Back in the Race

I think I'm back in the race!

The ortho visit diagnosed my knee problem as Baker's Cysts, an accumulation of excess knee joint fluid behind my knees. They prescribed mega-doses of ibuprofen, said my 2 week rest was a good thing, and told me to go ahead and give it a try.

The bad news is that the development of Baker's Cysts is secondary to a definite knee problem, though we don't know what that is. Probably just my life catching up with me.

The opinion was as long as I don't have painful popping and crackling, and no knee swelling, I'm okay to get back to training, thought the cysts might still get bigger and be uncomfortable until they either disappear or start draining inside the leg.

I have to admit the news came with mixed emotions. I'd almost wrapped my head around this Ironman not happening, and had even started making some weekend paddling plans over the next couple months. But I'd told myself it was this year or never, so I have to give it my best shot.

They gave me no promises, and I'm not sure they were very optimistic I'd make it through the training. But, we'll see. Went out and did a great 25 mile bike ride late this afternoon.

I'm feeling very behind schedule now having missed the last 2 weeks, but then again, so have Alan and his roommate Adam, also planning to do this Louisville Ironman. Both have been busy this past week sailing.

Alan is finishing the Tybee 500, which has been so exciting to follow every day at the Tybee500 website and the Catsailor website and forum. Really rough surf landings, launches, broken boat parts, and even falling off boats.


Meanwhile, Adam is sailing the new Eye of the World sailboat from FL to VA, that the boys are planning their world sail in next year. Mike has been keeping up with this adventure on the Team Norsa Blog.

SOF Building Continues

With a bit more free time, I've put in some stitches on the SOF. The bow section is skinned, just need to deal with the point. I hope to finish the stern this weekend, quite a bit is done already. Cockpit could be sewn in weekend after next.

I'm thinking hard about the paint finish, and hope that doesn't have me agonizing for too long. Building this kayak has already taken too many years. I had originally planned to paint it black, now I'm leaning towards a brown with black paint used for some decorative artwork, for a more subtle look.

There is very little out there on the Internet regards artwork on SOFs, there is no tradition for it, yet I thought I would find more among recent builds. Although my SOF was made using traditional techniques, I'm feeling the need for my own hand print on it. Possibly a simple border around the deck using a native style pattern.

Sidelined

I've been sidelined with a running injury for about a week and a half now. Not sure what's going on, all was well until an 8 and then 5 miler earlier last week. I have discomfort and swelling behind both my knees. It actually looks like someone stuffed ping-pong balls under the skin behind my legs.

I'm seeing my Orthopaedist on Thursday, until then I've not been running, walking, or biking. I'm pretty discouraged. It's taken me years of hard work to overcome previous running injuries, and things were going pretty well.

So with training plans on hold, we spent Mother's Day up in the mountains visiting and helping our daughter Tana move. Can't think of a better way to spend my day.

Alan's Race

Being a proud Mom, I've posted a couple of photos of Alan and and his sailing partner Trey (a new NCSU graduate) of Team Velocity during their first leg of the Tybee 500 today. They came in 3rd today, and that was after having to fix a spinnaker problem after the start.

Also in the race are Jamie Livingston of Team Tybee and Steve Lohmayer in team Marley Yellow. Jamie and Steve, competing against each other this year, usually sail together as Team Tybee. WaterTribers know them as lumpy and Bumpy, 1st place record holders of the 2008 WaterTribe Everglades Challenge.

Cedar Keys Mess-About

We had a great time at the Cedar Keys small boat mess-about last weekend. It was a bit of a long trip for such a short weekend, but well worth it. There were about 50+ sailboats, all shapes and sizes, and quite a few home built boats like ours. Everyone got in some great sailing for most of the day Saturday with a nice ocean breeze allowing us to sail all around the keys in the area. Sunday was more of the same. There are some great pictures here.

I had my first ride in the 'Dawn Patrol' and even took the helm for awhile. Paul's quite good at it, while I've got a long way to go. I'm far from being a convert, and truth be told find it a bit stressful, but I'm determined to work on it, and have started looking for some sailing lessons at the coast.

Meanwhile Alan is out of school for the summer and is currently in Key Largo getting ready for Team Velocity's race in this years Tybee 500 (Key Largo FL to Tybee GA). We'll probably go down to Tybee next week to see the boats finish the last leg of the race. It's pretty exciting racing with the Nacra I20 performance catamarans. We'll be following the race on the race website, Team Velocity's website and the Cat Sailor Forum.

Photo above is of Alan and Trey during last years Tybee500. And then there is this exciting video of last years racers battling their way through the surf (Team Velocity are the 2nd and 3rd boat attempts on the video).

Gone Sailing

I'm finally going to sail on our new Core Sound 20, can't wait. I'll write up a trip report after the weekend.

Just Like Home

It's been a busy week. Paul's been working a bit on the boat, getting it ready for the small boat gathering at Cedar Key in Florida next weekend. I've been swimming, running, and biking (training log).

But what a great Sunday today. Both kids were home at the same time. Tana came in last night, wanting to do some cleaning in her room to take back some furniture for her new apartment. Alan stopped over to say hi to everyone.

I'd planned a paddle today, but with everyone home, I just didn't want to go.

Paddling Exercises

The Wednesday night fitness paddle on the lake has started back up. Last week there were 3, this week 5, come summer we will have 20+ paddlers out there for a 6 mile workout.

April's Seakayaker Magazine had an article called "Building Balance The Path to Power without Pain", by Tommi Paavola. It showed some great stretches for pre and post paddle'. The Paavola says:

A five-minute pre-kayaking warm-up routine can make a huge difference in your kayaking performance. Would you believe that by activating the right muscle groups right before paddling your strength and power could increase by up to 20%".

I'm planning to take a laminated sheet of these exercises to the lake with me from now on. In fact, I went to the magazine website and found they had links to videos showing these exercises:

Pre-paddling stretches:
http://www.seakayakermag.com/2008/April08/Paavola-pre_video.htm

Post-paddling stretches
http://www.seakayakermag.com/2008/April08/Paavola-post_video.htm

Speaking of exercises, last week started my official 20 week Ironman training. My training log is posted on the sidebar of this blog, I'll keep it updated weekly. It's going to get a bit crazy as I still hope to get in enough paddling for the Blackburn Challenge in July. And I'll have to be careful with my shoulders.

Other tidbits:
It was great having KiwiBird and Canadian Ckayaker over for dinner last Saturday night. I was nursing a pulled back muscle and couldn't paddle with them Sunday. KiwiBird's posting sounds like I really missed a great and exciting paddle. I really need to figure out a visit North to paddle with Michael sometime.

There's a great discussion/debate on the WaterTribe forum about the possibility of the new boat class allowing the use the solar/electric power. This does not just impact the sailors, even this solar powered kayak could be legal in this new class.

Will this be Next?

A message went out today on the WaterTribe forum announcing that registration is open for the 2009 season for the Everglades Challenge and Ultimate Florida Challenge. The message said:

"Notice there are some new classes. Class 4 is for monohulls, the new class 5 is for multihulls, and the new class 6 is for human and wind power combined with solar/electric. These new classes are provisional and are pending approval by the full board of directors. Go ahead and use them if they apply to you."

This was all news to me, and I'm a member of this Board of Directors. I'm also one who prefers we keep the Challenges based on more simple themes, though I expect if Alan could do the EC next year he would be all over this.

Saying Goodbye

Sunday afternoon we celebrated John Desiderio's life. Some of his close friends and many paddling partners met at the Lake for a potluck lunch of of John's favorites, deep fried turkey, deep fried hot-dogs, and kielbasi and sauerkraut, just to name a few.

After lunch we got in our kayaks and paddled out, wishing John well, knowing he's paddling the clouds above us. We left John's ashes scattered in the waters he visited often, saluting him with our paddles. He will be missed by many.

When I returned home, I looked back through some old photo's and found this series of shots taken of John being his playful self. I loved his beautiful smile and laugh.