My brother and I left Saturday afternoon to go the Finger Lakes for a Sunday paddle. I crashed with 4AHEALTHYBMI, and her cats. (I love cats!) We got there and she invited me to workout with her, (my brother was staying elsewhere, so he took off right away, as he had papers to grade) so I hopped on the elliptical while she lifted weights, then we switched places. I know I got good and sweaty, but maybe doing core work the day before paddling is not the best plan. I got to bed at a good time, but woke up at 4am. I just don't sleep well when I am away from home. I didn't get up for a couple of hours though. Got up, ate cold chili I brought along... I like cold chili for breakfast. We got organized and left for the put in after dropping a car at the take out. All of that went fairly smoothly. Jeremy (my brother) was a few minutes late to the put in due to a minor miscommunication. Still got on the water close to 9am.

There was a group of 5 of us out on the water. For pictures and details check out 4AHEALTHYBMI's blog today. We had a killer headwind most of the way through the canal. I believe the wind was around 17mph, gusting to 22mph. I had fun though, especially going through the locks. We stopped for lunch at the end of the canal, and I was so ready to eat. I was running on fumes by 1:30pm when we stopped. After lunch we ventured out on the lake. I was having a lot of fun in the chop and white caps, but we had one member of our group capsize, so it was decided to pull out and call it a day. We made it around 13 miles though, which is respectable, if not quite the BFD 20 miles would have been. The take out was a bit of a chore as we had to carry the boats up a fairly steep hill, thank goodness there were stairs.

So, we got off the water, arranged transportation, got in the car to go get everyone else's cars and my brother forgot his car keys in his boat, so we drove back to where we had left the kayaks, and loaded all the boats on three cars, then two cars drove us back to the put in location, where we transferred our boats over to my brother's car. I have discovered that I can get my kayak up on my brother's rack if the kayak is already over my head (ie moving it from the top of one car to the other), but I can't lift it up to the rack from the ground yet. There is just something about the lift I can't quite get yet. While we were standing around saying our farewells I took off my dry top, as it was getting clammy. I took my glasses off and set them on top of the car so I could pull of my top... and forgot them! I remembered them only when we drove away and I heard them fly off the car. ULP!! So, we stopped and turned around and drove back to where I heard them fly off. There was a lot of traffic, so I was thinking my glasses would be pulverized by the time I found them. Somebody was watching out for me though, because they fell off to the side of the road far enough that they weren't even scratched. I was so happy we found them. I would have had a killer headache by the time we got home. I can't drive without them and I had appointments today, so definitely needed them to drive around today. We finally managed to leave, but had to stop at the nearest gas station because it was TOM for me. (I know, TMI, but it was just one more problem after all.) At this point we decided we had used up all our available grace and we should just drive straight home with no other stops. We made it home in just over 3.5 hours. But then we had to unload the boats and gear, and pick up the dog. I finally got home (with Cooper) around 10pm. I was exhausted! My brother had to get up before 5am this morning for work... I don't know how he managed it!

Today I feel like someone punched me in the solar plexus. I guess paddling into such a stiff headwind uses more core muscle than I am used to! So, today's workout was two walks with the dog. I had those appointments which ate up most of the afternoon, so I wouldn't have had time for much else. I even called and canceled my morning run. I think tomorrow might be another day of just walking before heading to the gym for a full body workout (cardio and ST) on Wednesday. I could have finished the 20 miles of the paddle, but I probably would have been even more sore today.

Anyway, that's the story of our Sunday paddling adventure. I am going to bed early tonight, because I am dragging today. Hopefully if I take it easy tomorrow that will be enough recovery time. I might even skip my swim tomorrow night, depends how I feel.