What another great beautiful day.

Today I took the ferry up to Seattle and once again met up with RYG, JVG, and Aaron. Our plan for today was to get in 4 hours of paddling. Our plan was to paddle from Lake union out to St. Edwards park on the NE end on Lake Washington. Still working on the base so this was a fun distance paddle were we could talk about technique and shake out the cobwebs.

I have been paddling a bit more lately that the rest because my last serious race was in September and they finished brazil in November. My base started much earlier than theirs. so I paired up with Jen to take to boats out. I thought I could use the first 5 miles to Magnuson Park, which is the halfway point out to St. Eds, to sort out where we all were. We could switch up there if we needed to. I felt great the whole way out. It was nothing like the struggle last weekend. Then, I honestly thought I was losing it. In reality, the wind and tide were stronger than I anticipated last week. Today, I had my GPS with me the whole time and there was no wind and obviously no tides on the lake. This made the GPS like a power tap on a bike. you have no excuses and only real data. The first five out to Mag we made about 5.5 MPH. and it felt so smooth and fluid. Its nice being in a double and working together. I gave JVG some tips and asked RVG and Aaron to demostrate the difference between proper rotation and all arms. I think that it would have been more effective if they weren't completely bundled up in dry tops. i of course opted to work on my tan.

When we got out by Magnuson, RVG dropped his rice krispy in the water, what poor eating habits. And this was after a bear claw, boston cream, honey glazed muffin and who knows what else before I got there. I wish I could eat like that. So, they had to go around to get it. Jen and I continued on leasurely pace. Then I though, they screwed up, they can work to catch up. so Jen and I pushed it back up to 5.5mph. Then I heard em chattering and thought, if they have it easy enough to chat they are obviously not working hard enough so with 2-3 mile left to go we stepped it up to 6 mph. Knowing the boats, i knew if we could keep it up there they couldn't catch up without a bit of effort. Besides, those two guys are great paddlers and JVG and I shouldn't have a chance, except for our quarter mile headstart ha ha ha.

When we pulled into St. Eds, we proceeded to get into this rediculous argument with a guy about his pit bull and rot wilder not being on a leash. I was quite surprise by the obscenities this guy was throwing at us when was nicely asked him the put his dog on a leash. However, when RVG and Aaron paddling behind us laughing all seemed to calm down.

We kept the same setup on the way back paddling together and enjoying the weather. All told we got in 20.4 miles averaging 5.57mph on the way out and 5.15mph on the way back. Finally, when we got back to the NWOC Aaron dropped his keys in the lake. He went in the water after them. After his first try, he came out freezing. I loaned him my wetsuit and booties and JVG scared up a mask and flashlight. And he was able to retreive them and drive home.

stats
3:49 paddle time
20.4 miles
64 oz water with three tabs tri berry nuun
perpetum paste
RC, MC, AFC
some ibuprophin
GPS track at
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=970

Later

Lord Cromwell