Today’s session was another 15K. This one was done at what felt like an easy effort level. It went “by feel” because I rowed with eyes closed again.
Today’s perception of “easy” was a higher effort level than yesterday’s. I don’t know why energy level perception varies from day to day but the reason I felt lower energy yesterday might have had something to do with having taken an oxycodone pill yesterday afternoon after getting a wood sliver stabbed deep into a finger tip. Diane tried to remove it, but it was too deep. So I decided to soak it overnight and see if she could remove it the next day. Took another oxycodone that evening before bed. The pain wasn’t excruciating by any means but it was a bit distracting and I wanted to be able to sleep that night.
The oxycodone pills were from a small prescription for it which a dentist had given to me in 2012. I never needed to resort to them in 2012 and so they sat unused for about four years until yesterday when I took one and then 6 hours later took a second one before going to bed. I slept well but felt a bit sluggish the next morning, which might have been the main reason for feeling low energy when rowing yesterday.
Diane couldn’t remove the sliver yesterday, so I ended up going to an urgent care facility where a skilled doctor with the right tools was able to remove it quickly. The most time consuming thing about the urgent care visit was filling out the paperwork.
The doctor asked how I’d gotten the sliver so I told him I’d reached for a wooden board on a shelf and got the sliver stabbed into my finger as soon as I touched the board. I added, “Next time I’ll wear gloves.”
While the doctor was treating me, he showed me one of his fingers which had the remnants of some expanding foam still stuck to it. He said it was impossible to remove and he had to just let it wear off because it seemed to have bonded to his skin like super glue.
I said, “You weren’t wearing gloves?” He responded, “That’s what she said,” referring to his wife, who made that comment when he showed her his hand.
So a question is: If either of our wives had been doing what we did, would they have donned gloves first?
Diane didn’t say anything to me about not wearing gloves when I got the sliver. She has pulled many cactus thorns out of me, which gloves would not have prevented and so maybe it didn’t occur to her to pose the question about wearing gloves when handling sliver-covered wooden boards.
One of the reasons I’ve been doing 15K lately is to build up a “reserve” of meters rowed which will enable me to take some time off when and if needed this season. One of the goals for this season is to finish with a daily average distance rowed of up to 10% more than last season. The daily average so far is in excess of 14,000 meters. 10% more than last season would be a daily average of 9,469 meters. So there is a comfortable reserve building up which will allow some time off from rowing when necessary.
Happy trails.