Category: Kayaking

This is my earliest “first paddle” ever. If searching my blog is be believed, I’ve made it out in March once before, but only just – 31 March 2006.

Doug had sent out an email suggesting it. I hadn’t replied because I had my doubts about my ability to sneak out of work, or the state of my shoulder. Ken was the only person who’d responded positively, and I knew I was no match for either of them. But when the Baycreek web cam showed open water this afternoon, and I reached a point in the thing I was working on I could either leave now or start something that would take hours to resolve, I decided on the former course of action.

I figured I’d get there after they left, but at least if something happened to me out on the creek there would be other paddlers to come by and find me. So I got in and paddled up to the half-mile marker where the time trial course turns around, and turned there. I was tired and my shoulder was hurting. I got back to the dock and was talking to Dave there when Doug and Ken arrived back. They had gone up to the weir and back, so about double the distance I’d gone, and they were keen to do it again. The weir had been blocked, and the bay is still iced over, so they didn’t have anywhere else they could go. They convinced me to come with them. And you know, after a little bit, my shoulder wasn’t hurting too bad. I felt badly out of shape, and I had to keep stopping for breath, but I did it, and it was very pleasant to be out, especially with other people.

The Canada Geese were out in huge numbers, and the Red Wing Blackbird males were claiming their territories before there were even any rushes to claim, and Ken and I disagreed on whether that bird was a Red Tailed Hawk or an Osprey, but it really is a little slice of heaven back there.

Tomorrow is going to be in the mid 40s. A couple of members of the kayaking team emailed to say they’re going paddling tomorrow. Just for the hell of it, I’ve put my kayak on the roof of my car.

Oh yeah, sure, I’ve got a sore shoulder, and I should probably be at work at that time. So I probably shouldn’t go. But I’ll have the kayak on the roof rack, so the potential is there. And that’s the important thing.

It’s been pretty disappointing to me recently that with my problems with my shoulder, I haven’t managed to much time on the kayak ergo. Mostly my work-outs have been lots of time stretching and doing core exercises, lots of time warming up on one of those exercise bikes that has the arm movement as well, but only a few very short stints on the KayakPro – just working on a bit of technique until the shoulder starts to hurt, and then going on to other things and then coming back to it.

Today, we took that tactic again, but Dan mixed things up more than usual and this time something really went right, and for my last time on the KayakPro I was concentrating entirely on the pull back with my torso, and trying not to push forward with my upper hand at all (or at least until there was no further resistance from the machine), and in spite of the fact that it didn’t seem to be slowing me down or adjusting my stroke at all, I managed to keep going and going until I was feeling both muscular and aerobic fatigue. I probably only went about 5 minutes or less, but it’s the longest single session I’ve gotten on the machine in weeks, and I was elated to quit for some reason other than a sore shoulder.

I can’t wait to start building time again. I know I’m not going to be racing 10 milers as soon as the season starts, but it would be nice to be able to finish the BayCreek Wednesday night time trials without having to stop for a rest like I did for most of the season last year.

I won’t bore you with the whole thing. Instead I’ll bore you with short excerpts from the workout. This was last Thursday. I’m still having problems with my left shoulder, seemingly a problem with the trapezius muscle, hopefully nothing more permanent than that. So Dan’s been playing around with the format of the work out a bit to get me working up a sweat and improving and reinforcing good technique.

This video is fairly early in the work-out. It looks like my forward hand is dropping too early, and we worked on that later in the work-out.

This video is late in the work-out. I felt more warmed up than tired out, and I think it was going very well. I do notice I’m not opening my left hand at all, though, which is bad. But I don’t think I’m dropping my forward hand as much, and I think I’ve got a decent catch going on.

Yes, I know, I’m not going to grow my fitness at the rate that I did when I was in college. Which is too bad, because I’ve got a lot further to go. But I have to admit that my various join problems isn’t going to allow me to work that hard, even if my body would get fitter at that rate.
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