What Was Your Work Out Today?

Still in covid protocol so no gym today...nice little 10 mile road ride though.

Went for a hilly neighborhood walk with the kid. It was hot, kid was slow, but overall a nice change of pace from the elliptical. We did 3.1 miles in just under an hour. Mostly z2, with a bit into z3 on the hills. I could've gone faster, but the kid wasn't feeling it today. Instead, I came home and did my dumbbell/bodyweight routine. It's starting to feel easy in some parts too. Hmm... how to increase without overdoing it? That's the eternal question, isn't it?

AnnPT77 wrote: »

Bike's still at the shop, and the university men's club coach was being paid by our club to coach at tonight's open row session, so I rowed.

I took out one of the club's recreational singles (more stable than my racing single) in anticipation of being asked to do some uncomfortable corrections. 😆

I got some useful things to work on, so overall it was a good plan. Total 9125m, in about 90 F (32 C) heat, humid, sunny. Even though I didn't push that hard, I was dripping with sweat. A little Z4, mostly Z3 and below.

@mtaratoot, that looks like a fun kayak - nice lines!

I actually do like that boat a lot. So it's surprising how long it's been hanging unused in the carport. It's VERY different from my canoes. For one thing it's a lot heavier. It's a pretty beefy layup, and obviously it also has a deck. The canoe does have aluminum hardware. The kayak has a skeg instead of a rudder. I'm not a fan of rudders on kayaks. The bulkheads also add some weight. I am guessing maybe 55 pounds or so. It didn't feel as fast as the canoes do, but when I watched my friend paddle it, it sure looked fast. I just checked my average speed from my device, and it confirms I paddled faster in the kayak. For sure it felt like we made it upstream faster. Of course the other day in the canoe my friend was on a paddle board, and I had to stop to wait for him from time to time.

The kayak was built in July 2000. My ultralight canoe in July 2016. The glass canoe was built in 1988. They all do different things, and I enjoy paddling each of them. Maybe I should get the ultralight out today for a change.

I need to replace all the shock cord on the deck of the kayak and possibly the perimeter lines. Always work to do on boats.

I think I can sit in the canoe for many more hours straight than in the kayak. I have to point my toes out when in the kayak as the deck doesn't let my feet be straight. That puts strain on my hips. The kayak can carry a lot of gear comfortably below deck. The ultralight canoe can also carry a very large load, probably larger. I also can fit a cooler in the canoe. Not so much the kayak. I have to tie things in to the canoe since it doesn't have watertight hatches, and of course they are only so watertight. Even in the hatches, things need to be in drybags.

Yeah. I'm going to paddle at least one boat today.

Another heater today...hopefully we'll break out of this wave by the weekend as I told my 10 year old I would take him catfish fishing on Saturday. Didn't get out early enough this morning for a ride...it's 10AM and already 98*...95* is pretty much my upper limit threshold. We hit 107* yesterday. We are in the desert, but it doesn't typically break 100* here as we are at a mile high in elevation so it feels really friggin' hot right now.

I have some pool exercises that I keep in my back pocket from the summer of 2020 when I was pretty busted up so I think I'll break those out this afternoon. It never really feels like good work, but it's moving and better than sitting in my floatie with a beer.

Push Day

Bench Press, Incline Bench Press, Decline Machine Bench Press, Seated OHP, Cable Pushdowns

I went to the gym intending to do the gymnastics 'homework', which consisted of a bunch of beat swings, active shoulders hold, banded lat pull downs, adjusted bent over rows and db bicep curls, because the regular workout had double unders (which I can't do because of my ankle), sit ups (which I can't do because of my back, and a bunch of pull ups (which I plain cannot do).

I did the gymnastics stuff in about 30 min, including the warming up and still had 20 min left despite starting class late so I decided to do clean and jerks. I haven't done clean and jerks in a month or two and before that I've only done them once this year. And I will have to do them saturday, at the weightlifting competition. So I figured I needed to practice them. Usually they're covered in friday's oly class and sunday's oly class covers both snatches and c&js but I can't usually make it to those. I can't do oly class this friday either so I decided to try mimicking what we did on tuesday with snatches and build up to my starting weight c&j.

This week's been very hard on my shoulders somy shoulders and neck were really feeling very sore. I did a power c&j followed immediately by a hang power c&j at 25kg, 30kg and 35kg, with only a minute rest between sets. Then I had to start rolling my neck and shoulders with a lacrosse ball between sets so I moved on to singles, with 2-3 min rest between. I did 40kg, 45kg and finally also 50kg, a new 1RM. My technique was not as good as it usually is but I was doing them off the floor and my back felt okay so I can now do 50kg deadlifts again, which is better than the starting point of 0kg and the 30kg I struggled with 2 weeks ago, though still far off of anything actualky heavy.

The c&j actually felt really okay, even at higher weights. I had more trouble with the cleans because of my wrists than with the jerks, though the jerks got my shoulders stiff. I think on saturday I'll try 47,5-51-55kg. It should be doable if I focus on technique and also rest a little. And once my back is fully healed I'll work on 60kg and 65kg, both of which seem doable. I also decided that I want to start doing oly class on fridays so I'll see if I'll do 8am, 6pm or 7pm but I'll start after my vacation so from october onwards. And once my back is healed, I also wanna work on a 50kg snatch and slowly build up to a 130kg deadlift. I was so close to being able to do it.

I also wore my new sportsleggings today. I have a problem because retail therapy and exercise have become my new coping mechanisms and I'm very much drawn to bright colours so I keep buying pretty leggings. These are turquoise and from adidas's super huge techfit line and they fit perfectly, though you do see all the sweat but who cares. I'm still waiting on another order of sportsleggings from a brand that's very popular on ig so I'm excited about everything sports-related right now.

Have a great wednesday, everyone

Paddling again. Same route as the previous day, but a different boat. About three miles climbing upstream and then three miles back down.

This time I took the Wenonah Encounter. It's my lightest boat at 38 pounds. It's 17' long with zero rocker. It has very high sides and is quite seaworthy. I think I'll probably use this boat only when I'm loading up for a multi-day trip or if I'm going somewhere I want to keep big waves out. It is very stable, so isn't quite as much fun as the Advantage (six inches shorter, ten pounds heavier, a couple inches narrower, and sides are a couple inches shorter). I think that will be my go-to boat for now. It's also tougher than the Encounter since it's glass instead of ultralight aramid. They're both tougher than some people think.

I was commenting to my friend when I had the sea kayak out a couple days ago how I just couldn't sit in it for hours on end like I could the canoes. I assumed it was just having my feet pointed out which affects my hips. My hips have "issues." Otherwise it seemed like the same sitting position. Then I noticed yesterday it's not at all the same position. In the canoe, my butt is up higher, but my feet are still down on the hull. Just that little amount of drop makes all the difference, at least for me.

I am considering taking my whitewater kayak today out just for grins. I won't be able to get as far upstream. My whitewater kayak is fast by whitewater kayak standards, but it sure wouldn't keep up with the long boats.

An hour of pilates. My back and ankle hurt all day so I took it easy.

First day back at doing Strong Lifts program, went very light just to make sure I don't over do it first day back at program. Squats, Overhead Press and Deadlifts today

Missed a couple of days' workouts: Wednesday rowing got weather-cancelled at the last minute (too-strong winds) so we went out for brunch instead. Thursday was busy, but I was thinking I'd maybe row while supervising the open rowing session. However, when I got there, part of the duck fence was down, had obviously been down a long time, and there was a massive duck-poo mess on about half the dock. My "exercise" was an hour and a half of sweeping, scrubbing, then rinsing the dock. 🙄 Bike is still in the shop.

Today, we went back out in the quad, rowed the usual 7k-ish. I asked not to bow (feeling not very with the program cognitively), so rowed 2 seat. The bow rower called some power 10s (you take 10 strokes as hard as possible, then go back to a sustainable pace), which we haven't done much this summer because it's so stinkin' hot/humid. Still was Z3 and below, even with that.

Was feeling better yesterday, but had golf last night in 103 degree weather, so I took another day off just to be safe.

Today, back at it. Did 150 X 3 in sets of 5 (30 reps per set each of compound shoulders, legs and chest). Finished that right before lunch and then rowed in the garage. 102 today so even with the cooler, kind of brutal.

Did 4 X 2K w 3 minute rests. 2:09 or so average pace. Not bad, felt like quitting a few times and gutted it out. Tried to cap HR at 170 for most of it. Let it go harder just at the end of the last 2K. 800 calories just for the row in 49 minutes.

Enjoying my reward -- a gigantic Peanut Butter, Chocolate and Banana Protein shake. I also eat breakfast on these hard days instead of my usual fasting until after my workout. So, I figure if I'm going to push super hard two days, I'll add in some extra food and protein.

20 minutes on the TM then:
Machine pull-ups
Abdominal crunch machine
Chest press (machine)

Gardening!