Mixed Sessions

Last week I went down to the club to join an organised paddle on the Thames which was just restarting on Wednesday evenings this year. I arrived to find that everyone who said they were going had already buddied up, and gone. That left me with the problem whether to go out alone or not. Although I'm normally by myself on every other trip on the Wey, going out on the Thames by myself is something I always thought I'd never do. But it was fairly placid and next to no wind, so I decided to do a short trip.

I took the route up towards Sunbury lock and kept to the side channels, only crossing over the river when I turned back after a mile and a half. The Sun was very low on the horizon and with the reflection off the water was blinding, to the extent that I couldn't see a thing in that direction. The return was ok except when I had to take the wash of a speeding cruiser that had me bobbing up and down like a cork. Getting back to the landing jetty was another trauma as it had to be approached with the Sun in my eyes again but I came in at an angle to minimise the glare.

As it was only three miles overall I put in a short session on the Ergo paddling machine when I got back and cleared up. I did only 4x5 minutes with two minute rests between as I've only used it twice before. I concentrated on technique rather than power, but even so I felt that I'd done a session by the time I'd finished.

I carried out another five miler on Tuesday with the Bungee attached, and this time took the watch to record a time of 1 : 20, which is slow but not as bad as I feared. It's very hard work to push against that resistance and be followed everywhere you go by a gurgling noise, but it does make you work.

This weekend is the DW and I watched the times building up over the first couple of days on the on-line scoreboard. The club has three entries in the overnight doubles event, and all three made it home on Sunday. Today sees the finish of the four day event which I should have been in.

Anyway... On Saturday I went out on a club trip, once more on the Wey, but added another slow nine miles. That took my mileage for this month past the magic 42, so anything done by the end of the month is a bonus and a bit of elbow room.