The Platitudes We Tell Ourselves

We’ve gone from four to three for the big paddle trip. I knew this was coming months ago, but, I hoped that our fourth would rally round and magically become fit and healed in the increasingly short time available. But, it’s all over now. When I was younger it was – and still is – a common platitude when you got your arse kicked on a mountain route to say “well, the mountain will still be there next year.” And the mountain will, but will you?

I am certainly not as fit as I was two years ago when we paddled from Macquarie Harbour to Southport in Tasmania. Nor am I as fit as I was when we did Bass Strait in 2022, or even the Furneaux Group in 2019. I can’t be, because I’m 62 and the grind gets harder and harder. While my muscle mass has decreased, my repetitive injuries have increased. It takes longer to recover, and I need to titrate my training more carefully. More reason to start early!

It’s not clear that our fourth man ever started training, but, if he had, would it have made a difference? At our age, the only downside to a long training cycle is boredom which is, tedious and mind-numbing, but you can learn to tolerate tedium and boredom. The upsides are almost too numerous to mention but the most important is you have time on your side if an injury or repetitive condition (most soft tissue/tendon issues) suddenly worsens. You can take a couple of weeks off to recover and not get panicked because you need to progress from paddling 10 kilometres on flat water to 40 kilometres on the ocean in conditions. I do like the British sea kayakers understatement where conditions includes gale force winds and Corryvreckan tidal rapids. It’s the same as starting early on a big mountain route. You need time so that you can deal with any eventualities that arise.

In one of those “I’m old enough to remember” moments, I am old enough and honest enough to admit that there are many old goals that have lived in my head for a long time that I am no longer capable of achieving. These days, instead of saying to myself “the mountain will still be there,” I say “you’ve only got one chance, make it work.”