What Was Your Work Out Today?

Joined a friend who is racing with us this coming weekend for a last open water swim. Beautiful calm conditions on a crystal clear lake.

I ground out a slow 2000yds, while my friend, the dolphin, glided along for 3300 effortless yards. She was a competitive swimmer in college and her form and swim fitness are still great.

I did 190 minutes on the Elliptical for 13.76 miles this AM. Also did Leg presses, 5 sets of 20 @ 100+ lbs today. (Don't know how much the incline sled/bar weighs. It's also a angled shoulder/squat press too) Used the double cable pulley system for Lat pull downs 2 sets of 10 with 50 lbs. And double bicep curls, 2 sets of 10 with 50 lbs, then 2 sets of 10 bicep dumbbell curls with 10 lbs and same number of sets with Tri-cep kickbacks with the same dumbbell. Need to add to my repertoire. Need to cut the grass today. Off tomorrow yet. Nice break from work. And getting extra workout time in. Hopefully adding in the weights will kick start something for me. Or at least tone me up!

Took last two days off. Did some yardwork on Sunday and had guests over yesterday for the 4th and cooked all day.

Back at it today with my new lifting routine (30 reps X 5 sets of compound shoulders, legs and chest), then it was a hard row again -- 10 X 199m with 1 minute recovery. Finished this time at a 1:45 pace, which I'm happy with. Paced it much better than the failed effort last week (on Friday). Started out at 1:48 and most of the rest were 1:45 until the last one and that was 1:43 pace, so well executed (for me). Finished with 20 minutes or so, really easy, on the LateralX.

Not sure why the one club picked 199 meters, an odd number. Each club gets a turn at picking the monthly challenge. Typically, there's some meaning behind the number but I'm not sure what it was.

Yesterday after work was leg day: squats, RDL, leg extends/curls, and step-ups.

Boring steady state work on rower and then Assault Bike. 2:22 pace on rower @ 21 SPM. Right at 10 meters per stroke average. HR just slightly over 75% max at the end (something I try to cap) -- not bad considering it's hot outside.

Yesterday, rowing got rained out (group went out for coffee instead!). I had errands and stuff the rest of the day, so just took it as an unplanned rest day, which I think was beneficial.

Today, another bike ride, just 22.8 miles this time, moving average 11mph, all but 5:25 Z2 and below.

Core and leg day

Rowed the usual 7k-ish in bow of the double, nice flat water but really muggy (hot/humid, no breeze at all), so kept it on the extra-easy-pace side, except for one burst where we were passing the single that was out with us and didn't want to be playing dodge-boats across a wide area of the river if we passed slowly.

(It's mildly annoying to row with another boat close ahead of you that's just passed you, because you are facing away from that boat, and need to keep checking "behind" you to make sure they haven't stopped or something. Traveling backwards makes things weird.)

There was a brief foray into Z4, and a few minutes Z3, but mostly Z2 and below.

That'll be it for today, as formal exercise.

My new lifting routine in the AM (5 sets of 30 X 3 - shoulders, legs, chest compound movements) -- getting easier now. It was brutal the first couple of times, this felt easier.

Then, at lunch, did a 4 X 2K row/3 minutes recovery, capping the HR @ around 175. I really said 170 to start but 175 didn't feel too painful, LOL.

2:10.6 average pace for the four 2Ks. That's a hard day. 750 calories on the row in 45 minutes. I have to get back to work but I'm ready for a nap!

Fun day. Rowed in the morning, bow of the quad, for the usual 7k-ish. We had a double and a single out as part of our group. Some of us went out for coffee after.

Later, decided to bike to a "scrap fest" event (teams build sculptures out of junk which are then viewed/judged, plus there's bands, food trucks, etc. I'd planned a round trip (circa 20 miles), but ran into my regular rowing double partner and her husband (semi planned), then they invited me over for dinner at their place (unplanned) so we put my bike in their car and they drove me home (late, after dinner, Scrabble, etc.).

Some fun exercise-ish activity, embedded in other fun stuff, on a beautiful day. Can't beat that!

Just did a 30 minute steady state row (machine) on the deck. Then splashed around in the pool. Had to clean the pool filter, which is like a 45 minute job, so took it easier on the exercising with being in the heat already to do that.

We don't get humidity here but during Monsoon season. I keep seeing my friends say "how hot" it is other places like in the UK. It was 93 at 8 AM w/ 60% humidity when I started my row. That's hot. It's 103 right now and the humidity is still higher than normal. Every year around this time, I remember what sweat feels like!

I got to row *engine room* in the quad today, yay! (Engine room = one of the two middle seats, not stroke (who's responsible for cadence) or bow (who's responsible for steering).) It was so fun just to be able to focus on technique and power. It also felt a bit cooler, because it was breezy, which made the power effort more manageable/pleasant.

We rowed only about 6.7km (I think the bow rower - her first time in bow of a quad - was nervous about getting too close to the bridges at speed, before the turns, maybe). But we got slightly faster splits as a boat than we've been hitting lately, and for me about half the row was Z3, so a little more intensity but not super intense.

My releases still kinda s*ck, right probably even worse than left, but I think I'm making improvements when I have the mindshare to focus on it like this.

@AnnPT77

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that when rowing a shell, you face the stern. It would make sense that a rower in the stern is responsible for cadence since all others can see them.

But the boat is steered from the BOW? I'm really curious how that works because I'm used to taking rudder strokes from the stern or a "bow rudder" from the bow, but that's when facing the bow of the boat and using a single blade canoe paddle or double blade kayak paddle. Using a bow rudder would drastically slow the shell I think.

What am I missing?

mtaratoot wrote: »

@AnnPT77

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that when rowing a shell, you face the stern. It would make sense that a rower in the stern is responsible for cadence since all others can see them.

But the boat is steered from the BOW? I'm really curious how that works because I'm used to taking rudder strokes from the stern or a "bow rudder" from the bow, but that's when facing the bow of the boat and using a single blade canoe paddle or double blade kayak paddle. Using a bow rudder would drastically slow the shell I think.

What am I missing?

in a coxless boat, generally no rudder, just a fixed fin (skeg) under the boat near stern.

Bow steers because they're the one who can best see in the direction of travel: They're still looking over their shoulder or in a small hat/glasses mirror, but no other rowers obstruct their view.

Depending on the situation, they can make tiny/slow steering corrections by themself (row harder/further on one side) or call the boat to "hard starboard" or "hard port" (usually for an announced count, which they count aloud, i.e. "hard starboard for 3: . . . 1 . . . 2 . . . 3. . . even pressure", calling the count at the catch).

Bow also calls starts, various kinds of stops, can ask for boat-speed slowing if needed, have the rowers hold water on one or both sides, etc. Bow starts/ends the "river turns", too, where the boat pivots around its center by rowing on one side and backing on the other.

Lots of structured, bossy shouting from bow!

A few boats have toe steering, not too common: A contraption connects the toe-end of one rower's shoe to lines that connect to a sort of capstan, and that to a rudder on the underside of the shell. Rudder is part of a larger fin assembly toward the stern.

Steering is by slightly pivoting the foot. (All rowers' shoes are attached to the boat. We take off our shoes on the dock, put on the boat's shoes when we get in.) (I've never toe-steered.)

Even coxed boats steer by lines to a capstan and a rudder under the boat. The rudder is tiny, just a few square inches even on a 60' 8+ (8 rowers, one sweep oar each, plus coxswain).

The cox can use any of the calls a bow would use in a coxless boat, including calling for hard rowing on one side when the rudder is insufficient. In truly desperate times, cox can also effect a turn by sticking an arm in the water - very rare.

Coxes, especially in 8s, are usually amplified via a headset to speakers along the boat. Cox in a 4 or quad may sit bow or stern depending on the specific boat design; in 8s, always stern (for their safety).

People think coxes shout "stroke stroke stroke". They never do. They may give rating (spm) change calls to the stroke rower, and the other rowers synch with the stroke. Coxes steer, call starts/stops (rowed turns if needed), run the practice like a sub-coach, run the race plan in races - all the think-y, counting, metrics stuff. Coxes usually have electronics ("cox box" with stroke count, timer, spm, speed, etc.). In coxed boats, rowers just look straight ahead and *row* - not their job to think.