May 9-12, 2019

Daily scores: 9, 8, 7 (tired arms), 9

Workout:

Surfing



May 9-

2 hours at San Onofre in 2-3 foot surf
Caught 7 waves!
Paddled a ton
Bilateral calf cramps at end of session


May 10-

2 hours at San Onofre in 2-3 foot surf
Caught a few waves, much less consistent swell, but paddled a ton
Felt some shoulder burning paddling out


May 11-

20 mins surfing at campsite south of San Onofre in 3-4 foot surf
Long paddle out, arms were shot


May 12-

3 hours surfing at Dana Point in 2-4 foot surf
Caught 5+ waves, felt amazing



This trip was a 10/10.  I fell in love with surfing over these 4 days.  It's funny how the pain of learning something new can morph into joy and it's not ever a moment you can put your finger on or even a level of skill.  But it happened.  I now feel like I can say I surf.  I'm most definitely a beginner and will probably stay in the category on small waves for a long time.  The cool thing about surfing, I think, is that I can get just as much joy on my little waves as someone out charging the big stuff.  My comfort level in the ocean improved dramatically.  I am sure the swim training is part of that.  I still got freaked out on the third day when my arms were shot and big waves just kept pounding me.  I basically got crushed on a long paddle out and then when I did get out a huge sneaker set came in and I had to ditch my board and dive under the waves.  I freaked briefly, paddled in, and recovered.  I think part of the problem was my arms were just unable to paddle anymore and I NEEDED to paddle to get to a safe spot.  That was a bad place to be.  So I hung on the beach in the sun.  I wasn't at all traumatized at least, and was anxious to get back out the next day.  After a day of rest my arms felt great the next day.  It was funny though how tired they got, holding my phone to my ear felt heavy!  It's the posterior delt that gets fired up.  I jumped off my board and swam and that would be easy but the prone paddling would just burn.  I think the only feeling similar in the gym is the stimulus from the ski erg.  So when this bike race is past, I wanna spend more time on that.  Swimming of course is huge too but the paddle endurance is an interesting and different beast.  I think that's a wrap...come out and surf with us some time!  It's worth the process.