Just Your Average Week

It used to be a thing that people took one full rest day per week, which from an evolutionary perspective never made sense to me as that would be a day that, in pre-modern times, you went hungry because you didn’t go out to forage for food. My tendency, like that of Will Gadd, is to do something every day. The specifics matter less than the movement, with the caveat that old people need to lift weights. Real weights, not poncing around in a pool doing aquarobics or picking up one kilogram dumbbells to curl.

After our last long paddle day, I was really tired and I took a full rest day! It was really strange to get up on Friday and feel fit and strong with no lingering fatigue or sore muscles. So, I did hills and I felt like I bounded up the track to the top of the ridge. I probably didn’t but I felt like it, and, of course, I felt so good I did some power training when I got home.

On Saturday, I thought I would do my fast paddle day. This varies a lot depending on how I feel. Sometimes I feel super energetic and I do 12 or so kilometres at an 8 kilometre/hour pace, sometimes I substitute a downwind run which requires a hard upwind paddle followed by a series of sprints to catch waves. And, some days, like Saturday, I get out there and it all feels really hard and I have to admit that today is not the day to push hard because I’ll dig a big fatigue hole that will take days to climb out of which is days of quality training lost. In the end, I was only out for half an hour and it was hard work to get my speed up.

Sunday, of course, is paddle day. I’ll admit I get a bit bored with the go north or go south narrative that features during training periods, so on Sunday we did some skills practice, a rescue scenario, and some surfing on the Clyde River bar. Online Sea Kayaking is a really excellent resource for people trying to improve their kayaking and is inexpensive if you consider how much content is available. We did a few drills that I unashamedly copied from the website which was a good learning experience for all of us. Some of these drills look so easy but they can be quite tricky. Then it was on to the bar for some surfing. Conditions were excellent. The swell was pretty much due east, exactly perfect for the bar which has recently been dredged. We had one capsize where a pair of sunglasses were lost but the “victim” was in shallow water and easily self-rescued. I had my helmet on, probably not strictly required but the helmet does keep your sunglasses on! Finally, a slightly complicated rescue (a tow off rocks followed by a deep water rescue using a stirrup) and some rolls to round out the day. Most fun I have had for a long time on the Sunday paddle.

When I was in Sydney the past weekend I dropped into the Climbfit gym in Kirrawee and was shocked at how weak I was climbing. Of course, I shouldn’t be shocked as I have only climbed a few times since my tick attack and, with training for Tasmania taking up so much time and energy, I haven’t even been on our climbing wall much. So, Monday was overcast and only hitting highs of the low 20’s (Celsius) so we went climbing which was lots and lots of fun. Much more fun than banging out another 40 kilometre day which we did the day after.