What Was Your Work Out Today?

A half-hour 5km jaunt on the elliptical to get the blood flowing before a full-body session in the weight room, starting with deadlifts, always a crowd pleaser.

Nothing formal Friday or Saturday (though I did go watch a roller derby match in person for the first time ever, with a group of rowing buddies, one of whom is former competitor and current referee). Today, easy-pace stationary bike again, 10k+3' CD, though so-easy pace (about 65% HRmax, 80W) that the 3' was the same pace as the 10k piece. 😆

I recognize that I'm in Winter denial season, so just trying to get some kind of exercise activity in most days in the transition to Winter routine, rather than just sulking and slacking off altogether. We had snow last night when I was driving home, but it didn't stick.

Test-drove a 15-minute bodyweight video someone here suggested, then did a short rowing machine workout just to start forcing my unwilling self into Winter, 2 x (2k on, 2' off/CD). As usual, "off" means row out 5 strokes, gulp some water, row easy for the remaining minute or so of the 2'; CD is just easy rowing to drop HR.

Shooting for around 2:30 average split. It took a shockingly high stroke rating (around 24-25 spm) to hit it on the first 2k, and correspondingly shockingly few meters per stroke (<10) . . . at shockingly high HR, too. Second piece was a little better, more like 20spm for a slightly faster split, and around 10-12 meters per stroke. In the last 10-12 strokes before the CD, picked up the pace to around 2:15 at lower-20s spm.

On water, I focus more on blade work and whole boat stuff (synchronization, loosely), and do try to get power on the strokes especially if I'm not in bow (steering takes up brain bandwidth in bow). Machine is technically simpler, focus more on that meters per stroke (faster splits for lower spm) and some basic stroke-cycle mechanics . . . while avoiding going too hard too often from a conditioning/fatigue standpoint.

Ended up with a 2:27.9 average pace for the 2k pieces at 22 spm average, HR hit about 87%, but averaged around 76% (including the row in/out and CD). Yeah, that's slow. What can I say but F 60-69 lwt? 😆

Leg Day in the weight room, featuring 20-rep squats for that extra special burn.

This was mine on Tuesday and my plan for tonight.

Tuesday:
Warm up 1km run, speed 9km

Chest press, vs goblet squats vs plank.
4 rounds, 10x 10kg chest press, 10x 15kg dumbbell for squat, 30 second plank.
Leg press vs RDLs
4 rounds, 20x 40kg leg press, 8 x 15 dumbbell for RDL

Plate to ceiling x 10 10kg plate
Dumbbell carry x 2 widths of area (roughly 5m) with 15kg dumbbell
Crunches x 20
Leg raises x 15
45 seconds active recovery on a cross trainer.

Thursday:
Warm up 3minute row

Leg press v reverse goblet lunch
4 rounds, 20 x 40kg leg press, 16x 12kg reverse lunge

Cable row
3 rounds, 12 x 30kg

Leg extensions pairs with squats
3 rounds, 12 x 20kg, 20 squats

Side raises v over head press
3 rounds, 10x 5kg dumbbells, 1- x 5kg dumbells

Getting down to the last 3 days of the 7 week gym challenge. Its been a grind, so I'm ready for it to end. Five days of strength work planned with my trainer this week to finish the challenge, but I switched up my cardio routine yesterday and substituted a couple hours of chasing pheasants for my normal boring treadmill runs. (score: Game Birds= 1, Dave= 0)

After Saturday's contest end, I'll return to easy off season base work in the pool, plus indoor Zwift sessions and easy runs.

Work got called off early due to a snow storm, so I got to do a double workout:
Cardio: 5km elliptical hills
Strength: Push day, featuring bench press

3 x (2k on, 2' off/CD) on the rowing machine, intentionally backing off the pace a little to aim for somewhere in the 2:30s. Ended up with 2:33.8@21spm, 2:32.6@18, 2:31.5@18.

Working on various technical details, and watching the force curve (my favorite display); ended up reducing the spm to keep the intensity down as some technical adjustments improved output a tiny bit. Garmin thinks 660 total strokes (including the row in/out and CD) which seems OK. Mostly Z3, couple minutes Z4 (drift, mostly), HR topped out at about 82% HRmax.

Then I ran through a couple sets of very light dumbbell stuff, just to go through the motions and see how it felt. OK, just to start talking myself into the necessity of Winter lifting. Bench press, overhead press, tricep extension, bicep curls, and some horrific form woodchoppers (must review instructions!). I think that was all. Some annoying hints of returning shoulder nerve impingement, need to pull out my PT exercises. 😐

69 yrs young started at 205 lbs and now at 178 lbs. Goal for me is 170 lbs. For a very large bone frame. 48 minute cross country hike upend down hills and narrow trails. Then another 35 minute walk in the neighborhood. Both at about 3.5 mph with dog on lead.

Full Body Saturday!

5km elliptical hills
Weights featuring deadlifts
30 minute walk with dog
30 minutes shovel snow / chip ice

Tuesday last week I went climbing. I went to City Bouldering, which is the nearest to my office, and got two v4s. It's pretty solid by my (admittedly low) standards.

Thursday I went climbing, back to my usual gym. It was good, I got a couple of 6Cs, and fell off the final move of quite a few.

Saturday and Sunday I went scuba diving this weekend. It was good; we were learning to use a stage bottle of rich gas to lower decompression times. We nearly finished the course, but have one dive left. It's a slightly odd course, allowing to put 50% or 80% oxygen in the stage, but only allowing switching onto it from 10m or higher. (More standard is 21m if you're using 50%, as that gives a PPO2 of 1.6 bar, which is considered safe. 10m is a PPO2 of 1 bar on 50%, which is way below the safe maximum, so safe, but means you spend longer in the water).

Monday Climbing, 2 hours. A decent session, I got some reasonably hard climbs.

sydney cummings on youtube provides a great workout every day.

Squeezed in an easy-ish stationary bike ride, the usual sort of thing, just before my osteopath appointment. I don't like to do workouts after those appointments on the same day, so I'm done for today. 90W average in the 10k piece, 80W in the 3' CD, all Z3 and below.

Concept 2 Holiday Challenge starts tomorrow. We'll see.

I went climbing for 2 hours. It 2as really good fun, I got around three of my projects. I was climbing pretty well.

Some of the beginners asked me for the beta on sone if their projects. I did my best (I went up them all) but I'm not sure I found the easiest routes. One involved a dyno to a hard mantle followed by a knee bar. I'm pretty sure there should have been an easy way up.

Today was leg day.

Started with cardio as I do every day.
32 minutes on the spin bike, 9.7 miles
21 minutes walking on the treadmill.

Super Set, 5 sets
Goblet squats, with a drop set for the last set
Landmine twists

Super Set, 5 sets
Sumo Deadlifts
Leg Raises

Crunches, 5 sets