Cold Wet River.

Severe weather warnings are out and about at the moment. Last night were some of the worst driving conditions I have ever experienced, standing water, high winds and heavy rain. It was cold, it was grim, and for some reason Sunday morning I strapped the boat onto the roof of the car, donned some neoprene and waterproofs and went for a paddle.

Actually, I sort of know the reason why I left a nice warm bed for a cold wet river. I had publicly written down that I was going to do this fool thing, and I then kind of had to go through with it.

Just as I was putting the boat on the water it started to rain that cold grim heavy rain that comes in at about 45 degrees. The river was already in high flow, and a weekend of rain in Wales was causing the river to rise, in the time I was out there a couple of fishing stands became submerged, and this morning the Severn looks set to burst its banks again.

The reason I was bankside was because last week I worked out with a calculator how fast we needed to paddle to get a decent time in the DW race. Only trouble was I didn’t know how fast kayaks went. To get an idea of boat speeds I decided to take out my kayak and using GPS I would work out exactly how fast average me can go in an average boat.

I turned on the GPS, acquired a few satellites, and set off. To negate the river speed from my boat speed, I had to paddle upstream before returning with the flow. Paddling upstream was really hard, I just got my head down and hauled myself along, the rain was cold and the wind kept catching my paddle, very quickly I regretting not having a hat or gloves and was starting to feel really cold and miserable.

There is a bend on the river when it narrows and the flow really picks up, I was paddling so hard and fast to power through when this 8 man coxed rowing boat went past me as if I was stationary. The cox, swaddled in waterproofs and a hat even game me a cheery wave… The git.

I got round that bend and found some shelter in an eddy near the showground. I checked the GPS, I had been paddling for about 12 minutes. It seemed like longer. I called it a day and headed back home.

The return journey was much swifter, and I was back to the car in about 5 minutes.

Once I got warm and dry I was as happy as anything, and I wanted to go back out again. Its one thing that I have missed from long expeditions (hiking or sea trips and the like), not so much the grim bit where you get cold and wet, but being able to appreciate being warm and dry so much more once you’re done. You can’t enjoy a hot cup of tea and warm clothes as much as I did once I was dry. In a perverse way, I am looking forward to winter training so much more now.

The data acquired from this little expedition.
I was on the water for 18 minutes and 8 seconds. For 2 minutes 13 seconds I was stationary. I had covered 1.1miles with a moving average of 4.2mph. (when I stopped in that eddy I noted the average speed I had maintained upstream and that was 3.3mph.) and I had managed to achieve a maximum speed of 6.5mph at one point.

As I was only on the water for 18 minutes I don’t think the data gives a good picture of what can be maintained over long distances but it shows that my little boat is good for about 4mph, which kind of proves my Dads formula for ship speed.

But wait, that’s not all.

After a Sunday morning spent getting cold and wet on the river, in the afternoon I met Nigel at the gym.

I pounded the treadmill for 30 minutes on intervals. Though not all of it was flat out pounding. 20 minutes I ran at 6.8mph, but I was running myself a bit sick so I walked the last ten minutes.

I then did 3 sets of 15 erector spinæ lifts, 3 sets of 15 leg press, 2 sets of 15 triceps push down, and about 3 sets of 15 arm curls with the 7.5kg dumbbells.

Nigel put in 20 minutes on the rowing machine and clocked up 518 strokes, he then worked around some of the weights, but he had been pulling some long shifts so was happy to call it a day when I did.

I have a good ache today. The usual gym muscles ache but those twenty minutes in the boat has given me a more holistic workout.