What Was Your Work Out Today?

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.

After a few intense days, taking it slow today - a 2 mile recovery run at a 11 min pace. Felt good.

Djproulx wrote: »

MikePfirrman wrote: »

I actually did that when I didn't have a gym membership. That's actually more brutal to do than separating them. Very, very hard to do sprints on the rower, then a HIIT type lift, rest a minute or two and do over. Wicked hard. Not true Tabata (because it's not quite as intense) but the HR will jump over 85 percent max on the lifting parts and over 90 on the sprints.

On the flip side, I lifted last night for an hour, so my total time working out was doubled. Separating let's me better concentrate on form and really pushing the cardio piece and lffting heavier. I'm beat this morning. Glad I have two easy days as a reward of sorts. Might do recovery pace today.

There's an F45 gym that just opened up near my house. My wife is like, "you don't need to work out more...". But that style of working out suits me a lot better than Planet Fitness. That's exactly what they do. Mix cardio with HIIT for 45 minute classes. Plus, unlike Orange Theory, they use the Concept2 rowers. I'm not a fan, at all, of WaterRowers. Mark Wahlberg is one of the founders/investors.

I would imagine that you need recovery this morning! While I haven't even tried Tabata work on either device, I know the assault bike used to really take it out of me when my trainer mixed short sprints into my lifting circuits.

The 45min class option is interesting. Some of my best Tabata workouts used to come at the end of a high intensity 45 min group spin session. The power/cadence numbers showed on a big wall mounted screen, so everyone knew who was putting out X or Y wattage. I can't think of anything that was more exhausting than the eight 20 second all out bursts (10s rec.) that occurred during the end of those classes. Felt like the longest 4 minutes of my life, but very effective.

Before work:
Met a friend at the park to workout and watch the sunrise. Ran one lap warm up (0.29 miles) then B/W squats, push ups, tricep dips, OHP, upright rows, lunges, and core work.

Lunch time: 4.81 mile run.

After getting sidetracked for several weeks by the Dog Days of Summer rowing challenge, combined with home renovations and working full-time at the office for a week, I finally managed to get some strength training in (last session was August 18th).

Aside from my usual exercises, some experimenting with my newest 'toy': a landmine attachment for my power rack. I tried some squats (I struggle with the classic barbell squat for several reasons) - not sure on my form but better than not doing leg exercises at all, I guess.

A 5.5km run today in almost 43 minutes, first proper run since August 19th. I don't know if it's because I needed a break from running or because the intense rowing challenge boosted my cardiovascular fitness, but it felt remarkably easy for not having run that long. I could have gone longer, but my BF would have been grumpy at getting a late dinner 😁

Rowing for 30 min using Apple Fitness +

Ultra-easy pace bike ride, just over 10mph on the hybrid, mostly Z1-2, just a little Z3. Garmin said 20.7 miles, but I lost around 1-1.5 miles when I paused it for a water break at a park, forgot to start it right away when I resumed riding. Nice day - a little cooler, upper 70s F, less humid - so I left earlier and paced myself to go a bit further than recently, for a little variety.

A 45 minute run and laps in the pool

Morning ride - 16.26 miles, 13.4 mph avg, 73 minutes.
Yesterday did 50 push-ups after the morning ride.