Category: Revelation

Most of the team is going to the “‘Round The Mountain” race this weekend, so it was a pretty light work-out.

5 of us set out from Dan’s dock and headed upstream. There were a *lot* of rowing boats and sculls out on the water at the boat house – a couple of coxed eights, and maybe three fours. We were paddling in a fairly tight bunch, and some of the girls in the boats called out. Maybe we should try to recruit some of the rowers over to the two bladed side – I certainly think we were making wash riding and pushing other boats rear ends out look like more fun that staying in your lane.

We paddled up a mile or so, and then decided to do a half mile interval while we waited for Dan, Steve and Doug. I was right beside Ken when somebody yelled “go”, and I managed to stay beside him for a tenth of a mile or so, and then stay right on his tail for another tenth. By then, Mike was moving up and he got into Ken’s wash, and I got into his, and rode it all the way for the rest of the half mile. I think he was pretty amazed that I managed to keep up with the group the whole way – he hasn’t been to many work outs and doesn’t realize I’m not the charity case I was last year. We headed back while Ken was giving us pointers on wash riding and race tactics, and the three stragglers caught up to us.

We broke into two groups of four, one lead by Ken and one lead by Dan, and did a whole bunch more on wash riding and race tactics. Ken and Dan switched groups so we got both perspectives. As we were finishing up, we paddled in our two tight groups of four riding each other’s washes right through the rowing groups, which didn’t appear to have moved much since our first appearance. But just before we got back to Dan’s dock, I interrupted him talking to somebody to point out that a gigantic boat was approaching fast. Last year, or even earlier this year, I would have been scared – as a matter of fact, last year when the same thing happened, I raced to the dock and got out of the boat as fast as I could so I wouldn’t have to deal with the wake. Call it confidence, call it bravado, but when the group turned around so we could try to ride the Colonial Belle’s wake, I turned with them as well.

The wake threw me around pretty good, but instead of fear, all I was feeling was exhilaration. I whooped and laughed a few times. I didn’t manage to ride it as far as the experts, but it was a fun ride while it lasted.

Afterwards, over beer and brats, Dan was talking about how far we’d come as a team. One of the things he mentioned was how they didn’t have to leave anybody behind – I took that as a direct compliment because last fall, during a lot of the workouts they’d left me to practice something on my own while they went ahead because I was too slow for them. Hurray for me – I don’t suck as much as I used to.

I made another foray out into Irondequoit Bay. The conditions were pretty favourable – there was no wind at first, although it built steadily during the time I was out there, and was in my face on the way back. There were almost no wind-drive waves, which meant I was dealing almost entirely with boat wakes. And boy, did I deal with a lot of boat wakes. I don’t understand power boaters at all – well, except the ones out fishing, anyway. It seemed like there were 3 or 4 boats with two or three guys in each one that were just going up and down the bay. I don’t think there wasn’t a time when I couldn’t see at least one of the 4 approaching and another one receding. I don’t see the point, myself.

I made a pretty steady 6.0 mph up the bay. On the way back, the wind and my tiredness and the wakes slowed me down to around 5.0 mph for the first mile and a half. I had to keep stopping to rest on the last mile, and barely averaged 4.8 mph. My total time back to Baycreek was around 57 minutes. My best recorded time last year was 1:05, so that’s a big improvement, but not as much as I’d hoped.

After finishing, I went for another 2 miles on the creek. It was very hard. I was extremely tired and had to keep stopping for a rest. I’ve *got* to do better than that.

Afterwards, I met a couple of members of the team, and we were standing around talking when Paul D asked me what was on my shirt. I looked, and it seems like I had a bit of a rub spot on where my shirt bunched up under my PFD. That’s not good.

Today was another “see if I’m ready for the Round The Mountain Race” paddle. I went out into the Bay, in spite of the fact that my spray skirt doesn’t fit very well and keeps popping open. The wind was steady almost exactly in my face on the way out, but the waves were fairly small and not breaking into the cockpit like they were last time I tried. In spite of the fact that I was managing to keep up a fairly steady 5mph pace into the wind, I didn’t feel very comfortable in the waves, and so I turned around at the 2 mile mark. I felt even less comfortable with the waves behind me, in spite of the fact that they immediately raised my speed to around 5.5mph. After three miles my right shoulder (the opposite from the one that was bothering me all winter) started to hurt, and my pace slacked off down to 5.2 mph for the fourth mile. When I got back, I had thought of going up to the weir and back to add another 2 miles, but I didn’t have the energy and my shoulder was still hurting, so I did a short warm-down loop at 4.1 mph.

On the other hand, comparing my times with last September, which I timed with a watch instead of a GPS, this time I was about 45 seconds faster for the first mile, and about 1:45 faster to “Two Mile Point”, so I should take some solace in that.

But based on my discomfort in even minor waves, my sore shoulder, and my increasingly sore elbows in spite of the vast quantities of Aleve I’m consuming, I’ve come to two sad conclusions.

1. I am not going to be ready to paddle a 10.5 mile race, including the first three on a windy lake, in three weeks time.
2. I should probably stop training so hard, and try for 2-3 workouts a week instead of the 3-4 that has been my goal up until now.

Too bad, because I’ve always loved pushing myself to train for athletic events, whether it was the Canadian Ski Marathon, the North American Orienteering Championships, or just a long backpacking trip.

My goal for this year was to finish a 10 mile race. I didn’t say which one. I have decided to make the Tucker Lake 9 Miler my first race of the year, since it’s on a river and won’t have wind and wave problems, and it gives me another 3 weeks to prepare. After that, I might consider the Armond Bassett races in July. Don’t see much else on the calendar that appeals until Long Lake. I’d hoped to get a team together for the Auburn Great Race (since it requires one biker and one runner as well as a kayaker), but nobody is expressing any interest.

Last evening I went for a long slow distance paddle. It was cold and windy, so I opted for Irondequiot Creek even though it’s too shallow for a good workout. I thought I’d head upstream and see how far I got.

Part of the point of this exercise is to see if I’m ready for the ‘Round The Mountain’ race in three weeks time. Originally my first long race of the season was going to be the ‘Tupper Lake 9 Miler’ (which is actually closer to 7.5 miles) on June 6. But RTM is an attractive race for many reasons, except for that whole ‘only being three weeks away and being longer than I’ve paddled this year’ thing.

So basically I wanted some indication on this paddle if I’d be able to paddle the 10.5 miles of RTM without dying (figuratively or literally). To be a real test I probably should have gone on the river or maybe even on the bay, but trying to squeeze in a paddle on the way home argues against the river, and the windiness argued against the bay.