Aging gracefully behind the paddle, your thoughts?

I’m not saying I don’t enjoy it. I just never get on a bike or get in a kayak without full effort. On rare occasions when I use a canoe, the experience is completely different. It’s about leisure and a controlled, efficient glide.

You guys do make me think. I have to agree after reading some comments that there are fun parts of kayaking, but for the most part it’s intended to cover distance. Speed means ability to go further. It’s about going somewhere, going further, seeing more. Every trip is training for the next. I saw PaddleDog52’s trip track and it keys me up to go out.

Fun to me is driving a twisted road and pushing a car to the limit. No pain, as long as you stay on the road. Kayaking and biking is always a self imposed effort to top the last trip. It’s just the approach I take. When I’m done, I’m worn out. I once did a bike trip and put the bike in the truck. I pulled it back out and went another five miles before turning around; when I got back, I was done. Not recommending it or justifying it. Just saying it’s what I do. I love the challenge. No desire to race. Just try to out perform myself. I can’t go 3.6 mph if I’m with someone. I’ll do "W"s passing behind them, trying to stay on compass bearing and count strikes so I can stick with them. I guess that is fun.

Celia, I didn’t say I don’t enjoy it. Buildin a boat is enjoyable and rewarding, but it’s not my idea of fun. I do enjoy both kayaking and biking because I do go fast. I know it’s crazy, but it’s all I have to work with.

We all have a somewhat different definition of fun.

I think being upside down in the surf zone can be fun, though I prefer my fun to be riding the wave. So can being in 2 -3 foot swells and not being able to see land in any direction (however knowing land is just over the horizon in almost 340* of the compass rose. Fun is having a dolphin, a sea turtle, or even a small shark cruise by. And, who doesn’t think it’s fun on a calm day when a dragonfly, damselfly, or butterfly lands on the bow to hitch a ride for a while?

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I get cramps sometimes where I am screaming and cursing for up to 15 minutes. Happens in hot weather from being dehydrated. Now I eat bananas, try to hydrate bit better, and use Theraworx before and after, take two dual action Advil. Cramps come at night in bed I’ll move my leg wrong and it starts. I might stop or delay it. I then rub the Theraworx on my inner thighs as I am screaming and slapping my leg.

Once it hit two legs in one night. I can still feel it in my leg the next morning like my leg was punched. Happens if I’m up and down scaffolding and stairs in hot weather.

Then add to that I usually have to urinate when it happens and I can’t get off the bed or I’m caught half on and off the bed.

I see some oxbow lakes in the future for that river. They can occur in surprisingly short time frames. I remember reading Mark Twain’s observations on going down the Mississippi 20 plus years after he had been a riverboat captain – he found entire towns cut off from the river due to the more acute meanders being breached during that interval of a couple decades. Though those were in the days before the proliferation of artificial banks and channeling and mostly dams, whose pools interrupt the natural cycles of flow and silt deposition that cause rivers to shift their course.

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A big part of my “aging gracefully” with my boats is keeping them light enough to easily wrangle without strain or prospective injury. I sold or gave away anything over 46 pounds some years ago. Half the fleet is under 34 pounds. And adding the box truck camper last year with the overhead rear door means I don’t even have to lift any boat over my head to transport it. Being 71, living alone and having incipient osteoporosis, adjustments needed to be made. Moderate regular weight training and isometrics help too, though I mostly appreciate having inherited good genes and never cultivating bad habits (other than chocolate consumption and compulsive watercraft acquisition.)

Maybe like the old (and inaccurate) saw about the water and air temps needing to add up to at least a certain amount to be “safe” for possible immersion, one should try to keep one’s age plus one’s boat’s weight in pounds at or below 105. Since my lightest boat is 24 pounds I guess I’ll be OK until I’m 80 or so and then have to get one of those featherlight carbon solo canoes.

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I keep a heating pad near where I sleep, usually plugged in just in case. Have found that if I can get that onto the cramp spot it’ll knock the leg cramp out, seems to stop the spasming.

The discomfort is acute… nothing like having one of the already rather tight muscles in your calf or down thru your feet decide to try and pull the others around it inside out.

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There you go. Everybody has to make it sound so much like fun. I chuckle at the pain and suffering we endure. We’re dopamine junkies. Intense satisfaction is how I describe it. The pain we endure. The point about training taking the fun out is true. What make it enjoyable still is that it helps me get more out if it. When I was in Germany, a group of my friends bought single speed bikes to explore the local area. We’d get to the spot we explored the previous trip and everybody turned around. My goal was Pappenburg, a town 60 klicks away on the North Sea. I told them I want to go further than I’d been the last time. They thought it was funny. They were just out to have fun. I guess I was too, now that I think about it. I never got there. A kayak let’s you go anywhere. It’s freedom to explore. I’ve never had a bad trip.

I had a butterfly land on my kay, and that was almost sureal. You guys make me think of those perfect days. What a rush! Thanks.

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That’s why I keep a pee bottle beside the bed. Seldom used but I never know.

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Consider looking into some electrolytes to add to your water. And even sip Pedialyte when at home. I learned that decades ago when I was a marathon runner and distance cyclist. They really help.

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During biking years, I started supplements of magnesium citrate (doctor said better absorption than other forms). Since then, the incidence and severity of cramps has diminished to a few trips early in the season

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Davebart, I was on Cherohola Skyway, after I finished the Tail. Moonshiner 28. I drove right past it and didn’t have a clue. Won’t miss it the next time. That’s my idea of true fun. No pain.

A lot of people miss the Moonshiner, that’s what makes it good. The Dragon’s Tail fame kind of makes it hard to enjoy.

Sadly, I no longer have a vehicle to enjoy that kind of fun. I had some fun over that way with my Vstrom 1000.

I’m one. Most people pull over if you come up behind them. If they don’t, I pull over and wait 30 seconds, I caught one guy twice and finally just pulled over for a few minutes. Skyline Drive is fun just sticking to the limit. If somebody presses, just pull off at an overlook, or power into a series of tight corners and put distance. One of my favorite places.

So I guess what some are say’n is that we’re all aging better
when we’re pulling on the paddle and not dancing in tight leather,
when we’re rolling on the breakers, not night-time writhing neath the sheets.
Damn you cramps to gramps! Release your clamps! There may be grace but not by my feets!

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Unless you paddle wearing a leather speedo.

Night time writhing under the sheets usually happens when I get a thigh cramp and the only way to stop it is to stand up on the floor.

I can’t even think about standing when it hits.

Oy, I know those cramps – excruciating and all you can do is grit your teeth and force yourself to tighten and stretch the muscles into the cramp with as much force as you can until they eventually give. Have my ER doc ex boyfriend to thank for teaching me how to do that when I first started having them (at least he was good for something.) It’s hard to force yourself to do this but I find it relieves the spasm within under a minute every time, though that minute can seem like an hour. But the relief is worth temporarily increasing your agony.

I agree it tends to happen when I have neglected hydration and a cramp event has sometimes been so bad the leg or foot felt like I had been beaten for a couple of days. The attacks have lead me to try to cultivate better habits like drinking a 12 ounce glass of water or fruit juice every couple of hours when I am around the house and always taking a couple of quarts with me when I’m hiking or paddling and drinking constantly.

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I’ve done the muscle stretch or tightening, feels like you’ll pop a tendon but it helps. Also walking around helps. Seems to reduce in frequency as I improvemuscle conditioning. Most people quit when the get tired and never experience this pleasure.