A Morning Out

I was forced, by a flare up of an oldIT band issue, to spend the day on the couch yesterday. I’m so obsessive about training that I am always 1000% convinced that one day off will lead to all those “gainz” disappearing like free donuts at an Obesity Anonymous meeting (apologies to both donuts and the obese – I’m a bit fat myself). Anyway, I survived the rest day, I’m not sure how, likely just by trolling crazies on X, and this morning I took the kayak down to the beach for a paddle.

The wind was calm but the water a bit murky from the NE blow yesterday and there were lots and lots of fish. Not that I actually saw any fish as whenever I got near they flicked their tails and disappeared but there were big schools about. At the Tollgate Islands, the northerly current was insane! The NE swell was frequent but not big and, as I got near the Tollgates I thought I would be able to paddle around close in but the current had kicked up extremely volatile conditions. There were actual standing waves at the north and south end of the island and on the east side I was tossed about like a cork. The BOM surface currents chart shows the northerly current a bit below a knot off Batemans Bay but I think it had to be running faster than that to create standing waves.

It’s just a bit over four kilometres back to shore from the Tollgate Islands so I thought, as my leg had loosened up, I would have a crack at some speed work. I got my speed, briefly, up to 10 km/hour – wouldn’t it be magic to cruise at that pace – but I was getting pretty puffed out by the time I got into shore. According to Garmin, I spent 11 minutes at “threshold” which seems too low to me as I was huffing and puffing on the way back and eased up a few times to have a breather, and I certainly didn’t cover four kilometres in 11 minutes (more like 30 minutes). What’s most interesting about the graph is the two heart rate peaks: one in the latter half of the paddle as I sprint back to shore and the other as I paddle around the east side of the Tollgate Islands where I was thinking “shit, I’m about to capsize out here!”

A fun morning out and much preferred to the usual slow and steady 40 kilometres (which still has to be done).