Don't You Just Love it...

...when some days do work, and a plan starts to come together?

It was nearly a week since the last paddling outing before I got back in the kayak last Tuesday. So I'd had plenty of time to let aches and pains subside from the last abortive canoe session and there no longer seemed any good reason to put off a 'long run'. I've been threatening myself with it for long enough but up until now there's always been a good reason to not just go for it. In the back of my mind lurks the target of Walsham Gates, which is the next lock up from Pyrford and to do a return trip from New Haw would give a mileage of over seven miles.

In fact I had unintentionally made it to within a half mile of there last January, but that day I was tired and after taking several stops it had taken almost two and a half hours. The weather forecast for Tuesday was quite good although windy and with the expectation of only a few light showers later in the afternoon. I decided to give it another go as this also had the added advantage that it would give me another over two-hour trip to qualify for the two-star course.

Sure enough the wind was gusting up quite forcefully as I set off from New Haw at around 3pm and worked steadily up to the boat club as a warm up. I was feeling pretty good and decided not to stop there but to continue as far as possible without stopping. At Pyrford it was all still going well and I was able to continue through there with only the leg stretching of the portage as a rest. The remainder of the trip to Walsham went well and I passed through the lock upstream for about a hundred yards.

I couldn’t believe that I was going so well and on the return with the flow I felt to be progressing without any rests or collapses against the back of the boat. Gradually, something of a rhythm seemed to be creeping into the paddling, and it was almost a pleasure for a change to feel like I was getting somewhere. I passed through a steady downpour in the last mile but it was more refreshing that off-putting and quite welcome to cool off. At the finish it was 7.6 miles in a total time of 2hr 24. Unfortunately that’s still far too slow as by that pace it would still take me around eleven and a half hours to do a 35 mile leg of the DW, which would put me out of the race at the 10 hour cut-off. But it’s still a lot better than this time last year.

On the weight issue, what with moderate dieting and some exercise, I’ve dropped to under the thirteen and a half stone mark. This time last year it was hovering around just under the fourteen and a half stone, so that’s almost a stone I don’t have to contend with at the moment, but still in the overweight BMI  .