light round of the strength routine, just to get some blood flowing in those areas.

For now, I'm trying to enjoy the family celebration and not worry about the physical challenges to come.  I'll be home tomorrow night and I'll see what I'm capable of doing this weekend.


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Monday photo feature

This photo, taken by Roger Cotton Photography moments after I'd finished the 2012 edition of the Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race, says it all in terms of what the conditions were like that day.

It was blazing hot--the high for the day was around 95 degrees Fahrenheit.  And the Mississippi River was flowing at the lowest race-day level ever (1.7 feet below zero on the Memphis gauge), making the course slower and longer than usual.  And the field was deep, demanding my best effort for a respectable finish.  The result was an exhausted but generally satisfied paddler once the race was over.  You can go back here to read my report on that race.  There's also this You Tube video in which Greg Barton talks about the race and the low water.

The OICK race is now in its 38th year, scheduled to take place June 1--that's just two weeks from this Saturday.  I don't know what the weather will be like but I can assure you the Mississippi will not be as low as it was in 2012.  All canoe and kayak racers are invited to register here and come on down to the Memphis riverfront to partake in this classic event.


For more information on what this blog is about, click here.

Trying to paddle and heal simultaneously

My plan for the weekend was to do easy- to medium-intensity paddles to get the blood flowing in the relevant muscles and, as always, practice my strokes.

I didn't get out until the afternoon on Saturday.  I paddled mostly easy for 50 minutes.  Yesterday I went slightly harder, doing three 8-stroke sprints in the harbor before paddling up the Mississippi to the lower end of the Greenbelt Park and back.  The tennis elbow in my left arm seems to be getting better, but both biceps are still achy and sore, especially the right one.

I went back to the riverfront today wanting to do some good fast sprinting, but not the sort of sufferfest the bridge-to-bridge sprints have been for me lately.  After warming up and doing three 8-stroke sprints, I started a 30-minute workout in which I threw in a 12-stroke sprint every two minutes and otherwise tried to keep the speed at 6.5 miles per hour on my G.P.S. device.

This afternoon I fly to Virginia to see my sweet little nephew become a college graduate.  His school spreads its commencement exercises over three days, so I won't be home until Friday.  I hope my arms will avail themselves of a few days out of the boat to start feeling better.


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The struggle continues

I had a good paddle with Joe on Tuesday, and on Wednesday evening I delivered my talk on being a lifetime paddlesports athlete.  I'm grateful to all the people who showed up.

Yesterday I went back downtown with the intention of doing four bridge-to-bridge sprints.  After last Saturday's painful slog through this workout I wasn't expecting any miracles in the time department, but I was hoping I could at least be more consistent and not just get slower and slower like I did Saturday.

After a good long warmup and three 8-stroke sprints, I drifted into starting position beneath the monorail bridge.  Once the first sprint was underway it was clear that I still didn't have much turnover; I guess my achy arms are part of the reason for that.  I tried to explode through each stroke as hard as I could while keeping the stroke rate fairly low.  Once more my split was slow at the edge of the marina roof--around 64 seconds.  I did my best to keep it together and ended up with a time of 2:04.

The second sprint was similar; my time was 2:05.  By the third sprint I was really feeling some agony as I struggled to a time of 2:09.

I'd been giving myself 5 minutes for recovery, during which I paddled back to the start at the monorail bridge.  After three sprints I could tell my form was falling apart and didn't see the point of beating a dead horse any longer.  So I gave myself an extra minute of recovery before the last sprint, and then did just half the distance (i.e., to the edge of the marina roof).  I dug in and hoped maybe I could break a minute, but about 63-64 seconds was the best I could manage.

I'm trying my best not to get all alarmed by my difficulties in these workouts; after all, my upcoming races will proceed at a much lower level of intensity.  But it sure would be nice to go into the races with maximum confidence, and I'm just not feeling that at the moment.

I plan to do a couple of steady paddles over the weekend and then some sort of not-quite-as-grueling workout Monday morning.  On Monday afternoon I fly to Virginia for my nephew's college graduation; I won't be back until Friday, and I'm hoping a few days out of the boat will give my body a chance to heal up and reap some benefits from the hard paddling.


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A new strength routine

I will be out of town Monday through Friday of next week to attend my nephew's college graduation. Because of that, I want a strength routine whose exercises are all entirely portable.  I've picked out a few of the rubber-band exercises demonstrated by world and Olympic champion slalom kayaker Daniele Molmenti in his video on this page.

Still suffering from muscle soreness in my arms, I'm hoping that strengthening the muscle groups in that general area will be helpful.

In addition to these rubber-band exercises, I'm doing "4-way abdominal" exercises.


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VENUE CHANGE!!

My lecture this Wednesday evening has been moved to a different location.

The original plan was for me to speak at the Midtown location of Outdoors, Inc.  However, a burst water pipe has caused extensive damage there, forcing us to move the event to the Cordova location.  The address is listed in red in the above photo.  I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and I hope to see an enthusiastic audience out in Cordova.


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Monday photo feature

I've had this yard sign for eight or nine years now.  I don't really have a yard to put it in, so it's become an annual tradition to stick it in the front door window of my shop.

In case you can't read my writing, this year's race date is June 1.  That's a mere three weeks from this Saturday!  So don't delay: go here to get yourself signed up.


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Not at my best right now

By yesterday morning the pain in my left lower back had eased considerably, but the arm woes seemed about the same.  I headed down to the river to put them to the test.

The plan was to do a set of four sprints in the harbor from the monorail bridge to the Hernando DeSoto Bridge.  Here's a video I made last year of one of these sprints:



The distance is very nearly 450 meters.

I warmed up and did three 8-stroke sprints, and then got to work.  I knew almost immediately that I was slow.  I just didn't seem to have the top gear I have when I'm breaking two minutes for this sprint.  When I'm fast I can reach the roof with the "No Wake Area" sign in less than a minute, but yesterday my splits were more like 65 to 70 seconds.

After struggling in the first two sprints I spent the next two just taking the best strokes I could and maintaining a respectable, if not blazing fast, pace.  The times sort of say it all: 2:05, 2:12, 2:13, 2:17.  It's never good when you're getting slower and slower as a workout goes along.  (In case anybody's curious, the corresponding times for a full 500 meters are 2:18, 2:27, 2:28, and 2:32.)

I was a little bummed out because with the Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race (5000 meters down the Mississippi at Memphis) less than a month away, I'm wanting to get as fast as I can.  But there's still time to work on it.  And even if my top speed isn't there, it doesn't mean I can't still race well.  Nevertheless, I'd like to be sharp, with all cylinders firing in perfect unison.

On a positive note, my arm ailments didn't seem any worse the rest of the day than they'd been before the workout.  And even though the sprints were painful, I seemed to recover quickly--the workout didn't ruin me for the rest of the day.

I woke up this morning with the arm pain no worse than before, but no better either.  I went downtown and paddled for 60 minutes, doing three 8-stroke sprints and then paddling on the quick side of medium for a half-hour or so before cooling down.

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Proceeding with pain

I'm starting to feel like a broken record, talking about how beat-up I've been feeling in the last several weeks.  I didn't do myself any favors by pushing that pig of a boat around the lower Atchafalaya River last Saturday.  My left lower back area has remained sore this week, and I have "tennis elbow" in my left arm that I think also resulted from that ordeal.   Meanwhile, I still have pain in my right biceps area from my overzealous strength work a while back.  I'm finally acknowledging that it's not routine soreness, but that I did in fact injure myself.

These ailments provide some discomfort in the boat, but they don't seem to impede my paddle stroke directly.  So I'm hoping I can nurse them along while following a more or less normal training plan.  My plan for tomorrow is to do a set of 450-meter bridge-to-bridge sprints, and that will be a big test of what my body can handle.

As for the last few days, I paddled with Joe in the harbor on Tuesday, and yesterday I did a slightly more intense paddle that included three 8-stroke sprints.  I did the leg and core exercises of the current strength routine Monday, Wednesday, and today.


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Lecture time

A week from today I will be giving a presentation at the Midtown location of Outdoors, Inc., here in Memphis.  I would love to see you there.

What am I going to talk about?  Well, I'm still working on that.  But you can expect me to share some insights developed over nearly four decades as a paddler, explain what I think it means to be a lifetime athlete, and offer advice for people of any age wanting to try a sport like mine.  And there will be snacks available.


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