This past Saturday morning, Bayou d'Arbonne north of West Monroe, Louisiana, was a colorful plethora of kayaks and canoes. We were about to start the fifth edition of the River Rat Canoe and Kayak Race that would finish about 12.4 kilometers downstream on the Ouachita River.
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I was up just before six o'clock yesterday morning. After the usual simple breakfast in my motel room, I packed up and headed for the race site.
The fifth River Rat Canoe & Kayak Race would be starting on sleepy Bayou d'Arbonne, a thousand meters or so above its confluence with the Ouachita River. We would continue down the Ouachita to the finish at Lazarre Park. The advertised distance was 7.7 miles (12.4 kilometers), though at least one person I know measured it as more like 7.8 miles (12.55 km). (I forgot to look at my own G.P.S. device when I crossed the finish line.)
Lazarre Park was a new finish location this year; past races finished at the Endom Bridge for a total distance of 6.5 miles (10.5 km). A tradition was established of awarding a Leatherman tool to any racer who reached the Endom Bridge in less than an hour, and the organizers decided to continue that tradition this year.
So, our work was very tidily cut out for us as we prepared to start up on Bayou d'Arbonne. Nearly 180 racers in a broad variety of craft lined up, and as soon as the command was given, we were off. I quickly found myself in third place behind fellow Memphian Adam Davis and Don Walls of Dover, Arkansas. Adam had just gotten married within the last month, but that apparently didn't stop him from working on his sprinting prowess. He maintained an astonishingly high stroke rate--around 100 strokes per minute, I'm guessing--all the way out of the Bayou and onto the Ouachita.
It was sunny and warm, with the temperature rising toward a Fahrenheit high in the low 90s. I pulled even with Don, and the two of us spent the next few kilometers in pursuit of Adam. I thought surely Adam would come to regret his early intensity, but he continued moving his boat well into the middle portion of the race.
I was two or three boatlengths back and struggling with the general languor I've been dealing with for the last several months: dead arms, no higher gear, not sharp, not aggressive... I think almost every athlete's career goes through some ebb and flow, and I guess that after racing quite well in the 2017-2019 period I'm due for a letdown. But it's sure not fun, especially considering my investment in a new coach this year and the better-than-ever results I was hoping that relationship would produce.
In short, I was feeling pretty miserable as I gazed up at a seemingly untouchable Adam for some 25 minutes. I alternated between trying to climb up the train of wakes off his stern and moving over to the cleaner water and trying to gain ground there. Neither was working. Making matters even worse was a problem with my grip. After suffering bad blisters in the race at Ocean Springs back in March, I outfitted my race paddle with some padded grips covered with electrical tape, and that had served me well in the months since. But yesterday my right-hand grip seemed inexplicably slippery and it felt like I had no control with that hand. Electrical tape had always provided sufficient friction for me, but now I was wishing I had some surfboard wax or something like that. I was feeling considerable stress on my right wrist as I searched and searched for a solid grip.
In my mind it seemed like the whole race was spinning out of control, but I told myself that if I could just get onto Adam's wake then maybe I could regroup and salvage a good result. I moved behind his stern and threw in one agonizing sprint after another to climb from four waves back to three back to two back. Finally, gears grinding to toothless nubs, I got my my bow right onto his stern.
By this time we had covered about five kilometers, and I told myself to hang out on Adam's stern until the 6.2-kilometer halfway point and then see what sort of challenge I could mount. Slowly, I began to recover a bit from the sprints and my outlook brightened. Even my grip felt a bit better. When we reached 6.2 kilometers I sprinted up onto Adam's starboard wake and then moved into the lead. I actually was hoping to sit on that side wake for a couple of minutes, but Adam let me move in front and I decided that fair was fair and I should lead for a while.
I was trying my best to conserve energy, but I knew that Don was still not far behind us. Don is one guy I'd rather not engage in a battle of wills with the finish line in view, so I tried my best not to let Adam and me get lulled into a slow enough pace for Don to reel us in.
Eventually the first of four bridges that we'd be passing under came into view. Adam, who had done this race at least twice before, remarked that the bridges were a welcome sight. The Lea Joyner Bridge was first, followed by a railroad bridge. The Endom Bridge, the finish line for the old race course, was third, and it was only a couple hundred meters below the railroad bridge. Adam and I were a lock to reach the Endom Bridge in less than an hour, but the old course record of 51 minutes 2 seconds, set in 2018 by Andy Capel of Maumelle, Arkansas, was clearly out of reach.
I decided I wanted to score a moral victory and be the first to reach the old finish line. As we passed beneath the railroad bridge and approached the Endom Bridge, I began to pick up the pace. But Adam apparently had similar ideas and he quickened his pace too. Before we knew it we were in an all-out sprint, and Adam was winning it. I'm pretty sure he had a quarter-boatlength on me as we hit the old finish line. I realized that out-sprinting Adam at the new finish line was not going to be a simple matter.
We had about 2 kilometers to go, and I backed off the pace a bit to gather myself for the dash to the finish. But just over my right shoulder I could see that Don was as close as ever, and I ramped the pace back up to defend our lead on him.
The river makes a sharp bend to the right at Lazarre Park, and the finish line was marked by a pair of red buoys against the right bank somewhere around that bend. In the lead with Adam on my left-side wake, I tried to maintain a solid pace without "going for it" quite yet. As we rounded the bend there was a fallen tree sticking out from the right bank, and a moment later the left buoy appeared about a hundred meters past the tree. I hung out for another 45 seconds or so, and then decided it was time. I surged to the tree with Adam holding fast beside me. Then I began an all-out sprint, and it was a repeat of what had happened back at the Endom Bridge. Adam pulled even with me, and then inched ahead. I paddled as fast and as hard as I possibly could, but I just didn't have the speed to hold Adam off. I'd have sworn that as we crossed the finish line Adam's lead was no more than a foot, but these photos show that he had almost half a boatlength on me:
Adam's time was recorded at one hour, six minutes, 16 seconds. My official time was 1:06:18, but I'm quite sure that the gap between us was no more than one second.
Don hung tough and crossed the line in 1:06:35. The top female finisher was Kim Schulte of Mandeville, Louisiana, who clocked 1:16:44. The complete results are posted here.
I paddled a slow cool-down and then carried my boat up to where my truck was parked. I dried off and changed into dry clothes and walked over to the pavilion, where I enjoyed the lunch that the race organizers had provided. In addition to Adam and Don and me, Phil Capel of Sherwood, Arkansas, had broken an hour in reaching the Endom Bridge. Don and I received our Leatherman tools, but a grander prize was in store for Adam and Phil because they had both accomplished this feat for the third time. They each got an axe. I looked on and re-lived my log-splitting ordeal from last Tuesday.
I socialized a while longer and then hit the road for the five-hour drive back to Memphis. I got home around 7 o'clock and was in bed not a whole lot later.
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I have a race coming up this weekend: the River Rat canoe and kayak race on the Ouachita River at West Monroe, Louisiana. In the past this race has been 6.5 miles or 10.5 kilometers, but I understand they've found a more accommodating place for the finish line that lengthens the course to 7.7 miles (12.4 km).
On Tuesday I did three sets of four (3 minutes on/1 min. off) at stroke rates of 60 strokes per minute/64 spm/68 spm/72 spm within each set. Then on Tuesday afternoon I found myself engaged in some work that did not constitute good race preparation: a client had just taken down an oak tree from which she wants me to make a piece of furniture, and I tried to split one of the logs in her yard, thinking it would be a simple matter. It was not. After more than an hour of pounding wedges and moving the extremely heavy object into various positions, my body ached from head to toe. Though the soreness has worn off as the week has gone on, as I write this I don't think I'm completely recovered from Tuesday afternoon's epic.
Fortunately I had a calm session to do in the boat on Wednesday, and I think it did my sore muscles some good. It was four sets of (13 min. on/2 min. off) at 60-64 spm.
Yesterday I did a sprint session: eight 20-second all-out sprints, starting at 4-minute intervals. Maks said "the feelings will not be the best after a longer block of little to no sprinting," and he was right about that. Most of the sprints felt rusty, but I did manage to settle into a fluid rhythm for two or three of them.
This morning I went down to the riverfront and did a pre-race workout that Maks had assigned: two times (5 min. on/1 min. off) at 60 spm, two times (2 min. on/3 min. off) at 76 spm, and two times (1 min. on/3 min. off) at 90 spm. Then I headed south on Interstate 55, and later picked up Interstate 20 west to Monroe, Louisiana. And that's where I'm spending tonight. I felt a bit sluggish in the boat this morning, and my arms are still a bit sore from Tuesday's logging. I've also felt slightly queasy in my stomach for the last two days. I sure hope a good night's sleep will help all that run its course so that maybe I can put together a decent race in the morning.
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It's spring in South Africa, and over the weekend paddlers on the Western Cape ushered in the surfski season with the 3 Beaches race. Dawid Mocke, my host when I traveled there last year, teamed up with his son Sam to record the fastest overall time on the 16-kilometer circuit. The results are here.
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Friday was an out-of-the-boat day for me. Maks assigned what he calls a "non-specific endurance activity": "bike, hike, trek..." I opted for the bike. My bike's rear tire has been acting funny lately; I installed a new tube several weeks ago, and it's been going flat in storage even though I can't find any leaks in it. This morning I re-inflated it and chose a course that wouldn't take me too far from home in case of any problems. I started out heading east on the Greenline as far as High Point Terrace, then came back west past my place and into Overton Park, where I did several laps in the Old Forest. A walk home from either far end of this course would have been lengthy, but not unmanageable. Fortunately the tire held up fine and seemed fully inflated when I returned the bike to its storage spot in my garage. We'll see how long it stays that way.
Yesterday was a soggy, rainy day, and I had two paddling sessions to do. In the morning I did a "wake-up" session: 40 minutes at 55-60 strokes per minute. It rained pretty steadily the whole time, and I was good & soaked afterward. As I was driving home the rain became torrential, and the Internet radar made it look like it would last all day. But it slacked off after lunch, and by the time I was back at the dock there was no rain falling at all. The afternoon workout was three sets of (4 min. at 80 spm/1 min. rest/2 min. at 80 spm/1 min. rest/1 min. at 80 spm/3 min. rest). As usual, the objective was to be mindful of all the technical aspects of paddling--mechanics, posture, breathing, leg drive--while paddling at a mildly anaerobic pace.
As I arrived at the riverfront this morning it seemed as though the clouds were about to give way to a bright, sunny day. But just as quickly the cloud cover thickened back up, and I paddled under overcast skies. The assignment was an easy 90-minute paddle, and I enjoyed the mild temperature while I persuaded my muscles to recover from a rather strenuous week.
One last note: this blog has just gone over 100,000 all-time views. For that I thank my loyal readers, not to mention thousands of spam-bots.
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The weather has become slightly more humid than it was last week, but it still isn't so hot. Fahrenheit highs have been below 90 degrees.
I paddled a loop of the harbor with Joe on Tuesday. Yesterday I returned to the grind with three sets of five (1 minute on/1 min. off) at 60 strokes per minute, paddling at HIGH POWER (emphasis Maks's). In addition, Maks told me to do two sprints up to 10 seconds during the rest intervals between the sets. I made those intervals 5 minutes, and did a sprint at Minute 2 and Minute 4 of each of the 5-minute periods. A main point of the exercise was to get as much power as I could from my legs.
Today was a rainy day, with a system of showers parked over the region. I went back to the river for a 60-minute paddle at a moderate/strong pace in the "A1" stroke rate zone (up to around 72 spm). Said Maks, "Strong continuous A1 workouts are slowly starting again. Make sure to prepare mentally for the suffer-fest of them :)." Not a subtle guy, that Maks. I was happy to have some rainfall as a diversion: I think rainy days out on the Mississippi are beautiful. I also had some interesting conditions created by a barge rig that was well upstream by the time I reached the harbor's mouth. The waves weren't big but were ridable here and there, and I tried to catch them while keeping my stroke rate in the A1 zone and as steady as possible. With about 20 minutes left to paddle I returned to the harbor and tried to take solid, strong strokes back to the dock. Fatigue was definitely settling in but my form held up fine.
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That's me in the foreground, wearing a blue shirt. It sure looks like I have the inside track on the 2017 USCA national title on the Mississippi River at Dubuque, Iowa, but this is no more than several seconds into the race, and the camera angle makes it look like I've got a bigger lead than I do. I ended up fourth.
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There hasn't been much posting here lately because I didn't do much paddling last week. From Thursday through yesterday I was involved in an annual crafts fair where I demonstrate wooden bowl carving.
Last Tuesday I embarked on a loop of the harbor with Joe, only to have it cut short by a storm with much thunder and lightning. Wednesday was a nicer day and I was back in the boat doing the closest thing to a real workout for the week: four sets of (3 minutes at 64 strokes per minute/1 min. at 80 spm/2 min. at spm/2 min. rest), followed by six times (1 min. on/1 min. off) at 84 spm. This was a largely technical exercise done near anaerobic threshold.
By this morning my biceps and forearms were quite sore from all the bowl carving. Monday is usually a day off for me, but Maks gave me an assignment to ease myself back into paddling: four sets of (5 min. at 60 spm/3 min. at 64 spm/2 min. at 68 spm), with a minute rest between pieces and two minutes between sets. He told me to start slow and concentrate primarily on stroke mechanics and posture. The session relaxed my body nicely.
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I never get tired of seeing the Herbert family when I go out racing. At the Landing to Landing canoe and kayak race at Branson, Missouri, on Saturday, Mike Herbert and his daughter Savanna both had good days, with Mike taking first place overall and Savanna finishing first among women and fourth overall.
But these weren't the only Herbert clan members present. Savanna's husband Dylan was the fastest paddler in the 3-mile race, while Mike's other daughter, Michelle, performed admirably at that distance as well. And of course, Mike's wife Christel was there to drive the shuttle vehicle and keep everybody out of trouble.
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It was a lovely sun-shiny day as a small group of racers gathered for the start of the Landing to Landing canoe and kayak race at Branson, Missouri. The start was on the White River just below the Table Rock Reservoir dam. Because of another dam downstream, the piece of water we would be racing on is known as Lake Taneycomo, but its narrow channel made it feel more like a river, and the first couple of kilometers there was a modicum of flow. The course distance was 8 miles, or not quite 13 kilometers.
The starting area was tight, and the presence of a half-dozen fly fishermen restricted our maneuverability that much more. As a result I found it difficult to get in my normal warmup. Once the gun went off I was straining to persuade some blood into my muscles as I sprinted for a good position.
Mike Herbert of Rogers, Arkansas, moved quickly into the lead. While trying to keep contact with him, I found myself alongside a tandem surfski paddled by the father-son team of Brad and Ethan Daniels, who hail from the nearby town of Hollister, Missouri.
Early on we had to navigate a few shallow stretches where my rudder dragged on the bottom. My rudder continued to function, fortunately, but it was a distraction as I jockeyed with the Danielses for a decent position.
Eventually the water began to deepen as we entered the pool of Lake Taneycomo. It appeared that Mike was his old self as his lead on the rest of us grew and grew. I settled onto the Danielses' wake to conserve energy for some surges later in the race.
I was working as hard as I cared to in a race of this distance, but it seemed like my speed wasn't what I think I should be capable of. When I looked down at my G.P.S. device it was most often showing about 11.1 kilometers per hour (6.9 miles per hour). The water we were paddling was quite cool, probably because it came from the bottom of Table Rock Reservoir, and I thought of some research that Maks cited to me earlier this year, that a boat moves more slowly in colder water. I'd be curious to know what impact it had on Mike's hull speed.
There were many motorized craft on the water, and around the 3-kilometer mark a bass boat moved in front of us. Ethan and Brad sprinted to catch the boat's wake, so I did the same. I was aware that what we were doing wasn't exactly fair either to Mike in front of us or the other racers behind us, but it sure was nice to get a breather while still traveling between 11.0 and 11.5 kph. After a couple of minutes the bass boat began to veer from our race course, so I took the initiative to abandon its wake and encourage the Danielses to follow.
A short while later I began to open a gap on the tandem ski, and I threw in several surges to press the advantage. It would mean paddling all by my lonesome the rest of the race, but if the Danielses were falling off the pace then it was the right thing to do to preserve my at-least-theoretical chance to reel Mike in.
For the next twenty minutes or so I moved along at the quickest pace I could manage, but with 5 kilometers to go fatigue was beginning to set in, and a few glances over my shoulder revealed that I hadn't really opened much of a gap on Ethan and Brad. It was pretty clear that catching Mike was not in the cards, so I backed off the pace and allowed the tandem team to regain contact with me. Now I could do some wake-riding with the hope of finishing strong and being the second boat across the finish line.
As the race wore on our speed dipped down toward 10 kph. Having never paddled against the Danielses before, I wasn't sure whether they were fading or were just gathering themselves for a strong finish of their own. As we paddled beneath the U.S. 65 bridge some 1500 meters out from the finish, I got my answer: they began to surge. I knew I wasn't ready to sprint yet and I tried to hold onto their starboard wake. We continued along like this to the railroad bridge, and though I was still comfortable with the pace I was definitely working much harder.
Past the railroad bridge we could see the pair of bridges for Veterans Boulevard and Branson Landing Boulevard, with the finish line a couple hundred meters beyond. Here, Ethan and Brad put the hammer down. I dug in and tried to hold their side wake, but their advantage in horsepower was clear as they edged farther and farther in front. I fell back onto their stern wake and tried to gather myself for one last charge. Mike, who had finished several minutes earlier, was off to the right cheering us on, and I knew I couldn't throw in the towel with him watching. 100 meters became 50 meters, and though I was sprinting hard the confused water behind the Danielses made it feel more and more like my efforts were in vain. With less than 50 meters left I moved to my right and made one last mad dash, cutting their lead from a full boatlength to maybe seven-eighths of a boatlength, but there wasn't enough race left. Ethan and Brad's bow broke the finish line five seconds before mine did.
I congratulated the father-son team and paddled easy as my heart rate returned to normal. I watched as more racers came in to the finish. Mike's daughter Savanna won a furious sprint with Don Walls to claim fourth place overall and third place among single kayaks. Don, paddling an outrigger canoe, was the fastest single-blader, with OC1 paddler Stephen Lynn finishing 27 seconds later.
The results are as follows:
1. Mike Herbert 1:04:32
2. Ethan Daniels/Brad Daniels 1:09:11
3. Elmore Holmes 1:09:16
4. Savanna Wright 1:15:43
5. Don Walls 1:15:45
6. Phil Capel 1:16:03
7. Stephen Lynn 1:16:12
8. Frank Walker 1:25:53
9. Karen Kesselring 1:34:05
10. Andrew Peters 1:37:22
11. Matt Andrews 1:43:16
12. Sharlyn Todd 1:53:45
13. Kyle Todd 1:53:46
14. Kurt Hallow 2:11:34
15. Jeff Holley 2:38:35
16. Linda Blair 2:38:39
17. Larry Ford 2:54:31
The race officials didn't make any distinction between kayaks and canoes or between women and men in distributing the awards. Among the top nine finishers, every racer was in some type of kayak except Don and Stephen. I'm not sure about any of the racers who finished behind Karen Kesselring.
I carried my boat up to my truck, which Karen's husband Dan had kindly helped me shuttle to the finish before the race. I inspected my rudder and found that it had suffered a bit of damage that I'll have to repair when I get a chance. Great... another item on my to-do list.
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Each fall I demonstrate bowl carving at a local crafts fair, and with this year's fair coming up next week, I spent several hours Monday morning driving around Midtown Memphis in search of material. When trees are trimmed or cut down in this city, the standard practice is to leave logs on the curb for collection by a city sanitation crew. That means free wood for resourceful artisans such as I. It also means backbreaking labor. Though I tried my best to rely on my logging tools, I managed to tweak my back a bit while lifting a couple of logs into the back of my truck.
By Tuesday morning the back discomfort had eased, but my hamstrings and quad muscles were achy and sore from the work they'd done. I went down to the river and did one of Maks's "non-continuous endurance" workouts. It was 3 times (4 minutes on/1 min. off) at 60 strokes per minute; 3 times (3 min. on/1 min. off) at 66 spm; 3 times (2 min. on/1 min. off) at 72 spm; and 3 times (4 min. on/1 min. off) at 60 spm.
My sore leg muscles didn't bother me too badly during this session, and by Wednesday morning they had largely recovered. I went back to the river for six 3-minute pieces, within each of which I did a minute at 80 spm, a minute at 90 spm, and a minute at 80 spm. The idea was to carry the technical precision from the lower stroke rate into the higher one, and make a smooth, focused transition back to the lower rate.
Yesterday morning I made the decision to attend my first race in two months: the Landing to Landing canoe and kayak race on the White River at Branson, Missouri. It's 8 miles (12.8 kilometers), and while I don't feel like I'm anywhere near peak racing form, I hope getting out to a race will help me snap out of the sluggish feeling I've had since returning from my trip out West this summer.
With a race now on the agenda, I departed from Maks's assignments for the rest of the week in favor of rest and (I hope) some polish to my speed. Yesterday I paddled for 40 minutes and did six 12-stroke sprints at maximum intensity to boost my ATP-CP system and get some start practice, too.
This morning I did almost exactly the same thing, except I did just four 12-stroke sprints. Then I got in the car and headed across the river and off to the west. Now I'm in Branson, one of those places I probably wouldn't ever visit if it weren't hosting a canoe and kayak race. Here's hoping for a good night's sleep and some good racing in the morning.
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I started the weekend with a gym session on Friday. I also spent Friday finishing up a workshop project that had taken me about a month, and it was nice to get that off my plate.
Saturday's assignment was "a bit of a lung and muscle burner": six sets of (30 seconds at 90-95 strokes per minute/15 sec. rest/15 sec. all-out sprint), starting a new set every 8th minute. Maks said, "Not an easy workout! That's not a threat, it's a promise!"
Okay, he didn't actually say "That's not a threat, it's a promise." I sort of read that part in.
Anyway, I went out and did the workout, and it didn't seem too bad until the last couple of sets, when I really had to dig deep to crank out the 15-second all-out sprint at the end of each set.
This morning I did a calm 75-minute paddle. The "Ida bump" on the river has moved on, and we're back to typical late-summer low levels.
We've continued to enjoy low-humidity weather through the weekend. But it's been awfully hazy the last couple of days: both at sunset yesterday and at sunrise this morning, the sun has been a dark orange orb in the sky. I don't know if this is more wildfire smoke from out West, or just routine air pollution.
Because I've been feeling good in the boat lately, I was leaning toward signing up for a race next weekend--an event on Center Hill Reservoir in middle Tennessee that I've attended a couple of times in the past. But when I visited the registration page yesterday, I learned that the event has been canceled. Apparently the director's mother is seriously ill and he is turning his full attention to her care. So, late summer continues without many opportunities to race.
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So far this week the weather has been warm but not sweltering hot, and mostly sunny... in other words, gorgeous. Not coincidentally, my time in the boat has felt quite satisfying the last several days.
On Tuesday Joe and I paddled about two thirds of the harbor. Then Joe had to go and I commenced this workout: three sets of three (3 minutes on, 1 min. off) at 64 strokes per minute (first set), 70 spm (second set), and 60 spm (third set). Maks described these as "technical" sets, and he also said that this week we're moving "back to more endurance and grinding workouts."
For yesterday, Maks assigned "an anaerobic workout broken into shorter sets with short rest intervals." It was four sets of (3 min. at 80 spm/1 min. rest/2 min. at 80 spm/1 min. rest/1 min. at 80 spm), starting a new set every 14th minute. Maks went on to say "it is supposed to be a moderately hard workout, but not the 'killing' type." That statement turned out to be accurate: I felt reasonably taxed but not utterly exhausted. What I did not feel was that I was going anaerobic--breathing hard, yes, but not in oxygen debt. I decided to play around with this a bit by nudging the stroke rate into 82-84 territory for the third and fourth sets; I didn't want to alter the workout beyond Maks's intentions, but just see if i could get a bit closer to anaerobic. The higher stroke rate was definitely more taxing, but still not quite anaerobic. Oh well... I think it was a good workout, all told.
Today I did eight sets of (8 min. on/2 min. off) at 60 spm, with some extra weight in the boat. It was basically a distance paddle with a heightened sensation of the water pressure against my blades.
The Hurricane Ida rain that fell in the Mississippi watershed is now reaching Memphis. Yesterday's river level was 11.7 feet on the Memphis gauge, the highest stage we've had in quite a while. I did my workout out on the big river and it was fun to escape the monotony of the harbor. The river went on to crest at 12.1 feet and this morning I paddled with a level of 11.9. Once again I enjoyed the expanded paddleable real estate out on the river. I don't normally enjoy these grinding sessions, but the higher water combined with lovely weather has lifted my mood.
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Friday was a gym day. I found time during a busy day in the workshop to do a few strength exercises.
I was back on the water yesterday morning for a "brute power" workout. I did four sets of four (20 seconds at 100 strokes per minute/20 sec. rest/20 sec. at 100 spm) with moderate resistance on the boat. Maks didn't specify a recovery time after the second sprint of each rep, so I made it 1 minute. He told me to "make longer rests between the sets to (almost) fully recover," so I made that 3 minutes. It was definitely a hard session, but I didn't feel utterly exhausted after it was over.
We've enjoyed some cooler-than normal weather this weekend. This morning some rain moved into the area, and I paddled in intermittent showers. I did four sets of (5 min. at 56 spm/4 min. at 60 spm/3 min. at 64 spm/2 min. at 68 spm/1 min. at 72 spm), with a minute break between pieces and 2 minutes between sets. It was your basic longer endurance session, with the varying stroke rates forcing me to concentrate the whole time, making it pretty tiring.
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Well, the remnants of Hurricane Ida missed the Memphis area almost entirely. From Monday afternoon through Tuesday we had a bit of rain and a few wind gusts, but nothing serious. The storm moved farther east than forecasters expected, and it sounds much of this country from the mouth of the Mississippi up to the Northeast have not been as fortunate as we.
On Tuesday I had a somewhat taxing endurance workout to do: eight sets of (2 minutes at 60 strokes per minute/1 min. at 72 spm/2 min. at 60 spm/1 min. at 72 spm/2 min. rest), all with some extra weight in the boat. The added weight enhances the sensations associated with planting the blade and rotation and leg drive, and though I wasn't out of breath by the end of the session, I was feeling the effort in my muscles.
Yesterday I pushed the intensity higher. I did eight sets of (45 seconds at 80 spm/15 sec. rest/45 sec. at 84 spm/15 sec. rest/30 sec. at 90 spm). In other words, it was eight two-and-a-half-minute pieces of which two minutes was done at a pretty high intensity. Per Maks's instructions, I focused on posture and mechanics while paddling hard. It took me a couple of sets to get a feel for each stroke rate; early on I was paddling at a higher rate than I should have.
After putting stress on my body in these different ways, Maks relented today and assigned a basic 80-minute paddle. I kept the stroke rate at 60-64 spm and enjoyed the nice day.
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My buddy Rob and I check out the Hudson River at Peekskill, New York, in August of 2016.
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On Friday I got in the boat and did another workout involving subtle changes in stroke rate. It was six sets of (1 minute at 60 strokes per minute/1 min. at 64 spm/1 min. at 68 spm/1 min. at 72 spm/1 min. at 68 spm/1 min. at 64 spm/1 min. at 60 spm/2 min. rest). The objective was to keep the stroke form and intensity consistent throughout the various rates. My biggest challenge during a workout like this is concentration: it's so easy to get distracted out on the water.
Yesterday I did two sets of six all-out 15-second sprints at 4-minute intervals. For the first set I had some extra weight in the boat, and then I removed it for the second set. The idea was to feel the grip on the water promoted by the extra weight in the first set, and then search for that same sensation without the weight in the second set. The workout was a reminder that I enjoy going fast even though it's both physically and technically hard to do so.
This morning I did five sets of (13 min. on/2 min. off) with stroke rates of 60, 64, 68, 64, and 60 spm. The main difference between such a workout and a simple distance paddle? Concentration. Maintaining a particular stroke rate for 13 minutes takes concentration. Those 2-minute rest intervals were mental breaks more than anything else. One thing I find is that when I'm paying attention to my stroke rate I'm also paying attention to my stroke mechanics and my posture in the boat.
It's continued to be muggy and hot here this weekend, but we're in for a change in the weather shortly: the remnants of Hurricane Ida are expected to arrive up here sometime tomorrow. Mostly, it'll mean a big bunch of rain for us. I expect we'll have some gusty winds, but of course nothing like what our friends closer to the Gulf Coast are experiencing.
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I started Tuesday with a half-loop of the harbor with Joe. Thoroughly warmed up, I then commenced the workout: two sets of four (2 minutes at 64 strokes per minute/1 min. at 72 spm/2 min. at 64 spm/1 min. rest). Maks told me to "execute the pace changes swiftly and with as little extra moves/stress as possible." That was tricky to do; I think I was doing it much better by the second set.
Yesterday I returned to the river for a technical session: two sets of (4 times 1 min. on/1 min. off at 56 spm and 4 times 45 seconds on/75 sec. off at 76 spm). Posture and leg drive were the focus, and I tried to call upon all the power of my legs and core that I could.
Today I did a gym session. It's been very humid and hot this week, and it's expected to remain so for a couple of more days before abating a bit.
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