Skunked.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

My nutritionist friend Bob met me in the park early Saturday morning to do the Survival Workout. Reza was supposed to join us, but I suspected that he might be feeling a little too sore from our Thursday workout to make it. I had some new wrinkles in the workout for Bob and took him to the pull-up tree to demonstrate the hip-circle mount (yeah…I’m a showoff) and the correct form for the pull-ups…as if he didn’t know. I always seem to do more of everything when he’s there…he’s in such good shape that I need my ‘A’ game to stay with or ahead of him…and managed a record 14 pull-ups after which I dropped to the ground and scored a record 60 push-ups. He was impressed with the pull-ups, but hit 85 on his push-ups…though I contested that he wasn’t dropping low enough. We continued through the workout talking nutrition, fitness and aging as we went…he’s such a well-read, fascinating guy…if you like that stuff. We pushed each other hard and I finished my last set of push-ups with a set of 40 and a three-set pr of 155. Like I said…competition brings out the best in me.

I got home, quickly showered and ate and then began the final preparations for my ‘Trip Leader’ overnight training course I was heading for. Things were close to on schedule…I needed to be on the road by 11 a.m., when I ran into a little snag. I’ve got two kayaks leaning against each other next to my shed out back and when I went to pull the one out I was taking on the trip, noticed something moving between them. I backed away quickly and good thing…as the black, furry tail raised and cut loose…missing me but dousing both kayaks. Bastard. I waited a couple of minutes before pulling it the rest of the way out and commencing with a de-skunking program…which was only marginally successful. Maybe hosing it off a final time while it was on the car and then letting it air dry on the drive to Kent would do the trick? My options were limited.

I met the group at Kent and after going over the checklist of gear and making a run to the local Wal-Mart for food purchases, we were on our way to Punderson State Park to set up camp. After this was done, we headed to LaDue Reservoir and our kayak training. It was then that everyone else in the group noticed how ineffective my skunk cleaning had been. They were stuck with my and my kayak…like it or not. And they didn’t.

Dave Herpy was running the training and explained that it would be complete negligence on the part of a trip leader to go into the water with a people whose skill level you didn’t know without testing their ability to do a wet exit of a kayak…meaning if it flips over with you in it, can you get out. I’d never flipped over in a kayak and wasn’t too anxious to do it now. We put our skirts on, which is just a garment that goes around the waist of the kayaker and attaches to the deck of the kayak around the opening in which you sit. Its intent is to keep water from splashing into the kayak in rough waters and keep it from filling inadvertently. I have only kayaked in such water once and have never used mine, so I wasn’t too sure how I’d do with it attached and upside down in the water. I didn’t have long to find out, though. I paddled out into four feet of water, went over the 5 steps to getting out of the kayak successfully when it was up side down…and rolled it. I took a deep breath before rolling, took my time and went through the different steps slowly. Being upside down under water is rather disorienting though, and I think I came out of the kayak in the wrong direction…though it seemed easy and I exited smoothly and surfaced. I received my ‘thumbs up’ and we proceeded to do a 2-hour trip on the southern, smaller end of the Reservoir. By 6 p.m., we had to get off the water if we were to make it back to our camp site in time to make dinner in day light…disappointing because the of the almost perfect kayaking conditions and beautiful summer evening we were experiencing. I’d burned a lot of calories though, and needed some food. Dinner always tastes better when camping out, too…though this was to be one I would remember for a very long time.

Survival Workout duration: 60 minutes. Kayak workout: 2 hours.
Training Heart Rate: 100 to 150 bpm for workout, 100 kayaking
Calories burned during workout: 600 for survival workout. 1,000 kayaking.