Dan and I paddled at the Genesee Waterway Center. The goal was to do some 2000 metre intervals. It started off sunny but a bit windy an a bit cool, but it go progressively windier and cooler, and clouding over. There was some sort of rowing regatta going on, which meant we had to go upstream a bit to get away from all the rowers. We did a long warm up upstream but down wind.
The first 2000 metres was 500 metres upstream then 1500 metres into the wind. It felt much harder into the wind, but I was actually going a tiny bit faster. The second 2000 metres was downwind/upstream, but it was really hard. I barely finished it, but I did finish it. Dan gave me some help letting me ride his wash. The third interval was into the wind, which was really biting by then. I was tired, and Dan let me stop after 1000 metres because my speed was dropping.
We paddled back to the junction of the canal and the river, and we did some 500 metre intervals. I was still tired, but I managed to keep up a decent 6.1 mph pace for all three intervals. But after three, I was freezing. We paddled back to the dock just as Stephen was getting ready to leave.
The GPS only recorded while I was doing the actual intervals, so it doesn’t count the distance I did for the warm up, and distance between the first set of intervals. But what it does record is 4.85 miles, which probably means the total workout was nearly 6 miles. It thrills me no end that the sort of distance that last September I was doing as a long slow distance workout is now what I can do as part of a much harder speed workout. I feel my old fitness coming back like an old friend. I missed it.