On the road again, briefly

On Monday I made a little road trip.  Over in Little Rock a few racers gather each Monday afternoon for a "sandlot" race, and I'd gotten a message from Phil Capel encouraging me to join them this week.  I hadn't left Memphis since February, and Little Rock is close enough to Memphis (about 140 miles) that it seemed like a trip I could make without too much exposure to lurking viruses.  So I decided to go on over there.

It seems like every time I go to Little Rock in the summer months, it's a few degrees hotter than Memphis (and Memphis is plenty hot in the summer).  Monday's high in Memphis was around 88 degrees Fahrenheit, but as I was driving into the Little Rock area the temperature display in my car was reading 93 degrees.

I exited Interstate 40 onto I-430 and crossed the Arkansas River.  Then I exited at Cantrell Road and followed River Mountain Road to the Little Maumelle River boat launch, where I found a group of paddlers preparing their craft for some racing.  Among them were familiar faces like Phil Capel, Phil's son Andy, Andy's wife Ashley, Karen Kesselring, Stephen Lynn, Lou and Charlie Payton, and Robert Orr.

Our course was an up-and-back circuit on the Little Maumelle River, which flows into the Arkansas River just above the I-430 bridge.  There was no current to deal with because the water was backed up behind Murray Dam about a mile down the Arkansas.  We would start and finish beneath the Two Rivers Park pedestrian bridge, and the turnaround spot was a tree in the middle of the Little Maumelle approximately two and a half miles up.

We did a staggered start, with slower racers going first and quicker ones going last.  Soon it was just Andy and me sitting beneath the pedestrian bridge, and when we agreed it was time to go, we went!

We sprinted out for the first 150 meters or so and then settled into a pace a little over 7 miles per hour.  I spent most of the first half of the race on Andy's stern wake, trying to conserve energy for some surges later on.  Around 3000 meters in I moved up onto Andy's left-side wake, and as our turnaround tree came into view I took the lead so I could make my turn without any unexpected mishaps.

I threw in a surge coming out of the turn, hoping I could open a gap, but Andy covered the move and held onto my stern wake.  So I led for a while, trying to paddle as efficiently as possible while the sun beat down.  Eventually the Two Rivers Park pedestrian bridge came back into view, and it looked "right there," but knowing it was still at least a mile off, I kept paddling steady.

With maybe 800 meters to go, Andy moved up onto my right-side wake, and took the lead a minute later.  I settled onto his side wake and pondered when to make my big move.  The local rowing club has a dock about 400 meters out from the finish, and I decided to go as soon as we reached it.  I began to paddle hard and pulled even with Andy.  Andy responded and I knew I had a real fight on my hands.  I dug deep and began to move into the lead an inch at a time.

Once it was down to about 30 meters to go, I had built almost a half-boatlength lead and finally began to believe that I had him--but only if I kept the hammer down.  Meanwhile, my body was screaming "Stop!  STOP!!  I can't take another ten seconds of this!!!!"  Somehow I ignored those inner voices and got myself across the line.  My G.P.S. device measured the course at 7700 meters (about 4.78 miles), and my time was 39 minutes, 33 seconds.

After racing Andy three times last year, I mentioned in this post that he was getting a little bit harder to beat each time.  That trend continued Monday, with Andy finishing just five seconds back at 39:38.

The other racers produced the following results:

Robert Orr 43:28
Dave Grundfest 44:46
Frank Walker 47:45
Jillian Elwart 47:48
Phil Capel 49:51
Karen Kesselring 50:40
Lou and Charlie Payton 56:40
Ashley Capel 59:02
(Stephen Lynn flipped and was unable to finish.)

The water was bathwater warm, but I flipped my boat anyway.  My feet could feel cooler water five feet down.  After a while I remounted and paddled back to the boat ramp, and returned my boat to the top of my car.  I'd now done two races in three days.  It felt good to get back to some racing even in an informal setting.

After a bit of conversation I embarked on the trip back home.  It was pushing 7 o'clock--suppertime--and I was reminded of one of the main challenges of road-tripping in Pandemic Times.  I'm feeling pretty skittish about going into restaurants these days, and I-40 between Memphis and Little Rock doesn't offer many good choices even in normal times.  I ended up getting a burger and fries at a Wendy's drive-thru in Forrest City... not what I consider much of a meal.  I think if I go to any future Monday afternoon sessions in Little Rock, I'll pack a sandwich or something on my own.

I got up Tuesday morning and did a round of the strength routine (again with no dips, as I'm still having this puzzling achiness in my upper arms).  Then I met Joe, and our relaxed loop of the harbor felt good after all that intensity.  On Wednesday I enjoyed a well-earned day off.  Yesterday I was back in the boat doing a typical 60-minute paddle that included a set of three 8-stroke sprints and some messing around out on the Mississippi.

This morning I did another round of the strength routine.  The summer solstice occurs tomorrow, and it looks like we'll have a hot weekend to go with it.


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

Now playing

The "virtual" race I did this past Saturday has turned into a video project.  This short film is about the storied past, the "virtual" present, and the hopeful future of canoe and kayak racing on the Mississippi River at Memphis.






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

Monday photo feature

The Wolf River originates in northern Mississippi, flows north into Tennessee, and then flows westward across Fayette and Shelby Counties and finally meets the Mississippi River just north of downtown Memphis.

I shot this photo last week while riding my bike on the Greenline, a bike trail that runs through the heart of Memphis atop an old Louisville & Nashville Railroad bed.  The Greenline crosses the Wolf River on the east side of town near the Shelby County Penal Farm.


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

Virtually racing

We lucked out with the weather for yesterday's "virtual" Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race.  The morning was sunny and pleasant, the humidity was down, and the wind was light, giving me hope that I could submit a decent time.  I loaded up my boat and headed down to the historic cobblestones on the Memphis riverfront.

I'd invited people to join me on social media, and I ended up having two takers, as Adam Davis and Scott Andrews arrived with their boats.  We lined up with a pair of utility poles on the cobblestones, from which we would paddle north in the harbor for 2500 meters, make a turn around a concrete structure by the old LaFarge plant, and return to where we'd started to complete the 5000-meter course.

Somebody yelled GO!, and off we went.  Adam and I were neck-and-neck out front, and I settled onto his right-side wake, where I would spend most of the first kilometer.  We moved along at around seven and a half miles per hour.

Once we'd passed beneath the Hernando DeSoto Bridge I moved into the lead and pushed the pace up to around 7.8 or 7.9.  I knew I couldn't sustain that for all of the remaining 4000 meters but I was hoping I could break contact.  By the time we reached Harbortown Marina I had a lead of three or four boatlengths.

The turnaround spot came into view: the concrete structure for loading barges next to the old LaFarge plant.  I made a beeline for it.  The Mississippi River has been dropping this week, but with a level of 22.2 feet on the Memphis gauge there was still ample room to made a high-radius turn and head back south.

As I got the boat back up to speed I hoped to maintain 7.1 or 7.2 mph the rest of the way.  I tried to relax and take the best strokes I could.  I was starting to feel taxed but felt certain I had one more good mile in me.  Once I was back south of the HDB I was hoping I could break 25 minutes.  As I passed beneath the monorail bridge I began my final charge to the finish, nudging the speed up around 8.0 mph.  I eyed my watch as the seconds ticked by, closer and closer to the 25-minute mark... and then past it.  I had to settle for a time of 25:12.

I brought my boat around to watch the other two come in.  Adam completed a respectable effort with a time of 26:28.  Scott was paddling a much slower boat but was undaunted by the challenge as he came in at 36:51.

It felt good to race again, even if it was a rinky-dink affair compared to a real OICK race.

Today I waited until the afternoon to paddle.  It was another sunny day, warmer than yesterday, but still not the blistering heat for which Memphis summers are famous.  I paddled mostly easy for 60 minutes.


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

Trying to get stoked for a "virtual" race

In most respects, the Memphis area got treated gently by what was left of Tropical Storm Cristobal.  I watched the Internet radar and the heaviest rain seemed to avoid the city.  By mid-morning Tuesday the rain had moved out and we had a day of warm, muggy weather.  Then on Wednesday some cooler, drier air moved in and the rest of the week has been lovely.

I did a round of the strength routine Tuesday morning, once again without the dips.  I'm still trying to manage the achiness in my biceps/shoulder area.  After that I did a loop of the harbor with Joe.

A somewhat strong west wind blew all day Wednesday as Cristobal's southern portion moved through.  I hadn't planned to paddle on Wednesday, but by lunchtime I was thinking that maybe, just maybe, there were some viable downwind conditions on the westward-flowing section of the Mississippi River below downtown Memphis.  So around 3 o'clock I put my V10 Sport surfski on the car and drove across the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge to where there's access to the river from the Big River Trail.

I put my boat in the water beneath the Harahan Bridge and headed downstream.  As I rounded the big bend to the right I was hoping to find some good swells, but as it turned out there wasn't much more than some chop.  So there would be no sweet rides, and I spent the next hour trying to get the boat moving on small bumps and stuff like that.

I now turn my attention to the "virtual" Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race.  As I mentioned last week, I've laid out a 5000-meter course in the harbor:

The course starts and finishes at the magenta line in the bottom left corner, and the turnaround spot is marked in the upper right corner.

This morning I paddled in the harbor and did five 12-stroke sprints, and I also spray-painted a marker on my turnaround landmark so that anybody who wants to join me can recognize it.


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

Monday photo feature

Twelve years ago I took a trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  In this photo, I strive to find my way.


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

Hot weather I can live with

It's been a hot weekend in the Mid South, with Fahrenheit temperatures rising into the low 90s.  But gentle breezes have made the heat quite bearable, and it's been especially lovely on the river.  Would that all above-90-degree days in Memphis could be like this.

Adam Davis joined me yesterday, and we paddled up the Mississippi about as far as the DeWitt Spain Airport before coming back down.  Coming downriver we followed a barge rig that was producing some somewhat-surfable waves.  The waves weren't much good for long, sweet rides, but we got some worthwhile practice working them.

This morning I paddled out of the harbor and up the Mississippi about halfway up the Greenbelt Park.  Coming back downriver I did six 12-stroke sprints at two-minute intervals.

The remnants of Tropical Storm Cristobal should be moving up here sometime tomorrow.  Tomorrow and Tuesday are looking somewhat stormy, but the forecast is showing a string of nice days after that.


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

Hard work in the boat, ailments out of it

On Tuesday morning I did a round of my new strength routine and then met Joe downtown for a loop of the harbor.

By Tuesday afternoon I was having some pretty bad pain in my right arm.  The new strength routine includes dips, and I think they aggravated the ongoing problem I've been having up in the biceps/shoulder area.  That area, along with my right wrist, has bothered me the rest of the week, continuing a now-yearlong trend of trouble.  I think it's about time to seek advice from the chiropractor I occasionally go to... I need to find out if she's even seeing anybody in her office right now.

If there's any good news, I guess it's that the affected muscles don't seem to be directly involved in paddling.  I've been able to paddle pretty comfortably through all this.

I mentioned in this week's photo feature that there's going to be a "virtual" event in place of the usual Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race.  People can time themselves on their own 5000-meter courses and submit their times here on the Internet.  It's strictly a "just for fun" sort of thing, it's free to enter, and anybody in the world may participate.  Registration is here.

I plan to do this "virtual" race myself sometime in the next ten days.  I hope I can get at least a couple of locals to join me so it won't be the sort of solitary time trial that's usually an exercise in pain.  I believe the best way to make it fair to participants around the globe is to do it on an out-and-back flatwater course, so I've drawn this one up in the harbor:

The course starts and finishes at the magenta line in the bottom left corner of this image.  The line is defined by a pair of utility poles on the cobblestones.  2500 meters to the north is the turnaround point, marked in the top right corner of the image above.  The actual object is a concrete tower that was used for loading barges at the old LaFarge plant.  If you want to get a better look at it, go to Google Maps and type in the coordinates 35°10'00.5"N 90°02'55.3"W.

I think overall I'm in really good shape; I've been paddling hard and enthusiastically and frequently all spring.  But I don't know if I'm in the best racing shape, with that keen edge to my speed and power.  In the last couple of weeks I've done several workouts in preparation for this "virtual" race.  I went to the river yesterday intending to do some long sprints.  I warmed up and did three 8-stroke sprints, then paddled out of the harbor and up the Mississippi to the Hernando DeSoto Bridge.  I did my first sprint from the bridge back to the mouth of the harbor.  I didn't time myself, and it's hard to target a particular pace out in the big river's current, but I went for an intensity level comparable to a 500-meter sprint.

Back in the harbor I did sprints over three sections of the course mapped above.  The first went from the start line to the southernmost bridge; I clocked 1 minute, 43 seconds over this distance of about 370 meters (that's an average speed of 3.59 meters per second).  After paddling easy for a few minutes, I sprinted from the southernmost bridge to the middle bridge; this distance is about 450 meters, and my time was 2:02 (3.69 m/s).  I then paddled easy up to the northeast corner of Harbortown Marina (the two greenish rectangles in the photo above), and timed myself from there to the turnaround point.  That's about 770 meters, and my time was 3:43 (3.45 m/s).

The first ten minutes or so of yesterday's paddle was done in a heavy downpour.  Then the rain moved out and by the end of the hour there were patches of blue sky here and there.  The perfect weather of last weekend already feels like a distant memory, with the humidity now back to oppressive levels and the temperature pushing 90 on the Fahrenheit thermometer.

I did another round of the strength routine this morning, but skipped the dips out of concern for my ailing right arm.  I think dips are a great body-weight exercise and this feeling that I can't or shouldn't do them is frustrating.


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

A new strength routine

Time to change up the strength routine again.  Here's what I'll be doing for the next several weeks:


1.  Pendulum planks (demonstrated at 3:38 of this video)

2.  Dips

3.  Ball back extension (demonstrated by Lindsey at 1:16 of this video)

4.  Wrist rollers (the old exercise where you raise a weight by rolling a dowel with your wrists)



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

Monday photo feature

Mike Herbert of Rogers, Arkansas, breathes deeply after winning the 2001 edition of the Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race on the Mississippi River at Memphis.  Photo by Emerson Wickwire.

The 2020 OICK race was supposed to be June 13--a week from this Saturday--but had to be called off due to Coronavirus concerns.  The organizers are offering a "virtual" event instead.  It's a "just for fun" sort of thing; one can enter for free and participate on any body of water.  Look here for more information.


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

Picture-perfect weather

By Friday afternoon some truly delightful weather had settled into the Mid South: sunshine with a pleasant breeze and low humidity.  The kind of weather that prompts me to turn off the central air conditioning and open the windows at my house.  When I got to the river yesterday morning there were already folks out all over town walking, running, riding bikes, and generally enjoying the outdoors.

I warmed up and did three 8-stroke sprints in the harbor, and then paddled a steady relaxed pace out on the river.  At 27.9 feet on the Memphis gauge, the Mississippi was at a good level for watching the people in Greenbelt Park and for paddling through some wooded bottomland over on the Arkansas side.

Another perfect day was shaping up when I went down to paddle this morning.  I warmed up and did another three 8-strokers, and headed up the river.  It had risen to 28.2 feet, about as high as it can get before it starts flooding the Greenbelt Park.  Once again quite a few people were in the park enjoying the gorgeous weather.

Once I reached the park I started the workout I'd planned for the day: twelve 30-second sprints at 3-minute intervals.  I did the first five sprints going upstream before heading back downriver.  Going downstream I did two more sprints, then took a break because a barge rig was coming upriver producing some nice-looking waves.  They really were about as perfect as the ones I surfed back on May 16, but they were moving a bit faster and I had trouble catching them.  Several times I surfed for 5-10 seconds right at a wave's crest before the wave passed under me.  I sprinted hard but in the end managed just one pretty good ride of maybe 20 seconds.

After all that I considered calling my workout complete, but then I thought, nah... one enjoys the fun stuff on top of, not instead of, the prescribed workout.  So I did two more of my 30-second sprints heading downriver toward the mouth of the harbor, and did the last three in the harbor.  I got back to the dock feeling good about the amount of speed I'd packed into my 80 minutes in the boat.

The extended forecast shows some Fahrenheit highs in the 90s starting around the middle of this coming week, so I'd better enjoy the rest of this lovely weather while we've got it.  Summer is just about here.


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

Spring volatility

That sore forearm muscle that was bothering me last week has gotten better, and I'm pleased about that.  My right wrist continues to hurt, pretty badly at times and not so badly at other times.

I did a round of the strength routine Tuesday morning.  I was running on a tight schedule and had to knock it out quickly.  This is a big reason that I try to keep my strength routines short and simple: if it weren't short and simple then I might just skip it on a busy morning like Tuesday's.  Instead, I knew it was doable, and I got it done.

I had several errands to run around town, but I managed to make it to my usual Tuesday morning appointment with Joe.  We did a nice relaxed loop of the harbor.

The weather has been weird this week.  There have been showers scattered all over the central U.S. and they've been moving in a glacially-slow rotating pattern rather than the usual west-to-east.  Though parts of the Mid South have had some heavy rain, here in my town there was barely a drop until a shower passed through yesterday afternoon.  The temperature has been lower than last weekend but the humidity is still up, and there's that unsettled feeling in the air, as if a severe storm could appear any minute, even though none has.

It was mostly cloudy, but a lot of sun was shining through, when I paddled yesterday morning.  I was in the mood for a workout, and I did one on a 5000-meter course I've laid out in the harbor.  It's an out-and-back course that starts and finishes next to where the Memphis Queen boats are anchored.  The turnaround point is a concrete tower at the barge-loading facility by the old LaFarge plant.  I varied the pace on the first half of the course, alternating between sections at 6.5 miles per hour and sections at 7.5 miles per hour.  My overall time for this first half was 12 minutes, 56 seconds.  Coming back south I tried to maintain a steady pace of 7.1 or 7.2 mph for the whole 2500 meters, but there was just enough of a headwind blowing to make that hard to do.  I ended up clocking 13:15, meaning that my pace was just a hair over 7.0 mph.

This morning I did another round of the strength routine.


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

Monday photo feature

Many kayaks and canoes head down the Mississippi River toward a finish in the harbor at downtown Memphis.  This is the Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race, circa 2014.


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

Weekend mileage

I paddled for 90 minutes yesterday, doing three 8-stroke sprints in the harbor and then paddling downriver past the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge and back up the Arkansas bank.  I mostly paddled relaxed but did throw in several good surges.

This morning I paddled for 110 minutes, and enjoyed the company of Adam Davis.  We paddled down toward President's Island before coming back up the Arkansas side and looping above the Hernando DeSoto Bridge.  We took turns pushing the pace and I was suitably worn out by the end of it.

As usual, Adam's G.P.S. device was tracking our every move:

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

The days drift by, and the ailments come and go

On Tuesday morning I did a round of the strength routine and then joined Joe for a loop of the harbor.  The weather was mostly cloudy but the air was pleasantly cool after a few muggy days.

Yesterday I did a 60-minute paddle in the harbor and on the river, warming up and doing three 8-stroke sprints and then paddling relaxed with a couple of surges.

My right wrist has continued to hurt this week.  And since yesterday my right forearm has been sore. I don't know if I did something during yesterday's paddle to irritate it, or if maybe it happened while I was swinging a machete around Wednesday afternoon, trimming some brush behind my building.  Whatever the case, I hope it's a temporary soreness rather than a real injury.  I looked at some anatomy diagrams on Wikipedia in an attempt to identify the muscle, but they weren't clear enough to be helpful.  I think it might be part of the extensor group.

I'd feared the sore muscle would be a major impediment to doing another round of the strength routine this morning, but it turned out not to be so bad.  I felt it the most during the front and lat raises.


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

Monday photo feature

One thing I've been trying to do during this pandemic is take some walks and get to know my part of town a little better.  Several days ago I took my camera with me and shot a few photos, including the one above.

One thing every landscape has is some creeks to drain water.  In some places they're impossible not to notice; mountainous areas that have a lot of precipitation are a good example.  But in other places, including the heart of cities like mine, they're easy to overlook.  More often than not they've been channelized and lined with concrete, or even buried underground.  Street gutters and stormwater tunnels are simply substitutes for the creeks that drained the countryside before the city was built.

Pictured above is Cypress Creek, a tributary of the Wolf River.  Cypress Creek originates south of a neighborhood known as Chickasaw Gardens, flows in a northwesterly direction, and enters the Wolf in North Memphis not far from the old Firestone plant.  It drains a pretty good swath of the northern half of Memphis, including my neighborhood.


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

Some unexpected sweetness

I might as well retire from paddling right now.

I kid, of course.  But I very well may never again have as good a session of surfing on towboat wakes as I had yesterday.  And if I do, it might not happen when I have my Go Pro camera with me.  Here's the video of what happened yesterday:



Trying to surf towboat wakes is usually an exercise in frustration.  Typically, the waves are moving a little too fast, or their amplitude is not quite right, or they're wandering right and left all over the place rather than moving in an organized train.  And then, of course, there's the fact that I'm not the most gifted athlete in the world.  Over the years it's been rare for me to get anything more than a couple of ten-second rides on towboat wakes.

Yesterday, as I was paddling out of the harbor, there was a barge rig moving upriver just above the Harahan Bridge, and as usual I was inclined to go check it out.  What I found was the most perfect set of surfing waves I've ever seen produced by one of those big commercial vessels.  From 0:17 until 7:47 in the video above, it's uncut raw footage.  My first ride starts at 0:23, and I keep it going until 5:05; I then quickly get established on the next wave back and have another good long ride.  I was actually starting to feel sort of lazy just sitting there on the wave... I think I burn more calories sitting on my sofa.

I felt like I was flying as I surfed along.  But the speed on my G.P.S. device rarely exceeded 4.5 miles per hour or so.  That's because I was moving up the Mississippi River, whose current flows around 4 mph.

Eventually the towboat put more distance on me, the waves began to diminish, and the rides got shorter and shorter.  So in the later stages of the video there's more splicing to cut out the non-surfing footage.  And, just to be honest... this video is probably a bit boring unless you're an absolute nerd for this kind of stuff.  I even say that out loud at 16:35.  I do make a few other remarks that contain all the wisdom and wit you've come to expect from My Training Blog by Elmore.  I also throw in a few of those obligatory "woo-hoos," and even cough up a catcall at 2:00.  That's some real effort for a not-very-emotive person such as I.

Anyway, I had myself some big fun yesterday and I spent the rest of the day with a little smile on my face.  For all the misery inflicted upon humanity by this pandemic, I'm having some moments I can look back on fondly later, and I'm grateful for that.

This morning I warmed up and did three 8-stroke sprints in the harbor, and then paddled back out on the river.  There was no barge traffic in sight, but a pretty stiff south wind was blowing and creating an "infant" stage of downwind conditions.  I worked on getting my boat moving on the little bumps for a while before taking it back in to the dock.


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

The present and the future

The same weather pattern that delivered a late snowstorm to the northeastern U.S. brought some cool temperatures to my part of the country.  For a few days the Fahrenheit temperature didn't rise above the low 60s, and when Joe and I paddled on Tuesday we did so in a steady rain and a temperature in the low 50s.

Now, I'm thinking such wet chilly days must surely be behind us now.   On Wednesday the temperature reached the high 70s, and when I paddled yesterday morning it was mostly sunny and warming up toward a high in the mid 80s.  I did a tidy 60 minutes with three 8-stroke sprints and a few relaxed surges.  The highlight might have occurred just as I was leaving the harbor and ferrying across the Mississippi: there was a skinny bright-green thing drifting downriver that at first I thought was a piece of gift-wrap ribbon, but turned out to be a little snake.  It was probably some variety of garter snake.  It's memorable because I almost never see snakes of any kind out in the main flow of the Mississippi.

This week I did rounds of the strength routine Tuesday and today.  For some reason I've been feeling weak in my arms lately... I'm not sure if it's my imagination or a real thing.  I'm definitely getting sore in my arms doing things that used not to bother me.  That biceps soreness I mentioned several weeks ago is better, but not entirely gone.  Like that wrist pain I've been having, this biceps pain seems to have taken up long-term residence.

In other news, the outlook has become somewhat clearer for my one race that hasn't been canceled yet, the Gorge Downwind Championships scheduled for July out in the Columbia River Gorge.  The state of Oregon has nullified all permits for such events through September, meaning that for the race to go forward it must be based entirely on the Washington side of the river.  The organizers sent out an e-mail this week stating that the event, should it happen, will most likely feature a much smaller field of mostly-local participants.  In the message they add, "If you are planning travel, are international, have complex arrangements, or have rented skis, it may be in your interest to pull the plug."

A more definitive decision about whether the race will occur at all is supposed to come on June 1.  But regardless of that decision, it's looking less likely than ever that I'll be out in the Columbia Gorge to race this July.  I haven't completely ruled out the option of driving out there with my own boat, but I doubt that will be a realistic thing to do, considering that the industry I would count on for food and lodging will not be functioning at full strength.

Certainly, I'm disappointed.  My trips out there the last two summers have been immensely enjoyable.  But at the same time it's nice not to have to go about my paddling routine without knowing for sure whether I'm supposed to be training for an event like that.  I plan to continue paddling about four times a week, working on skills and, most importantly, having fun with it.  I have a couple of ideas for a trip I could take in lieu of going to the Columbia Gorge, but again, I'll have to see what the conditions are for interstate travel a couple of months from now.


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

Monday photo feature

It's around this time each year that my mother and my sister's family and I get together for a little beach vacation at Dauphin Island on the Alabama Gulf Coast.  That event, like almost all others, has been scuttled by the Coronavirus pandemic this year.

This photo is from two years ago.  That's my nephew Ben off to the left.  We're paddling in Mississippi Sound as some rain begins to fall.


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

A decent training weekend

Yesterday morning I did a round of the strength routine and then went down to the river.  I paddled for 70 minutes in the harbor, doing a set of three 8-stroke sprints and then paddling at varying intensities the rest of the time.  The weather was nice and sunny, albeit cool.

Adam Davis met me this morning and we paddled up the Mississippi for four miles before coming back down.  We pushed the pace for quite a bit of the time; coming back downriver felt a bit like a race.  Adam has improved a lot the last couple of years and he's been pushing me during our paddles together this spring.  I'm curious to see how he does whenever we finally have some races to do again.  Today is another nice sunny day, and warmer.  There was a southwest wind blowing on the river.


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

Pain and ennui

I hurt my right wrist on Monday.  Or, rather, I aggravated an injury that's been nagging at me for the last year or so.  Mondays are when I've been doing that fence-rebuilding project over at my rental property, and during this week's work session I managed to wrench my wrist some wrong way while pulling nails out of the old fence.

The bum wrist has never really affected my paddling, and when I met Joe for a loop of the harbor Tuesday morning, it held up just fine.  But for a good 36 hours or so it hurt pretty bad anytime I was just sitting around and was unpleasant to live with.  By now the pain has ebbed back to the vague level it's been at for most of the last year.

The pain killed my motivation to start up my new strength routine Tuesday.  Instead, I waited and did it Wednesday.

This latest motivational challenge highlights the holding pattern we racers are all in these days.  With all races canceled at least through June, serious training doesn't seem like a pressing matter.  I'm still waiting to hear whether the Gorge Downwind race will go ahead in July; some announcement about that is supposed to come at the first of next month.  In the meantime, I'm trying to stay in some baseline-level of shape so I can ramp the training up if in fact I will be racing on the Columbia River in July.

At the same time, all this uncertainty is a reminder of how important it is to enjoy every time out paddling for its own sake.  Every session doesn't have to be an obligation to cross off the to-do list.  Indeed, I'm fortunate to be paddling at all these days.  I think there are parts of the world where even that is forbidden right now.

That's what I was telling myself as I went down to the river this morning.  Earlier in the week the wind forecast looked promising for some downwind action, but by last night the outlook had been revised to almost nothing.  A period of heavy rain had just concluded and conditions were as calm as could be as I walked down to the dock.  I warmed up and did three 8-stroke sprints, and paddled out onto a river that was quite placid save for some chop left over from a couple of barge rigs that had passed through.  I worked for a while on keeping the boat gliding in those conditions, and then back in the harbor I threw in a long surge back to the dock.


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

A new strength routine

It's time for something new in the strengthening-activities department.  Here's what I plan to do for the next little while.

1.  Front and lat raises

2.  Hindu Squats (demonstrated in this video)

3.  Torso twists with medicine ball (demonstrated in this video)

4.  Pushups

5.  Stability ball exercise demonstrated at 2:55 of this video



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

Monday photo feature

Nothing puts more strain on the very idea of social distancing than a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon.  I saw people congregating in groups on both banks of the river while paddling on Saturday.  What you see above is probably the least-egregious example--it might even be a family unit.  But it's the only one I got a photo of.  I shot it while paddling along the Arkansas side beneath the Harahan Bridge.  These folks are enjoying the Big River Trail, and really, who can blame them?  Like I said, it was a gorgeous afternoon, and I do believe outdoors is the best place you can be when there's a virus going around.  I just hope everybody will continue to be careful about getting too cozy with too many people.


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

Some fun surfing and some mechanical difficulties

Yesterday might have been our warmest day so far this year, with the temperature rising into the mid 80s Fahrenheit.  I waited until the afternoon to paddle because there was a south wind blowing and I wanted it to build as much as possible so I might have at least a hint of some downwind conditions.  I put the more stable surfski that I got just for this purpose on the car, and had it on the water by 3 o'clock.

The wind was up to around 15 miles per hour (just over 13 knots).  The conditions weren't big, but there were lots of small bumps with just enough definition for me to work on the basics of downwind paddling.  In my quest to find something good, I checked out different parts of the river from the mouth of the harbor to down below the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge.

It was more of a drill session than pure, unadulterated fun--there were no big, fat, sweet, juicy swells to ride.  But I was happy to be working on some skills.  I kept repeating Dawid Mocke's "five rules" in my head: "nose in the hole," "one at a time," "keep up the run rate," "little ones lead to big ones," and "there's always one behind."

Eventually a big upstream-bound barge rig came along, and I went after it hoping to find some big waves to surf.  I wasn't quite able to generate the speed to stay on the biggest swells, but after a while I noticed some interesting things happening along the inside of the big bend just below the old bridges.  The river is a bit shallower there, and some breaking waves were forming.  The water was quite boily and confused and I wasn't getting any prolonged surfs, so eventually I gave up and headed back upriver.

Once I got up to a point across from the entrance to the harbor, I found that same phenomenon happening: even though the barge rig was now more than a mile upstream, some of its lingering waves were building up as they ran into the shallower water on the Arkansas side.  And this time they were cleaner and friendlier to the paddler wishing to surf.  I was getting tired but I spent 20 minutes or so having some fun in this area before heading back to the harbor.

I don't think I slept poorly last night, but I had a really hard time waking up this morning.  It took longer than usual to beat the sleepiness out of my body.  And I was very sore in my midsection, as though I'd done a long hard race yesterday.  Eventually I managed to do a thorough round of stretching and head to the river.

I did an easy 60-minute paddle.  It was entirely uneventful except for a little mishap at the southern tip of Mud Island.  The water there was shallower than I realized, and my rudder plowed into the muddy bottom hard enough to bend the post a little.  When that happens, the rudder gets jammed against the bottom of the boat and is very difficult to move with the pedals.  I dealt with it as best I could and made it back to the dock.  Once I was out of the boat I tried to bend the rudder back so it would move freely again, but it wouldn't budge.  I'll have to take some tools with me on my next trip down there and see if I can get the problem fixed.


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

Out-of-the-boat beatdowns

I mentioned that I've finished that big landscaping job that I spent March and part of April doing, so that particular beating on my body is over.  Now I'm doing some repair work on a fence over at the rental property I own.  A few of the posts have rotted at the base and are falling over, so I'm dedicating one day each week to replacing them.  Using a pick, shovel, and post-hole digger is something that wouldn't have fazed me when I was younger, but now it leaves me sore for the next several days.

I did this work on Monday, and was sore as usual.  Then, on Wednesday, I climbed up on the roof of that same property to clean out the gutters, and that task has left me sore in the darnedest places.  It's a two-story building from which a fall would be quite a detriment to my well-being, and I was having to crawl slowly and carefully down the pitched roof to get to the gutters.  Somehow, doing so has caused pretty bad soreness in my lower abdominals as well as my arms and shoulders.  I've got a couple of bad scrapes on my forearms, too.

The truth is that my non-athletic life is much harder on my body than my athletic life.  Sometimes I think my greatest benefit from the athletic workouts I do is the ability to withstand all my non-athletic trials and tribulations.

On Tuesday I did a round of the strength routine and then joined Joe for a loop of the harbor.  Yesterday I went back down and paddled for 60 minutes as a stiff north wind blew.  I did three 8-stroke sprints in the harbor and then just ferried across the river and back.

This morning I did another round of the strength routine.  I hope this soreness will ease up a bit for the weekend.


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

Monday photo feature

Maryland native Cathy Hearn started winning medals at the whitewater world championships before I'd ever even heard of the sport.

In 1977, Cathy was part of the bronze-winning team in the ladies' kayak slalom class at the world championships at Spittal, Austria.  Two years later, she claimed gold medals in both individual and team women's kayak slalom, and added another team gold in women's kayak wildwater, at Jonquiere, Quebec.

In 1981, Cathy attended the worlds at Bala, Wales, and medaled again, winning individual silver and team bronze in women's kayak slalom.  By this time I was finally aware of whitewater racing: '81 was the summer I got serious about paddling at camp, and I remember taking a trip to the Nantahala River and seeing slalom gates on the river and slalom and wildwater boats on top of cars.

Cathy came home empty-handed from the worlds in '83 and '85, but in '87 she was part of the bronze-winning women's kayak slalom team.  In '89 the worlds came to the U.S. for the first time, on Maryland's Savage River.  In ladies' kayak slalom, Cathy won bronze in individual competition and silver in team.

In 1992, whitewater slalom returned to the Olympic programme for the first time in 20 years, and Cathy made the U.S. team for Barcelona.  She didn't medal there, but the following year she won another slalom worlds medal as part of the women's kayak team that took bronze at Mezzana, Italy.

In 1994 or so I finally got into slalom racing myself, and Cathy was still around.  She made another Olympic team in 1996, and in 1997 she won another medal at the worlds, claiming the individual bronze in women's kayak slalom at Tres Coroas, Brazil.

I took the photo of Cathy above during a practice day at the U.S. team trials at Wausau, Wisconsin, in 1998, the first year I qualified to race at the trials myself.  She would race three more seasons and earn a chance to race a world championships in the U.S. again, on Tennessee's Ocoee River in 2001.  Sadly, that worlds was canceled in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.  It was an abrupt end for a career that spanned nearly a quarter-century.


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

Hard paddling and recovery paddling

Adam Davis joined me yesterday to paddle around the Loosahatchie Bar.  It was one of those days of unsettled weather conditions, the sunshine appearing and disappearing and reappearing, and a wind blowing from the west-southwest that grew quite a bit stronger as the morning went on.  Here's the map of our route that Adam's G.P.S. device generated:

Paddling up the Mississippi, we stayed on the Tennessee side longer than I normally do.  I usually paddle up to a big eddy right about where Mile 4 is marked above, and then ferry across to complete the trip around the Bar's northern end.  But yesterday we continued up the Tennessee bank to the sand and gravel operation just north of DeWitt Spain Airport.  That area is quite exposed to the river's current, and with that mostly-west wind hammering us we had to spend a lot more energy than usual navigating that stretch.  And then the trip across the main channel (5 to 6 on the map above) was right into the teeth of that wind.

With the current helping us, we got a bit of a break coming down the Loosahatchie Chute.  After one last hard push across a turbulent main channel, we were safely back in the harbor.  I was thoroughly zonked for the rest of the day, much more tired than I'd been after Adam and I paddled for three hours nine days earlier.

The wind continued to intensify as the afternoon went on, and I realized I'd probably missed a good downwind opportunity.  Just below downtown the river bends to the right and flows in a westerly direction for a few miles, and I would bet that wind was creating some good swells in that section.  I've got to start paying closer attention to the wind forecast and making downwind opportunities a priority.

It was mostly sunny when I went down to the river this morning, and the wind had abated and shifted to the north.  It was time to do a recovery paddle.  I got in the boat and paddled easy for 60 minutes.

Once in a while somebody asks me if it wouldn't be better to skip paddling and just rest when I'm recovering.  But I've been a believer in active recovery for my entire athletic career, dating back to my teenage years as a runner.  By doing some easy paddling, I'm getting blood flowing precisely in the muscles that need repair.

Whitewater slalom coach Ron Lugbill once wrote that the danger of recovery in the boat is that an athlete might get carried away and end up paddling harder than he should, and that's a valid concern.  If a barge rig passes by with some nice looking waves, I have to restrain myself from going out and surfing, for instance.  If I need something to occupy my mind, I'll focus on technical stuff.  Today I tuned in to the feeling of solid blade pressure as each stroke moved through the water.  By the end of the hour I'd kept the intensity low and felt better than I'd felt before paddling.


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

Enjoying the nice and not-so-nice days

One thing the global pandemic hasn't stopped is the blossoming of spring.  Lately we've been having several lovely sunny days a week, and I'm trying to make a point of enjoying them.  My house has a rather nice deck out back of which I've never fully availed myself: those who have known me well for years will tell you that I'm sort of a busy buzzin' bee who has trouble sitting still.  But in the last several weeks I've made time toward the end of each beautiful day to sit out there and just savor the moment.

Tuesday was one such gorgeous day.  That morning I did a round of the strength routine and then headed downtown to paddle a loop of the harbor with Joe.

By Wednesday afternoon a system of rain had moved in--we're still getting plenty of rain this spring, too--and yesterday morning I paddled in a lingering drizzle.  After warming up and doing three 8-stroke sprints I headed out on to the Mississippi, where a growing south breeze was generating the slightest hint of some downwind conditions.  I've mentioned in the past that getting help from the tiny bumps is an area where I need to improve, so I spent a half-hour or so yesterday paddling upriver and working on that.  For much of the time the conditions just weren't defined enough for me to do much good, but maybe once or twice I got a little ride... hey, you do what you can with the conditions you've got.  If nothing else, I got some good exercise out there on our big beautiful river.

This morning I did another round of the strength routine.  Right now it's partly sunny and I think it will be a nice day.  It looks like more rain is on its way for the weekend.


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

Just curious

Here's a sign that I have too much time on my hands as these days of hunkering down turn into weeks and months.

As the creator and curator of this blog, I have access to statistics regarding its readership.  I get no clue as to any reader's identity, but I am informed of the number of people viewing the blog and the nations in which they reside.

I am based in the United States, and the overwhelming majority of my acquaintances and friends are U.S. residents, so it's no surprise that most of this blog's "hits" originate here in the U.S.  But quite a few views originate elsewhere.

Shortly after my return from South Africa in February, the Miller's Taxi page on Face Book shared a link to this blog, and for the next day or so I got a lot of hits from South Africa.  I thought that was really cool.  Since then that readership has dropped back down to almost zero.  I sure do hope you South Africans will come back and see me sometime.

Once in a while I get a sudden burst of dozens of hits from Russia, and I tend to dismiss those as some variety of hackbots.  I know, I'm profiling and generalizing, but the fact is that I don't know a single person, paddler or otherwise, in that nation.

Most intriguing to me are the fairly-frequent views I'm getting in nations like Portugal, South Korea, Canada, and Great Britain.  Paddlesports enjoy some popularity in all those places, and I do have either friends or friends-of-friends in those places, so I'm pretty sure those are actual human beings having a look at the blog.

SO... if you're in Portugal or South Korea or Great Britain or even Russia, and you feel so inclined, how about letting me know who you are?  Have we met before?  What led you to this blog?  What's your interest in paddling?  You can either post a comment here, or send me an e-mail at thebigeholmes [at] hotmail [dot] com.

Like I said, I'm bored and don't have enough to do, and I totally understand if you'd rather remain anonymous.  But I really do enjoy knowing who's reading all this stuff I write.  Once in a while when I'm at a race somewhere, somebody I barely know will come up to me and say "I love your blog!"  That never fails to make my day.  I rarely attend races with the citizens of distant lands, but it's a thrill to know that at least a tiny number of people there are reading these words.


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

Monday photo feature

The Blue Cruz Canoe and Kayak Race was supposed to be this past weekend.  It's a 22-mile race down the Mississippi River from Madison Parish Port, Louisiana, to the Vicksburg riverfront.

This photo is from that race in 2014 or thereabouts.  I'm fending off a fierce challenge from Rick Carter of Eutawville, South Carolina.  Photo by Paul Ingram.


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

Shorter and faster

Yesterday morning was chilly but the sun was coming out.  I went down to the river with the intention of doing something shorter and quicker than what I've mostly been doing lately.

I warmed up and did three 8-stroke sprints.  It was my first time in weeks doing these sprints, and they did feel a bit rusty, but not as bad as I was expecting.

I left the harbor and headed downriver toward the Harahan Bridge.  I had a workout in mind that I thought might combine some higher-intensity paddling with some boat control.  Starting in an eddy on the Arkansas bank upstream of the bridge, I paddled out into the river and looped around the nearest piling.  Then I ferried back to the Arkansas bank and paddled back up to the eddy where I'd started.  Sounds simple enough, but this lap took me around four and a half minutes and included navigating the boiling water below the bridge piling, doing a long ferry back to shore, and doing sort of an attainment move to complete it.  I ended up calling it a "giant slalom" because it was something I might have done while training for slalom on smaller rivers scaled up by a pretty big factor.  I did four laps with three minutes recovery in between.  I treated it more as a "play" workout than as a serious on-the-clock sort of thing, but I was suitably tired by the time it was over.

Yesterday blossomed into a gorgeous sunny day, but by this morning some more rain had moved in.  I went downtown this morning and paddled for 60 minutes in a fine mist that occasionally swelled into actual rainfall.  I did another set of 8-strokers and then just paddled a comfortable pace the rest of the time.

I'm cautiously optimistic that the pain in my right arm and shoulder is healing.  It had hurt badly for a solid week and I was starting to get concerned, but now it's feeling quite a bit better.  It's not completely gone yet but I like the direction it's headed.


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

Savoring the Mid South riverscapes

On Tuesday I did a round of the strength routine and then headed downtown to paddle a loop of the harbor with Joe.  A mass of chilly air had moved into the area, driven by a frigid north wind.  Thinking that such weather was behind us, I'd washed my pogies and put them away over the weekend.  I was wishing I had them on Tuesday, especially as we paddled into the teeth of that wind.

On Wednesday I got a message from Adam Davis.  Adam is on vacation this week; his original plan was fill the week with some travel, bookended by races in Florida last weekend and Vicksburg this coming weekend.  The pandemic upended his plans, and in his message he suggested a long paddle upriver from Memphis for yesterday.  I mentioned last weekend that I've been feeling a bit run down by these long paddles, but I didn't want to disappoint Adam as he made the best of his plight.  So I was in the boat bright and early yesterday morning.

The outing turned out to be immensely enjoyable.  I felt surprisingly energetic as we left the harbor and pursued a spirited pace up the Mississippi.  A gorgeous sunny day took shape as we passed all the familiar landmarks along the Tennessee bank: the Greenbelt Park, the mouth of the Wolf River, the Maynard C. Stiles sewage treatment plant, DeWitt Spain Airport, the sand and gravel operation, the mouth of the Loosahatchie River.  We continued northward toward the lower reaches of the Hickman Bar, finally threading the slot between two of the little islets there.

From there we ferried across to the Arkansas side and found the entrance to the little channel on the west side of the Redman Point Bar.  It had been some 15 years since I'd last visited this channel, which is no more than maybe a hundred meters wide, and I'd forgotten just what a beautiful place it is.  Under blue skies we cruised the edge of the lush bottomland forest as the sun-dappled waters threw sparks of light all over the landscape.  Eventually the channel gave way to the much larger Loosahatchie Chute, and my thoughts wandered back toward home as fatigue began to set in. I tried to keep my strokes relaxed and efficient as the downtown skyline came back into view and our tour entered its last half-hour.

We made it back to the harbor, I bade Adam goodbye at the cobblestones, and I returned to my own dock nearly three hours after I'd started.  Such long sessions are not something I like to do often.  But seeing as how there's really nothing to train for anytime soon, why not get out and explore?  Ultimately it's what paddling is about.  I've enjoyed reconnecting with some of the natural wonders that lie slightly farther afield from downtown Memphis.  Meanwhile, my body still needs something shorter and quicker, so maybe I'll get around to that this weekend.

That injury in my right arm/shoulder area has continued hurting this week.  But since paddling yesterday the pain hasn't been as bad, and I think paddling might actually have some therapeutic value in this case.  That's my non-medical, "gut-feeling" opinion, anyway.  I was otherwise very tired for the rest of the day yesterday, but it was that nice satisfying kind of tired.

I got in another round of the strength routine this morning, and now I'm hoping for a nice weekend in the boat.


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

Monday photo feature

It looks like Adam Davis has me beat to the finish line!  Actually, we were paddling by the sand and gravel operation just north of DeWitt Spain Airport on Saturday, and buoys were strewn about in several places, for what purpose I do not know.

It will probably be a long time before we're approaching the finish line of a real race again.  But it's always fun to pretend.


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

Pains and aches

On Tuesday I did a round of the strength routine and then joined Joe to paddle a loop of the harbor.

I've been feeling pretty beat-up all week, and the main reason lies in my non-athletic life.  I spent the first half of the week doing another big surge of work in that landscaping project I've been mentioning over the last month or so.  Any project that involves pouring concrete and laying bricks is going to require a lot of digging.  There's a reason digging is among the principal archetypes for backbreaking manual labor.

A month ago I mentioned some lack of feeling in my left leg, and since then I've had some similar problems in my hands and wrists, and I now think that's all the result of swinging the pick axe and shoveling up all that rooty, gravelly soil.  I talked to my friend Rob, a chiropractor up in New York, and he said it was the likely cause.  He also pointed out that the lack of feeling is a nerve issue, not a circulation issue as I'd suspected.

By Wednesday evening I was dealing with a new ailment: a sharp, stabbing pain in my right arm where the biceps muscle meets the deltoid.  I think I know what caused it: swinging a hammer.  I'd spent the day laying bricks on a section of driveway, using a brick hammer to keep them packed as tightly as possible.  Particularly toward the end of the job it was taking a series of hard blows to get each brick in place.

It was hurting bad Thursday morning and I took the day off from paddling.  It was perhaps slightly better Friday, but not by much.  I did manage to do another round of the strength routine; I wasn't sure I'd be able to handle the bicep curls, but they went surprisingly okay.  It's hard to pinpoint exactly where the pain is, but apparently it's not in the main spot that the curls hit.  I went slow and tried to use correct technique throughout each set.

Yesterday morning I got back in the boat.  Every time I paddle I start with a set of back strokes away from the dock, and my injured spot hurt as I did so yesterday, but it felt okay once I was paddling forward.  The discomfort was definitely there, but whichever muscle is hurt apparently is not directly involved in paddling.

I paddled to the south end of the harbor and met up with Adam Davis, who put in at the cobblestones.  We embarked on a fairly long trip: we paddled up the Mississippi River along the Tennessee bank until we reached the mouth of the Loosahatchie River, then ferried across to the lower end of the Redman Bar, then headed back toward town by way of the Loosahatchie Chute.  Here's the map of our route that Adam's G.P.S. device generated:

For me it was about a fourteen-mile circuit that took almost 140 minutes.  I felt tired and a bit sluggish in the boat, and the long session left me quite worn out for the rest of the day.  I took a nap after lunch and then spent the late afternoon laying the last section of bricks, using the hammer as little as possible.  I'm happy to say that the landscaping project is complete except for a few finishing touches.

The main reason I bore down to get that job done is that I knew today was going to be a soggy one.  Heavy thunderstorms moved in overnight and it poured rain all morning and into the afternoon.  I try not to let rain stop me from paddling, but there was quite a bit of lightning today as well, so I stayed in and gazed forlornly out the windows for much of the day.  We finally got a break in the rain around 3 o'clock, so I did a bit of stretching and headed downtown.  I was still feeling tired and sluggish and I paddled for just 40 minutes.  Since this whole pandemic wiped out my race schedule I've mostly been doing long, slow paddles, and I think that might be one of the reasons for my feelings of sluggishness.  I need to make a point of working in at least one short, fast session each week.

It's my understanding that one more line of storms, possibly severe, will move through later tonight.  After that it's supposed to be cooler here for several days, with Fahrenheit highs in the 50s.

Getting my arms all warmed up by paddling has helped my injured area feel better yesterday and today.  Once my muscles cool down and tighten back up, the area starts hurting again.  I hope this is something I can paddle through until it runs its course.


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

Monday photo feature

Check out this stunning photograph that Joe Royer sent me in a text message.  He took it as he and his wife Carol Lee were at the marina getting ready to paddle Friday evening.  Joe is as fine an amateur photographer as anybody I know.

Though in general I love the ducks that hang out down there, I can't say I love everything about them.  On Saturday morning when I got down to the dock to paddle myself, there was ample evidence that the ducks had been there.  Oh well, I guess that's a small price to pay for the overall ambience we enjoy on our riverfront.

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

More flood paddling

As the weekend arrived, the Mississippi River was reaching its crest at 37.2 feet on the Memphis gauge.  The official "flood stage" here is 34 feet, at which bottomland areas begin to flood significantly.  When Adam Davis paddled Friday morning, his G.P.S. device generated a rather interesting map of his route:

No, Adam's boat is not equipped with hovercraft technology.  The areas that appear as dry land in this image are currently underwater.

I was in a mood to paddle something similar to Adam's route yesterday morning.  I didn't want to paddle more than 70 minutes or so, so I stayed south of the Hernando DeSoto Bridge (Interstate 40) and just did a loop across that big swath of bottomland there.  My biceps and triceps were sore from the new strength routine I'd started up Friday, but once I got warmed up I paddled pretty comfortably.

Adam and I got together to paddle today, and we ended up doing something pretty similar to what Adam did on Friday: we started out going downriver below the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge (Interstate 55), then worked our way back up north of the HDB and into Dacus Lake before returning to the harbor.

Today was a lovely sunny day.  Such has been hard to come by so far this spring, but as I noted a few days ago, nice days are becoming ever so slightly more frequent.


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

Keeping up the routine, and swimming against a current of pessimism

I got back in the boat yesterday morning after several days off, and it felt good to paddle.  The morning was partly sunny, and as the day went on it became completely sunny with a high in the low 70s Fahrenheit.  We're still having a lot of clouds and rain here--the extended forecast shows chances of rain pretty much every day--but I think the sunny-to-cloudy ratio is slowly ticking upward.

Today I started up a new strength routine.  I'd been doing the old one for some five weeks, so it was time for a change.  I've said for a long time that strength work is my least favorite part of training, but I've always done it because I think it does benefit my racing, and I also believe that it's good for later-life wellness to maintain some muscle tone.  With no races to do anytime soon I've been doing strength work two times a week rather than the customary three.

Will there be any races to do at all this year?  That's a very good question.  There's just one event left on my schedule between now and the end of summer: the Gorge Downwind Championships on the Columbia River in July.  Carter Johnson, the director of that event, has stated publicly that there are no plans at this time to cancel or postpone the event.  "Four months is a while; we are staying positive," he says.

He's right--mid-July is a while off, and there's no reason to make any drastic decisions right now.  Unfortunately, I have a feeling it might not be a long enough while off.  A lot of things will have to fall neatly into place for the event to occur as scheduled.  With the airlines having grounded significant portions of their fleets and furloughed legions of employees, those who rely on air travel to get there, especially the international athletes, could face a major challenge.  Meanwhile, the event has grown to what it is through the cooperation and camaraderie of large groups of people, and that very concept has now fallen decidedly out of favor.  Even if the situation has turned around by mid-July, will people really feel comfortable piling into the shuttle vans together, or gathering together in the beer garden?

If the event does in fact go forward, I have a feeling the field of participants will be quite a bit smaller.  The air travel concerns cited above are one reason, but an even more compelling reason is the simple fact that a lot of people's lives have been turned upside down over the last several weeks.  Many athletes might lack the financial resources they'd counted on to make the trip.  Others might be working overtime to make up for the lost work time we've seen this spring.  And some might be preoccupied mourning loved ones who succumbed to COVID-19.

A drop in participation raises another concern: the issue of accommodations.  If I end up going, but the people I'm supposed to be sharing a rental house with don't make the trip, then I'll have to either bear a greater expense for the house or find some other lodging for myself.

Believe me, I hope this event happens--it's something I look forward to all year.  I apologize for the glass-half-empty outlook here, but I'm seeing some obstacles that simply can't be ignored.  The race organizers plan to meet on June 1 to re-evaluate the circumstances and make firmer decisions about what to do.  That's two months from now, and I can only hope that by then we've turned a major corner in this global pandemic.


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

A new strength routine

Most of these exercises are ones I've shared here before, and I provide a video link when such a thing is available.  Exercise #2 is one I stumbled upon while browsing Face Book: there's video of surfski athlete Michelle Eray doing it on the "Paddle California" page, so if you're a Face Book user I encourage you to check that out.

Also on Face Book, well-known South African athlete and coach Hayley Nixon has posted a series of "lockdown" exercises on her page, and I think I might do some borrowing from that in the future.  You Face Book users should check that out as well.

In the meantime, here's what I've dreamt up for now:

1.  Kickback (demonstrated by Lindsey at 4:03 of this video)

2.  Knee to Elbow exercise (demonstrated by Michelle Eray in a video on the "Paddle California" Face Book page)

3.  Bicep curls

4.  Lunges

5.  Butterfly crunches (demonstrated by Michele Ramazza at 3:20 of his video on this page)


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

"Why even?"

The Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race, scheduled for June 13, has been called off.  Race director Joe Royer gave me the news Monday afternoon.  Apparently the organization that contracts with the city to manage the riverfront parks was putting pressure on him to pull the plug, and he decided there was no compelling reason to resist.

I figured that this cancelation was probably inevitable, so it shouldn't have come as any great shock.  But it delivered another blow to my motivation, just like a couple of weeks ago when the first round of race cancelations occurred.  Somehow I managed to do a round of the strength routine yesterday morning, but with Joe having some work commitments and unable to meet me down at the river, I skipped paddling.  The weather was rainy and miserable anyway.  I ended up spending the rest of yesterday just puttering around the house, doing small chores here and there but mostly just moping.

And then, at the end of the day, I learned that somebody I knew had died of the COVID-19 virus.  Last Wednesday he'd posted this message on his Face Book page: "I checked into Methodist Central and getting tested for whatever I got."  That was his last direct communication with the greater public.  Over the ensuing days several friends posted that he'd tested positive for the coronavirus and was on a ventilator.  Then last night his sister announced that he'd passed away, adding, "I hate you, COVID-19.  You stole my brother from me."

I didn't know the man super-well, but he was a constant presence in my community.  He was 68--not exactly young--but he was active and energetic.  Now, just like that, he's no more.  I was already aware on some level that in the scheme of things all these races getting called off was nothing more than a first-world problem, and that overall I'm one of the more fortunate people in this global health crisis.  But something like this had to happen for me to appreciate the true deadliness of this virus.

Up until now I think I've done a decent job of keeping up a daily routine.  Fortunately I do have work and activities that were well established long before this pandemic descended upon us.  Of course I'm used to getting in the boat several days a week.  I own a rental property that presents ongoing chores--I can't say I relish working over there, primarily because it's not really "my turf" even though I do own the place, but the fact that the tenants there depend on me to do those chores is adequate motivation.  The woodworking business has been quiet and will probably remain so for the foreseeable future, but I have a whole list of home-improvement projects to keep me busy during such lulls--that landscaping job out back that I mentioned a few posts ago is one example.

But as one friend of mine put it, "it seems like just a little more 'why even?' wants to creep in each day."  Maybe I should just allow myself a couple of do-nothing days... I'm pretty sure I'm not the kind of person who's likely to lapse into a complete non-functioning state.  Then again, something like this is an entirely new experience in my lifetime.


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

Monday photo feature

As I paddled across Dacus Lake on Saturday I spotted a flock of ducks.  I had my Go Pro camera with me, and thinking that a bunch of ducks taking flight would make for a good shot, I started paddling toward them.  I got closer and closer, and they didn't budge.  Finally I was right alongside them, and realized that they were plastic decoys.

I don't know who might have put them there, or why--the only type of hunting that's in season right now is for light geese in Arkansas, and Dacus Lake is technically within Tennessee's boundaries.  I guess it's possible that some careless hunter left them there, and now they will become litter.


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