Breezy, Bruisy Weekend
Saturday morning I got up early to do a walk / intervals around the lake before heading out to skydive. I did some intervals around the lake using benches and tables and the like, and on my way back, I finally tried the Cleveland Cascade … that adds a nice little kick to the workout!
After I got myself home and cleaned up, I headed out to Byron for the first time in a while, to do 8-ways with Mad John. The winds were high, but not too far above “normal” for Byron. Because the landing area is so wide open with very few turbulence-inducing obstacles, I’ll jump in higher winds there than at other DZs. That didn’t mean it was perfect - I did get drug around the landing area a couple times trying to shut the canopy down, and that led to the first of several new bruises for the weekend.
On our last of four jumps, the wind picked up considerably, into sketchy territory. I made it down safely but that was definitely outside of my upper range of comfortably-high winds and I was happy to have both feet planted on the ground after that one.
Yesterday, Sean and I headed up to Skydance to participate in a canopy control course. It had been several years since either of us had done one, and it was a good refresher and good to take a day of focusing on canopy control. I learned that my basic mechanics are a lot better than I think - I just need to be more confident about putting my feet down to walk/run out a landing rather than defaulting to a “baseball slide.” I managed to do a number on my left knee in the most boneheaded of ways - by kneeling in the plane … directly onto a seatbelt attachment point. Sharp metal in knee doesn’t feel good.
Despite feeling a bit battered, I did manage to get up for my workout with Noah this morning and things didn’t feel nearly as bad as I would have thought. Maybe there’s something to this “getting in shape” thing that helps you recover faster.