Had all sorts of crap for breakfast: chocolate cream cookies, potato chips, juice, cream soup... the fact that I've been told to stay away from fatty food drives me to crave them even more. And don't even talk about the alcohol ban.
One thing I found out about my performance / energy level is that it's all tied to my perception of how I'm doing -- paddled three rounds between the -500m to 3000m marks, and tried to calculate my average speed per section as I cruised. For some reasons my brain farted and miscalculated my last section -- I thought I was 10 minutes behind schedule and suddenly decided I was hungry and tired and cannot go on. So I slowed down to a crawl and felt fairly defeated ... until I was nearly at the -500 mark and checked my watch again, turns out I was actually 4 minutes ahead of schedule. My heart did a summersault and I felt sure I could push for another round or two. But I told the lifeguard I was going to land before 7 and there wasn't enough time for me to push for another set, plus I had to catch the last bus back to Tai Tan, so I landed.
With an unloaded tiger on flat water, my cruising speed (as of today) is appr 7kph. I felt sure there is room for improvement though - I wasn't rotating my torso at the first round and a half, I'm also not familiar with the winged paddle, which I used today for the first time. Which reminds me... my neck hurts. I'm sure it's the new paddle's fault. I couldn't have paddled much more than 20km today and I shouldn't be sore, it just doesn't make sense. I don't know if I want to use the winged paddles again either, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to use that for NZ, I can't even trust it to do a simple sculling-draw stroke to get me to the pontoon. I think, I should probably use the paddles that I intend to use when I go to NZ, like my Kiska or whichever spare paddle I decide to get before the expedition.
The gym work out was disappointing. I just don't have the will power to push myself through the last few sets. I ended up dragging my feet and doing steady sets of 10's, that is to say, I performed worse than yesterday. I know I can do it if my life depends on it, but it's hard to convince myself lifting the metals have anything to do with survival when the water waving at me to come down and play.
In the gym:
chin-ups: 20/20/12
push-ups: 20/20/16+4
dips: 10/10/10
sit ups: 10/10/10
leg lift: 7 ... u_u
On the water:
1434 launch (pontoon)
1505 turned around at the very end of Shing Mun River
1533: pontoon -- went up to the gym to get snacks and drinks. Was really hungry. Then my body cooled down too quickly and I had to take a hot shower...
1552: launched from pontoon again
1604: -500 mark
1636: 3000 mark
1704: -500 mark
1734: 3000 mark
1802: -500 mark
1812: landing (pontoon)
tried to do another set of gym routine but the skin on my palm was peeling off. So went to shower after a painful set of 10 chin-ups and went home.
Came home to walk and feed the dogs, and I'm ready for bed again.
[edited to add]
I need to do something about my cool-problem. I was shivering uncontrollably on the bus on Monday after working out in Shek Mun, and I was shivering under the 30C sun when I took a lunch/snack break yesterday.
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