Final preparations for the big trip

The first half of this week has been relatively warm; the next Arctic blast is set to arrive tonight and tomorrow.  So I've made sure to paddle Monday, yesterday, and today.

It was overcast and chilly Monday morning, but with an intense workout to do, the chill didn't concern me for long.  I basically did the same workout I did two weeks ago: three sets of seven 20-second sprints, with the recovery interval decreasing from 60 to 50 to 40 to 30 to 20 to 10 seconds.  The only different thing I did this time was put medium resistance (two golf whiffle balls) on the boat for the first set.  Once again I started to tie up a little in the last couple of sprints of each set, but I otherwise held up well and recovered quickly.  I was in the north end of the harbor when I finished the last set, so once my heart rate returned to normal I paddled a good brisk pace for the 2500 meters or so back to the dock.

Yesterday morning I did a gym session, and then went to my doctor's office to get the PCR test that I must have to be admitted into South Africa.  Once that was done I headed down to the river and paddled a steady 50 minutes in mostly sunny 50-degrees-Fahrenheit weather.

The forecast said today would be very rainy with plummeting temperatures.  When I went to the river this morning some showers were moving in, but the temperature was still a balmy 52 degrees.  I paddled in a couple of heavy showers, but nothing to get too upset about.  I did the same workout I did two weeks ago Monday: 10 strokes on, 10 strokes off, 20 strokes on, 10 strokes off, 30 strokes on, 10 strokes off, and so on until I reached 100 strokes on.  This workout is just plain tough.  Once you've committed to it there's no way out except out the far end.  I tried to keep the "on" pieces as consistent as possible in terms of speed and stroke rate.

We continued to get a lot of rain this afternoon, and now in the evening the temperature is quickly dropping toward freezing.  It's not expected to rise above freezing tomorrow.  So it feels good to have all my paddling in the bank.

This afternoon I got my PCR test result, and it's negative.  So that's a big hurdle cleared.  Now I need to get through Friday and Saturday without any flight disruptions, and here in Pandemic Times that's anything but certain.  But if it all works out, the next time I put up a post here I'll be in the Republic of South Africa.

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Monday photo feature

When I'm in South Africa next week I'll be participating in the fourth of four downwind camps that Dawid and Jasper Mocke lead each year.  The third camp took place last week.

From what I was able to gather from the Mockes' social media posts, they apparently had several non-windy days during last week's camp.  That, of course, is the risk that those of us who travel there take.  The Western Cape of South Africa usually has strong winds that generate good downwind conditions out on the Miller's Run, but they're not guaranteed.

I've found myself worrying a bit about that: what if, after all the expense of this trip, and all the hassle of getting a PCR test and spending 24 hours on airplanes and in airports, I get there and the wind decides not to blow for most of my stay?  It would definitely be a little disheartening.

But the Mocke brothers do have other activities cued up to make sure their campers get a worthwhile experience.  When the wind died down this past Saturday, they led the group on a trip around the tip of the Cape of Good Hope, and that's something I'd love to do.  Don't get me wrong--I'm hoping for five or six days of downwind awesomeness.  But I think a chance to paddle around the Cape Point would be a pretty cool alternative on a non-windy day.

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Working around the winter weather once more

Friday was not what I call gorgeous--overcast skies, temperature around 52 degrees Fahrenheit--but with some frigid winter weather moving in later this weekend, I made sure to get out and paddle.  I did a nice crisp 70 minutes, with a big loop out on the Mississippi.

The worst weather wasn't due until last night, but I was happy to stay close to home yesterday with just a gym workout to do.  It started raining as I did my gym in the late morning, and continued raining, heavily at times, for the rest of the day.

The rain turned to snow in the early hours of this morning, and when I got up around 6 AM there was maybe an inch of wet, slushy snow on the ground.  According to the hourly forecast, the sun is supposed to come out in the afternoon, and the temperature is supposed to rise to about 40 degrees, so I don't think this snow will be with us for long.  I'm hoping for nicer weather in the coming days so I can get one or two more good sessions in the boat before I head for where it's summer.

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Staying busy on and off the water

On Monday I did the bike ride I'd begged off of on Sunday.  The weather was definitely better--most importantly, the sun was out--but it was still very chilly with a Fahrenheit temperature in the low 40s.  I rode the Greater Memphis Greenline out to Shelby Farms, did a loop around Patriot Lake, and came back home.  I rode a little over 90 minutes and covered just over 34 kilometers (21.1 miles).

Tuesday morning I did a gym session and then went to the river for a 50-minute paddle.  The temperature was a few degrees higher but still not warm.

I was back on the bike yesterday for a shorter, quicker ride.  In one hour I rode 21.1 kilometers (13.1 miles).

This morning we had the nicest weather of the week so far: sunny skies, light winds, and a temperature in the mid 50s.  It was time for some higher intensity in the boat.  I warmed up and did a set of three 8-stroke sprints, and then did six 250-meter pieces, starting every 7th minute.  My times were 73 seconds, 69 seconds, 73 seconds, 78 seconds, 71 seconds, and 74 seconds.  That second piece was faster because I did it right at the mouth of the harbor and got a little help from the "tidal race" current that was flowing in there from the Mississippi.  I think the fourth piece was actually a bit longer than 250 meters: I paddled under the Hernando DeSoto Bridge, and I think that disrupted the communication between my G.P.S. device and the satellite.  So, I think in all I had a good consistent effort over the six pieces.

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Monday photo feature

Last year at about this time I was in Florida, doing some training on the Rainbow River with people like (from left) Chris Hipgrave, Alessia Faverio, and Terry Smith.

Some of the same people were back in the Sunshine State in the last couple of weeks, doing some more workouts in much balmier conditions than I had up here in the Mid South.  I would have loved to join them, but with a trip to South Africa coming up just a week from this Friday, I elected to tough it out at home.  Part of the reason was to save money (the South Africa trip is expensive) and part of the reason was to avoid the elevated risk of COVID-19 exposure (I must present a negative result from a PCR test to be admitted to the R.S.A.).

Whether my training up here is as effective as what I could have done down in Florida is anybody's guess. But assuming nothing stops me from getting in a boat on southern hemisphere waters in a couple of weeks, I don't think I'll be feeling too bad about my decision to skip Florida.

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Good old January

It was about 18 degrees Fahrenheit outside when I got up Friday morning.  Even though the sun was out for most of the day, the temperature never quite made it above the freezing point.  It was a good day to stay in and do a gym session.

When I got down to the river yesterday morning it had warmed up to about 38 degrees, but it was overcast and a chilly east-southeast wind was blowing.  It wasn't all that pleasant, but I've paddled in much worse, and of course I reminded myself that in two weeks I'll be where it's summer.  I went out and paddled for 80 minutes, leaving the harbor and going up the Mississippi to the mouth of the Wolf River, then coming back down to the harbor and back to the dock.  I paddled a strong pace most of the way.

Today has been a weird one: abnormally warm temperatures and torrential rain in the morning, and then falling temperatures and a screaming north wind in the afternoon.  I had a non-athletic commitment in the morning, and though I'd thought about getting on the bike in the afternoon, the miserable weather outside made me decide to do that tomorrow, when it's supposed to be chilly but sunny.

On the weight-watching front, I peaked at 156 pounds in the middle of last week, but since then I've been muddling around in 152-153 territory.  Such yo-yoing seems to be the pattern.

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Trying to pounce when the weather is decent

Last fall, as I was wrapping up a somewhat tiring and frustrating race season, I pondered how I would spend the coming winter, and I determined that I should diversify my training a bit and try to maximize the "fun" aspect of my paddling sessions.  Among other things, that meant not making myself follow through with a scheduled in-the-boat workout if the weather was miserable.

But then I decided to return to South Africa at the end of January, and therefore committed myself to a certain degree of training seriousness in the couple of months leading up to that.

Now I'm just two weeks and a day from my departure date, and I'm realizing how few training days I have left.  While I benefitted from balmy weather in December, that party is apparently now over, and I'm watching the forecast closely as I try to put the finishing touches on the speed and power that I'll need for a week of intense downwind paddling.

I hadn't planned to paddle on Monday, when the high was predicted to be in the mid 30s Fahrenheit.  But even though that was indeed the case, by the afternoon the sun was shining and there was very little wind, so I decided to seize that opportunity to paddle on a not-so-miserable day.  After warming up and doing a set of three 8-stroke sprints, I did a workout that Dawid Mocke showed me during my trip to South Africa two years ago.  I did 10 strokes hard, 10 strokes easy, 20 strokes hard, 10 strokes easy, 30 strokes hard, 10 strokes easy, 40 strokes hard, 10 strokes easy, and so on, until I'd worked up to 100 strokes hard.  This workout is quite a bear, that 10-stroke recovery seeming like no recovery at all once those "on" pieces get up over 50 strokes.  But it was over soon enough, and I cooled down back to the dock with endorphins flowing and a feeling of accomplishment.

I was expecting similarly nice weather Tuesday morning even though the day dawned with overcast skies: the hourly forecast said that by 10 AM the sun would be breaking through with a 34-degree temperature, and by 11 AM it would be sunny and 36 degrees.  Unfortunately, the hourly forecast was wrong.  When I got down to the dock a little before 10 o'clock, it was still solidly overcast and only 32 degrees with a frigid breeze blowing.  But I was there, dressed to paddle, so I got in the boat and buckled down.  I kept things on the easy side, paddling just 40 minutes and recovering a bit from Monday's hard session, but I did raise the tempo during the middle 20 minutes.

Looking at the forecast again, I saw that Wednesday would be a pretty nice day--sunny with a high in the 50s--before another round of wintry precipitation moved in with colder temperatures on Thursday and Friday.  So I was back in the boat yesterday for another intense session.  I did three sets of (20-second sprint/60 seconds recovery/20-second sprint/50 seconds recovery/20-second sprint/40 seconds recovery/20-second sprint/30 seconds recovery/20-second sprint/20 seconds recovery/20-second sprint/10 seconds recovery/20-second sprint).  I took five minutes between sets.  I struggled through the last couple of sprints in each set, but overall I held up well and felt good when it was over.

This morning we've seen freezing rain and sleet, and the temperature is 32 degrees and falling as the day goes on.  I'm happily giving myself a day off to recover from this week's work, and I'll be watching the forecast again as I plan my activities for the week ahead.

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Monday photo feature

The temperature was around 75 degrees Fahrenheit (23.9 degrees Celsius) Saturday morning.  Here I am outdoors wearing gym shorts and no shirt on the first of January.  Crazy.

I'm working out with my Smart Bell as the western sky grows ominously darker.  The rain blew in not even ten minutes after this photo was shot.  Behind this front was the much colder air that we expect at this time of year.

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Our bipolar winter continues along

On Friday morning I followed up Thursday's workout with a good steady 80-minute paddle.  The river was shrouded in a beautiful light fog, and the temperature was about 67 degrees Fahrenheit.  I was out there wearing shorts and a couple of light shirts.  As I paddled up the Mississippi a barge rig came downriver with some nice-looking waves behind it, but as I was dressed for the air temperature rather than the water temperature, I resisted the urge to surf.

The weather forecast definitely shaped my training schedule this weekend.  The temperature rose throughout Friday, and by yesterday morning it was in the mid 70s.  And storms were approaching from the northwest.  Around 10 AM I started my gym session out on the back deck and watched the western sky get darker and darker.  Soon enough the rain arrived, and I moved indoors to complete the routine.

We saw some heavy rain the rest of the day, and apparently some parts of town got some strong winds that knocked out the electricity, but everything was just fine in my neighborhood.  The storms have now moved on, and behind them is just the sort of weather we expect this time of year.  Today's high isn't expected to exceed 35 or 36 degrees, and there's talk of some of that "wintry mix" precipitation in the middle of the day.  The temperature is supposed to drop into the mid 20s overnight.

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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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