No Gain Without Pain

I haven't had too much time for paddling this week so yesterday's outing was the first, and probably the only one for this week. I would have tried the club's evening session but after only one day's rain on Sunday the yellow warning boards are up again along our reach of the Thames.

So, back to the Wey again instead. I set off to make it worth-while and paddled the first two and a half miles with the Bungee on. I removed it for the next two miles after portaging at Pyrford lock to continue upstream to Walsham Gates and the return. I put the Bungee back on for the rest of the way back. That's five miles with the Bungee and two clean. I was pleased to find at the end that I'd done the seven miles in just under two hours. That's not bad as it's only marginally slower than than I've previously done it clean the whole way.

It was also despite almost capsizing several times. Suddenly I became aware of a propensity for the paddle to dig in badly on the left side stroke throwing me violently off balance. I can't think why this has suddenly started to happen but I've put the cause down to having started to wear gloves due to a large callous that's developing on the inside of my right thumb, and that my right, little finger is swelling up at the end joint causing the end of the finger to distort out of line. The gloves were intended to prevent any further damage as it hurts like hell, but they seem to be getting in the way of the usual rotation of the paddle stopping it from entering the water at quite the right angle. Anyway the problem stopped when I discarded the gloves which is all very well but the hand is becoming a real problem and getting worse as the mileage increases.

More exercising this morning and stretching the hamstrings, they've never been so stretched. It turns out that I'll also probably be able to make the club's run on Saturday after all which I wasn't expecting  to have been able to do. The weather forecast for Saturday isn't great but at least I've signed up for it. It I complete it that'll be another bonus 11 miles to add to the total for the month on the Basingstoke canal.