My hope is on a weekday is to get on the water at 7am. I haven't been able to get out of the house on time yet. Today I did make it on the water by 7:30am.
You may be asking yourself -- Shane, why so early. There are several reasons:
- To give myself the most time on the water
- To watch the sun come up over the lake
- To paddle when it is cooler
- To paddle before the wind picks up
Conventional wisdom says that you start by paddling into the wind and then you can paddle with the wind at your back when you are feeling more tired. A lot of the time this is what I do. This morning it was more important to me to go toward Red Bud Island and see more of nature. I knew that the it was going to get WINDY, and be against me by the time I headed back. And I didn't care. So the trip to the island was beautiful. The sun was coming up, the wood ducks were out, I saw a couple of water snakes and there were very few people on the water.
When I back out on the lake from going around the island, the wind had picked-up. And it didn't matter - it was too lovely. It was a calculated challenge and I was up for it. Plus I had the added challenge of paddling with this big piece of wood on my board. It changed the balance, the weight and the way I could paddle.
Can't wait to see what the next challenge is going to be -- calculated or unexpected...
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