What Was Your Work Out Today?

Elliptical HIIT setting 150 minutes for 9.92 miles zones 2, 3 & 4 today.

OHP 2x5
Incline Bench 3x10
DB Lateral Raise 3x10

Ran into an old lifting buddy who commented it was good to see me again, and that I'd slimmed down. Made me smile to hear.

Thursday
Climbing, a slightly ridiculous 3.25 session. This started well; I got two v4s quite early. I made good progress on a v5, getting to the final hold but falling at the top. I then got pumped, and probably should have left an hour earlier. I was a bit broken by the end.

Squat 2x5
Bench 2x5
Preacher Curl 3x10

Now for a lazy, not-leave-the-house, preferably not-leave-the-bed weekend!

Hot weather (60s F at the time, 80s later) and almost no wind, and lucky us (me) - we had a quad. So we rowed, the usual bridge to bridge, which was about 7k. Glorious!

Next week looks bad weather-wise, so not sure yet whether I'm doing indoor workouts again . . . or sulking. Tomorrow has a great weather forecast, but there's a high school regatta on our river, so no row for me. Maybe a bike ride - we'll see.

We had a fun ride this morning, even though it was cut short by a bridge closure that knocked about four miles off our route. The bad news is this closure limits access to two other roads we love to ride.

As I suspected, our newest group member is a real "torture sister", having led bike shop rides for a few years as well as cycling in Europe. Today's ride covered 36 miles at 17.2mph instead of the advertised 16mph social pace. This pace was a bit of a push for me early in the season. It will get better (not easier) as I shed weight.

My wife and I are helping to staff an aid station for our local 50k Trail race this afternoon. Will see lots of friends volunteering or racing. Running three 11 mile loops of steep trails and rock scrambles is way beyond my ability and interest, but fun to watch.

nossmf wrote: »

Two days ago was in the 80's...last night we got 3 inches of snow...

I don't recall where you are, but that's what it's been like here, too, lately (mid-Michigan). It was in the 20s F overnight within the last couple of weeks, 80s during the day recently (probably 60s most nights), then forecast is back below freezing at night this coming week, possible snow on Monday.

At least I got a little bit of this good stuff in this week:

Switched my rest day to Sunday, since I was very fatigued and just didn't have the energy for a long run. I walked for an hour instead and left the swimming for today.

Today's pool workout was 1800 yds, including a main set of 5 x100's on 15sec recovery, right into a 1x500yd swim to help build endurance.

MikePfirrman wrote: »

Tweaked my lower back on Friday. Was so sore I could barely walk. Just bent over wrong (at the waist). Guessing the harder row on Thursday contributed to it, though I did it unstrapped and kind of hard to be terrible at form when you're unstrapped. IDK, but it's not too terrible.

Went to the chiropractor twice already. It's already 70% better. Good enough today to get a lift in (just no heavy weights overhead or heavy legs). Did work chest, shoulders and abs. Did air squats and bridges (no weights for now) for the legs.

Would do cardio but have a contractor here right now. We'll see if I can fit one in this afternoon.

I'm glad to hear you're seeing quick improvement!

Still, I don't really agree with the bolded, in the abstract. Back injuries are among the most common injuries for rowers, of course - most often lumbar spine.

I know you're an experienced rower, so not saying any of this applies to you, but lumbar flexion is one potential key cause of back injury in rowing. That can happen with fatigue, from tight hammies, from core instability, or lots of other root causes, and can be aggravated by simple over-use. Any of those are as probable feet-out (a.k.a. unstrapped) as when tied in.

Again, not probably your case given your experience/skill, but if someone has a tendency to take the recovery actively (pull themselves back up up the slide with their foot straps) rather than relaxing and letting momentum and the slide angle bring the catch to them, I think rowing feet out could even introduce some extra risk. In the rowing literature, one of the benefits cited for feet-out drills is emphasizing core engagement. Seems like any core deficiency during feet-out rowing could therefore potentially increase injury risk.

The quick, smooth arms-away + hip-hinge body over at the turnaround - which avoids checking the boat and and can even provide a little bow-ward energy in boats - contributes to the correct body-mechanics setup for the next drive. If there's a habitual tendency to pull the body into the recovery by the feet, but feet aren't tied in, that setup can be compromised, maybe increasing risk of sub-ideal core engagement and spine position when power's applied on the next drive. (But I'm speculating a little. Details of technique matter.)

I don't see feet-out as protective against common back injuries, except to the extent that it may reduce power. (IMO hugely low power isn't inherent feet-out, rather technique dependent. I think that's part of why we drill it.) It doesn't take much raw power to cause a back injury if there's inappropriate spinal flexion: Erector spinae are pretty small, they need to work synergistically to avoid overloading the vertebral structure, blah blah blah.

Again, not saying any of that applies to you, just speaking in the abstract, knowing we sometimes get people here who are newer to rowing. I wouldn't want them to assume rowing feet out is somehow a safety valve - which I don't think is what you intended to be saying at all!

I went to SRT training in Reigate. It was good; I got quite a few ascents and descents in; a few rebelays; and one ascent to descent changeover.

The changeover was the hardest; it was pretty straightforward to switch onto short cowstail and the descender; however getting the pressure off the cowstail so I could unattach it took a while. I eventually figured it out:
I attached the ascender again.
I stood up in the footloop and moved the descender up so it would eventually take the strain.
I hard locked the descender.
I then stood up again which let me remove the cowstails.
I laid back, which moved the pressure onto the descender, so I could unattach the ascender and get on my way.)

Tuesday
Climbing, 2.25 hours.
I went back to VauxWest, where I had the poor session on Saturday. This session was decent, I was climbing way better. I've not checked the grades on Griptonite (an app which gives individual grades) yet, but I got 4 in the v3-v5 bucket.

Did an easy 35 minute run/walk last night. 4:1 jog/walk ratio along a river trail.
Today's swim session was 1800 yds, which included a warm up followed by a main set of 4x100's on 12sec recovery, and finally 2 x 400yd set.

OHP 3x5
Incline Bench Press 3x8
DB Lateral Raise 3x8

Started putting together the routine I'm gonna follow after I get done with my "return to lifting" regimen, thought I may try a PHUL workout. Being thorough, I googled PHUL workouts, and opened a half dozen routines from various sources to compare against one another. Turns out, they all were identical! One might say "10-12 reps" while another reversed order of a couple exercises, but by and large they were all the exact same. I can understand how logical approach can lead you to be similar to somebody else's version, but these were TOO similar, made me believe most/all were simply copycats from somebody else rather than actually putting forth the mental sweat to create their own version.

Virtual cycling through Germany on Youtube.