We headed down to the cape after work on Friday and arrived around 8pm. I’m still struggling a bit with Jet lag and I was asleep by 10pm. I woke up around 4am, but managed to eventually get back to sleep and got up for good around 7:30. When I got up, I looked out and it was absolutely stunning outside. Temperature was around 55F, and there was just a little bit of wind, maybe 1-2mph. Even better, it was nearly high tide, so launch and recovery would be easy. I tossed my boat on top of my car and headed to the beach about 2 minutes away.
I launched and discovered that I had forgotten my seat! Oh well, I paddled to the base of my stairs, ran up to my house, got my seat, and then I started my row.
First, I headed straight up to Wellfleet harbor. I noticed that my boat speed was pretty good (around 2:30-2:40). Remember, I am in an Alden star. I usually have to work pretty hard to go that fast. Then it occurred to me that I was riding the incoming tide up the harbor. After that, it was kind of fun to maintain the same pressure and watch the boat speed move around depending on the tidal current.
I rowed through Wellfleet harbor and around the town pier. I rowed a way up into the old harbor. I turned around when it started to get a bit narrow. Then I headed south along the east shore of the harbor, turning again when I ran out of space.
Then I headed across toward the long spit that forms Wellfleet harbor. At the north end of this is a tidal estuary called the Herring River. I had never gone up there, so I paddled through with the tide and briefly saw a 2:20 pace when I was in the middle of the channel.
I did a big loop around and headed back south along the spit. I rowed 2km south, and then cut across the bay. The wind had picked up just a little and there was a cross chop that made rowing a bit more challenging. Once I was over to Lt. Island, the water was flatter and I pushed along to the finish at the beach.
Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 01|16727|94:49.0|02:50.1|21.1|145.9|156.0|08.4
Workout Details #-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS- 01|05048|28:00.0|02:46.4|20.2|139.4|147.0|08.9 - With the tide 02|05476|30:00.0|02:44.4|20.9|146.6|151.0|08.7 - harvbor & Herring River 03|05614|32:49.0|02:55.4|22.2|151.6|156.0|07.7 - Back against the tide
I felt great after the workout. Energized and happy. But within an hour or so, I felt pretty drained. It was a long session. I had trouble keeping my eyes open by 8pm and I was asleep before 10.
The featured image was the sunset on Saturday night. It was close to low tide then. I’m not sure the picture does justice to the incredible colors.
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