I guess I'm just not in the right frame of mind for DW ing. I put in well over a hundred and twenty miles last month and it just doesn't seem to be getting any better. Two or three club trips on the Thames including Boulters Lock to Marlow and Walton to Penton Hook lock plus two 20 mile trips the length of the Wey, on top of all the usual five and ten mile jaunts, and the average speed still resolutely stays low.
Last weekend the club trip was to the Grand Union canal, which is new to me. The club has decided to enter the British Canoeing Winter Challenge to get as many different locations paddled as possible before the end of next February. This suits my purpose to some extent because the trips are usually around ten to fourteen miles with a group. Five of us went to the Grand Junction and paddled an out and back thirteen mile stretch in about the windiest conditions I've ever encountered. The wind blew us down the outbound leg and was against us all the way back.
The canal was a lot broader than I'd anticipated and the surrounding buildings and undergrowth afforded very little shelter. If anything the buildings made the conditions worse with gusts coming at all angles. The last couple of miles I threw caution to the winds and pushed on as hard as I could against a very blustery headwind. It was hard going but I outstripped the others to the finish. Funnily enough the Garmin tracking doesn't show much by way of an increase in speed and the others were only about a minute behind. Nevertheless we survived and the paddle stroke problem stayed away today, but it's not an experience I'd like to repeat.
In a couple of weeks the club is planning another 'marathon'. That's going to be one way trip from Boulters lock back to the clubhouse at Hampton, as it happens that's almost exactly 26 miles. All things being equal I'll give it a go. It should be a fair indicator of how I'll cope with that sort of distance and whether it's worth carrying on. Personally I'm just fed up worrying about it.
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