Speeding things up a little

We've had another run of weirdly warm weather for this time of year, with the Fahrenheit temperature rising into the 70s.  And once again, atmospheric conditions have been unsettled and eventually stormy.

On Tuesday I did a gym session at home and then went down to the river to paddle.  I paddled steady for 50 minutes with a one-minute surge at 4-minute intervals.  I wanted to move at 12 kilometers per hour during the surges, but a strong south wind made the G.P.S. readings not so reliable.

Yesterday morning it was warm again, and not so windy, so I took the opportunity to ride my bike for a little over 70 minutes.  I rode the Greater Memphis Greenline out to where it meets the Wolf River Greenway, and then rode the Greenway south for a bit before turning around and coming back home.  My total distance covered was 26 kilometers or 16.16 miles.

Yesterday afternoon the stormy weather arrived.  This time it was heavy rain, mostly.  A pretty strong wind blew, but nothing like what brought devastation to our neighbors in western Kentucky several weeks ago.

This morning it was cooler--around 53 degrees Fahrenheit--and dead calm.  I went down to the riverfront and found that the harbor was smooth as glass.  With some intense downwind paddling just over three weeks off in my future, it was time to start some faster stuff: I got in the boat with the intention of doing six 250-meter pieces, starting every sixth minute.

I hadn't paddled with any real intensity in almost three months, and I discovered that I was not only out of shape, but also out of practice in dreaming up a workout that my body was ready to do.  I went way too hard in the first piece and could barely manage my last few strokes.  My time was about 69 seconds.  For the second piece I backed off the intensity, but I don't think I had entirely recovered from the first piece, and again my arms went dead on me for the last twenty meters or so.  I decided to add a minute to the recovery interval, and from then on I managed to settle into the workout better.  My times were in the 73-75-second range.  It was still hard, but reasonable.  Once it was over I was reminded how good I can feel after one of these intense-but-quick sessions: the endorphins were flowing and I felt good about having this first hard workout in the bank.  Hopefully my body will adapt quickly and I'll be sprinting more comfortably next time.

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Monday photo feature

The paddlers in this photo are navigating the same South African waters I'll be paddling at the end of next month (assuming, of course, that COVID-19 restrictions don't force me to cancel the trip).

The annual Cape Point Challenge took place on December 18.  Racers started at Fish Hoek Beach, paddled southward into the wind for about 25 kilometers until they reached the point of the Cape of Good Hope, and then enjoyed awesome downwind conditions on their return trip to Fish Hoek Beach.  The last 11 or so kilometers of the race comprises the famous Miller's Run.

The leader of the pack shown here is Dawid Mocke, who will be one of my coaches during my visit there. Dawid ended up in seventh place.  Another local paddler, Nicholas Notten, took the overall win.  Melanie Van Niekirk was the women's champion.

Photo by Rob Mousley.

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Some hard work and some holiday "rest"

I started a new gym routine last Tuesday morning: a Smart Bell workout.  I'm scheduled to depart for South Africa just three weeks from this coming Friday, so this is the gym I'll do until then.

After working with the Smart Bell I went downtown and joined Joe for a loop of the harbor.

On Wednesday I went to Overton Park and did another "bike-plus" workout--four laps on the bike and sets of pushups and Hindu squats after the first, second, and third laps.  I'd started the morning feeling a bit more lethargic than usual, and was very tempted to give myself a break.  I was also sorer than expected from Tuesday's Smart Bell workout: even though I'd been doing intense leg work for a few weeks, the lunges hit just enough of a different spot that my quads were really sore.  But once I was on the bike I slowly began to find the energy and even some enthusiasm, and by the end of the workout I felt really good for having done it.  That's something I've experienced many times over the years: that getting started can feel really hard, but once you do get started your body has a way of rising to the occasion.

I spent Thursday in the car, driving with my mother to North Carolina, where we'd be spending the holiday weekend with my sister's family.  I had my Smart Bell with me for some gym work, but otherwise the weekend would be a bit of a break, and I think it came at a good time.  I'd put in a few weeks of good hard cross training, and now my body would get to recover a bit and internalize it all before my return home to start the final push of training before the South Africa trip.

The weekend was restful enough, but I did experience some digestion problems because my eating routine had been thrown off.  I'd hoped to do two gym sessions, but in the end I did just one because we wanted to get on the road home promptly.  Another exhausting drive had me home around 6:30 PM CST, and after some unpacking and a light supper I was in bed.

This morning I weighed myself for the first time in four days, and all my weight-gain progress seems to have been lost even though I ate plenty of rich holiday food at my sister's house.  I was back down to 151.5 pounds.  Sigh.

It's time to settle back into the routine.  My plan for the coming weeks is to do a bit more in-the-boat training, if the weather cooperates--in Memphis in January, you never know what'll happen.

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Monday photo feature

As I paddled down the Mississippi River this past Friday morning, Fancher Smith captured one of those "Where's Waldo?"-style photos from his position in the Greenbelt Park.

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Negotiating the December weather

Once again the weather forecast motivated me to flip-flop my plans for Friday and Saturday.  Friday morning it was rainy but otherwise calm and unseasonably warm, so I decided to go down to the river to paddle.  I spent 80 minutes in the boat.  It was one of those days when sweat stung my eyes badly whenever I was paddling with the wind at my back, and it was very frustrating having to stop and wipe my face with my hat every minute or so.

The rainy conditions continued into Saturday, during which the Fahrenheit temperature fell from the mid 60s into the mid 40s.  Actually, the weather wasn't bad during the time of the morning that I typically would paddle, but I was nevertheless glad to stick close to home with nothing but a gym session to do.

Exercise out in the cold would come soon enough.  It was overcast and 39 degrees when I got up this morning, with the temperature not expected to get above 45 or so all day.  The forecast said the sun would eventually come out in the afternoon, so I waited until then to do my Sunday distance ride.  The sun did finally come out about ten minutes into the ride, but many clouds remained in the sky and I never really had much direct sunlight.  The ride turned out to be a chilly, rather cheerless affair.  I rode the Greenline all the way out to Germantown Parkway and then came back.  My total distance was 35.12 kilometers (21.8 miles), and I was on the bike for just over 100 minutes.  I was glad to be finished and I expect I'll sleep well tonight.

One bit of good news is that today I was at my heaviest since I started paying attention to my weight a few weeks ago: 155.5 pounds!  I seem to be taking a step back for every couple of steps I take forward, but seeing as how I was at 149 pounds when I first started this little weight-watching adventure, I think I'm inching in the right direction.

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More offseason fun

On Tuesday I did a gym session at home and then joined Joe for a lap of the harbor downtown.

Yesterday I got on the bike and covered a little over 24 kilometers (15 miles) in about 70 minutes of riding.

We're having another run of unseasonably warm weather here in the middle of the week.  And as usual it's accompanied by unsettled weather patterns.  Today we've had periods of rain, and it appears that a front will be passing through later.  I think it's the same front that brought severe winds to parts of the Great Plains yesterday, but I haven't heard concerns on the local news about any such thing happening here.

This morning during a break in the rain I went out and did my "bike-plus" workout in the park just west of my house.  I increased the number of bike laps from three to four, but kept the number of sets of pushups and Hindu squats the same as before, for now.

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Monday photo feature

Back in 2005 I participated in the 26-mile FIBArk downriver race on the Arkansas River from Salida, Colorado, to Cotopaxi, Colorado.  For at least the last five years I've paddled nothing but a surfski, and there's a voice in the back of my mind telling me I should re-learn what a whitewater boat feels like.

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Dodging storms

During periods like this one, when I'm paddling only a couple of times per week, I try to keep an eye on the forecast so I can arrange to be on the water when the weather isn't too miserable.  On Friday it was unseasonably warm, rising into the high 70s Fahrenheit, so I went on down to paddle.  When it's freakishly warm in the wintertime like Friday was, that usually means some stormy weather is on its way, and the south wind blew harder and harder during my 80 minutes in the boat.  I paddled out of the harbor and up the Mississippi to the south end of the Greenbelt Park, then returned to the harbor and did the rest of my paddling there.

Late that night a violent front moved across the region, spawning tornadoes that did catastrophic damage in places like northeast Arkansas and western Kentucky.  Here in Memphis we had some power outages, but as far as I know we were spared the suffering of these other areas.

As usual, there was colder air behind the front, and the temperature dropped all day Saturday.  Saturday morning it was just as windy as Friday had been, albeit from the north, and the temperature was 30 degrees colder.  I was glad to have paddled on Friday so that I could stay indoors Saturday and do a gym session.

The temperature had fallen below freezing when I woke up yesterday morning.  This time I had to suck it up and leave the comforts of home for the Sunday distance ride.  It is in fact a lot harder to stay warm on a bike than in a boat, mainly because you're moving at a higher speed on a bike.  Since the main purpose of my riding is some cardio work I'm less concerned with aerodynamics than more serious riders, and I bundled up pretty good.  The ride turned out not to be so bad: the sun was out, and the wind had died down.  I spent a little over 90 minutes riding both east and west of my house, and covered 32.65 kilometers (20.3 miles).

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The winter program continues with soreness and pounds gained & lost

Tuesday morning I did a gym session, and then went downtown to paddle in the harbor with Joe.

I skipped a gym session late last week while I was feeling crummy in the aftermath of my COVID-19 booster shot.  Apparently that allowed my muscles to atrophy enough that my gym session on Tuesday made me really sore.  I was feeling it big-time in my abs and biceps by Tuesday evening and through the day yesterday.

Yesterday I rode my bike out east and back on the Greenline.  I covered 24 kilometers in about 66 minutes.

This morning it was time for another of those intense "bike-plus" workouts.  I think my body is better adapted to this workload than it was a couple of weeks ago, but it's still quite taxing.  In particular my quad muscles have felt like gelatin for the rest of the day.

My weight-gain effort continues.  I'm trying to load up on protein, especially right after a workout.  So far this week I've peaked at 153.5 pounds during my first-thing-in-the-morning weigh-ins, but since then I've registered a couple of pounds less.  Of course, I wouldn't bet my life on the accuracy of my battery-powered bathroom scale.

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Monday photo feature

Jasper Mocke of Fish Hoek, Cape Town, South Africa, competes in the PE2EL Surfski Challenge this past week. The event is a four-day, 250-kilometer stage race along South Africa's Eastern Cape, starting at Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha) and finishing at East London. After finishing second to defending champion Bevan Manson on the first day, Jasper built a commanding lead in winning the second day and then extended his lead slightly on the third and fourth days to take the 2021 title.

Unless the omicron variant scuttles my trip (and there's nothing I can do right now but hope for the best), Jasper will be one of my coaches at the Mocke Downwind Camp at Fish Hoek on the 23rd through 29th of January.

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Riding the bike and trying to get myself right

On Friday morning I didn't feel all-the-way recovered from my booster shot reaction, but I think I was on the way back.  I still had a lump in my left armpit, but it wasn't as sore as it had been earlier in the week, and seemed to have shrunk a bit.  I also was feeling slightly more energetic than in previous days.

I went ahead and dove into another intense "bike-plus" workout.  I was feeling it big-time by the last lap on the bike and the final set of pushups and Hindu squats, but I weathered it well enough.

But then on Saturday I woke up feeling like I'd taken a step backward: my energy was low and I had a hint of cold/flu symptoms.  The closest thing to athletic activity I did was ride my bike at a leisurely pace along the route of the marathon race that was going on here Saturday.

By yesterday I was feeling better again, and the lump was all but gone.  My goal on recent Sundays has been to ride my bike at least 20 miles, and yesterday morning I got on the bike and headed toward the river, eventually crossing it on the Harahan Bridge and doing a big loop in the bottomland on the Arkansas side.  By the time I arrived back at my house I had covered 40.2 kilometers (24.99 miles).

I'm continuing to weigh myself each morning, and I'm still stuck in the low 150s.  Yesterday I'd shot up to 152.5, but this morning I was a pound less than that.

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The booster didn't boost my giddy-up

I got a COVID-19 booster shot on Monday, and it's sort of set the tone for the week.  My body took very little issue with the original two shots that I received last spring, but this booster shot has provoked a reaction.  Not a terrible one--I haven't gotten violently ill like several people I know have--but sort of a low-grade crummy feeling.

By Tuesday morning my left deltoid area, where I got the injection, was wicked sore.  Fortunately it didn't interfere badly with my gym session or my loop of the harbor with Joe.

Tuesday evening I noticed a lump forming in my left armpit area, sort of like a swollen gland.  By yesterday morning the lump had grown and was sore and unpleasant.  I was also feeling some very mild cold/flu-like symptoms.  I'd planned to do an hour bike ride, but I cut that back to 40 minutes and kept the pace easy.

This morning the lump was still there, and still angry and sore.  The cold/flu symptoms weren't so bad, but my energy level was still kind of low.  My original plan was to do another one of those intense "bike-plus" workouts, but besides my sluggish feeling, a couple of factors led me to reconsider.  The weather looked to be beautiful today--sunny with a Fahrenheit high in the low 70s--and the river beckoned.  Lately I've been paddling on Saturday, but the annual marathon race here in Memphis will be shutting down many of the streets between my house and the riverfront this Saturday, and I'd just as soon not fight all that.

So I went to the river and paddled today.  It was another 80-minute distance paddle, but I didn't go any harder than I felt like going.  I even kept the G.P.S. device turned off so I wouldn't be tempted to worry over my speed or my stroke rate or anything like that.  As I paddled I quickened the pace some and took it easy some, but overall I just relaxed and enjoyed the nice day on the river.

Here in the evening that lump in my armpit is still there, but it doesn't seem as sore as it was earlier.  I hope it'll go away soon, and I hope I'll be feeling energetic enough to do the bike-plus workout tomorrow... we'll see.

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Monday photo feature

I reach the finish line just over an hour after I'd started at the Ohio River Paddlefest at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 2019.  Photo by Gerry James.

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Pedaling and paddling

It's taken me all weekend to recover from that "bike-plus" workout I did on Thursday.  My quads and pecs have been quite sore and only today do I feel that starting to ease a little.  On Thursday I increased my number of laps on the bike from two to three, meaning that I had additional sets of pushups and Hindu squats to do; I also increased the number of Hindu squats per set, so maybe it all added up to a bit more than my body was ready for.  Oh well... soreness simply means that your muscles are in the process of repairing themselves, and that's where they get stronger.

I was glad to have nothing but a gym session, which includes no leg work, to do on Friday.  Yesterday I was back in the boat doing another 80-minute endurance paddle.  One of the things the Mocke Paddling School requires for participation in its downwind camps is the ability to paddle 10 kilometers in 70 minutes.  Since they already know me they aren't asking me to provide proof of that, but being the super-regimented guy that I am, I'm keeping an eye on that benchmark anyway.  Now, I know I can do it, no problem--when I've done 10-km races in recent years, my times have been around 50 minutes.  But it helps keep me on my toes during these sessions when it's easy to lapse into a pokey pace.  Yesterday I decided to warm up for 10 minutes and then do 10 km in the harbor in an hour, with a 10-minute cool-down afterward.  That meant watching the G.P.S. device and keeping my speed at or above 10 kph for that hour.  Making that a challenge yesterday was that there was a stiff south breeze blowing.  When paddling into the wind I really had to work to keep it at 10 kph; when paddling downwind I tried to compensate by going more like 11 kph.  The result was a very tiring paddle.  I ended up completing 10 kilometers in about 58 minutes.

This morning it was time to get on the bike again.  On Sundays I aim to go 20 miles (about 32.2 km).  Today I rode for 96 minutes and covered 34.16 km, or 21.2 miles.  My route was to take the Greenline out to Shelby Farms, do a loop around Patriot Lake, and return home via the Greenline.  I felt about as good as I have since starting this bike-heavy training cycle several weeks ago.  Maybe I'm actually getting in shape for some bike riding.

My weight-gain effort continues.  So far I'm still weighing in the low 150s.  I'm making myself eat more, even when I'm not really hungry.  Of course I'm trying to include lots of protein in my additional food intake.

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Working hard and trying to eat more

Tuesday morning I did a gym session and then joined Joe for a loop of the harbor.

Yesterday afternoon I got on the bike and rode the Greenline out beyond the Wolf River, then followed the Wolf River Greenway for a couple of miles before retracing the route back home.  In 82 minutes of riding I covered 28.9 kilometers (about 18 miles).

Thursday seems to have shaped up into my "intense bike-plus" day.  This morning I rode to the park just west of my house and did three hard laps of the paved loop through the forest there, stopping to do sets of pushups and Hindu squats after each lap.  My legs felt like rubber by the time I was done.

I'm weighing myself when I get up each morning now, and my weight continues to be down from what I believe is my healthiest and most energetic.  It's been as low as 149 pounds this week, and I think the high 150s is more where I should be.  I'm trying to increase my protein intake, hoping that will increase muscle mass.

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Monday photo feature

Here she is in all her glory: my Raleigh M-20 bicycle.

I bought this bike back in 1997.  Back then the Atlanta Center of Excellence was putting on its Ocoee Doubleheader whitewater slalom race, and on Saturday night that year they had a silent auction to raise some money, and the bike was among the items.  My winning bid was somewhere around a couple hundred bucks.

For me, bike riding has mostly been just a way to get around the neighborhood, but once in a while I rely more heavily on it for some training.  A couple of months before my trip to South Africa in February of 2020, I realized I had a hairline fracture in a rib (I never have known what caused it).  Because rest is the only way to heal a cracked rib, I had to stay out of the boat for a while.  But I needed to be fit for my South Africa trip, so I came up with a training plan that worked my legs hard, with some squats and some lunges and some running up stairs and, especially, some bike riding.

By the time I arrived in South Africa my rib had healed enough for me to paddle again, and I found that I was adequately fit from the cross training I'd done.  Because I'm still feeling some burnout from this past year of paddling and racing, I'm using some similar cross training along with a small volume of paddling to work back into a training routine as another trip to South Africa awaits in January.  And so, I'm spending lots of time on the bicycle pictured above.

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I'm just a lightweight

I did a gym session Friday morning: the same one I'd started a week earlier and plan to do for several more weeks.  Some bicep curls, some front and lat raises, and some core stuff on the stability ball.

A few months ago the battery in my bathroom scale died, and since then I've been completely out of the habit of checking my weight.  I finally got a new battery for it yesterday, and when I stood on it my weight registered at 153 pounds (69.4 kilograms).  Though I've never kept particularly precise track of my weight, I know that's about 10 pounds lighter than my all-time maximum, and I can remember being up around 159 or 160 pounds during a period several years ago when I was racing very well.

So, I have a feeling that I'm a bit underweight these days, and I wouldn't be surprised if that has something to do with my low-energy feeling for much of this year.  Actually, putting on weight is something I've had difficulty with my whole life, and while I'm sure many people would love to have that problem--believe me, I prefer it to being chronically overweight or obese--it's a health concern in its own right.  If there are any physiologists or sports nutritionists or dietitians reading this who can suggest healthy ways to put on a few pounds, I'd love to hear them.  In the meantime, I need to start remembering to weigh myself each day, and I should probably keep better record of it so I can see what correlation it has to good athletic performance.

Yesterday morning I did an 80-minute paddle down on the riverfront.  I maintained a moderate pace with a few long surges in the second half.

This morning I got on the bike to ride some distance.  I rode from my house to the south end of downtown, where I crossed the Mississippi River via the Harahan Bridge.  Then I rode a loop in Big River Park before re-crossing the river and returning home.  In not quite two hours I covered 36.5 kilometers (22.7 miles).  I pushed the pace at times but most of the time I kept it comfortable.

It's been cool but not cold this weekend: mostly in the 50s Fahrenheit.  It's a rainy afternoon today.  While I was riding this morning the rain mostly held off, but I did ride through a solid shower on my way downtown and had to spend the next ten minutes feeling chilly while my clothes dried out.

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Physical fitness and... a physical

On Sunday morning I went out and did an 80-minute paddle on the Mississippi River.  I'm definitely feeling a bit rusty in the boat right now, and that was no more evident than in the last 25 minutes when I followed a barge rig downriver back to the mouth of the harbor.  I felt sloppy as I tried to keep the boat moving in the squirrelly, confused water, and I was really tired by the time I was back in the harbor..

I started Tuesday morning with a gym session, and then went down to the riverfront to do an easy loop of the harbor with Joe.

Yesterday morning I had my annual physical scheduled at my doctor's office.  For a physical I have to go in fasting because of the lab work, and I like to make my appointment for when the office opens at 7:00 AM.  But the earliest they could get me in yesterday was 9 o'clock, and so I had several breakfastless hours to kill.  Yesterday's workout was a one-hour bike ride, so I went ahead and did that from 6:30 to 7:30 to take my mind off being hungry.  I rode the Greenline out to the Wolf River and back.

Once I finished that I was tired, and my body craved food more than ever.  I fidgeted around the house until my appointment time, and then spent another 90 famished minutes going through all the rigamarole at the doctor's office.  At long last the doctor set me free, and I made a beeline to my favorite coffee shop and had a hearty late breakfast/early lunch.

This morning I did a workout similar to last Thursday's: a couple of bike laps in the park, with some pushups and Hindu squats after each lap.  Then I came back home and did several sets of strides up my back stairs.  After yesterday and today I'm feeling it in my legs, and that's what I'm after.  Ocean kayaking demands solid leg fitness, and I also happen to think that leg fitness makes up a large percentage of overall fitness.

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Monday photo feature

One time the Memphis Daily News put Joe and me on the cover.  This was back in May of 2010.

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Okay, I'm back

It's been an entire month since I last posted something here.  I can't really blame those readers who have given up on me by now.  I'm grateful if you're still here.

I have spent the last month recovering, decompressing, thinking, reflecting, attending to some other areas of life that I'd neglected... doing just about everything but paddling, in other words.  Don't worry, there's plenty of paddling in my future; I just needed some time off to get hungry for it again.

Several weeks ago Dawid Mocke posted on social media that there was an opening in the downwind camp that he and his brother Jasper will be leading at the end of January at Fish Hoek, Cape Town, South Africa.  I thought hard about it for about 24 hours, and decided to sign up.  And so I now have a purpose for my next phase of training.  This week I am settling into a new routine after my nice long break.

For at least the first few weeks, I plan to train mostly out of the boat.  I'll paddle a couple of times a week, but my more strenuous work will consist of bike riding and gym activities.  I did do a good bit of leisurely bike riding during the break, and now I'm ramping up the intensity a bit, with some strong rides of an hour or so and some intervals, too.

This week has been pretty typical of what I plan to do for the next month or so.  On Sunday I rode from my house down to the south end of downtown Memphis, across the Harahan Bridge over the Mississippi River, and down into Big River Park on the Arkansas side, where the annual Outdoors, Inc., Grit & Gravel bicycle race was taking place.  I watched the racers, including my friends Joe and Carol Lee, complete several laps, and then came back home.  My total distance was around 16 miles or 25.7 kilometers... not bad for my clunky old low-tech mountain bike.

On Tuesday I did a somewhat quick 80 minute paddle out on the Mississippi, throwing in a few long surges.  It was my first paddle of any intensity since my last race back on October 9.

On Wednesday I rode my bike east from my house, picking up the Greenline and following it across the Wolf River in east Memphis.  Then I checked out the newly-completed section of the Wolf River Greenway from its junction with the Greenline to just south of Walnut Grove Road.  Then I rode back home.  My distance was around 17 miles or 27.4 km.

Yesterday I rode to the park just west of my house, where there's a paved loop in the woods maybe 2 kilometers long.  I rode two hard laps of that loop, and after each lap I stopped to do a couple of sets of pushups and Hindu squats.  Over the next month-plus I'll increase the number of laps I do, probably topping out around five.

Today I started a new gym routine with a couple of dumbbell exercises (bicep curls and front & lat raises) and several plank-type exercises on the stability ball.

I'm good and sore now after these first few days of harder work.  Tomorrow I might do a nature hike, but keep things easy so I can recover a bit.  I plan to do more weeks like this one for the next little while, and I probably won't paddle more than twice a week until the start of the new year.

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