Taper?

Since my last posting, I've traveled much and paddled very little. In short, I have moved temporarily to Troy, NY for my career. [Which promises to be a lot of fun, especially for protein biochemists...]

Due to various circumstances, I had to travel back to the St. Lawrence Valley [4+ hr drive]. I dislike driving, but was excited to make it home early enough to paddle on the Oswegatchie River. My usual course is a loop that takes me upstream for about 2.6 miles around an island and then back downstream. It is a perfect course for sprint or marathon kayaks.

It has a number of turns; nice mix of shallow, suck and deep water; a fair amount of current; and a little island that serves as a turn buoy. The start and finish is located on the upper right hand corner of the following picture.

And here are the results from garmin training center.

I hadn't paddled in over a week. Perhaps this is like a mid-season taper? Anyway, I paddled the 5.35 miles in 43'30" with an average HR of 157 bpm. Which rounds out to about 7.35 mph. A new PR ... Fantastic!