What Was Your Work Out Today?

Yup, another 7K-ish in a double, takes about an hour on the water; hour and a half or so if you include carrying boats and stuff.

No, we're not that slow: On-water time includes a couple of water breaks at the bridges, the (slow) turns at either end, easing through the weeds at launch/landing, and that sort of thing.

But we're pretty slow, especially this season: My most frequent double partner and I are both fighting physical issues. Usually we'd be doing race-pace and interval pieces by now, even though we rarely race anymore, just do them for fun. But she seriously needs a hip replacement (tough woman, hiding lots of pain - trying to time surgery for Fall, between main rowing season and a November Hawaii trip for her 42nd wedding anniversary) and my knees are for c**p, so lots of steady state now. Sigh!

aokoye wrote: »

8k in a novice 8 with my novice 4 in stern so we could practice in our race line up. I was stroke which is doing really good things to both my confidence and my technique in terms of making sure I'm easy to follow. It's funny, 7 or 8 months ago I was the least confident in the boat and now I'm consistently stroke in novice boats (mind you - 7 or 8 months ago I was practicing with the intermediate and advanced men).

Man, all I ever do when coach puts me in stroke is count (in . . . out . . . 3 . . . 4): Sometimes out loud, always moving my mouth. I'm engine room by deep nature (only in my gender and age group, I hasten to add!), but would far rather bow (if uncoxed) than stroke. I'm impressed: Go, you!

You'll report on the race, I hope? PM if nothing else?

2.3 mile morning run. 2.4 mile lunch run and 22 mile bike ride this afternoon. 💪🏼🏃🏻‍♂️🚴🏼‍♂️

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Yup, another 7K-ish in a double, takes about an hour on the water; hour and a half or so if you include carrying boats and stuff.

No, we're not that slow: On-water time includes a couple of water breaks at the bridges, the (slow) turns at either end, easing through the weeds at launch/landing, and that sort of thing.

But we're pretty slow, especially this season: My most frequent double partner and I are both fighting physical issues. Usually we'd be doing race-pace and interval pieces by now, even though we rarely race anymore, just do them for fun. But she seriously needs a hip replacement (tough woman, hiding lots of pain - trying to time surgery for Fall, between main rowing season and a November Hawaii trip for her 42nd wedding anniversary) and my knees are for c**p, so lots of steady state now. Sigh!

aokoye wrote: »

8k in a novice 8 with my novice 4 in stern so we could practice in our race line up. I was stroke which is doing really good things to both my confidence and my technique in terms of making sure I'm easy to follow. It's funny, 7 or 8 months ago I was the least confident in the boat and now I'm consistently stroke in novice boats (mind you - 7 or 8 months ago I was practicing with the intermediate and advanced men).

Man, all I ever do when coach puts me in stroke is count (in . . . out . . . 3 . . . 4): Sometimes out loud, always moving my mouth. I'm engine room by deep nature (only in my gender and age group, I hasten to add!), but would far rather bow (if uncoxed) than stroke. I'm impressed: Go, you!

You'll report on the race, I hope? PM if nothing else?

Ooof, injuries and the need for surgery are so hard. I know what it's like to try to time major surgery around things (in my case, school) and it's so hard. I definitely scheduled my last one around a choir concert and school. The call with the surgery scheduler (who was lovely and at one of my post ops made sure to pop her head in to see how I was doing) involved me saying, "wait! I need to try and figure out when my concert whose dates aren't published yet are!"

And yes, I will definitely report back about the regatta. I race in the novice 4+ on Friday morning and the mixed 8 on Saturday. I actually really like sitting stroke when I'm feeling confident. Though even on Sunday when I was in the quad I quickly got over my initial "oh, I've never sat stroke in a quad..." nervousness and was apparently very steady in terms of rate (though omg how I wished that I had a speed coach - a fair amount of people in my club who scull have their own). I was texting with a rowing friend of mine who did LTR 1 and 2 with me and she, smartly and easily, convinced me to take tomorrow off from rowing because really, we're all supposed to be tapering and I need the extra sleep. I'll probably take a long walk tomorrow but otherwise no purposeful exercise until Friday.

There's a lot of implicit, "you will be as easy to follow as possible as a person in stroke" in my club. Coaches will talk about it directly and indirectly, typically indirectly, though sometimes coaches will come out and say it (I've only ever heard it explicitly mentioned in the context of a novice boat or LTR). But then also things like, "I want you to work on early rollups*....ok see how stroke is rolling up early?" and making sure you're not rushing the recovery. Stuff like that. Our coaches will also ask for feedback about the boat from the person sitting in stroke as well as the cox. So for example, on our penultimate start when asked for my feedback I said, "I was able to get to the 28, but people were rushing me to the catch**"
Oh also! So today's practice was with the novices and thus was a different coach from the most of my practices. She noted that really it appears my "natural" rate for a start is a 34 and that I should just go with that and lengthen to a 28. We did...a lot...of starts this morning and I think that's what we're going to go with. The 34 felt shockingly together and I was able to get to the 28 and keep it there most of the time (though it took a lot of "go with what feels slower than you expect because that's what's actually a 28" internally).
Note that apparently it isn't unusual for the advanced crews in my club to do their starts at a 40 or 42 and the settle at a 36.

All that said, I really need to learn to bow uncoxed boats. I mean I know how, but not even kind of well. I am going to try to mention it to one of the sculling coaches and/or a friends of mine who are proficient at sculling next week. I know I'll be able to figure it out, but I'm nervous about hitting things in the process. I also really don't want to break a rigger - this has been a bad season for that. Yay snags in the river...

*non-rowers. Rolling up is squaring your blade so that the flat side is perpendicular to the water. We work on rolling up early for various reasons including to make sure that we're ready at the catch (the start of the rowing stroke).
**the catch is when the oar goes in the water, then there's the drive, the finish (when the oar comes out of the water), and finally the recovery which is when we come back up to the catch and do the whole sequence over again.

pierinifitness wrote: »

J72FIT wrote: »

Pavel’s fighter pull-up program day 5, handstand push-up GTG and press handstand core strength work.

Good job on week #1, looking forward to you sharing how week #2 goes. I've done a progression workout like that with bar dips. My single set max reps improved but darn did that workout get hard as time went on. I like the 15 minute recovery of Pavel's program. Never did it but did try the Armstrong Pull-up Program many years ago. Don't think it gave me the rep count growth I wanted.

http://armstrongpullupprogram.com/

I tried the Armstrong one an bonked on it.

The 15 minute rest minimum is a huge factor for me. So far week one I still feel fresh. Challenged, but fresh. Have not even been the slightest bit sore. Tomorrow is a well earned rest day from the program.

pierinifitness wrote: »

Nice job on the KB swings. Did you time yourself, work within a time interval or go with your flow? Regardless, good heart thumper, keep up the good work.

I don't use kbs as often as I'd like. I got reasonably OK at them at one point, but now I'm out of practice. I keep one in my parents' shed - I visited them for Father's Day so took the opportunity for a quick workout.

For 100 swings, I aim to do them in 5 minutes. I failed - I took around 7 minutes 30. I do 10 sets of 10 - the key time driver is how long I need to recover between sets.

Spin class: 45 minute spin, mostly zone 3/4 (5 zone scheme), followed by some stretching.

aokoye wrote: »

<snip>
I actually really like sitting stroke when I'm feeling confident. Though even on Sunday when I was in the quad I quickly got over my initial "oh, I've never sat stroke in a quad..." nervousness and was apparently very steady in terms of rate (though omg how I wished that I had a speed coach - a fair amount of people in my club who scull have their own).

Honestly, for rate steadiness while rowing, I think you're better off relying on experience and such musical talent as you may possess. You'll develop an intuition about what rate you're at, over time.

Where I like instrumentation/data as a rower is post-piece or post-practice, to assess things like what rating yields the best boat speed. (Real-time data can be more useful for a cox, who has a tiny bit more time for looking/thinking). For me, trying to control my own rate in the moment via a readout is a distraction on the water: Holding steadiness and technique and (in races) delivering full power is plenty enough to think about, especially late in a race when the lights start to dim a little.

There's a lot of implicit, "you will be as easy to follow as possible as a person in stroke" in my club. Coaches will talk about it directly and indirectly, typically indirectly, though sometimes coaches will come out and say it (I've only ever heard it explicitly mentioned in the context of a novice boat or LTR). But then also things like, "I want you to work on early rollups*....ok see how stroke is rolling up early?" and making sure you're not rushing the recovery. Stuff like that. Our coaches will also ask for feedback about the boat from the person sitting in stroke as well as the cox. So for example, on our penultimate start when asked for my feedback I said, "I was able to get to the 28, but people were rushing me to the catch**"

Based on my coaching education, that's canonical, really, everywhere, I think. IMU, one chooses the stroke rower for a combination of ability to hold a steady rating (musicians really do tend to be great in this respect!), plus proficient technique through the stroke, (to be a model for the boat to follow). Power is nice in everyone, but not the most important factor in stroke.

Oh also! So today's practice was with the novices and thus was a different coach from the most of my practices. She noted that really it appears my "natural" rate for a start is a 34 and that I should just go with that and lengthen to a 28. We did...a lot...of starts this morning and I think that's what we're going to go with. The 34 felt shockingly together and I was able to get to the 28 and keep it there most of the time (though it took a lot of "go with what feels slower than you expect because that's what's actually a 28" internally).
Note that apparently it isn't unusual for the advanced crews in my club to do their starts at a 40 or 42 and the settle at a 36.

Sure. You know this, other readers might not, but on-water rowing technique is very detail-oriented, and those details contribute in really meaningful ways to boat speed through the water (as does exact synchonization of stroke elements through the whole boat: this is one of the team-y-est of team sports ). Less experienced crews have relatively less of grooved-in correct muscle memory, and therefore need relatively more conscious think/perform time. They also have more difficulty synchronizing while getting the details right.

Therefore, it's completely normal for a less-experienced boat to be faster (actual speed through the water) at a slower stroke rating (lower strokes per minute), because either technique or synchronization (or both) fall apart at a higher rating. There's also an endurance factor in stroke rating selection (because it correlates to level of effort that can be sustained through the race length), but that's really secondary to the technique/synchronization reasons, in most cases.

I'm betting you'll find your race-adrenalized boat wants to up-rate from your goal rating, even though they probably shouldn't. A 32-35 with adrenaline feels like a 28 without it, but equivalent performance doesn't necessarily follow. The settle is hard in real race conditions.

All that said, I really need to learn to bow uncoxed boats. I mean I know how, but not even kind of well. I am going to try to mentioitn to one of the sculling coaches and/or a friends of mine who are proficient at sculling next week. I know I'll, be able to figure it out, but I'm nervous about hitting things in the process. I also really don't want to break a rigger - this has been a bad season for that. Yay snags in the river...
<snip>

Bow's just coxing with more head-turns, and a loud voice. Do you use a hat/glasses-type clip-on bike mirror? I tried one for the better part of a season and didn't like it, but some of my fellow scullers - especially those with bicycling experience - really love them.

Best wishes!

Cathe Blazing Boot Camp Live- ooof

Crazy Tuesday

30min stair workout with personal trainer, bit of a deep burner today.

3.5mile run, practising the uphill section of a race I'm doing next month, painful after the PT so very proud to run the whole way without stopping.

45 min zumba

45 min insanity

45min boxercise.

With walking about did 37000 steps and 2000 active calories

6 mile tempo.
Warm for mile 1 and 2
10k race pace 3, 4, 5,6

Sun salutations and Warrior yoga sequences

Back day today! Gonna focus on some lat and trap work and then at least 10 minutes of vigorous cardio

1 hour kickboxing
45 minute walk with dog
1 hour hike with some incline

@pierinifitness
I may have missed an earlier post, but what is no direct ab/core workouts? Abs are my weak spot and traditional exercises leave me sore but with not much to show for it.

30 minute row today (6200 meters exactly, so pretty slow) and then 25 minutes on the Assault Bike, also slow.