What Was Your Work Out Today?

@DiscusTank5 , that's cold water: Impressive determination, but be careful out there! 🥶

Wednesday: Stationary bike, 60' + 3' cool down (that wasn't very needful this time). Once again feeling some aftermath of going hard at rowing team practice on Tuesday night, especially leg fatigue, so kept it on the moderate side, 87W average and 15.54 theoretical miles at 14.6 mph. All but 1' was zone 2, and that 1' was zone 1. What a difference a few watts makes in RPE and HR!

Today, Thursday: Rowing machine, the same ol' 3 x (2k on, 2' off), still fairly moderate. Strong focus on technical points, mainly being sure to hold forward body angle as long as practical off the catch; stopping layback just as I feel abs engage (I'd been going too far); minimum arms/body overlap at the start of the recovery; and keeping my right shoulder down and shoulder blades firmly together through the drive phase in the way the physical therapist suggested for avoiding aggravating my shoulder nerve impingement. Gotta think about those one at a time, for a few strokes, then shift focus to another.

Obviously 6k from the pieces, averaging 2:33.8 across all but negative splitting them, 96W average. Another 847m from the off & CD bits. 6:33 zone 4, 20:29 zone 3, remainder below.

i walk/bike or row 45 min at lunch then do either TRX workouts, weights or more cardio in the evening such as biking or walking outside in the evening. I need to get out of the house once a day at least since I work from home. I also have a walk workout app that I use when I watch TV and want to get some steps in. It’s actually fun. 6-10min videos that keep you moving the whole time. I also have hand weights and will do some exercises if I’m in a meeting I’m not actively participating in.

@DiscusTank5 I learned to swim in a glacier-fed lake in the mountains of Idaho. Don't know for certain what the water temp was, but it always felt like pins and needles all over your entire body the entire time you were in it, one of those cartoonish jump into the lake, freeze in mid-air when your toe touches the water, and tiptoe across the surface to the other side kind of scenarios. This was at a summer camp, and the staff never let anybody into the water unless there was a staff member in a canoe in the water first, and there was a roaring campfire on the lakeshore already burning. Ah, memories.

Good news: My workout today was at full weights, not reduced like I had on Monday, so I'll chalk that one up as simply a less-than-ideal day.

Good news 2 (maybe): At the grocery store today wearing a tank-top (it's been quite warm here for March lately). Dude passing by caught my attention and remarked how he hoped he had the same muscles when he got to be my age. On the one hand, appreciation…on the other, the "get to be your age" remark kinda changes the tenor of the statement! lol

The workout for today is a 5 mile run. If I have time some stationary bike. Foam rolling and stretching.

@drmwc

That's a scary story. It seems you made a full recovery and obviously returned to diving. I had a mild barotrauma, but I didn't get bent. Scary stuff.

They say as many as 20% of us have a PFO. Did you ever find out if you've got one?

I don't feel so bad about being cold in 48F water now. I wear a mid-weight base layer and one nice thermal under my drysuit. The last time I added a third layer on top and was still cold, but not QUITE as cold. It's worst when we run the siphon because we're not moving much at all to generate heat. Heated vest might be nice, but I am sure I read that using them during SOME PORTIONS of dives can increase the likelihood of DCS.

Leg Day

Squats 5x10
Deadlifts 5x5
Seated Calf Extend 2x10, 2x20
Leg Extension 2x12
Leg Curl 2x12
Cable Crunch 3x10 <<superset>> Machine Low Back Extend 3x10 <<superset>> Plank 3x90s

@drmwc I read your story on the Dive Forum and shuddered. I have some questions (and also can't believe a paramedic stopped the 111 call). I don't know much about diving, except two of my uncles were into the hobby in Florida years ago: I remember they liked Morrison Springs with its underwater cave full of eels, or so the story goes.

"(I believe the bubbles for ear bends are in the cerebellum, not the ear fluids)."

I hadn't known this before. Yikes!

"So a few hours' later, I did a 5 hour dive, 18m dive (I think Table 6) which was pretty much all on O2. There were encouraging signs on both dives - . . . After this dive, I could just about walk, and the dizziness was a lot better."

Where did you do this dive?

"After this, I moved onto short 14m dives on O2, lasting about 2 hours each. I'd have a 3 hour 4 lunch break between the dives. The longer dives were in the large chamber; the shorter ones were in a mono-chamber with just me."

And this one? Did the hospital have a tank or several? I'm thinking Luke Skywalker in the bacta tank during The Empire Strikes Back . . .

You mentioned "diving doctors." Is this a common specialization, or is that why the drive to hospital took 2 hours, to get you to a specific facility with staff trained in diving injuries?

"My first treatment was Sunday; the second long one was on Monday. The shorter dives happened on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, with just one on Friday."

You were in the hospital for a full week, or did you check in and out daily?  In any case, I'm glad you made a full recovery.

@DiscusTank5

I am pretty sure that the "dives" that @drmwc wrote about are sometimes described as "rides." They are treatments in a hyperbaric chamber. The description of it as a "dive" is because the chamber simulates the pressure your body experiences while diving. It does this with more saturated oxygen, or in the case of heliox reduced nitrogen. The pressure is supposed to get the bubbles to dissolve again, and then they get flushed out.

In-water treatment is a no-no.

Decompression sickness is a big deal. It's fortunate if you can recover fully.

I walked 4.75 miles today. Jogged about a mile of it.

Today is going to be a rest day

Upper Body, BB Day

Bench Press 4x10, 3, 10, 3
BB Row 4x10
Incline Bench Press 3x10
Pullups 3xAMRAP
BB Shrugs 3x10
Seated BB OHP 3x10
Preacher Curl 3x10
Cable Pushdown 3x10
Cable Woodchopper 2x10 «alternate with» Palloff Press 2x10s

My bench press numbers have been stagnant since I switched up my technique. Maybe I can kickstart a little improvement by playing around with reps, tempo, weights, etc.

Due to laundry day getting delayed, today I'm wearing a pair of pants I haven't tried on for some months. At that time I squeezed into them by sucking in my gut; today, they fit like a glove.

Apologies for a drive-by report, it's been several weeks since I last logged in here. I did my usual early morning 15 minutes on an elliptical while watching the news and waiting for coffee. Then to the local YMCA for a 45 minute general fitness class that uses various different props on different days. I'm still taking it pretty easy on some of those moves as I'm also nursing a hamstring strain, with physiotherapist consultations. The pre-class warmup walks have been strictly walking as the occasional sprints that I had been mixing in are the original cause of the strain.

@DiscusTank5 AnnPT77 and others are correct about the HR formulas being generalizations and individuals can vary wildly from those. I'm also an extreme outlier for any of those predictions. Not tested lately, obviously. 😄

PS: I think I read, and scanned, through a dozen pages of posts to get caught up.

Didn't report Saturday, long day, but little exercise: Just under 1k rowing machine warmup at gentle pace, while waiting for my class to start, then the Bulletproof knees class. That'll be the last session of this class. He'll offer it again, but I think only at times that will soon conflict with on-water rowing . . . and rowing always wins.

I talked to the instructor, whom I like and who seems insightful/sensible, about personal training. I'm considering engaging him for a few sessions to get an assessment of my muscle group imbalances, and some kind of routine to address those and other physical problems, something I can do at home with the equipment I have. I'd also like to review lifting form, since it's been a while since I worked with a trainer/instructor on that. I'm thinking to wait until after the Spring rowing schedule gets settled, though.

The rest of Saturday was a bead show an hour away from here, then a massive, delicious dinner at an Italian restaurant there, including acreage of Tiramisu. 😋

Sunday, genuine rest day. Today, Monday, back to stationary bike with the usual distraction of visual journaling class videos. A purported 16.09 miles at 15.2 mph in 60'+3' CD, averaging 96W, pretty even split between zone and zone 2, other than about a minute below zone 2 at the start.

I'm still trying to figure out how to budget energy level and intensity so I can go hard at rowing team practice on Tuesday evenings, but keep up the exercise schedule I want for the rest of the week. I think energy is back to normal after the weird head-injury-related fatigue stage, and resting heart rate dropped all the way to 46 last night, which I guess is a good sign.

Good questions Ann. I ran again on the treadmill this morning, mostly a 5 mph pace, for 22 min. A few minutes at 4.8, a few at 5.3 mph, then 10 minutes of walking at 3.2.

My watch says I spent a couple of minutes with a HR at or above 170, surprising since I didn't think this run was that strenuous. Usually I don't run 2 days in a row, so maybe that's it. But I wouldn't have been able to carry on much of a conversation or burst into song (as if!) after the first 5-6 minutes of jogging.

After the treadmill I did some leg work on the machines and then some calisthenics and stretches, probably another 20 minutes.

And now I'm at the hospital for a routine mammogram. The joys of being 40+.