What Was Your Work Out Today?

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  • Djproulx
    Djproulx Posts: 3,084 Member
    Easy paced shakeout swim before tomorrow's triathlon relay. Roughly 1500 lazy yards and had the lake to myself. Saw an eagle grab a trout for breakfast, but otherwise it was perfect stillness.

    Roughly 25 tri club friends will be at the race, so it'll be more of a social affair than real performance test for me.
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 14,815 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    9k coached row in bow of the double, with a 21 y/o (petite but mighty!) rowing stroke.

    We had a mini-adventure. Though I steered wide of the bank on the corner where the fishing docks are, one guy had left two rods unattended with lines far, far out into the river. We can't see the lines from the water at all . . . so we caught both lines, dragged the rods (that were propped up on shore unattended) into the river, got ourselves well entangled. Various untangling and rod retrieval activities ensued. Coach came up in his launch to support if needed. Fortunately, everyone was reasonably good humored about it, and all ended well.

    Did the rods get back to their owner? I bet the shell was the biggest thing that person ever caught.
  • drmwc
    drmwc Posts: 1,117 Member
    edited August 2022
    Thanks Anne and Mike! I feel fine, maybe a bit more tired than normal, but basically asymptomatic so far.

    I read a book in my garden today, and got bored. So I campused up and down my climbing wall a bit. Not exercising is hard.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 7,106 Member
    Yesterday: after a stressful work day, I 'vegged out' in front of the TV. Nothing but some stretching: all the running I've been doing seems to have made my hips quite stiff. I wouldn't dare to claim age as the reason for my stretching 😛

    Today a treadmill run: 6km in 41min27, easy steady state run after the first few minutes of getting into my rhythm.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 36,455 Member
    mtaratoot wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    9k coached row in bow of the double, with a 21 y/o (petite but mighty!) rowing stroke.

    We had a mini-adventure. Though I steered wide of the bank on the corner where the fishing docks are, one guy had left two rods unattended with lines far, far out into the river. We can't see the lines from the water at all . . . so we caught both lines, dragged the rods (that were propped up on shore unattended) into the river, got ourselves well entangled. Various untangling and rod retrieval activities ensued. Coach came up in his launch to support if needed. Fortunately, everyone was reasonably good humored about it, and all ended well.

    Did the rods get back to their owner? I bet the shell was the biggest thing that person ever caught.

    @mtaratoot, yes they did. Apologies for leaving that ambiguous. We untangled, and he was able to use a remaining on-shore rod to nab the lines, pull the rods back up to the fishing docks. (The "fishing docks" are more like a planked, railed deck area at the edge of the river, not a classic dock hanging out over the water.) We may've been a big'un, but I don't think he was happy with that "catch", even though he was very civil over it. Plenty of blame to go around, I think.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 36,455 Member
    Another Saturday, another row in the quad, back in bow seat. Since I was bow, I incrementally increased the power 10s. Anytime we had a clear line, I called "10 (strokes) power, 15 easy", so we got in quite a few 10s. We had someone from last year's learn-to-row class in 2 seat, and she'd never done power pieces, but we explained the concept (more oomph, no intentional spm increase . . . though spm goes up on its own). She did great. Our stroke (the Big 10 champion rower) felt we were releasing before her, so we worked on getting length through layback plus full arm range going into the finish.

    This afternoon, solo arm-bending, some garden-walking, and a few vague dancing motions at the local art's council's beer tasting/live music event. That's exercise, kinda, isn't it? 😉 Personal best: Greenbush Brother Benjamin. 😋 (Beautiful copper color, high IBU, kinda high ABV . . . small samples!)

    @mtaratoot, that looks like a fun trip. Some of those people have nice boats, too!
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 14,815 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    @mtaratoot, that looks like a fun trip. Some of those people have nice boats, too!


    The only night we didn't camp on private property (a farm), we stayed in a large city park. As it turns out, it's 0.5 miles from my house, so I didn't tent that night. I walked home, dropped some things off, watered bonsai and shiitake logs, then biked back down for supper and visitation, then back home. We put all our boats in a big grassy circle where folks drive around to use the boat ramp. I was chatting with one of the other volunteers and asked, "Not current value, but retail value - what do you think we're looking at in this little place." We agreed it was probably no less than $300,000 worth of boats based on RETAIL value. My 35 year old beat-up Advantage ain't worth what a new one is, but boy it sure was fun looking at all those boats.

    Definitely more kayaks than canoes. Us canoe paddlers are special ;)

    The fellow I was talking with about how much that boat pile was worth is on the board of the organization that ran the trip, and his vocation is in the outdoor recreation industry. He was paddling a graphite version of the same hull I have in glass. Super light. Very nice. When I win the lottery I'll buy one. Oh. Yeah. I guess I have to buy a ticket first.
  • MissAtomicBomb238
    MissAtomicBomb238 Posts: 65 Member
    @AnnPT77 haha you’re right. I’m getting g used to leaving my 30s. I have roughly 340 days until I hit 40 and it’s sort of a reckoning for me.

    Workout- zone 2 run which involved a lot of walking breaks since the humidity drove up my heart rate 😭

    90 minutes of rock climbing and bouldering today. This is a new obsession…
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 14,020 Member
    Yesterday was full-body day:

    Elliptical - 5km hills

    Weights - Full body

    Deadlifts, hack squat, DB press, DB row, front/side/rear lateral raises, DB curls, lying DB extensions

    In addition it was grocery day, so pushing a cart laden with enough food to feed a household of 9 humans plus 10 animals for an hour, then wrapping up the day with a half hour walk of one of said animals around the neighborhood.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 7,106 Member
    edited August 2022
    Today was long run day: 13km in 90 minutes. 11km @ 8.6kph and 2km @ 9.1kph.
    I could have gone longer, but I was late starting my run after playing some card games with my BF and letting him use the treadmill first.

    There's a local run in my town in a month: 5, 10 and 15k. I'm hesitating. I want to get rid of a traumatic memory: a 5k run years and years ago which failed miserably, and in hindsight I should never have signed up for. But precisely that memory and being very introverted (there's a reason I usually run on my treadmill in my garage) are holding me back: the run is during a 3 day festival, lots and lots of people watching. I still have some time to think about it and see what the weather will be (I'm not good with heat).
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 36,455 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    Today was long run day: 13km in 90 minutes. 11km @ 8.6kph and 2km @ 9.1kph.
    I could have gone longer, but I was late starting my run after playing some card games with my BF and letting him use the treadmill first.

    There's a local run in my town in a month: 5, 10 and 15k. I'm hesitating. I want to get rid of a traumatic memory: a 5k run years and years ago which failed miserably, and in hindsight I should never have signed up for. But precisely that memory and being very introverted (there's a reason I usually run on my treadmill in my garage) are holding me back: the run is during a 3 day festival, lots and lots of people watching. I still have some time to think about it and see what the weather will be (I'm not good with heat).

    @lietchi - I know you know this, but I want to underscore it. It's a festival. Those people are mostly festival-ing. They may even be on the sidelines cheering. But they're not watching you. Conquer the demons of the past. It'll be empowering, I betcha.

    P.S. Obligatory on-topic (?) content: Today is my weekly rest day. 😉

    This upcoming week, I'm (maybe) trying to hit 40k in some combination of on-water rowing, machine rowing, stationary biking . . . but I don't want to give up any outdoor biking to do it. This is for the Concept 2 Dog Days of Summer Challenge: 4 weeks in August, 10k first week, then increasing 10k each week to 40k in week 4. If weather holds, I'll have 3 days, 25-30 or so miles (40-50km), of outdoor biking in the mix, probably - but it doesn't count. Weeks 1-3 were automagic, given my normal on-water rowing schedule and decent enough weather to do it. (I got lucky with weather so far.) Week 4 . . . we'll see. I don't love rowing machine/stationary bike in Summer when there are better options. 🤷‍♀️
  • MissAtomicBomb238
    MissAtomicBomb238 Posts: 65 Member
    65 minute long run. That’s all.
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 14,815 Member
    Cleaning and organizing gear after the canoe trip.

    Preparing the raft and gear for the Rogue River trip.
  • corcorcor
    corcorcor Posts: 1 Member
    I did a mile on the treadmill and hit some abs and arms.
  • TicTacToo
    TicTacToo Posts: 76 Member
    edited August 2022
    An hour of Masters swim training. I can't yet keep up with the intermediate group, but I'm nearly there.

    Warm up with fins...
    200m own choice
    200m freestyle (I only did 100m)
    2 X 50 drill, 50 swim own choice

    Main set...
    6 X 100m free @ 2:30 (lol, in my dreams! I managed 5 X 100)
    50m easy
    5 X 100m free @ 2.10 (I did 4 X 100, nowhere near times)
    100m easy
    4 X 100m free @ 2.05 (I noped out of that and did 2 X 100m kick instead)

    Cool down...
    2 X 100m easy

    My total: 1950m with half a litre of my sweat added to the pool water

    When I started training 8 weeks ago I could only swim 1km in an hour so I'm nearly twice as good as I used to be!
  • Djproulx
    Djproulx Posts: 3,084 Member
    edited August 2022
    The Cranberry Trifest was a fun event held yesterday in southeast Mass. Participants were offered many different options, from a Splash n Dash, to a sprint or Olympic distance triathlon, as well as aquabike, duathlon and relay options. About 20 members of my tri club raced it yesterday. My guess is that 450-500 people raced at this event.

    I did the swim and bike legs of the Olympic distance race, with a friend completing the run. We didn't finish on the podium, but that was no surprise. I knew several of the relay teams who had specialists in each discipline. Our tri club "dream team" took the relay win.(1:26/100 swim, 23mph bike, 6:06/mile run)

    My swim was slow (2:10/100) for the 1500yd distance, but I put down a decent bike split, averaging 18.9 mph for the 26 mile course. Our runner went 9:06/mile for the 10k.

    So, it was a great time and several friends won age group and relay awards. I'll probably do this one again next year.

    Rest day today.
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 14,020 Member
    Leg Day Monday, a fan favorite!

    Squats, BB step-ups, one-leg leg press, glute press, seated calf raises

    As my weight has continued to creep down low enough to actually show evidence of abdominal muscle, I'm now starting to add some ab work to my normally scheduled weight lifting. Today's entry: cable crunches.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 7,106 Member
    No workout today, just a lot of steps: teambuilding activity at an amusement park. I dislike rollercoasters, so I basically watched my colleagues in the most insane (in my eyes) rollercoasters and rides and went along on some less adrenaline inducing attractions. 18k steps and socializing all day long completely wiped me out, so no workout in the evening.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 36,455 Member
    You could probably guess: 7002m, rowing 2 seat in the quad.

    (My rowing buddies seem to have decided they like our new-last-year rower E. in bow better than they like me, and she's usually willing . . . which is all fine with me, because I'd rather be in the engine room - selfishly! - and TBH I taught her everything she knows about bowing anyway so I don't feel tooooo bad about being eclipsed. 🤣 She really is good.)

    I convinced her to repeat Saturday's pattern of 10 strokes power, 10 strokes easy, every time we had a clear line (i.e. no obstacles ahead on the river to complicate steering), after a warm-up. So, pretty interval-ish, though there were a couple of stretches of moderate rowing when we were around the singles that were out with us, or bow rower couldn't see around the one major-ish curve. Fun!

    It was cooler again to day, 60s/70s F during rowing time, but kind of muggy.

    As an aside, not relevant only to today: I never realized how much sweat just eyelids could produce, until I started rowing outdoors in summer. (Cap absorbs the sweat from above my eyebrows, but I still get beaucoup sweat in my eyes on a day like this.)
  • dralicephd
    dralicephd Posts: 402 Member
    Had a super stressful work week last week. I exercised, but there was no time for logging it here. The stress led to sleep issues, which means I was TIRED. All workouts suffered a bit, but that's life. Will do an easy paced elliptical session later today, as I'm still sore from yesterday's yard work.

  • MikePfirrman
    MikePfirrman Posts: 3,307 Member
    Just around an hour of cardio -- 30 minutes on the rower, then 30 minutes on the Stepper/Elliptical (LateralX) on the highest settings. All at 140 HR or below (75% max).
  • TicTacToo
    TicTacToo Posts: 76 Member
    edited August 2022
    An hour of strength training. And for the first time ever, an encounter with the rowing machine... rowed 1km in 5m36, so that's my baseline to improve from! Suggestions on how to build up from there are welcome.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 36,455 Member
    TicTacToo wrote: »
    An hour of strength training. And for the first time ever, an encounter with the rowing machine... rowed 1km in 5m36, so that's my baseline to improve from! Suggestions on how to build up from there are welcome.

    For starters, don't try for immediate speed increase. Work on proper technique. It's not necessarily intuitive. Watch some beginner technique videos from a sound source (such as Concept 2 or Dark Horse Rowing), keep your strokes per minute low, work on getting the right stroke sequence (legs-body-arms . . . but there's more to it), learn how to suspend your weight between the foot-stretcher and the handle while adding muscle power in the right order.

    If you go for speed or high strokes per minute initially, odds are high that you'll groove in sub-par technique that won't let you get a decent workout (or a fast pace) in the long run. If you're on a Concept 2 machine, the lever with number is not "resistance". Resistance increases as you learn how to apply power properly. Too many people in gyms are rushing up and down the slide at high strokes per minute, setting the believed-to-be-resistance high, not getting power into the stroke.

    The same basic technique applies not only to Concept 2 rowers, but to any of the flywheel or water-tank style rowers and others that have a single handle, sliding seat.
  • TicTacToo
    TicTacToo Posts: 76 Member
    edited August 2022
    AnnPT77 wrote: »

    For starters, don't try for immediate speed increase. Work on proper technique. It's not necessarily intuitive. Watch some beginner technique videos from a sound source (such as Concept 2 or Dark Horse Rowing), keep your strokes per minute low, work on getting the right stroke sequence (legs-body-arms . . . but there's more to it), learn how to suspend your weight between the foot-stretcher and the handle while adding muscle power in the right order.

    Thanks for this, Ann. I watched a Concept 2 video early this morning before I went, so I'm glad that was a sensible thing to do. And I met a nice bloke at the gym today who is a surf lifesaver (the type who row boats), so he gave me a few tips too. Probably the best thing I have going for me at the gym is a cheeky grin and no problem asking random strangers for help!!!


  • TicTacToo
    TicTacToo Posts: 76 Member
    edited August 2022
    @AnnPT77 Quick question... it feels like my legs need to be longer to get a decent pull... will it feel less awkward when I get the back and arms technique more sorted?
  • MikePfirrman
    MikePfirrman Posts: 3,307 Member
    TicTacToo wrote: »
    @AnnPT77 Quick question... it feels like my legs need to be longer to get a decent pull... will it feel less awkward when I get the back and arms technique more sorted?

    The sequence of rowing is not very easy to master. Legs, body, hands (on the drive) and then hands (quickly returning), body and legs on the return.

    One trick that's kind of will tell you really quickly if you're getting it is rowing unstrapped. You have to be very careful with doing that. Perhaps with your feet loose in the straps at first. If you're rowing the correct sequence, you will not fall off the back of the rower! It takes time to get right.

    When I first started rowing, I rowed strapped in always. Then, I learned about doing it unstrapped and quickly made all my easy days unstrapped. I got away from it for a while and my form suffered -- too much momentum at the back, using the straps to pull myself back on the recovery (which can hurt your feet) -- this is all wasted effort and incorrect.

    My legs are shorter. It is hard to really feel the leg drive until you get the sequence down. Once you do, it's easier to feel. Another mistake most make is a rounded back (big no no) and pulling with the arms first -- your arms should be straight, fingers hooked around handle on the drive, all legs to start, body tucked, back nearly straight. Like a deadlift.

    Another thing to watch is overextending/reaching so your knees are too far over your feet. I use a bungee strap on my rower to make sure I don't overreach/extend. It helps train the mind where to stop and when to start the drive.

    Dark Horse, that Ann mentioned, has some great instructional videos. So does a lady named Cassi Neimann. Hers are outstanding. She's a Concept2 Master instructor. There's also an app called asensei (I think). It's the only one with real world class over the water rowers teaching not only training programs, but technique.