What Was Your Work Out Today?

Another bike ride on the hybrid, with a bit more vigor (but not much!), less coasting, little over 18 miles, average moving speed 11.2mph.

In my defense, there are twisty wooded stretches where I'm slow on purpose to avoid collision with unseen oncoming others. There are some straight flat stretches where 15-16mph is viable for a li'l ol' lady, but I only get as high as 20 when pedaling on a downhill. 😆

Still mostly Z1-Z2 per Garmin, only about 15 minutes of even Z3, so still taking it pretty easy.

Just glad to be allowed to be moving with a bit of energy, again.

Morning ride - 17.06 miles, 13.2 mph avg, 78 minutes. Was really humid this morning (82%) and I was feeling it by the time I finished the ride.

Yesterday's body weight routines - 50 push-ups and 30 squats.

Did a short, light speed primer on the trainer at lunch hour. Just a 40 minute routine. Some quick spinning to wake up the legs, and some 10second bursts to max output, with 50 second easy spin recovery. Nothing too deep before tomorrow's race simulation effort.

Race simulation tomorrow means food/fluid/gear prep tonight.

Tomorrow I'll start the open water swim by 6:45am, complete the swim, then drive 15 minutes to meet others at bike starting point. We have a two loop ride planned. First loop is about 50 miles, quick stop to refuel, then second loop is 33 miles. After the ride, I'll throw on running shoes and put in 30-45minutes of a run/walk.

The purpose of the day is to put swim fatigue into my body before I start the bike and run work. If done correctly, I won't bonk, and will also have this session as a reference point to gauge how I'm feeling during the actual race.

Rowed bow in the double again, the usual roughly 7k, keeping it easy pace (mostly Z1-Z2 per Garmin, a little Z3). Still letting my very kind friends carry the double.

I did carry one end of a single, just to see how it went. They're much lighter - not as hard to pick out of the water, especially. That went OK, can do it mostly squatting, not getting my head below my waist . . . which is good, because I said I'd supervise open rowing on Monday, and I'll probably need to help carry singles.

Still hot/humid here, heading into the 80s for both temperature (F) and humidity (%) by the latter part of the morning row, with bright sun adding perceived warmth, not much breeze except what the rowing motion created. Stop rowing, start dripping with sweat, very literally. 🤷‍♀️ Whatcha gonna do: Not row? Nah. 😆

Djproulx wrote: »

ccrdragon wrote: »

Morning ride - 17.06 miles, 13.2 mph avg, 78 minutes. Was really humid this morning (82%) and I was feeling it by the time I finished the ride.

Yesterday's body weight routines - 50 push-ups and 30 squats.

It can be tough to ride or run in humid conditions like that. Do you carry fluid/electrolytes when you ride? I'm a heavy sweater, so fluid replacement is a must for me.

I have a 2 liter camel pack that is always with me on the bike... I use water with ice and electrolytes. I almost drained the pack on this morning's ride.

Rowed bow in the double with one of the rowers who took our learn to row class this year. She's doing really well, is strong, is developing good skills (but she's really hard on herself). I did some of the carrying of the double, but asked one of my friends to do the "pick it out of the water" part, where it's hard to do that without bending over (vs. just squatting).

Not sure what the temp/humidity were, but it was like a steambath, even at 8:45AM. No breeze at all, until we created our own by rowing.

Long session, but quite a bit of fun today.
6:30am start: 1800yd open water swim in 43 minutes. When done, drove to meet friends for a ride
8:15am: started first bike loop of 56miles. Scenic route, yet some challenging climbs. Stopped mid ride to perform a one minute group plank, since we have a daily plank challenge underway currently, lol.
Second loop was shorter 28 mile out and back, so 84 miles total. 5:05:00 ride time, 5:45:00 elapsed with breaks.
2:00pm: Finished the session with a 50 minute run/walk. Combined r/w pace was 10:50/mile. Too fast for IM run split, but it felt ok today in cool conditions.

According to HRM and power meter data, I burned 3727 calories during the session. I consumed just under 2200 calories in fuel while on the bike and during breaks.
Easy spin on the bike tomorrow just to clear lactic acid from the legs.

I did 2 Beachbody programs today

Nursing in long term care.

Approx 400 calories burned.

P90X Chest and Back

Rowed 8.3k in bow of the double (little further than usual because of weird course on account of big-wake skiers, and then wanting the singles who were out with us to get in a usual-length row despite our launching first, and being a bit faster, altering course to avoid the power boats. My friends are still hefting the double for me - think I will gratefully accept this for at least another week, then we'll see.

The power boats - even the ones driven by nice people, and not all are nice - don't understand that an 8-10-12" or more wake, to a boat with 4" of freeboard (i.e. inches of boat above the waterline) is a disruption at best, and a safety threat at worst. The nearby start-up, stop, and semi-circular turn wakes are even harder to handle than the ones from buzzing straight by us. Honestly, we try to stay out of the way, row on a different part of the river, if we possibly can. Sometimes we can't: We're slower by far. There were a couple of women out on stand-up paddleboards on the same stretch of river . . . they're even slower, and lower.

End of the day, I went over and supervised open rowing. Not a real workout, just a little meandering and a bit of boat carrying for singles, but it was a major factor in hitting over 2x the step goal I usually ignore. I wandered over to meet Tank, the swimming labrador (women's varsity assistant coach Katie on the other end of his 30' lead); meet Farah, the other assistant women's coach; and to have a long chat and tour of boathouse improvements with the men's (club) team's major patron. Then four of us community club folks went to the neighborhood watering hole/restaurant across the street. Fun evening!

55 minutes on the bike trainer this am. Short easy trail run planned for tonight.

LenGray wrote: »

My gym buddies have bowed out after a year or so of working out with me. I was bummed and also discovered I don't like going to the gym by myself, so I fell out of the working out habit for about a week. But, this morning I told myself to get up and move, anyway.

I went for a long walk with my dogs, did some stretching, and swam 18 laps around the apartment pool. Tomorrow, I'm dusting off my at-home weight bench and getting back to lifting!

That's fantastic! Don't ever let anyone else define what you'll be. Way to take charge and stay focused!

MikePfirrman wrote: »

Wanted to really push the HR today. Lactic Acid training. You do 2 minutes hard, then go slow 1 minute. Repeat for 16 reps. Did 8 on the rower (500m, just over 2 minutes) and then 8 more on the Assault Bike. 1020 calories burned in the hour, at least according to the HRM. Last 13 reps were at least 90% max HR.

Feeling a bit more comfortable at 90%+ max HR, which is key to progression. Lifting tonight at the gym. Won't likely push too, too hard there.

That sounds like a very uncomfortable workout, but I'm sure it was very effective. The ability to go hard in the later rounds after a short recovery is a sure indication of superior cardio fitness. The rower and assault bike are perfect torture machines for that workout. Do you ever spice it up with a Tabata routine as part of your fun??

Casual 17.3 mile bike ride, average moving speed 11.5mph. Straight sections are faster, but there are quite a few reduced-visibility bends and small hills that slow me down. Still mostly Z2, minimal Z1, about 1/3 of the time Z3 - so easy.

Came around a corner on the trail, section I don't normally ride, right near a electrical substation of some kind, to find a group of white-tail deer grazing. There were quite a few, but it was a surprise and they started moving when they saw me so I didn't get an accurate count, but it was 6-8 of them, reasonably close to the trail, including at least one fawn still in spots. That's a decent sized group for this time of year, close in to city/commercial areas, for here.