Monday 8 December 2014

Best Laid Plans?

The club's 26 mile marathon down the Thames from Boulters lock to the clubhouse proposed for the Saturday before last was cancelled due to the prevailing weather which had resulted from yellow and red warning boards up along all the stretches from Boulters on down to Teddington. Which is a pity and throws my plans into disarray. I had planned to use this one as a yardstick to see how the efforts I was putting into the training was going, but all that's out the window now. The last couple or three weeks have been pretty awful as my get up and go has left the building, but it still felt do-able and I was ready to give it a good try. I had clocked up the mileage this month, but needed the 26 miles we were going to do to get past the hundred mile mark. In fact I made up the mileage to just over the mark but I had to do it with several shorter runs instead of the long one.

Instead, we went for a twelve mile paddle, back and forth along the first six miles of the Basingstoke canal, including its six locks in the first mile or so, each portaged twice. The canal was full of weed and at times we were pushing against the stuff banked up into small floating islands of vegetation, so there was no real opportunity to work up to a steady cruising speed. It was more of an obstacle course than a worthwhile paddle, although the portage practice came in useful I suppose.

 It's always the same at this time of year, summer has closed down for the year, albeit late this time, and the weather has taken a definite turn for the worse again. Not just cold and a bit windy, but rain to the point of more flooding bringing up the yellow and red boards. Of course I've still got the navigation part of the Wey, but truth to tell I'm sick to death of the sight of it. It's now only a groove to follow. 

So I'm not quite sure where to go from here. This time last year everything was cut and dried and I felt I had a definite goal to work for. Now, just when it seems that the goal is becoming achievable, the motivation is flying out of the window, probably fear of failure I suppose. The club had its Christmas lunch last Saturday which was quite pleasant. Those members conspicuously absent were the two pairs who are committed to the DW and they were doing the Boulters to clubhouse run that I was denied. They did 25 miles comfortably in under six hours. I think that I could have done that. I wish I had done that!

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