Monday photo feature

The Columbia River Gorge on the Oregon-Washington state line will play host to the Gorge Downwind Championships next month.  Meanwhile, the "Vortex Series" has provided some warmup races out there in May and June.  The third of these three races took place weekend before last.

The conditions were uncharacteristically flat, but that didn't stop the athletes from creating plenty of excitement.  Aaron Small of Gig Harbor, Washington, edged out Austin Kieffer of Los Angeles, California, for the overall win.  Greg Barton of Seattle, Washington, racing with stitches in his hand after slamming it in a car door, took third place just a few seconds back.

Pictured above is the race for fourth place.  Andrew McEwan of White Salmon, Washington, had to fend off a charge from 19-year-old phenomenon Ana Swetish of Bellingham, Washington.

My arrival in the Columbia Gorge is drawing ever closer.  I plan to drive out of Memphis this Thursday and be in the Gorge by the 6th of July.

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

The weekend didn't kill me, so it should make me stronger

I did some gym work before heading down to the river Friday morning.  As I paddled a 15-minute warmup into a stiff headwind, I could tell that my muscles were tired from the gym.

They'd be getting more tired during my in-the-boat workout.  I did two sets of three (3 minutes on/3 min. off) at 76 strokes per minute.  I did all of the first set, and the first two pieces of the second set, with light resistance on the boat, and my muscles were feeling pretty rubbery by the end of that.  For the last piece, Maks told me to remove the resistance: "See how it feels when you anchor well without the resistance on the boat--the boat will absolutely fly :)."  I guess the boat did fly--it moved about a half-mile per hour faster than it had with the resistance on--but my arms were too tired for me to enjoy it as much as Maks's colon-and-parenthesis smiley face suggests I should have.  Oh well.

Yesterday morning I did a calm 40-minute paddle.  That was just a warmup for the Saturday afternoon lactic session, and it was a bear.  Maks called it "a lactic hell."  It was four sets of two (40 seconds all-out/20 seconds rest/40 seconds all-out).  Maks said to take long breaks between the sets, so I made that 5 minutes 20 seconds; he didn't specify how long to take between the two reps that made up each set, so I made that 1 minute 20 seconds.  That way I'd be starting each rep at the top of a minute.  If I thought I was giving myself too much rest, I was relieved of that concern once the second set was underway.  Somehow I found it in me to put everything I had into every 40-second sprint, and every sprint hurt bad.  I don't think I've ever felt more grateful to reach the end of a workout.

This morning it was time to calm everything back down with an easy endurance workout.  I did three sets of (6 min. at 56 spm/4 min. at 60 spm/3 min. at 64 spm/2 min. at 68 spm), with a minute break between pieces and 2 minutes between sets.  I made a loop out on the Mississippi, where conditions were choppy because of a healthy south wind, and that added some balance drill to the session.

And so, my last full training week at home has come to a close.  I'm glad to have a day off tomorrow, as I've got a long list of chores to knock out before I depart for the Pacific Northwest on Thursday.

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

More intensity

These days my training plan has shifted its focus more in favor of speed and lactic fitness.  That means somewhat shorter, more intense workouts and not so much grinding resistance training.

Maks started me off pretty easy on Tuesday: I did four sets of (3 minutes at 60 strokes per minute/2 min. at 66 spm/1 min. at 72 spm), with a minute break between the pieces and 2 minutes between sets.  It was a chance to concentrate on good stroke mechanics.

Yesterday I had a "speed endurance" workout.  It was three sets of eight times (10 seconds on/50 sec. off). Maks told me to paddle at about 85-90% of my top stroke rate (for me, around 110 spm) and take long breaks between the sets.  He said "the exhaustion will start to creep on you" as I got deep into each set, but I'm not sure it really did.  I think I was doing the sprints the way I was supposed to, but "exhaustion" isn't the word I would use to describe what I was feeling at any point.  By the end of it I was certainly ready for the workout to be over, but then I just shrugged and said "Okay... I guess that's it!"  Oh well.  There's nothing I can do but move on to the next day.

And that would be today, when I went out for a "high aerobic" workout: ten times (4 min. on, 1 min. off) at a strong 66-70 spm.  Per Maks's instructions, I stayed focused in the late stages of the session, when it's easy not to stay strong.  I felt good throughout and came home happy.

The coming weekend is my last in Memphis before I head for the Pacific Northwest.  Once again the training schedule looks like a challenge.

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

Monday photo feature

If the Outdoors, Inc., Canoe and Kayak Race had happened this year, it would have been this past Saturday.

Back in 2005, the race field included Greg Barton, who'd won gold medals at the 1988 Olympic Games, and Jeff Smoke, who'd just been a member of the 2004 U.S. Olympic Team.  Jeff was accompanied to Memphis by his mother, Marcia Smoke, a member of the 1964, 1968, and 1972 U.S. Olympic Teams and winner of a bronze medal at the 1964 Games.

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

Paddling easy and hard and everything in between

I started Friday morning with some gym work, and then went to the river and did three sets of four (1 minute on/1 min. off) at 80 strokes per minute.  I did the second set with resistance on the boat, the first and third sets without.  Maks described it as more of a "feeling" workout than anything else--"feel the glide of the boat and embrace the grip/anchoring," he said.  After feeling sort of sluggish in the boat the previous several days, I felt better on Friday.  Maybe being back home consuming my normal diet and sleeping in my own bed is helping.

Yesterday was a normal "two-a-day" Saturday.  The morning session was easy: two sets of (2 times 2 min. on/1 min. off at 50 spm and 2 times 3 min. on/1 min. off at 64 spm).  The heavy duty stuff came in the afternoon with a long, hard lactic session: four times (1 min. on/1 min. off), two sets of four (45 sec. on/45 sec. off), and four times (30 sec. on/30 sec. off), all at an "A3+" stroke rate or all-out.  Maks told me to take long breaks between the sets so I could do each set at close to all-out intensity.  Said he, "This is supposed to burn and hurt!"  I can handle some burn, and I can handle some hurt... but BOTH???  Lord help me.

Finding the right stroke rate was a challenge in this workout.  While doing the 1-minute pieces, I started off around 110 spm but in the last 15 seconds I was struggling to keep it above 100 spm.  By the 45-second pieces I was paddling around 106-108 spm and maintaining that throughout each effort.  For the 30-second pieces I paddled at about the highest rate of which I'm physically capable--something over 120 spm--and was able to maintain it, but when I was able to glance at my G.P.S. device's speed readout I saw that I wasn't moving the boat as fast as I had in the longer pieces.

I had some company yesterday afternoon: longtime racing friend Chris Hipgrave was passing through town on his way out West from his home in western North Carolina.  He paddled with me on my warmup and then did a loop out on the Mississippi while I stayed in the harbor and did my lactic workout.  Afterward he continued on toward the Colorado Rockies, where he hopes to do some whitewater paddling before moving on up to the Pacific Northwest, where I'll see him in the Columbia River Gorge next month.

This morning I enjoyed a calm 75-minute paddle in the A1 (below 75 spm) stroke rate zone.  Besides savoring the lovely morning, I worked on all the technical stuff that's occupied me this spring: stroke mechanics as well as sitting up straight in the boat and not slumping my head forward and stuff like that.

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

Honest work in the sunshine

I paddled on Tuesday morning in bright sunshine.  The day was expected to get over 90 degrees Fahrenheit, but a north breeze made things quite pleasant.  I did two sets of four (2 minutes at 60 strokes per minute/2 min. at 80 spm/2 min. at 60 spm/2 min. rest).  The idea was to get up near anaerobic threshold during the 80-spm pieces, then train my body to reap some recovery while paddling back at 60 spm.

The weather was similar yesterday as I went through an endurance session: eight sets of (6 min. on/2 min. off) at 68 spm with some extra weight in the boat.  The pieces were hard enough that I was ready for each 2-minute rest period.

Today I observed yet another lovely morning with a sprint session.  I did four 25-second sprints at 4-minute intervals and six 15-second sprints at 3-minute intervals.  I started the longer sprints from rest while using flying starts for the shorter ones.

Three days of solid, but not too painful, workouts... the harder stuff appears to be looming this weekend.

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

Monday photo feature

Zach Lokken of Durango, Colorado, competes at the whitewater slalom world cup event at Prague this past weekend.  By finishing eighth in the men's C1 class, Lokken edged out three-time Olympian Casey Eichfeld for a berth in the Olympic Games at Tokyo next month.  Photo by Jean Folger.

Michal Smolen of Bryson City, North Carolina, clinched the U.S. Olympic men's kayak berth with a fifth-place finish at Prague.  And so, the U.S. Olympic Canoe and Kayak Team is now set.  As I mentioned in this post back on the 19th of April, Evy Leibfarth of Bryson City will compete in the women's slalom C1 and K1 classes, while female C1 paddler Nevin Harrison of Gig Harbor, Washington, will race in the flatwater sprint regatta.

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

From the coast back inland

On Friday morning I returned to the protected area at the northeast end of Dauphin Island.  I had a "maximum power" session to do: four sets of four 15-second sprints at 2-minute intervals, with "big resistance" on the boat.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: workouts like this might look scary on paper--Maks described it as "big resistance, high stroke rate emptying all your power reserves by the end of the session"--but it didn't feel anywhere near as brutal to me as, say, the power-building workout I'd done on Wednesday.  My power reserves were emptied by the end of the session, but at that point the session was... over.  I felt better after doing it than I'd felt before.

Friday morning's workout was actually scheduled for Saturday afternoon, but I had to do some shuffling because Saturday was a travel day for me (not Maks's fault at all--I hadn't really told him I'd be vacationing at the beach this week).  So I did the workout Friday morning and reserved Friday afternoon for one more possible downwind session.

The wind had shifted to the west-southwest and I wasn't sure what to expect out on the Gulf, but when I paddled out from the beach Friday afternoon I found more good swells coming at me.  The Gulf just keeps on giving.  I paddled into the wind until my G.P.S. device told me I'd gone 1600 meters (1 mile), and then I rode the swells almost back to the beach.  Then I did two more laps of that.  I felt really good in the boat--the most confident I'd felt all week in downwind conditions.

Mind you, I was far from perfect.  Lots of runs got away from me.  One useful thing about this trip is that it's helped me make up my mind what boat to take out to the Columbia Gorge with me next month.  On this trip I had the V10L surfski that I use for the mostly-flatwater races I do in this part of the country, including the one in Kentucky last weekend.  In terms of stability it's an elite-level ski, and while I didn't feel in over my head using it for downwind, there were many moments when I was within one good stroke of catching a good run, but was too off-balance to take that stroke.  I have a more stable V10 Sport model at home, and I will be taking that out West.

But aside from that, I had a great afternoon of paddling.  I think by Friday my body had adapted to the frequent hard sprints that downwind requires: earlier in the week I was having to stop and catch my breath a lot more.  The hard workout in the morning and the fun downwind session in the afternoon made Friday my best paddling day since before I left home on the 4th of this month.

We had an early checkout deadline at our condo, and I wanted to follow my mother back home to Memphis, so that was my only plan for yesterday.  The trip went smoothly enough and we're now safely back in good old Memphis, Tennessee.

It was good to be back on my home water this morning.  I went out and did a simple endurance workout: four sets of (6 min./4 min./3 min./2 min.) at 60-64 spm, with a minute rest between pieces and 2 minutes between sets.  I made a big loop out on the Mississippi during the course of the session.  The temperature was on its way above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, so I cooled off by doing some remount practice during those 2-minute breaks between sets.  I took a hose bath back at the dock.  Yep, it's good to be home.

Looking back on the past week, I'm pleased with how it went.  It took me several days to find my groove, but in the end I got some good downwind practice while still executing the meat of Maks's plan.  I plan to leave for the Pacific Northwest on July 1--18 days from now--and hopefully Maks has good ideas for helping me get as fast as I can be on flatwater during that period.  Once I'm out in the Columbia Gorge I'll have eight or nine days to get myself "downwind fit" for the big race out there.  Exciting days indeed, these are.

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

Balancing my training plan with some Dixie downwind

It's been nice spending time with my family at Dauphin Island on the Alabama Gulf Coast this week.  But it's not without a few challenges.  The biggest is my energy level: I've felt really tired since I got here.  I'd had a tough weekend with the hard race and the long drive down here, but even a very inactive day on Monday didn't leave me feeling all that rested.  I think my diet is part of the issue: I just don't have as much control over what I eat when I'm away from home like this.  It's messed up my digestion, and that in turn has messed up my hemorrhoids, and that's not the most pleasant condition when you're sitting in a boat in salt water.

(Yes, you can count on My Training Blog by Elmore to make a beach vacation sound awful.  Don't worry--I'm managing to have some fun, too.)

Another challenge is my paddling priorities.  As usual, my coach has sent me a workout plan for the week.  Last Saturday's race notwithstanding, I like the direction I'm headed under Maks's guidance and I'm doing my best to get everything I can out of his workouts.  What's more, I'm paying for his advice, so it would be dumb of me to ignore it.  But I've also discovered some nice downwind conditions here on the coast this week.  The wind isn't fierce--it hasn't been more than 13 or 15 knots, maybe--but it's been blowing steadily for days and the conditions have had a chance to build.

Here's a map of Dauphin Island; the wind direction is noted in pink at the bottom:

Our condo is right on the beach on the Gulf side of the island.  On Tuesday morning I carried my boat out there, launched into the surf, and paddled out past the impact zone hoping to find placid-enough water to do my prescribed workout.  But the water wasn't placid.  What I found instead were good-sized downwind swells.  So I decided to play hooky from my coach's schedule and catch some runs.

An ideal downwind run is approximately parallel to the shoreline, and the thing to do is shuttle a vehicle a few miles downwind of where you plan to launch so you can ride the swells without any of that pesky upwind paddling.  But here at Dauphin Island the wind is blowing in from the south, so you have to paddle into the wind (away from shore) for a while before turning around and surfing back in.  So my Tuesday morning session amounted to some little downwind intervals.  I would paddle upwind far enough to have maybe five minutes of downwind to do before I had to paddle upwind again.

I'd forgotten what hard work downwind paddling is.  After a couple of minutes of sprinting hard after runs, I was gasping for breath.  So the "interval" model worked well for me.  Paddling back upwind was my recovery interval: the conditions were small enough that I was able to paddle pretty easy and still make progress up and over the oncoming swells.

I'm plenty fit from all the training I've done this spring, but I realize that I'm not "downwind fit" at this moment, so that's something I hope to work on between now and my arrival out in the Columbia River Gorge less than a month from now.

Yesterday I drove to a public access on the Mississippi Sound side of the island so I could find some quieter water for my coach's workout.  I put in at the east end of the island, near the mouth of Mobile Bay, and I could see more great downwind swells moving up into the mouth from the Gulf.  I put that out of my mind and paddled into the network of canals that serve the residential areas on Dauphin's north side (marked with a red asterisk on the map above).  I did three sets of (four times (2 minutes on/1 minute off) at 60 strokes per minute and four times (1 minute on/2 minutes off) at 80 spm).  Maks told me to bring the power to these pieces: "find the catch early on and do the required leg/hip work."  The workout hadn't seemed all that bad on paper, but it was tough.  By the time I was starting the third set my muscles were throbbing and all I wanted was for it to be over.

Once it was over, I paddled back to where my truck was parked and took a few minutes to rest and drink some water.  I was very tired, but those downwind swells sure looked inviting, so I decided to go back out for a quick run.  I paddled into the wind for about a kilometer, then chased the runs back up toward Mobile Bay.  I worked on the basics, trying to put my "nose in the hole" and keep the boat running downhill for as long as possible.  Once I was back at the parking area, I tore myself away and took out.  I was dead-dog tired and I spent the rest of the day mostly lying around.

This morning it seemed that the wind had abated.  I wondered if maybe the downwind opportunities were over for this trip.  But I'd already made up my mind to find quieter water for another of my coach's assignments, so it was nice not to have that distraction.  I had an errand to run on the mainland a few miles north of the island, so I decided to paddle on the Fowl River near its confluence with Mobile Bay.  I did a fairly easy contrast workout: six sets of (3 min. at 60 spm/2 min. at 48 spm/1 min. at 68 spm/1 min. rest).  It was a chance for me to focus on posture and stroke mechanics.  I thought the Fowl River was a pretty place in spite of the occasional gaudy McMansion that marred its banks.  It reminded me of other streams I've visited along the Gulf Coast, like Old Fort Bayou over at Ocean Springs, Mississippi.

By this afternoon the wind seemed to have picked back up a bit, and shifted a little to the southwest.  I decided to carry my boat down to the beach and see what kind of downwind action might be had.  It turned out the conditions were good, though I had a hard time catching and prolonging runs.  I paddled into the wind until I was about 2000 meters offshore, and did several laps back in and back out.  Downwind is hard to do well, but man, it's fun when you succeed.

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

Monday photo feature

Behold, the top two female finishers in this past weekend's race on Taylorsville Reservoir in Kentucky!  Elaine Harold of Louisville and Hollie Hall of South Point, Ohio, must find shelf space for their fancy new hardware.  Photo by George Hall.

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

A reality check

I arrived at Taylorsville Reservoir, some 45 minutes southeast of Louisville, Kentucky, in the late afternoon on Friday.  I went down to the race site for a pre-race session: two times (4 minutes on/1 minute off) at 60 strokes per minute, four times (1 min. on/1 min. off) at 80 spm, and two times (4 min. on/1 min. off) at 60 spm.  The buoys marking the course were already out: we would be doing three laps of a 5-kilometer loop.

After paddling I went up to the state park campground and set up my tent, and then ventured into the town of Taylorsville to see what kind of supper might be had.  The choices were few, but I was awfully hungry, and the local Mexican restaurant seemed like a good bet to take care of that.  Three beef enchiladas and a tamale later, the meal was sitting heavy in my stomach and I hoped I hadn't made a dietary mistake the night before a race.

The race would be starting at 8:30 AM Saturday morning, so I set my alarm for 5 AM.  My body thought it was 4 AM... darn Eastern Time.  Once I'd had some coffee and breakfast and visited the restroom, I was feeling reasonably race-ready.  I headed down to the race site to get ready.

There were four racers entered who had beaten me at least once in the past, but who I considered to be at my competitive level or "in my league" or however you like to say it.  To be perfectly honest, I was feeling confident that I might pull off a win.  I mean, with my fancy new Internet coach and all the sophisticated workouts he's been putting me through, I couldn't believe that anybody else was as fit as I was.

We put our boats in the water and warmed up, and when the clock chimed 8:30 we were off.  I sprinted pretty hard off the line, but not as fast as Terry Smith of Chattanooga, Tennessee, just to my right.  I quickly moved onto his port-side wake, but was unable to match his speed and dropped back to his stern wake.  Scott Cummins of Louisville was to our left and he took my place on Terry's side wake.

Meanwhile, 16-year-old West Virginian Corbin Peters was moving up on my left side.  Before the race Scott had remarked, "He'll be beating us all in a year or two."  But at that moment it seemed that the future was NOW.

I was feeling some oxygen deficiency in my thigh muscles--a sign that I wasn't quite as warmed up as I should have been.  More dire than that was that the torrid early pace had zapped the confidence I had enjoyed in the early stages of my race in Louisiana three weeks prior, and in that state I'm prone to making bad decisions.  Corbin and I both were struggling with the confused wakes behind Terry and Scott, and when Corbin dropped off the pace about a kilometer in, I decided to stick with him, thinking I could regroup and rejoin the lead pack later.  One thing I've learned in many years of racing is that's never a good idea: once "the train" has left you behind, it's very difficult to reel it back in and get back on it.  But at the moment my survival instincts were doing all my thinking for me.

Terry and Scott were starting to open a gap on us.  As Scott told me later, Terry was dictating the pace and he was just trying to hang on.  At about the same time another Chattanoogan, Roy Roberts, came chugging past Corbin and me with the intention of joining the leaders.  I wanted to go with him but just didn't have it in me to sprint again at that moment.  About a kilometer later Ryan Landis of Corwin, Ohio, whom I'd last seen back in 2018 on the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River, came gliding by.  This time I did give chase and I managed to drop Corbin, but I was unable to stay with Ryan.

And so the order was set with the lead pack moving farther and farther ahead with Ryan in fourth and me in fifth, and I realized the rest of my morning was going to be long and lonely.  This was not at all the kind of race I'd envisioned myself having.  Where was my power?  Where was my speed?  I told myself to concentrate on posture and good strokes and all that, and at least make a respectable showing, but all the air had gone out of my balloon.

I spent the rest of the race paddling as efficiently as I could and gazing forlornly up ahead.  By the third lap the lead pack was well over 90 seconds ahead of me.  Ryan was some 40 seconds closer to them than I was, but otherwise he was in the same no-man's-land predicament that I was in: fourth place was his destiny, assuming nobody in the lead pack crashed and burned.  Up in front Terry continued to lead while Scott, one of the most tenacious competitors I've ever met, hung on to his side wake (Scott told me later that "hanging on" is all he was doing).  Several times it appeared that the pair had opened a gap on Roy, but Roy, who may rival Scott in the tenacity department, always managed to regain contact.

In the end, it was Terry claiming the victory in one hour, 16 minutes, 23 seconds.  Scott took second place just three seconds back, with Roy finishing third in 1:16:49.  Ryan captured a fourth-place finish that he can be proud of under the circumstances.  I brought my own ordeal to a close at 1:19:37.

Elaine Harold of Louisville overtook Corbin en route to the women's title with a time of 1:23:34.  Hollie Hall of South Point, Ohio, was the second-fastest lady in 1:25:50.

The complete results are posted here.  (Note: Ryan Landis's time is incorrect.  He in fact finished in the neighborhood of one hour 17 minutes.  There was electronic timing in effect and my guess is that some kind of chip error is to blame.)

I carried my boat back to the car and licked my wounds.  I had not felt fresh as the race began and I wondered if I was not adequately rested even though last week was supposed to be an "easy" week of training.  One of the perils of using an Internet coach is that the coach can't really know how you're feeling at any given moment, or what your unique competitive priorities might be.  And I'm a meticulous sort who likes to follow coach's instructions to the letter, even when it might be in my better interest to back off.

Meanwhile, I would be remiss not to point out that I was beaten by fit, strong, smart, talented athletes.  The 56-year-old Terry, with his tall, powerful build, has always been a solid talent, and talking to him after the race I learned that he's embraced his training this spring like never before.  Let's face it: even a fantastic race on my part might not have been enough to beat him.  The other guys readily admitted that they haven't been doing what Terry has, but they nevertheless did a better job of going after him than I did.

We enjoyed a nice lunch provided by the race organizers, with the awards ceremony following.  Then we all parted company and I returned to my campsite for an afternoon nap.  I slept for maybe an hour or so, then got back up to prepare myself for my big date!  Okay, not that kind of date--I was going to Louisville to see Scott.  But hey, Scott knows how to show somebody a good time on a Saturday night.  What were we going to do?  Surf behind the Belle of Louisville.

The Belle is the oldest still-active steam-powered sternwheeler in the U.S., and its big paddle wheel generates some really nice surfing waves out on the Ohio River.  It was scheduled to take passengers out on an evening excursion starting at 8 PM, and Scott and I got ready to take advantage, shuttling a vehicle to Cox Park before putting in at the Louisville Rowing Club.  We were both stiff and sore from the morning's race, but we took a nice long warmup and by the time the Belle had set sail, we were ready to go.

The waves were big fun, but we had to work hard to stay on them.  Scott said the Belle wasn't traveling as fast as she usually did, and was apologetic about the waves not being as juicy as they can be.  No worries on my part--that just gives me something to look forward to the next time I get a chance to surf at Louisville.  Scott and I both felt better after the session than we'd felt before.  At that moment I definitely needed a reminder that there's still plenty of joy to be found in the sport no matter how poorly I might race.

I bade Scott farewell and made the 45-minute drive back to my campsite in the state park on Taylorsville Reservoir.  I crawled into my tent and got a pretty good night's sleep, although I wasn't entirely ready to get up when I did the next morning.  I arose at 6:45 AM, but my body thought it was 5:45.  Darn Eastern time.

I made some breakfast, broke camp, and headed down to the lake for a recovery paddle.  Maks had assigned five sets of (13 min. on/2 min. off) in the "A1" stroke rate zone (about 60-75 spm).  I kept the rate in the low 60s and tried to relax and concentrate on good strokes and enjoy the overcast, slightly-drizzly morning.  Taylorsville Reservoir was created by the construction of a dam on the Salt River.  Situated in hilly terrain, it's one of those lakes that are easy to get lost on, with many fingers branching off the main channel.  I used my 2-minute rest breaks to look back and study where I'd come from so I could recognize it on the way back.

After paddling I stopped back at the campground bath house to grab a quick shower, then hit the road.  I wasn't headed back to Memphis: every year at this time (excepting last year, of course), my mom and my sister's family and I get together at Dauphin Island on the Alabama Gulf Coast for a little beach vacation.  It took me some 11 hours to make the trip down Interstate 65 through cities like Bowling Green, Nashville, Birmingham, Montgomery, and Mobile.  The weather was rainy most of the way down, and it really started to pour when I reached Mobile.  I grabbed the essentials form my truck, found shelter in our rented condo, and soon was in bed for a much-needed sleep.  I slept well, but the way I'm feeling this morning I don't expect I'll be doing much more than lying around like a slug today.  Maks has sent me a workout plan for the week but I don't even want to think about that any sooner than tomorrow.

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

Working and resting and preparing to race

I mentioned in my last post how worn out I was from the previous two weeks of training.  I finally had a day off on Monday, and I basically crashed.  I got a modest amount of work done around the house and in the workshop, but I spent much of the day just lying around like a slug.

The rest did me some good: by Tuesday morning I was feeling fresh again.  I went to the river and did eight sets of (1 minute at 60 strokes per minute/1 min. at 50 spm/1 min. at 70 spm/1 min. at 50 spm/1 min. at 60 spm).  I did this with some extra weight in the boat.  The main objective was to maintain good posture and stroke mechanics and keep my blade pressure consistent throughout all the various stroke rates.  It was a pretty easy workout; it took more mental concentration, thinking about the varying stroke rates, than physical exertion.

This entire week is intended to be an easy week, both because of the harder weeks I've just done and because of the race I've got coming up this Saturday.  In keeping with that, yesterday was a break from paddling: Maks told me to go out and do some "non-specific endurance" activity.  I got on my bike and rode the Greenline out to Shelby Farms and back.  I always enjoy riding the elevated section of trail through the Wolf River bottoms just east of Interstate 240.  I was expecting the Wolf to be swollen from the heavy rain we'd had overnight, but it wasn't really.

I was back in the boat this morning doing another session with extra weight in the boat.  For me, the "extra weight" is a few barbell plates stacked in the space just fore of my surfski's footboard.  Usually I make it 12.5 pounds, which is about 5.67 kilograms.  Putting extra weight in the boat increases blade pressure on your paddle without killing your glide like a resistor does.  As Maks puts it, its purpose is "to stimulate you into feeling the catch and pull phase of the stroke even better."

Today's workout was five sets of (8 minutes on/2 minutes off).  It was a somewhat tiring endurance session but it didn't beat my body up too badly two days before a race.

I leave in the morning for Taylorsville Reservoir in Kentucky.  I expect it to take me around six hours.

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

Monday photo feature

Elaine Harold of Louisville, Kentucky, and Alessia Faverio of Asheville, North Carolina, race in the South Carolina low country last September.  I think I see some palmettos in the background.

This Saturday I'll be joining a couple of dozen other athletes for a race on Taylorsville Reservoir near Mount Eden, Kentucky.  Elaine is among those signed up to race.  The last I checked Alessia wasn't signed up, but I hope she knows we'd love to see her there.

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

Fighting through some tribulations

It's the Memorial Day holiday weekend here in the U.S., when people like to fire up their backyard grills.  I was invited to some friends' backyard function yesterday afternoon, so I had to do some shuffling of my training schedule.  That was merely one of the difficulties that cropped up this weekend.

Friday morning I did a gym session and then headed down to the river to do seven sets of (4 minutes on/1 minute off) at a "strong" A1 stroke rate.  Unfortunately, several minutes after I left the dock my G.P.S. device flashed a message that its battery was low, and then shut down on me.  That was odd because I had charged it up just a couple of days earlier, and all spring one recharge per week had been adequate for my seven in-the-boat workouts each week.  Anyway, there I was with no way to time myself and no cadence sensor.  So I had to improvise.  Maks had suggested a "70ish spm" stroke rate, so for each piece I paddled at my best guess of what that rate should be, and did 280 strokes.  Then I took what seemed to me like a 1-minute break.  I doubt that what I did was accurate to the letter of what Maks had assigned, but I got a workout that was in keeping with the spirit of it.

The episode was a reminder that we depend on these gadgets at our peril.  I think I've had my G.P.S. device for close to ten years, and that makes it a Methuselah in the world of modern electronics.

My plan for Friday afternoon was to do the workout scheduled for Saturday morning.  My mail arrived while I was at home having lunch, and that added another item to my afternoon agenda: the surfski that I keep down at the dock was due for new rudder lines, and the new lines, which I'd ordered from the Epic Kayaks east Tennessee office, arrived in the mail.  Changing the lines in a surfski is never as simple as it ought to be; every time I do it it seems to make me want to shout a few expletives at the top of my lungs.  But I wasn't thinking about that as I headed back to the river Friday afternoon.  I figured I would spend 20 or 30 minutes changing out the lines and then fussing with them until the pedals were moving the rudder to my liking, and then I would hop in the boat and execute the workout that my coach had designed just for me.

It didn't go well.  After toiling in vain to get the new lines to feed through the tubes that run through the boat's bowels, I realized that said tubes were broken.  Lacking the tools to address such a problem, I stood there on the dock with a boat that I couldn't really paddle.  So I came back home with a feeling of utter defeat.

I'm a regimented sort who bristles whenever there's a job to do and I fail to get it done.  But skipping that workout might not have been the worst thing for me at that moment.  I was feeling tired to the core, not just from the morning's gym and paddling sessions, but from the last couple of weeks in general, in which I'd faced the hardest training of the year so far.  I'd been trying to grin and bear it, knowing that next week will be easier, but I was feeling pretty beat-up.  My arm and shoulder muscles were achy, and by yesterday morning it felt like I might have strained something in my right shoulder/pectoral area.  Maybe it happened during the gym session, or maybe it happened during the pretty hard paddling I did Friday morning--those lower-stroke-rate "power-paddling" workouts are as tough on my body as anything I do in the boat.

In any case, I knew I had to proceed with caution in yesterday morning's workout.  I took one of my other boats down to the riverfront and eased into a 20-minute warmup.  It didn't seem that I was stressing the ailing area directly, so I proceeded with three sets of (4 minutes at 80 spm/1 minute rest/3 minutes at 80 spm/1 minute rest/1 minute all-out).  Maks described it as a "hard VO2 Max session designed to challenge you when you are the most tired--in the last minute of the set."  And I most definitely was tired by that last minute; I struggled to paddle at more than 100 spm.  But overall I felt pretty good in the boat; there was never that moment when I wondered whether I would make through the whole workout.  Knowing that this was my last hard session of the current training block helped a lot.  Meanwhile, my recharged G.P.S. device seemed to be back working just fine, and I was pleased not to have to go get a new one for the time being.

Yesterday afternoon I had a lovely time in my friends' backyard, thank you very much.

This morning my right shoulder/pectoral area still felt a little off, but perhaps slightly improved since yesterday.  I take it as a good sign that yesterday's hard workout didn't make it worse.  Today's session was a calm 80-minute paddle--just what I needed to smooth my technique back out and let my muscles relax after a couple of tough weeks.  This coming week will be an easier one, and I'll be attending a race on Saturday.  If the race were right now I'd be in big trouble, but with any luck by Saturday I'll be feeling rested, focused, and ready to do well.

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

Working to build some power

On Tuesday morning I got in the boat, warmed up for ten minutes, and did two sets of five (3 minutes on/2 minutes off) at 68-70 strokes per minute, with some extra weight in the boat.  I put as much power into each stroke as I could, trying to explode through each one while maintaining good form.  I wasn't halfway through the first piece when I realized that this workout was tougher than it had looked to me on paper.  I wasn't particularly winded but I was really feeling it in my arms, and of course that's how it's supposed to be in these power-building sessions.

It was mostly sunny and hot Tuesday, but yesterday it was overcast and cooler, and a steady drizzle fell the whole time I was in the boat.  I warmed up and did three sets of five (90 seconds on/90 seconds off) at 80 spm.  I had "big" resistance on the boat for the first set, moderate resistance for the second set, and no resistance for the third set.  For the second straight day, my muscles took a beating.  Maks told me to "make sure you catch just as well when the resistance is smaller," and I think I did that--the last set with no resistance seemed just as hard as the first set with big resistance.

Hotter weather was back today.  It was perhaps the closest thing to an "easy day" I'll have this week: a sprint session.  I did four sets of (10 seconds on/110 seconds off/20 seconds on/160 seconds off/30 seconds on).  Maks didn't specify a recovery interval after the 30-second sprint (i.e., between the sets), so I made it 210 seconds, just to keep the arithmetic sequence going.  Maks also didn't say whether to do flying starts or standing starts, so I decided to do flying starts for the 10-second sprints, so I could get as many strokes as possible in those ten seconds, while starting the 20- and 30-second sprints from rest, because I feel like i can never get enough start practice.

The sprints went smoothly enough.  The hardest thing about them was that my muscles were tired from the previous two days.

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

Monday photo feature

I've done my share of paddling in the rain, but I never had any decent photos of it because of the obvious issues with using a camera in the rain.  But last Tuesday, as I paddled with Joe Royer in the harbor, a storm cell moved in and doused us for some ten minutes, and Joe decided to capture the joyous moment with his smart phone.  The wet screen gave him some trouble as he tried to get the device to respond to his finger-touches, but at last he was able to shoot this photograph.

Like most people, I tend to cherish the pleasant sunny days out on the water.  But rivers and lakes have a distinct beauty in inclement weather that's well worth whatever small amount of discomfort you might experience when paddling on such days.

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

Rising temperatures and intensity levels

The solstice is still a month off, but summer is definitely on its way here in the Mid South.  This weekend the mercury is rising above 90 degrees Fahrenheit for the first time this year.  I think I last had the heat on in my house in mid to late March, and for the last six or eight weeks I've been savoring the time of year when I can be comfortable with the windows open and the ceiling fans running.  But I'm afraid the time has come to turn on the central air conditioning.

Fortunately the Mississippi River, where there's almost always a breeze blowing, is a nice place to be on a hot day.  That's where I went after a gym session Friday morning.  I did four sets of (5 minutes at 60 strokes per minute/3 minutes at 64 spm/2 minutes at 68 spm).  Maks didn't specify how much power I should exert, so I kept it moderate because I was tired from the past several days and I knew some tough sessions were coming up this weekend.  There was quite a stiff wind blowing from the southeast and it was very choppy out on the Mississippi, and maintaining these low stroke rates in those conditions took some extra discipline and focus.  So it was a good balance workout and an exercise for my brain even though I wasn't killing my body.

One thing I've learned is that a typical Maks Frančeškin workout encourages contrasts of one kind or another, and that was the case again yesterday morning.  I did two sets of a pair of (4 times 1 minute on/1 minute off).  Within each set, I did the first four pieces at 50 spm and the second four at 70 spm.  Maks's instructions were to put as much power as I could into the lower-stroke-rate pieces and then paddle smooth and calm at the higher stroke rate.  And so, oddly, the 50-spm pieces hurt a little more than the 70-spm ones.  I wouldn't say they really hurt, actually, but they were rather strenuous just the same.

I did part of the workout out on the Mississippi, and as I was finishing the first set a barge rig was coming downriver generating some decent-looking waves.  So I took a break between sets to surf a little.  The waves weren't the juiciest I've ever seen but they were playful and even a bit downwind-like in their behavior, so I got a tiny bit of practice in the skills I'll need out in the Columbia Gorge in July.  I take whatever I can get around here.

Yesterday afternoon it was time for a workout that would hurt: two sets of four (60 seconds on/60 seconds off) followed by two sets of six (15 seconds on/15 seconds off), all at high intensity.  In the first set of 60-second pieces I paddled around 100 spm; in the second set I lowered that slightly, to around 96-98 spm.  I took a 7-minute break after each of those first two sets.  When I got to the 15-second pieces I paddled at as high a rate as I could--close to 120 spm.  I could feel my form breaking down a bit, and during the 4 minutes I took between sets I paddled very easy with the best strokes I could to get it back.  The first two sprints in the last set felt smooth, but then I started falling apart again.

Then it was over.  I've mentioned in the past that these "lactic capacity" sessions are painful, but they go by quickly.  The endorphin rush had me feeling good once I was back on the dock.  Maks promises that I "will reap huge benefits" from this workout later on, so that's something to be happy about.

Today it was time to calm everything back down with the usual Sunday endurance paddle.  This week it was broken up into five 13-minute pieces with 2 minutes recovery after each one.  The stroke rates were 60 spm, then 64 spm, then 68 spm, then 64 spm, then 60 spm.  At these low rates it was a good time to concentrate on stroke mechanics and good posture in the boat.

That's it for a rather tough week!  I think there's at least one more substantial week in the current cycle, so I'll try to get some rest during my day off tomorrow and dive back in on Tuesday.

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

No rest for the wicked

Last week's training plan was easier than it might have been because of my race on Saturday.  When Maks sent me this week's plan he said it would be pretty tough, and I do believe he wasn't kidding.

When I went to the river Tuesday morning there was a system of storms moving through the region, and while I got rained on only just a little, there was an east wind blowing that sort of swirled and whipped all over the place, especially under the bridges.  The workout was two sets of five 5-minute pieces with 1 minute recovery, with some extra weight in the boat.  The first set was to be done at 60 strokes per minute, and the second at 68 spm.  In the early going it didn't seem like a big deal, but I was starting to feel it in my arms by the last piece of the first set, and then the second set with the higher stroke rate was more taxing, especially the last piece.

Yesterday's workout was pretty substantial: five 1000-meter pieces at 76-84 spm, starting every 12th minute.  Maks told me to shoot for consistent times for all five.  I was hoping to break 5 minutes for them all, but the weather was still unsettled: a strong, gusty wind was blowing from the east-southeast, meaning I would often be paddling in a beam wind in the harbor.  So I told myself not to get all upset if I couldn't break 5:00 in all of them.

As it turned out, I did break 5:00 in all of them: 4:58, 4:49, 4:53, 4:48, 4:47.  I think the faster pieces took place in a more favorable wind, while the slower ones were the result of beam winds blowing me around.

Going into yesterday's workout I didn't feel particularly fazed, because I'd just done a race last Saturday that amounted to a series of 1000s.  Surely a mere five 1000s with 7 minutes to recover in between would be no big deal.  But nope!  Yesterday's workout was tough.  Last Saturday I had the excitement of competition and the flow of adrenaline, whereas yesterday I had to rely on sheer will to get it done.  I did feel good once it was over with.

Today was yet another windy day.  I went to the river and did a "sprint session with contrast": six sets of (15-second all-out sprint/2-minute rest/150 meters at 80 spm with moderate resistance/3-minute rest).  The idea was to carry the power from the 150-meter pieces into the short sprints.

So far this week of training has me good and tired, with a pretty loaded weekend still to come.

Meanwhile, here's an update on the Hernando DeSoto Bridge situation that I talked about last week: the span remains closed to automobile traffic, but river traffic has been allowed to resume.  Local paddler and friend Adam Davis paddled out there and shot a few photos, including this one:

The steel beam is sheared about 75% through, according to Adam.  Transportation authorities have announced a repair plan, but it could be some months before the bridge is back open.

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

Race schedule update

Now that another race has been run, it's time to look ahead.  The events listed below are the ones I'm currently aware of and either will or might attend in 2021.

June

5  Taylorsville Lake Paddle Battle.  Taylorsville Reservoir, Mount Eden, Kentucky.  A 10-mile (16-km) flatwater race.  Register

July

15-17  Gorge Downwind Championships.  Columbia River, Stevenson, Washington.  A race (course yet to be determined) in the legendary downwind conditions of the Columbia River Gorge on the border between Oregon and Washington.

August

7  Ohio River Paddlefest.  Ohio River, Cincinnati, Ohio.  A 9-mile (14.5-km) race down this major artery of the Midwest United States.  Register

October

9  River Rat Canoe and Kayak Race.  Ouachita River, West Monroe, Louisiana.  A 6.5-mile (10.5-km) race down a Class I river.

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

Monday photo feature

At the Chitimacha canoe and kayak race on Bayou Teche from Jeanerette to Charenton on Saturday, Kim Schulte of Mandeville, Louisiana, was the top female finisher.  She's pictured in the foreground here, moving out from the starting line with Denise D'Abundo, Nathanial LeBlanc and Toni Darden, and Elmer Landry.  Photo by Tom Schulte.

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

Monday music feature

In Friday's post I referred to the song "Ode to Billy Joe."  It was a hit for Bobby Gentry, but for me the definitive version is this recording by Mr. Yusuf Hazziez (born Joseph Arrington, Jr.), who performed under the name Joe Tex.  Give it a listen and you'll want to go spit some watermelon seeds up there on Choctaw Ridge.

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

Racing in the Bayou

I woke up yesterday morning after a poor night of sleep thanks to some particularly obnoxious neighbors in the campground at Morgan City.  There must have been a yahoo convention in town.  I'd set my alarm for 5 AM but woke up around 4:20, and I decided to go ahead and get out of that place.  The race site was still about 40 miles up the road, and along the way I stopped at a gas station for a cup of coffee.  I sat on my truck's tailgate in the parking lot and had some cereal and some fruit as dawn broke in the eastern sky.

I reached the town of Jeanerette, where the race was to start, just before 7 o'clock.  The registration list was small but full of familiar faces, and gradually they began to trickle in.  The race organizers had arranged a shuttle van, so we unloaded our boats and gear on the banks of Bayou Teche at Jeanerette and then moved our vehicles down to the finish at Charenton.

My neck and back were stiff after my unrestful night, and I stretched my entire body and did my best to work out the kinks.  Race directors Ray Pellerin and Scott Moore welcomed the participants in a ceremony that included the mayor of Jeanerette and other local officials.  (Longtime racing friend Tave Lamperez was originally the race director, but sadly was not present as he attended the funeral of his mother.)  As 10 o'clock approached we were in our boats drifting toward the starting line for the 10-mile (16-kilometer) journey down the bayou to Charenton.  From what I could tell, the river seemed to be flowing at about 0.9 mile per hour.

At 10 AM sharp the mayor blew a loud air horn, and off we went.  I sprinted into the lead and checked my peripheral vision to see who would give chase.  200 meters in it was clear that my main competition was just who I'd expected it would be, Christian Massow of Cypress, Texas.  A native Hamburger who now works as an engineer in the Houston area, Christian was a member of the German national team several decades ago.  In more recent years he has been taking masters titles at the 200-, 500-, and 1000-meter distances at the U.S. national flatwater sprint regatta.  In short, he's a formidable adversary.

I led with Christian on my starboard wake for the first two kilometers.  Then I backed off and let him take the lead.  I was feeling good in the boat and boldly I made a plan to control the plot line of the race: I would draft for a kilometer, then lead for a kilometer, then draft for a kilometer, and so on.

But not long after I retook the lead at the 3-kilometer mark, the unexpected happened: Christian dropped off the pace, leaving me all alone.  Sure, it was a lucky break for me in a way, but now I had the challenge of staying focused and keeping my boat moving with authority for another 12-plus kilometers.  I decided to stick to the same basic plan: push the pace every other kilometer while backing off ever so slightly during the other kilometers.

So that's what I did, and as the race went on I realized that I was averaging faster than 5 minutes per kilometer.  I was excited about that until I remembered that I had almost a mile-per-hour current helping me along.  Then again, I was paddling into a pretty good headwind for the entire race that probably offset some of that benefit.  I tried not to overthink it and just appreciate the fact that I was feeling good.  While a racer never likes a headwind, it was nice to have it keeping me cool as the temperature rose toward 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

By 12 kilometers I was definitely feeling some fatigue setting in.  I lowered the stroke rate a bit during my "on" kilometers while trying to continue taking powerful strokes.  As I moved past the one-hour mark, I set a goal of finishing the race under 80 minutes, assuming it was a precise 16 km.

As it turned out, the course wasn't quite 16 kilometers: my G.P.S. device measured it at about 15.2 km (9.4 miles).  I crossed the finish line with a time of one hour, 15 minutes, 14 seconds.

Pleased with my effort, I ferried to the far bank and paddled easily back upriver to watch the other competitors come in.  I fully expected to see Christian not far back, but it turned out he had faded back into third.  The fourth-place overall finisher was also the first female: Kim Schulte of Mandeville, Louisiana, looked strong as she finished under an hour and a half.

The complete results are as follows:

1.  ELMORE HOLMES, K1 race male 1:15:14

2.  BRAD REX, K1 race male 1:22:48

3.  CHRISTIAN MASSOW, K1 race male 1:26:04

4.  KIMBERLY SCHULTE, K1 race female 1:27:40

5.  ELMER LANDRY, K1 race male 1:32:55

6.  MATTHEW BONDURA, K1 race male 1:35:16

7.  DENISE D'ABUNDO, K1 race female 1:46:02

8.  JOEY STRUM, C1 race male 1:50:58

9.  TONI DARDEN AND NATHANIAL LEBLANC, K2 rec mixed 2:02:08

10.  JILL SHOREY, K1 rec female 2:02:22

11.  CYNTHIA BOYER, K1 rec female 2:39:14

Christian had in fact "bonked" in the race--he cited an inadequate nutrition plan--and was understandably frustrated afterward.  I assured him that I'd had a few such days myself and probably will have a few more before I'm all done racing.  He's a quality athlete and person and I have no doubt he'll be back.  I first raced Christian nine years ago at Ocean Springs, Mississippi, and he beat me by some three and a half minutes on that 15-kilometer course.  Since then he and I have been pretty evenly matched, with him beating me sometimes and me beating him sometimes.  I suppose I could think of yesterday's victory as payback for that spanking he laid on me back in 2012.

I loaded my boat on the car, changed into dry clothes, socialized a bit with the other racers, and enjoyed the hamburger lunch that the race organizers provided.  There were a few burgers left over and Mister Ray insisted I take a second one, and I gladly wolfed it down.  As soon as the awards had been handed out I embarked on the trip home.  The hardest part was getting out of the state of Louisiana: because of the swampy terrain of southern Louisiana, there's no direct way to drive anywhere, and a wreck on Interstate 10 near Baton Rouge slowed my progress to a crawl for a while.  Once I was headed north on Interstate 55 I finally began to click off the miles.  Once the sun went down I was able to pick up KMOX from Saint Louis on my AM radio: the Cardinals were playing a late-evening game on the west coast, so I had that for entertainment north of Jackson.  I arrived home around 10 PM.  I was grateful to be crashing in my own bed.

I woke up this morning still feeling the effects of all the stress my body had experienced both in and out of the boat.  I took the time to do some full-body stretching, and it was late morning by the time I got down to the river.  Maks had assigned some "easy endurance" paddling for the day after my race, 60 to 75 minutes in duration.  I made it 70.  I've spent the rest of today unpacking the car and putting gear away and settling back into normal life.

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

Race week training

The week started overcast, breezy, and cool with some occasional showers.  It was a little annoying having to get some of my cooler-weather clothing back out, but the truth is we’ll be missing this kind of weather by mid-summer.

On Tuesday I went out and did what Maks called an “aerobic pyramid”: three 18-minute pieces with 2 minutes recovery in between, paddling at 64 strokes per minute for the first and third pieces and at 68 spm for the second.  The biggest challenge over an 18-minute piece is keeping my mind on task so that my stroke rate doesn’t wander all over the place.  I used the time to visualize what this Saturday’s race might be like.  I’ve always been pretty good at staying laser-focused on what’s happening in a race, but one can never get too much practice.

Wednesday was breezy and cool again but the sun was out.  My workout was four sets of four (1 minute on/1 minute off) at 80 spm, with "big resistance" (all three golf whiffle balls) for the first set, no resistance for the second set, "moderate resistance" (two balls) for the third, and no resistance for the fourth.  It was the latest of many power-building workouts, this time at the pace of a longish race like the one this Saturday.  The pieces with resistance were tough, but not as painful as I thought they might be.

Yesterday morning I went out for a sprint session: eight 15-second sprints, with a flying start every 4th minute.  It was a good workout to do two days before a race.  Maks told me to put all the power I had into them, and I also focused on staying smooth.  I've long thought a smooth sprint is a good sprint, just like in my woodworking shop I believe that seamless joinery is strong joinery, and just like a rock climber will tell you that a neat knot in a rope is a strong knot.

It was beautiful down on the riverfront yesterday morning, with clear blue skies and a lighter breeze than we'd had the previous few days.  It was dead calm on the Mississippi, and I did a couple of my sprints out there.

Readers here in the U.S. have likely heard the news about the Hernando DeSoto Bridge that carries Interstate 40 over the Mississippi here at Memphis: it's shut down indefinitely, for reasons detailed in this article.  Even barge traffic on the river is suspended while authorities determine whether the bridge can continue supporting its own weight.  I've paddled under the part of the bridge that spans the harbor, but I haven't yet tried to paddle under it out on the main river, so it remains to be seen whether any law enforcement types have a problem with me doing that.  Whatever the case, it's a serious disruption of both a major road artery across this nation and the continent's biggest waterway.

This morning it was time to hit the road, bound for the Louisiana Bayou Country for tomorrow's race.  Maks had given me a pre-race workout to do, so I planned to do that en route.  When I’m traveling down through Mississippi my go-to training site is usually Enid Reservoir in Yalobusha County, but today I had a small item of business to take care of in the Delta town of Sumner, so I looked for another alternative.  The Tallahatchie River, made famous in the Bobby Gentry song “Ode to Billy Joe,” flows near Sumner, so when I crossed a bridge over what looked like a river on my way out of town, I decided to stop and paddle.

The water was muddy, just as Ms. Gentry sang.  But once I was on the water I noticed there was very little current even by Delta standards, and several hundred meters from the highway bridge the riverbed disappeared into dense vegetation.  I suspected that I must not be on the main Tallahatchie, but one of its oxbows (a check of the Google map later confirmed this).  Fortunately there was plenty of water from the recent storms in the area, and the oxbow was long in the other direction, so it worked just fine for my workout.  It was two sets of (6 times 1 minute on/1 minute off at 60 spm and 4 times 45 seconds on/75 seconds off at 76 spm).  I used light resistance on the boat so I could really feel the pressure on the blades.

I expect not too many surfskis get paddled in the Tallahatchie watershed or anyplace else in the Mississippi Delta.  In any case, thanks to all my moseying around in northern Mississippi, it was dark by the time I got to where I’m spending the night, at a campground in Morgan City, Louisiana.  My site was hard to find in the dark—just my luck, I didn’t think to bring a flashlight—and the place is crowded with noisy people.  Sigh... Time to try to get some rest.

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

Monday photo feature

It's just about time for my second race of 2021.  This Saturday I plan to participate in the Chitimacha canoe and kayak race on Bayou Teche in southern Louisiana.  The 10-mile (16-km) race starts at the town of Jeanerette and finishes at Charenton, passing through a part of the Chitimacha Nation.

The current weather forecast for the Bayou Country calls for mostly-sunny skies and Fahrenheit temperatures in the low 80s this weekend.

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

A mostly laid-back weekend

As the easy week continued, I had just a gym session to do on Friday.

Friday was a gorgeous day, but by yesterday morning it had turned overcast and chilly with some rain moving through the area.  In the boat I wore the same thing I'd been wearing all week--a pair of swim trunks and a short-sleeve shirt--and at first I thought I was underdressed, but once I got going I felt fine.  The workout was three sets of four (90 seconds on/90 seconds off) at 76-80 strokes per minute.  I did the first set with moderate resistance on the boat, the second set with small resistance, and the third set with no resistance.  So it started hard but got easier with each set.  I focused pretty hard on my stroke mechanics; I'd been working on those bugs in my stroke a lot at lower stroke rates, and now I had a chance to carry whatever progress I'd made to a higher rate.

This morning a thunderstorm with strong winds blew in just as I was walking down the ramp to the dock.  The rain didn't last more than ten minutes or so, but I ended up paddling in a 15-20 knot south wind.  I stayed in the harbor where I would have some shelter.  I concluded my "easy" week with a scaled-back version of the typical Sunday workout: three sets of (5 minutes at 60 spm/3 minutes at 64 spm/2 minutes at 68 spm).  Just a nice aerobic session with a lot of stroke practice.

Tomorrow is a day off, and then I guess I'll be back to serious business Tuesday.

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

Taking it easy

Joe and I did a very easy loop of the harbor Tuesday morning.  It had rained heavily overnight and more storms would pass through in the afternoon, but we enjoyed a nice window that morning.  When the messy weather finally moved out there was some cooler, drier air behind it, and yesterday and today have been sunny and delightful.

This is an "easy" week between more substantial training blocks.  Such a week typically includes the same types of workouts that I do during a harder week, but the intensity is lower or the reps are fewer or the recovery intervals are longer.  Yesterday morning I did three sets of two (5 minutes on/1 minute off) with some extra weight in the boat--an "aerobic power session."  I did the first set at 56 strokes per minute, the second at 60 spm, and the third at 64 spm.

Today it was time for what Maks called "a true speed session--long breaks, short efforts, and flying starts."  I did twelve 10-second all-out sprints at 3-minute intervals.  I did what I always try to do during short sprints: move my body as smoothly as I can, with all muscles firing in unison.  I was getting in about 20 strokes in each sprint, meaning I was doing about 120 spm.  That's about as fast as I can make my body turn over while still having a decent amount of control.

The easy week continues through the weekend.  I'm hoping it'll be restful and enjoyable.

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

Monday photo feature

For those of you just tuning into this blog, allow me to re-introduce the coach I'm working with over the Internet this season: Maks Frančeškin of Ljubljana, Slovenia.  Anybody interested in learning more about Maks's coaching services should visit his website.  Also, Face Book users can "like" his page, "MaksFit," on that social media platform.

This might come as a shock, but I am not Maks's highest-profile athlete.  He's just wrapped up a few weeks of selection trials in which his Slovenian athletes were vying for the chance to compete internationally in flatwater sprint, whitewater slalom, and downriver (wildwater) racing.

As a result of these trials, one of Maks's athletes is now an Olympian: Eva Terčelj (pictured above) will compete in women's kayak slalom at Tokyo this summer.  She comes in as the reigning world champion, having taken the title at La Seu d'Urgell, Spain, in 2019.

Maks will be busy the rest of the summer as well, as at least a dozen of his athletes will represent Slovenia in other international competitions.  Simon Oven, Anze Urankar, Tim Novak, Ana Steblaj will race in the senior world championships and European championships; Ana Steblaj, Urban Novak, Ziva Jancar, Nejc Gradisek will race in the under-23 worlds and the World Cup series; and Tjas Til Kupsch, Matevz Kampjut, Nika Ozimc, Sara Globokar, Helena Domajnko have qualified for the junior world championships.

If I ever make it over to Slovenia, perhaps I'll have the honor of getting spanked in a workout or two by some of these athletes.

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

Another loaded weekend

I started off Friday with a gym session before heading down to the river.  I did a speed session in the boat: two sets of five 20-second sprints.  Within each set I started at 2-minute intervals, and I took a 5-minute break between sets.  Per Maks's instructions, I did a flying start for three of the sprints in each set, and started from rest in the other two.

When paddling "all-out" it's hard to focus on all the various stroke mechanics, but in general I feel like I'm sprinting well if my body is moving fluidly.  My first couple of sprints felt a bit sloppy, but eventually I smoothed things out.

Yesterday morning's session consisted of six times (2 minutes on/1 minute off) at 50 strokes per minute and four times (3 minutes on/1 minute off) at 64 spm.  I used these lower-stroke-rate pieces to concentrate on the mechanics that I'd had to breeze over on Friday.

Yesterday afternoon's workout was one I'd been eying with some trepidation all week.  It was two sets of four (30 seconds on/30 seconds off) followed by two sets of six (15 seconds on/15 seconds off), all done at an A3 stroke rate (more than 90 spm).  The objective, as described by Maks, was "developing lactic capacity via short bursts of heavy intensity efforts combined with equally short breaks.  To put it short--your goal is to 'kill' yourself doing it!"  At least he put "kill" in quotation marks.

In the first set of 30/30s I used a stroke rate a little under 100 spm, and while it was plenty tiring, I didn't feel like it "killed" me.  So when I started the second set about five minutes later, I bumped it up to around 106-108.  Now I was starting to get killed.  Once I was doing the 15/15s I nudged the rate up even a bit more, and my heart rate went with it.

And then... the workout was over.  That's the good thing about these intense lactic sessions--they go by quickly.  There's not much time to think about how miserable you are.  I did a nice long cool-down, and once I was back on the dock I felt better than I'd felt before paddling.  When I paddled with Dawid Mocke in South Africa last year, he called it the "post-workout chill."  It's endorphins, basically.  By the time I was back home the endorphins had worn off and I was tired, but it felt good to have another good workout in the bank.

I wearily got myself back to the river this morning for the last session of the training block: a 90-minute paddle.  It was calm out on the Mississippi with just a mild south wind and no barge traffic in sight.  I tried to relax, take good strokes, and enjoy the river.  There's an easier week coming up--a chance for my body to rebuild itself.

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

My non-athletic life clashes with my athletic one

I probably didn't get as much rest as I should have on my "rest day" (Monday).  I spent several hours doing some small-scale logging as part of a project for my woodworking business.  Even small-scale logging is some heavy-duty work, for the simple reason that logs are heavy.  I was careful and managed not to tweak my back, but I wore out my arms swinging a sledge hammer at steel wedges.

It was a rousing start to the last week of the current training block.  Next week will be an easier week, but for now, things are gonna get harder before they get easier.  Tuesday morning I put some extra weight in the boat for the following workout: five sets of (4 minutes at 50 strokes per minute/3 minutes at 60 spm/2 minutes at 70 spm/1 minute at 80 spm).  The rest intervals were 1 minute between pieces and 2 minutes between sets.  As usual, a main objective was to carry the precision and power of the lower stroke rates into the higher stroke rates.  I was sore from Monday's labor and it took a while for those muscles to loosen up; by the end of this long, grinding workout I could feel my power giving out.

I was still a bit on the sore side as I headed back to the river yesterday morning.  The workout was a tough one: three sets of two 750-meter pieces at 76 spm.  The first piece of each set was to be done with moderate resistance (two golf whiffle balls) and the second without resistance (well, except for the bungee cord).  Said Maks, "It will feel like suffering, flying, suffering..."  Maks didn't specify a recovery interval, so I figured that out on the fly: I started the second piece of a set 8 minutes after I'd started the first piece, and I started the first piece of a new set 9 minutes after I'd started the second piece of the previous set.

"Suffering" is the right word for what those pieces with resistance felt like.  I tried not to stress myself over the lack of glide and just take the best strokes I could.  As for the pieces without resistance, Maks told me "It is extremely important that you maximize your stroke efficiency--that you really anchor well." If anything struck me as a bit surprising, it was that my no-resistance pieces were not all that faster than my pieces with resistance.  I was clocking just over 4 minutes with resistance and just under 3:50 without. Then again, the 15-second-or-so difference is a lot, I guess, for 750 meters--if you get beat by 15 seconds in a 750-meter race, you've been beaten bad.

This morning I woke up to pouring rain.  By the time I got down to the river the heaviest rain had moved out, but light rain continued to move in and out as I paddled.  I did two sets of four (4 minutes on/1 minute off), alternating between 60 spm and 70 spm.  I tried to put solid power into each stroke and maintain good mechanics.  The workout was straightforward enough, but I was disheartened by all the floating trash that the rain had washed into the harbor.  Between the Hernando DeSoto Bridge and the harbor mouth the surface was covered in a thick layer of bottles, cans, toys, grocery bags, and styrofoam.  I believe it had washed out of the Wolf River and drifted down the Mississippi River, and then been blown by the south wind up into the harbor.  In other words, I was paddling in litter that had originated everywhere from north Mississippi to Fayette County to Shelby County both inside and outside the city of Memphis.  Sometimes I just about have to hang my head and cry because it seems like we've lost this fight.

Anyway... it's been a substantial training week, and the weekend is yet to come.

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

Monday photo feature

In case any readers don't know what I'm talking about when I talk about adding resistance to the boat, here's a photo of how I do it.  It's just a thin bungee cord with several golf whiffle balls on it, wrapped around the boat just aft of the seat bucket where I can reach it.  Sliding one or more of the balls down below the waterline creates drag, forcing me to put more power into my strokes.

The bungee cord itself creates a bit of drag.  If the workout calls for "small resistance," I slide one whiffle ball down underwater.  For "moderate resistance," I use two.  For "big resistance," I use all three of the balls shown here.  For any greater resistance than that, I'll have to go pick up some more whiffle balls.

I'd love to tell you that this method of adding resistance is my original idea, but it's not.  Canoe and kayak racers have been doing it this way for many, many years.

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