What Was Your Work Out Today?

dralicephd wrote: »

The physiology of stress is real, y'all. The pandemic is making my work week very stressful and you can see it in my heart rate: It was at Zone 2 when I first stepped on the elliptical! Overall, I did 45 min. with ~35min. in Zone 3, ~5 min. in Zone 4, and ~5 min. in Zone 2. Nuts.

Anyway, the endorphins were greatly appreciated. Also, the burned calories will allow me to have some comfort food.

I have really gotten into meditation the last few years. Really helps a lot with anxiety and feeling overwhelmed and stressed out. I also have a controlled breath/lung exerciser which has seemed to calm and make my breathing deeper. Allegedly (I have seriously low BP anyway), it's supposed to improve your blood pressure.

10K today unstrapped (with the bungee again) on the rower. Very easy stuff. Also did an hour yesterday split between LateralX and Assault Bike, again all easy steady state.

Cadre PT
Swim down and back a lap
25 Reps Pushups / Situps / Air Squats
Swim
30 Reps
Swim
35 Reps

My Circuit with peers after work

4 Corners 45 sec Work / 15 sec Rest
Jump Rope
Kbell Swing
Skier
Rev Crunch

Flutter Kicks
4 Corners Lunges
Mtn Climbers
Air Squats

Jump Rope
Crunches
Jumping Jax
Lateral Movement On the Base line

Obliques
Jog In Place
Frog Burps
Jack Knifes

11,121 meters stationary bike, and that's all. Z3 and below, mostly Z2. Skipped the core exercises I usually do on bike days, because logistics, but poorly justified ones. 🤷‍♀️😆

Wanted to do something hard but not too crazy. Drug some of my toys for lifting out of the garage and on to the back deck with my rower.

Ended up doing 6 supersets of chest, legs, shoulders during the 6 minutes I programmed in the rower as "rest" during 500m sprints. Did six sets. That and a 2K CD took an hour and five minutes including dragging the stuff out of the garage (including a 25 kg KB and a 40 lb dumbbell).

Was working on higher DF and trying to maintain 30+ SPM on the rower sprints. Averaged around 1:56 or so on the set. Couldn't quite hold 30, it was more like 29 on the final 3 sets.

I believe around 850 or 860 calories on the hour. Hit 90% max HR on the last set. Rest were over 85% max.

Back at same-ol'.

Rowing machine, 3 x (2k on, 2' off/CD). Decided to shoot for just sub-2:30 pace throughout, see what happened along the other dimensions. I was working on that shoulder-extension thing from the Decent Rowing video mentioned up-thread, again, mostly; seems to be good for a low-effort-penalty second or two in split . . . most of the time I can get to the D-connector of the handle, if not the handle, hitting the housing, without shins going past vertical. I do need to remember not to over stretch from the shoulder, beyond connection: There's a right, balanced, zone of connection/extension, IMO.

Ended up at 2:28.1 pace overall (20spm), moderate-ish effort, with 27% Z4, 56% Z3, remainder below. I could tell (subjectively) that I was accumulating a little fatigue, but NBD. RPE seemed right for the zone, despite the COPD (yes, I'm subjectively obsessing about how that affects me, in various ways). Maybe I should push for sub-2:30 now, despite the Z4, see what happens?

The first 2k piece is the only one I could legit rank (because I actively rowed into #2 & 3). It would sit at 47 out of 111 so far this year in C2 rankings for my narrow reference group (F, 60-69, lwt), if I ranked it . . . which I won't, because it was a moderate+ steady state piece, not a race-pace effort. I feel OK about that, with my current orientation and goals. However, it's early in the season, and the hot race results from strong competitors aren't in the rankings yet! I'm a duffer, and contented with that, nowadays.

After the row, dumbbell supersets again, 45' because I'm conditioning deliberately, increasing sets and reps before increasing weight, and that takes time. 🙄 The usual idiosyncratic nonsense, formed around my personal imbalances & limitations: OHP, bench press, deads, tri extensions, bi curls, fly, side bend, pullovers . . . relatively high rep, low weight. Creeping into it, gradually, still. Patience, dangIt.

Yesterday saw 20 min. on the elliptical at a fast pace (mostly HR Zone 3, with small dips into Zone 4), followed by my standard small, "don't hurt yourself (again)" strength training routine. I increased the weight slightly on my rows and I feel ok. We'll see how that feels in my shoulder after a few days. I'm going to give it another week or so and then see if I can add some quads into the strength training.

Also, I did the strength training while in a Zoom training workshop. Your coworkers with their video and mic off might not be ignoring you, they are just maximizing their time in their busy schedules. Or something like that... hahaha..

Finally gave the Zwift cycling app a try. Workout of the week was a 30 minute HIIT session called Sevens. Warm up, then 7 rounds of 30sec above threshold, 1min recovery power, then after a 3 min spin, a second set of 7 rounds before cooldown. I'd set my FTP too low, so it wasn't a killer ride. I"ll probaby sign up and use Zwift for my training rides this winter. Lots of chances for group spins with friends.

Took a 5 mile hike with a group during the warmest part of the day. Snowy and icey, so trail spikes were needed to make the climb to a waterfall that was mostly frozen and throwing off mist that froze on contact with the trees, making a beautiful winter scene.

Did a really easy 15K meters on the rower yesterday.

Djproulx wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

[q My current program is 6 weeks and the next one is 10 weeks (with an 8 week alternative) so if I can start as I now plan to on Monday, January 31 I should still be able to fit in both programs. My 6 week plan starts out relatively gently as these programs go so hopefully I'm good for the 31st.

I did have another 4 week program I was going to run at the end leading up to the event, but that one will be out...but it was the least important anyway and it's just a lead up prep plan and I can just run it 4 weeks leading up to any particular event once I'm back in shape. The other two programs will definitely get me back into cycling shape.
orks out.

Sounds like a fun way to get into cycling shape. What plans do you use? Something online, such as the Trainerroad series, or a coached program?

Just using Zwift. They have some pretty good programs. My first priority is getting my FTP back up to something respectable as it has dipped quite a bit over these last couple of years of mostly being a weekend warrior on the bike.

cwolfman13 wrote: »

Djproulx wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

[q My current program is 6 weeks and the next one is 10 weeks (with an 8 week alternative) so if I can start as I now plan to on Monday, January 31 I should still be able to fit in both programs. My 6 week plan starts out relatively gently as these programs go so hopefully I'm good for the 31st.

I did have another 4 week program I was going to run at the end leading up to the event, but that one will be out...but it was the least important anyway and it's just a lead up prep plan and I can just run it 4 weeks leading up to any particular event once I'm back in shape. The other two programs will definitely get me back into cycling shape.
orks out.

Sounds like a fun way to get into cycling shape. What plans do you use? Something online, such as the Trainerroad series, or a coached program?

Just using Zwift. They have some pretty good programs. My first priority is getting my FTP back up to something respectable as it has dipped quite a bit over these last couple of years of mostly being a weekend warrior on the bike.

Gotcha. A bunch of my friends are big fans of Zwift. Since I'm not using a coach this year, I'm leaning towards using Zwift as well. Thinking that in Feb I will start with the Zwift workout called "4 weeks to increase FTP".

Lietchi wrote: »

Today was my first time cross-country skiing in my life (and I've only done alpine skiing 3 times in my life, so nearly 0 skiing experience).

OMG. In the tracks and on level terrain (or even uphill) it was fine, but the parts without tracks and downhill were tricky and even scary. Zero control 😳 I got technique tips from passersby when attempting to slowly go down a tiny slope, how embarrassing, lol. I'll admit that choosing to try this sport, as someone who is afraid of heights and slippery surfaces, is quite... illogical 😁

8 kilometers in total and I am physically wrecked. Lovely views though!

I've gone cc skiing exactly once in my life and had the same experience! (I've never been in downhill skiis) Any slight incline and I was out of control and on my butt. At some point I just felt like I was in a fist fight with the snow and was definitely not winning. Lol.. I'm glad I tried it though.

I think snowshoeing might be more my speed. I'll have to try that sometime.

Rowing machine today, 3 x (2K on, 2' off/CD), shooting for sub-2:30 pace in order to finish by midnight (!) - arbitrary goal. Pieces at 2:27/23spm, 2:26.7/20spm, 2:24.4/21spm.

If I'm trying to keep split down (a little), i.e. go faster, I need to remind myself to relax and keep rating (spm) down somewhat.

When pushing a little, I tend to get adrenalized 🙄, take the rating up, feel like I'm spending more energy than minimally necessary to get the target split. (Obviously, one can't take spm to 1 and get a fast split, but I can usually hit the same pace over a small range of spm, and somewhat lower in that range feels easier to sustain. Maybe that's just me.)

Anyway, just under 8' in Z4, 21'-ish in Z3, rest below. Near the end of the last 2k piece, I pushed the pace down further, into the mid-2-teens, for fun, hit 159bpm, which does have an AT-feeling RPE to it. (159 is just under 85% reserve, 88% max.)

Followed up the rowing with about 45' dumbbell supersets . . . yes, starting after midnight, because I'm that idiot.

Yesterday workout was:

Brisk walk - 5 minutes
Wide grip lat pull down
Tricep cable pull down
Chest press machine
Lateral raise
Seated row
Preacher curl

I was very nervous since it was my first time lifting weights at this gym and there were quite a few people. I got through it eventually and I feel like I’ll become less nervous the more I go and the more familiar I become with the equipment.

Gym workout this morning. Push/pull with kettlebells, equalizer bars, etc, plus KB squats and some core focused stuff like dynamic crunches with med ball.

Counting down the final week of daily outdoor runs/walks to complete the Winter Warrior challenge.