5 Weeks Out!

Another week in the books, 5 weeks till the General Clinton and we are feeling good.  This past week was kind of blah week for Team TnT.  The weather was rainy and we had a little let down at the Westfield, making what comes down to a mental mistake.  I second guessed our prerace decision to run the Hill and Dale Rapid.  I asked Terese above the rapid whether we were going through or around in the slower bypass.  My fearless captain replied that we were charging through as planned. It had been years since I had run the lower Westfield section with that much water (probably over 4000 cfs).  Hill and Dale rapid was huge, we filled up and limped to shore to dump out.    Looking back, perhaps I should have went with my gut and went around.  Disappointing, but that is the reason I love whitewater racing, it is unpredictable.  Anything can happen, in the search to be fast and dry you can sometimes be slow and wet.

We had another good week of training, including a nice 3.5 hour rain soaked 40 degree effort on Saturday.  It was nice to put away the heavy boat and put time in our pro boat.  The whitewater boat will make another appearance later this summer at the National Championships on the Deerfield River.  I also ran a bit more this week than I have been.  The added volume of the paddling hours has cut into my running time, but it was nice to get few runs on the trails around the reservoir.    

This week will be stay loose, stay healthy week for us.  We have the Run of the Charles on Saturday which is the biggest professional race of the year in Massachusetts.  We will only paddle once with some portage practice and rest up.  I have to go to Florida for work on Wednesday, down, to a meeting, and back, in one day.  Let’s hope that doesn’t knock me down too much, but I should be fine.  As far as expectations for the Charles we don’t really know what to expect.  We know there are going to be a lot of fast teams there.  We also know we have twice the hours we normally have due to our Florida trip.  We feel like we are in shape and ready to go.