On Friday I woke up and went to a clinic for a wellness exam. I'll post the results later, but while I was sitting in the wellness office I decided I wasn't going to waste the weekend sitting around at home or randomly wandering around town because I'm bored. I wanted to do something I've never done, something I was kind of afraid to do. So, I looked up what the Fort Carson Outdoor Recreation Center had going on this weekend and my choices were rafting, horseback riding, or kayaking.
I've been wanting to try kayaking for a while, but I was afraid I wouldn't fit in the kayaks (even though the guy at the rec center told me I would) and I have to admit, I'm kind of afraid of water activities. Water is very powerful, and while I'm not afraid of water as a whole, being at its mercy makes me nervous. So, since the white water rafting and horseback riding trips were full, I decided on kayaking. My day of reckoning had come.
The class started on Friday night, and we picked out kayaks and other gear, then went to the indoor pool on post to practice using the boats. I was so proud of myself for fitting in the kayak (although I barely did. I don't know what that guy at the rec center was thinking, because when I asked I was about 20 lbs heavier. I would have looked like a sausage stuffed in that kayak) and when we got to the pool I lost all excitement because I couldn't get into the thing in the water without help. I hit my head on the instructor's boat a couple of times by falling over when he thought I had it. I felt like an idiot. Thankfully there was only one other student, and he just laughed at me :)
When I finally did get in the boat I did great at paddling, keeping balance, and exiting the boat when I flipped. However, when it came time to flipping back over without exiting the boat, I failed miserably. Oh, I did wonderful when we were practicing, but when I had to be in the middle of the pool, flip myself over and wait for someone to come rescue me by bringing the bow of their boat close enough for me to grab and flip myself back over (called a T rescue, and the move I have to do to flip back over is called the hip snap) I just couldn't do it. I panicked everytime and put my hands wrong on the boat or tried to use both knees to flip over on one side, which doesn't work. I didn't feel comfortable enough to go on the river in the kayak because if I flipped I would have to exit the boat and it would take about 15 minutes to get to the side, get back in the boat, and get back into the flow, and I didn't want to slow the whole team down like that.
So I ended up using an inflatable open top kayak called a duckie. I was very comfortable in it, and it was a lot of fun. In the closed kayak my feet fell asleep and my legs cramped, I got HUGE nasty bruises on the inside of my knees from doing the flips to many times, and my hips were punished everytime I had to get back into the kayak. When I woke up this morning I was so sore from adding new exercises this week and being in the kayak on Friday that I could hardly move. But once my adrenaline started pumping it was easy to forget about my pains and enjoy the ride on the river. We saw deer and squirrels, and I thought I saw a skunk, but it ended up being a tree trunk. All in all it was a great experience, but I'm feeling the punishment to my body everywhere. My ear hurts, my hands hurt, my butt hurts, my hips, my knees, my abs, my arms, my shoulders, my back, head, neck, feet, calves, thighs, pecs, even my elbows.
Maybe I did too much this week...but I had a lot of fun!
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