Outside the Comfort Zone

The current hot weather has been encouraging to get out in the boat and get on with a few longer trips. The dates for the club's long trips however haven't really fallen very conveniently for my purposes and after recent form I've blanched at the thought of trying for ten to twelve mile trips. Instead I thought that I'd put in a couple of medium length trips and a few more interval sessions to get the average speeds up before I chance my arm at any distance so far out of my comfort zone.

Today's trip was aimed at the five mile distance up to Pyrford. Armed with my new 'cool' sunglasses and a bottle of Lucozade 'isotonic' drink I pushed off from New Haw around 10 am and paddled straight into a mass of loose weed thrown up by passing houseboats. That aside, it was a steady paddle right up to Pyrford only marred by having to regularly clear the paddles of the detritus. At Pyrford I was still going well so decided to carry on up to Walsham Gates, a mile further on.

Still OK at Walsham, I went for broke and headed further on to Newark Lock which would take the overall mileage past eight miles. On reaching the lock there appeared to be some sort of houseboat convention going on. All the available get-out space was taken by houseboats waiting to get through the lock and I couldn‘t see any spot to get out of the water. Instead I turned and headed back for home.

The return trip also went quite well although I was sagging again in the last half. At least as I progressed rather stylishly through Walsham gates someone thought I looked either good enough, or strange enough, to take a carefully arranged photograph from the nearby bridge. I hope it came out OK.

The trip measured by Garmin was 8.3 miles, which is a new distance for me which took 2hrs :22. Without reading too much into it, my overall average speed clocked 3.5mph, which considering that I wasn’t putting too much effort into it, and I was against the flow, and that the weed was hampering operations, it means that I’d be within the cut-off time for the first 34 mile leg and just outside the 36 miler. Obviously I still need a lot more work on speed and endurance, but it still makes it all a whole lot more encouraging than this time last year.

The flab resolutely refuses to drop away any further and weight sticks just above the 13 stone mark despite my best efforts with not overeating and exercise. Unfortunately I read the BMI calculator incorrectly and I am still in the 'overweight' category, by a long way. I need to think of something new.