photo thursday: ... give me a boat...

... that can carry.... 6?

Somewhere along the Na Pali coast
(change #4 for the men)

This is one of my favorite photos of the 8/14 Na Pali Challenge race (taken by Molly Altman, thanks Molly!).

This is a change-out, about to happen. We've jumped in off the escort boat into the water in reverse seat order (#6 in first, then #5....) and are now waiting in the water with paddles up so Sabine can see us and line up appropriately.

I'm fairly sure this is change #4 for the men, which would mean it's change #7 for the whole team, but this is just a theory based on the fact that I'm lined up immediately behind Matt who'll be in #1.

I started in #2, then switched to 1 and then to 3 before going back to 2. This isn't change #1, so it's gotta be #4. We did one more change after this, during which I paddled in #1.

What I love about this picture is that it's unusual. Rather than a typical "canoe in the waves" photo, it's unexpected and somewhat goofy, with those paddle blades waving in the air. And it's a picture of all 12 of the paddlers (though Rob is hidden behind me... his paddle is visible at least). I'm wearing the white hat.

paddling: ...it's been a long, long, long time...

note: edited to add photos that capture some of the experience.

(since I posted anything specifically about paddling)

At the moment (8/2) there are 2 aspects of paddling occupying my mind:

1. last Saturday's "simulation" of our Na Pali race, complete with entire crew and escort boat (but minus the tropical weather!)
   
2. the Na Pali challenge is in less than 2 weeks (8/14)!

So Saturday. It was, in case anyone has forgotten, the last day in July, and we spent 6 hours on Lake Washington, either paddling or waiting to paddle, covering a total of 40+ miles, and getting mighty cold while doing so. July. 30. 1st. And we were huddling in fleece and blankets and knit hats on the escort boat under gray skies and windy, choppy conditions.

Trying to keep warm on the escort boat

We were warmer in the canoe than in the boat (obviously, because in the canoe we were working hard), but we were also warmer in the water than in the boat (because the water was warmer than the freakin' wind, especially if you were soaking wet).

So, the conditions weren't ideal in terms of mimicking Kauai, temperature-wise. The other thing we can't replicate here is the water conditions. We have nothing approximating the open water of Hawaii, except possibly the Gorge at times, and we (SOCC) don't often get down there to paddle. I've only been once, and that experience wasn't the most confidence-building.

Na Pali is a unique race in that there are 2 complete crews for each canoe, one of 6 women, and one of 6 men. The women start and then swap out after 30 minutes. And every 30 minutes thereafter the full crew swaps out. So 6 women out, 6 men in, 6 men out, 6 women in.... repeat. For 38 miles.

This means, among other things, that the escort boat is more fully loaded than usual. Most changeout races use a total of 9 paddlers, so there are only ever 3 waiting (there are races that use 10 or 12 paddlers). It also means that it's a lot of fun to have the opportunity to cheer on your women's crew while you're rehydrating and refueling in the escort boat. Except at the end of July in Seattle. When your lips are turning blue and you're wondering why you didn't bring long underwear.

In spite of these limitations, we had a great paddle. The women started (as they will on Kauai) and the men met them in the escort boat. We did the first change somewhere between Magnuson Park and the 520 bridge.

The routine is for the escort boat to run up ahead of the canoe, and the men jump into the water by seat number (6,5,4,3,2,1), with their paddles, line up treading water, and wait while the canoe approaches. The canoe stops (unlike typical changeout races where you're only swapping a couple of paddlers at a time), the men grab the gunnel and hand paddles up to the women who have unzipped their sprayskirts. The women stow the paddles, then jump out on the right as the men climb in on the left. As soon as possible after getting in, you zip up and start paddling to give the canoe some headway.

We were rotating seats, so I sat in seat 1 for the first piece, and I discovered that when the sprayskirt is on, I don't have enough leg room to put my off leg under my seat. That meant that I was paddling with both legs forward, not an ideal position, but I made it work.

I tried to set an aggressive pace, and the canoe felt like it was moving well in spite of a good headwind and some decent chop. I think we were all ready to get in and get moving, after being on the escort boat and then in the water.

I'm in seat 1, in hat and long sleeves
(and definitely not overdressed)

We powered south past Madison Park and reversed the swap with the women... I don't even remember where.... north of I90 for certain. (I remember this because by the time we were going under I90, we were passing Sabine her steering blade which she'd managed to lose. Lesson 1 from the simulation: always keep a spare steering blade in the canoe! It's bad enough to lose a regular paddle, but the steering paddle is key to the well being of the entire canoe. In this case Lisa passed her paddle back to Sabine until we were able to circle back around and pick her's up and pass it back to her. We'll have a spare on the canoe in Kauai.)

Then further south, swapping out again... somewhere before Seward Park where the wind seemed to be backing off so it was warmer and less wet. Continuing south, with the women taking over again near the south end of Mercer Island. Once they turned the corner, the wind was at our backs and was an advantage. (The wind should mostly be at our backs on Kauai.) The men got back into the canoe in the east channel and we paddled north.

The men were paddling when we reached Juanita Bay on the northeast side of the lake, and there were some pretty good swells we managed to surf, but then we had to turn west and take the wind/waves on our ama side, and things got a bit more interesting.

I could feel myself tensing up a bit. I was in Seat 2 at that point, and my body remembered the Gorge 2009 and I had to work hard at sticking with my good technique and proper approach. A couple of things that make unsteady conditions easier to take with this crew: DougM is an awesome steersman, Garrett is really "ama aware" and is good at slapping it back down when necessary, and we've been paddling as a group (more or less) for many months now, so are comfortable together and trust each other. Doug often says that the boat feels good and stable, which is a great thing because in bumpy conditions the important thing is to keep up our speed, keep paddling so we keep moving. It's that forward momentum that gives the steersperson the ability to correct.

It's also a bit counterinstinctual for me. When things feel uncertain, I tend to pause when in fact I need to focus on keeping the stroke regular and strong -- I've gotten much better at doing this over the year, and feeling like everyone else is reliable means that it's easier for me to focus on what I'm doing (paddling) rather than on what the canoe is doing (threatening to flip over).

We managed to do the west section without problems and then turned south toward Sand Point, where we did a change and the women got back in for their last piece. They paddled south past the boat ramp at Magnuson, and then the men swapped back in and we paddled back through Montlake Cut and into Lake Union, doing a final 40 minute piece to make a full 3 hours of paddling (for us).

I think we did 5 pieces each crew, with a couple of those being significantly longer than 30 minutes (the women's first piece while waiting for us in the boat, and our last piece heading home).

The final stats:
men -

• 3 hours
  
• 21.5 miles
• avg speed - 7.2 mph

women -

• 3 hours
  
• 18.48 miles
• avg speed - 6.3 mph

And a visual, for those who like to look at things:

Note: The track looks a bit funky because this represents only when the men were in the boat, so the section that makes it look like we paddled right across Mercer Island is because we got out of the canoe at the southwest end of the lake, and the women paddled 1/2 way up the east side of Mercer Island.

We're all excited about the race, now that we've actually done a similar distance as a group and practiced the changes with an escort boat, etc.

aftermath (change-out)

(this is a follow up post to my long post about the race itself)

9/13/09 -- edited to add the above map of the Catalina Crew race. Ours would be fairly close, except we were at it longer.

The race was a lot of fun. And my concerns about actually successfully getting into the canoe from the water ended up being non-issues. I won't say that I was graceful. Watching people like Garrett who can lift themselves up and swing right into the seat makes me realize just how far from that kind of smooth I am, but I was able to get myself in fairly quickly on every change. I used the "leg hook" every time, which involves grabbing the gunnel with both hands and then letting my legs slide back toward the stern of the canoe, then lifting my heel and hooking it over the edge, ending by rolling in and climbing up. It's a valid approach, and it's what I defaulted to after I started having real issues with my ribs. And it worked.

Something I noticed: the change-outs seemed easier in the race than in practice. Maybe there was less time to over-think. Or maybe the practice paid off. No, it definitely paid off.

My ribs ended up not being a problem, which was wonderful. I don't know if it was adrenaline and/or Aleve and/or enough recovery, but I felt I had pretty much full range of motion in my paddling, and little problem getting a full breath. It had been a long time since I was able to paddle w/o feeling like the ribs were impeding me.

My biggest issues during the race were a tightening lower back (over time) and near the end, a painful right rotator cuff. I'm not sure if the shoulder resulted from a bad pull-up on a change-in, or if I was doing something wrong for a bit when my right hand was the high hand on my paddle (when paddling on the left). In any case, I managed to get through with it, and have been icing a lot since, and it's getting better.

One of the nice things about paddling has been that when I do it right, I don't have the shoulder problems that I've come to expect when doing swimming workouts. Which means I can work to exhaustion w/o feeling like I'm doing damage to myself. I discovered pain in the shoulders after some change-out practices, so it could well be that this came from the effort to pull myself up and into the canoe.

The other problem I ended up with was hot-spots on both heels. I knew this was happening, and I even duct taped the bottoms of my heels before the race because I'd felt the issue in seat 3 on Thursday. But the tape fell off during the first change-out.

The bottom of the canoe has sand embedded into the floor. This provides traction for feet (there are no foot rests or brace points in the canoe, and you drive a lot of your effort down through your feet). Unfortunately, there are also pebbles and raised spots in some of the sand, so if I'm paddling for 48 minutes in a seat, my feet rub on those spots. I have hot spots on both heels and on the side of one foot because I started bracing against the outside of my foot when the heel rubbed raw. These spots have now broken open and are prime candidates for infection -- thus, I'm skipping practice today and probably won't make the women's practice tomorrow. I'm treating the spots and hoping that on Thursday I can get back into a boat.

One small disappointment for me, maybe the only disappointment of the race, was that afterward we discovered the rear (and maybe the forward) iako had gotten skewed out, so the front of the ama was further from the canoe than the rear was. The iakos are the arms that attach the ama to the canoe, and they need to be firmly fastened to the canoe (and to the ama).

I'm fairly certain this shifting happened part way into the race and because we did some last minute adjustments for positioning of the ama before we put the canoe into the water. I think the straps slipped and we didn't notice and even though we tightened them down, there was enough slack in them that when they slipped back into place the iako had space to shift.

The reason this disappoints me is that we paddled damn hard, and I'm curious just how we might have done with a properly rigged boat. It's not a huge disappointment, but maybe we would have been within sight of the first SOCC boat? And maybe we wouldn't have had as many of those "what the hell's dragging?" moments during the race? How far behind the Catalina crew would we have ended? I think they finished in about 3:45 and we finished in 3:52. Close, but not as close as I was hoping for.

The race left me exhausted and feeling good about having done it, having been fairly well prepared (I had enough gas in the tank to push for the last shift and keep pushing across the finish line). It also left me feeling good about the people on the team. What cool folks there are paddling for SOCC. I think it's a damn great group. Every time I spend a day racing with SOCC I feel more connected to everyone in the club, and that's cool too. It's been a great experience for me so far, and I hope to continue it for some time.

We've changed....

Long post on the race. For more, see here.

All photos courtesy of Bethany Fong.

This last Saturday was our big change-out race in Lake Washington. ~28 miles of paddling in (it turns out) just under 4 hours. Not too bad, especially given that our canoe had some rigging issues that we discovered after the race. (More on the rigging issues in a later post.)

I was nervous heading into the race, but then I'm always nervous before races. Other folks who'd done change-out races before were telling me they enjoy them more than irons (same 6 paddlers for the entire distance), but I didn't really get that. I do now.

We started well, but without pushing too hard. As Murray (steersman) said, it's a long race and the important part will be 2/3 of the way through. Karisa was in 1, Mike in 2, me in 3, Natty in 4, Malia in 5 and Murray steering. On the escort boat were Janelle, Naomi and Erik. Erik was a last-minute addition to fill out the team, and though he has never paddled with us, he did fine. It's hard to jump into a boat with folks you haven't paddled with before. Also Bethany keeping track of the change-outs and the time. And Diane Yuen, who I'd never met, but is another SOCC team member and did a great job (with Beth) of cheering us on when we were dragging.

We kept pace with our other SOCC boat (the headed-to-Catalina crew) and that felt good too. Out past the dog park point and Sound Garden of Magnuson Park, then angling southeast across the lake to the east end of the 520 bridge.

It was a gray day, threatening a drizzle (it'd been raining the night before), but without any wind. So, no headwind (good) and few boat wakes (good) because the fair-weather boaters stayed home. We felt pretty good crossing toward the bridge, and then it was time for our first change-out, 1/2/3 hopping into the water and replaced by Janelle/Naomi/Erik.

We hopped, swam to the escort boat, and climbed aboard for our first 24 minutes rest. I was feeling good, and having a break was a treat. I quickly drank 1/2 liter of water, ate some baked potatoes and 1/2 a bagel, then pulled on a fleece and watched the canoe keep chugging south.

We followed under the 520 bridge and along the east shore of Lake Washington, trailing the other SOCC canoe as well. Still keeping pace with them. Things were looking good and I was feeling good. A bit cool, but good.

Somewhere north of Mercer Island we did our next change. This was seats 1/4/5 getting out, with Karisa/me/Mike getting in. We hopped out of the escort boat into the water (which felt a tad chilly at this point) and lined up for the approaching canoe. Then the canoe was on us the paddlers were rolling out and we were climbing in. It's something of a blur to me, but we managed it decently, I got my paddle (which was stored in one of Garrett's unpatented paddle baskets) and dug in.

At this point, paddling under I-90 and along the west shore of Mercer Island, our Catalina crew started leaving us behind. It was disappointing, but somewhat to be expected. They're a good, strong crew with lots of experience. Still, I'd been hoping to stay closer to them.

We paddled and I found myself wondering how long this 48 minutes was going to feel. The first 24 went by quickly. The water was smooth and we were pretty much alone with our escort boat. Then the 1/2/3 change came and Natty was climbing in ahead of me. She got hung up and I grabbed her leg and helped her in. I don't think she minded, but it wasn't something I considered for very long. It seemed to me like she wanted to be in, and I was in, so it made sense to help. The next 24 minutes went a little more slowly. My back was starting to tighten up a bit. We seemed to be going slowly. I tried to rotate and reach to stretch my back out, and then it was time for the 1/4/5 change. We hopped out and were swimming for the escort boat again.

24 minutes of recuperation time! Mike had candied ginger and fresh watermelon (separately) and shared both. Very cool, very generous. I drank another 1/2 liter of water and ate more potatos and some peanut butter pretzels. We were heading around the bottom of Mercer Island now.

I don't really remember where we did the next change. Along the eastern shore of the island. I know we got back in along that shore, but I don't know where. I was in seat 3 again, with Mike in 2. Again it felt like we were dragging, and far up ahead I could see the other crew disappearing in the distance. Janelle asked "what's dragging?" At another point Natty asked the same thing, so we all felt it, but other than focusing on timing, it was hard to say what was going wrong.

Another 1/4/5 change after we got under the I-90 bridge and we started feeling like we were moving a bit better. Then 1/2/3 were out and we climbed into the escort boat and rested and watched the other crew, who also seemed to be getting into a good rhythm. The sun was starting to come out and we kept pace with the canoe and caught our breath.

Now we needed to make a decision.

We were cruising along the east side of the lake with the 520 bridge was coming up. 5 minutes until the next 1/4/5 change. Wait until after the bridge? or do it before? And how long would it take to get across the lake and back to Magnuson Park? If it went longer than 48 minutes, did we want to do another change? Or would we tough it out? Bethany and Diane on the escort boat helped us think this through. We opted to do the change before the bridge and if we were more than 12 minutes out from the finish after 48, we'd do one more change.

We did our swap before reaching the bridge and I was back in 4, Mike in 5 and Karisa in 1. We must have done one more swap 24 minutes later, but I don't really remember it. In that one, a 1/2/3 change, Janelle got in 1, Malia in 2 and Natty in 3. At least that's what the change chart says. I have no recollection!

Now it was just a grind across the lake and toward the park. We pulled hard, staying in sync well and feeling like we were moving pretty well. The point got closer and closer and then we were rounding the last buoy off the dog park. 10 minutes more.... 5 minutes more. We all wanted to finish strong, though we were the last boat coming in (or so we thought). I felt like we were paddling harder and going faster than we had been, and then I could see the finish line and our other canoe waiting for us. More paddling, 16 and switch, 16 and switch, and we were over.

I was exhausted, but felt good at having done it, at having finished, at having had the opportunity to paddle with a great group of folks.

It was really great to have the other canoe waiting for us, and we both slowly paddled to shore where we had food and beer and rum punch waiting for us.

One of the things that's happening, as I do more of these races (and more practices as well), is I'm starting to get comfortable in the canoe with particular people. Mike and I have now done several races (The Gorge, which is a blur for reasons explained here, Da Grind, and now SSP) and I like paddling behind him. Rob is another I've paddled with enough to get comfortable with. And Naomi is one of my favorites to paddle behind because when I can model my stroke on hers I feel like I'm paddling better. She's got great technique and is strong too, probably stronger than I am. Most of the others in my canoe for this race were folks I'm not as familiar with, but there were times when we clicked, and boy does that feel great. The canoe jumps under you and it feels easier to paddle when you're cruising well....

ch-ch-changes...

I'm starting to get nervous about Saturday's race. I'm glad I'm not blase about it, but I wish I didn't get quite so butterfly-y. It takes me back to swim meets in high school, when I couldn't talk to anyone, couldn't think about anything except getting the damn races done! I think once I made my dad (who'd flown over from Oahu) sit up high in the bleachers, far away from me. Man, I'm glad I didn't have to hang around with myself when I was a teenager!

In two days we'll do our 26 mile change-out race. There are two SOCC canoes, one with the crew that will be doing Catalina Island in September, and one with a non-Catalina crew. Each has 9 paddlers, with 3 in an escort boat and 6 in the canoe at any time. We swap out in the water, by dropping off the escort boat and lining up (3 paddlers, usually) so the canoe can run up and over us. 3 paddlers in the canoe jump out on the right (non-ama) side, and the 3 in the water climb in on the left, all while the canoe keeps moving ahead. It takes some coordination, and some good steering. The steersperson has to line up the canoe so the in-water paddlers end up between the ama and the canoe and can grab hold of the side and heft themselves up. Meanwhile, the in-canoe paddlers have to make sure they switch sides (if necessary) to keep from paddling on top of the swimmers, and the paddler calling changes may need to pass that job off if they're hopping out. Meanwhile, there are all the "normal" paddling challenges: keeping in sync, working together and working hard to keep going as fast as possible. It's a race, after all, not just an exercise in swapping paddlers on the fly.

Good crews can do change-outs smoothly and with little delay and the whole crew is paddling again in a matter of seconds. And they can do that in rough seas. We won't have anything like Hawaii-rough seas, and except for boat wakes, could have pretty flat conditions, but it'll still be mentally and physically challenging for those of us who haven't done it before.

Most of us will paddle 48 minute stretches, with 24 minute breaks on the escort boat. But that 24 minutes end up being something less because the time includes swimming back to the boat, getting on, and hopping off and lining up ahead of the oncoming canoe. The #1 and #2 paddlers swap out more frequently due to the demands of those seats, and #6 often "irons" the race or taking a quick 12 minute break to water and maybe a bite to eat.

There are all sorts of logistics to consider: what to bring to drink/eat on the escort boat, how much of each, what to wear while resting (fleece?), whether or not to go w/ a hat (hold onto it while jumping out of the canoe!), sunglasses?, water in the canoe for drinking on the fly?

Sabine has created a "change-out chart" that tells us each when we're scheduled to be in/out of the canoe. This guideline is the blueprint, but someone in the escort boat needs to manage the process and in the event that someone gets hurt or needs more rest than they're scheduled for, needs to be ready to ad-lib to accommodate.

Many of us non-1 and 2 paddlers are projected for 162 minutes of paddling, 2 1/2 hours. That's a lot of paddling. We've maybe done that much in practice, but rarely. She's estimating that the entire race will take about 4-4 1/2 hours.

Thinking about it makes me nervous. Typing this makes me nervous. I want to do well, I want to not cause any problems for anyone else, I want to make clean transitions in/out of the boats. I don't want to embarass myself. (That's probably an entirely separate posting for the future -- how my primary motivation as a child was to NOT EMBARRASS MYSELF.)

Practice last night was good. The canoe I was in felt in sync (mostly) and we moved quickly in the water. Our steersman won't be doing the race with us (he's on another team) but the rest of the crew were people who'll be in the boat with me. It gave me a shot of confidence that we were working together well. It also helped that Doug (the steersman) is such a good steersman. He actually had us surfing a couple of boat wakes!

At this point I need to trust to my training up to now (Sabine says we're all ready). It's a great group of paddlers (that makes a huge difference) and I'd like to enjoy it even as I'm hurting from the demands of the race. Deep breath....

one paddle, two paddle...

The more I'm paddling, the more I realize how little I know about it.

There are levels of subtlety that I'm only just beginning to understand:

• how the number 1 needs to adjust stroke rate and length not only for start/turn/chase situations, but also for wave/wake/water condition, while also being as regular and even as possible and without anyone to follow....
• how number 2 needs to help n1 do this, as well as matching n1's stroke/pace while being on the opposite side (it's not easy, and good paddlers make it seem natural)
  
• how n3 and n4 (the "engine room" seats) also need to keep an eye on the water conditions while following the lead of n1/n2
  
• how the caller (n3 in our boats) needs to adjust the timing of the switch based on the conditions (if there's a bump coming, or a wake, it might make sense to wait a few extra strokes, or to switch early, and if you're doing change-outs, you want to make sure you've got paddles on the right side so paddlers coming in on the left don't get hit, and how if you're the one changing out, you need to hand off the counting to someone who's not hopping into the water)
• how n5 needs to help n6 steer in particular situations, and has a large responsibility for watching the ama....if it starts to come up, they're in the best position to see this and react quickly because it's in front of them and the iako is within reach
  
• .... n6 has a whole set of responsibilities that are unique to the steersperson....
• and meanwhile, everyone needs to blend, following the paddlers ahead of them and keeping in sync.... Whew!
  

We're still training for our change-out race, and we've had some long practices. Last Saturday was about 3 hours and 18 miles, with 3 "climb-into-the-not-moving boat" practices and another 4 while the canoes were in motion. And last Monday we did a number of sets of 3-6-9 minutes with 1 minute of "moving rest" in between. It's exhausting, but in the best possible way. I get back to the beach with little in my tank, but I'm loving the feeling of the canoe moving quickly, of the team working together, and of things starting to gel.

On Monday we only had 5 people in the canoe, and yet the group blended so well that it felt to me that we were moving faster than many of the 6-paddler paddles I've been on. The boat was jumping under us, and everyone seemed to be completely in sync (at times... at other times we felt bogged down, but that's normal too -- it's nearly impossible to keep in sync every second, at least for people at our level). We had 2 more in the OC2, and we rotated into the OC6, and everyone seemed to work together well.

Counterbalancing this hard workout/good tired feeling are my painful ribs. I think they're from clambering into the canoe, and they're slowly getting better (it helped that we didn't do any change-outs on Monday), but today we'll do more changes and I need to figure out a way to get into the canoe without banging them up any more.

I'm sleeping poorly in spite of my physical exhaustion because I can't find any comfortable positions to lie. This can't be the norm for pre-change-out races. I have to believe I'm doing something less-than-optimal. Especially since, once the race is done, assuming my ribs get dinged up during the race, it'll take maybe a month for the pain to subside.....

'scuse me while i break my own heart...

... or at least squash my own chest.

Last night, in the middle of another night of restless sleep, it occurred to me that I've been sleeping poorly because of the intense pain in my ribs. Hmm.... Well, duh!

I bruised them last Thursday during our paddling practice. We're practicing for the 8/29 "change-out race," the Pacific Northwest Outrigger Challenge. Half our team will then go on to do the Catalina Race in September. It's a race I'd love to do. Maybe next year.

In a change-out race, paddlers swap in and out of the canoe on the fly. Each team gets 9 paddlers for their 6-person canoe, and the races tend to be longer. This one is 26 miles, around Mercer Island in Lake Washington. Change-outs are kind of exciting and kind of fun, and (apparently) kind of hard on your body. Especially if you aren't particularly good at the in/out aspect.

Some folks struggle to pull themselves up into the canoe. There's an advantage to having some upper body strength, though I think that's less critical as you improve your technique. The fact that the canoe is moving toward you is something you can use to your benefit. Its motion helps you pull up and over the gunnel. Or it can, if you know how to take advantage of it.

Like anything, the better you are, the less effort you need to put into it. And the easier it looks. Thus, ice skaters and surfers and everyone in between can make very difficult physical tasks seem easy and nearly effortless. I don't have any video of my practice last week but I'm fairly confident I wasn't making it look effortless.

I managed ok. Better than some, and worse than others. It was a coldish day, but the water was warm (warmer than the breezy air) and I was able to get into the canoe. That's the first concern, that you actually get into the canoe. Other options are to miss is completely, or get stuck clinging to the side, dragging in the water and slowing things down a bit.

We're not a hard-core team, so Sabine is pretty cool about it. She says things like "If we have to stop the canoe, we stop it. Or you try again. We pick you up (in the escort boat) and drop you off again for a second try." The serious teams don't consider those options because they practice this a lot, and everyone needs to be good at it, and those options aren't options. Watching teams who are good at change-outs is fun. Like watching good butterfly swimmers. Smooth, easy, effortless.

In any case, I knew after practice that I'd beaten up my body a bit. My shoulder ached, and my ribs on the left side were sore to the touch. That night I took some Aleve and went to bed. And I've been struggling to find comfortable sleeping positions every since.

Practice on Monday was a challenge because though we didn't do any change-out practice (there were only 4 of us), we did paddle, and my sore ribs meant I had trouble even reaching forward on the left side. At points it made me feel nauseous. And I realized just how freakin' painful actual broken ribs must be.

Finally in the last day or so, my chest has begun to feel better. But last night I still couldn't get comfortable on either side, and today we're doing more change-outs. I've got to figure a way to not land on my chest in the canoe.

And, note to self: When you can't find a comfortable sleeping position, you don't sleep well.