This training session is dedicated to Master Sgt. Daniel Adams, 10th Special Forces Group, who lost his life in Afghanistan in Sept of the year. Today was a long paddle session that can be seen on “Find me on SPOT”. The winds were forecasted to be out of the northeast so that is the direction I started with. On long training paddles one of the challenges is keeping them from getting boring. Spending time paddling away from shore is important but it can get boring real quick and makes it tough to get through the session.  On these paddles I am trying to avoid long periods paddling directly into the wind and trying to stay close to the shoreline so I have something to look at to keep my interest up. This morning I ended up covering 20.2 miles in the 5 hours. I am not sure I will ever figure out why on some long paddles my fueling protocol works and I feel great during the entire time and on others I don’t. Last weekend I felt great and on this session using the exact same fueling protocol I felt good the first two and half hours  and then I felt old Archie Bunker coming on.(See pain management post) This time I just consumed a full hammer gel on the first indication that Archie was getting ready to pay me a visit. After about 15 minutes I was feeling better without a lot of Yoda talk and finished out the session with an average speed just over  4 MPH. Yesterday I did a 33 minute bike ride -10.2 miles and completed a TRX workout . Today I experienced a brief period where I wasn’t feeling that good.  I think about Master Sgt. Adam’s family, having to celebrate Christmas without him, and realize how hard it will be for them to feel good during the holidays.  A donation to the Special Operations Warrior Foundation will help provide a college education to the children of warriors such as Master Sgt. Adams.  http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/billwhale/ufc2012