Just like my dog

It has been a bit of an uneventful week since the Larmer tree race eight days ago so I am not going to waste too much internet for this instalment of my self-indulgent discursive.

I rested a bit at the beginning of the week but I have been quite surprised with how little damage the race had actually done. I was back in my trainers after two days, though admittedly the first run was a short jog on the treadmill. I probably would have spent longer but as activities go dreadmill running is a bit dull compared with the real thing. I also ran a pretty decent Parkrun time on Saturday without a problem.

I added another couple of kilometres to my swim distance tally. Breathing is getting better with my front crawl but it can’t be right as I start to feel breathless after one length and need to swim a recovery length of breast stroke to get some air back inside my chest. I think I have self-taught all I can for this little problem, there are only so many youtube videos and help forums you can consume before you need to seek professional help.

We went kayaking yesterday, the weather was not terrible and tides suited an early start (which I prefer). My race partner and I took her K1’s because my boat would have been a handful on the tideway, I was mostly in the Hobby and she took her Talisman. We were also accompanied by the K2 crew who had their own attempt at the DW with me in 2013. The crew had split up this time each taking the stoker seat of different plastic touring K2's with a new paddle partner up front in the pilots seat.

We mostly stuck together but despite having twice as many blades in the water the glass K1’s were so much quicker than the graceless K2’s. I found myself playing a game of waiting for the two plastic barges to get a good distance ahead, then sprinting to catch and overtake them, then lying in wait for them to pass again. Thinking about it, this is a similar game that that's my dog plays when he is running off his lead with slowcoach me.