What Was Your Work Out Today?

Cardio. 23 min run outside; 18 min run on the treadmill, avg 5.5 mph pace. Five or so minutes of walking in between the two, also five minutes of walking before and after.

Conditioning. 10 minutes, two sets each incline bench sit-ups, air lifted heel squats, walking lunges. Various stretches post-run.

Next up: treading water at the local pool for 45 minutes or so with my son.

Stroke seat of the quad, very moderate work for just under 7k. We had one of this year's learn-to-row graduates in the quad with us for the first time, so did a bunch of things like pause drills and slow-slide drills. Mostly zone 1-2, about 7' zone 3.

Tonight, open rowing, but all I did was carry some boats, as is usual. Still need to do some physical therapy exercises.

6 mile run planned, but may swap today's 6 for tomorrow's 8 since it's looking like some of my running buddies might need a rage run tonight 😆

A 5 mile (23 min) bike ride outside at first light. Later, 2 miles (9 min) on the exercise bike, 2 min Helix Trainer, and 9 minutes of strength work (1-2 sets biceps curls, lat raises, skullcrushers, walking lunges, a 40 sec dead hang). I had to tear myself away from the gym for a work meeting at that point.

Treadmill - 1 hr, 13% incline, 3.0 mph, 2020 feet elevation climbed

Out in a double with one of our 2nd-season newer rowers, me in bow, her in stroke. It was a moderate intensity row, mostly, helping/coaching her on some technical stuff she's been working on. We went 6.8k.

I did add some push myself toward the end, without really saying anything to her. Earlier in the row, she'd mentioned the other double catching up with us after starting a bit after we'd launched, and said she did tend to be competitive. The other double, two women whose average age is probably half ours 😆, had gone through the 2nd bridge, so a little longer route, which put us near them in the last leg of the course. I decided I was going to see if I could keep us ahead of them, just for fun, at whatever stroke rating (spm) she set in stroke. 😆 We beat them back to the dock by a boat-length or so.

There was a little bit of zone 4 in there somewhere. 😉🤣

ETA: I forgot, a teensy walk in the mix, when I used the remote parking at the farmers' market, calorically more than wiped out by the cherry/cantaloupe ice pop I bought there, let alone the two handmade bean totadas with lovely pico de gallo and cabbage shreds I brought home for dinner.

Need to do my PT hamstring/glute exercises later today, still, too.

Just under an hour's bike ride, 11.33 miles, but broken up into 5 mile, then 2 mile increments (early morning ride, then an hour later biking to the coffee shop, then to work, then home).

Also 28 min. strength / conditioning in the gym (after 9 miles of the bike ride): 2 sets biceps curls, triceps pulls from a plank position w/ a resistance band, lat raises; incline bench sit-ups on the highest setting; standing overhead shoulder press; walking lunges; one bridge and pigeon pose, other stretches on the mat.

Upper Body

DB Bench «superset» DB Row 4x10
Incline Bench Press «superset» Pullups 3x12
DB Shrugs 3x10
Cable Shoulder Triangle (Front / Lateral / Rear Lateral Raises) 3x10
Cable Curls 3x12
Cable Overhead Extensions 3x12
Cable Side Crunches 2x10 «superset» Overhead Palloff Press 2x10s

Brick workout today: a 5 min warmup walk, then 21 min running on the treadmill (5.5-5.7 mph mainly with a couple 60 sec bursts at 6 mph), then immediately swimming 450 m. in the pool (15 min), followed by 15 minutes running outside at 6 mph.

The humidity was intense, as was the heat. A late afternoon triathlon in 2 weeks isn't seeming like much fun at this point.

Lower Body Day

Squat 4x10
Rack Pull 5x5
Hack Squat 3x20
Seated Calf Raises 2x10, 2x20
Leg Extensions 2x12
Seated Leg Curl 2x12
Machine Crunches 3x15
Stretching 15 minutes

My legs are far stronger than my upper body, so was feeling pretty good matching the weights used in my squat with the guy at the next station over, who looked like he outweighed me by a good 50 lbs, all of it muscle. That is, until I look over and the guy is at the bottom of the squat motion, not moving, looking for all the world like he's gonna have to bail. Just as the thought crossed my mind to somehow help him, he stood back up again, then immediately dropped into another deep squat…and hold for 5 seconds, before standing once more. This dude was using my squat weight to do pause-squats for 5 seconds per rep, 8 reps per set. Mad respect, mad humility, lol.

Coached row this morning, with a quad, 3 doubles, and a single in the traffic pattern. I was in bow of one of the doubles. We did some pause drills, slow-count recovery drills, cut the cake, then maybe a 3k-ish piece at head race pace (loosely, fastest pace we could hold for maybe 15-20 minutes), finishing with a cool down. By the head-race-pace piece, it was pretty warm and humid, so I was fully sweat drenched.

Total of about 8.7k, lots of zone 2, but around 10-11' in each of zone 3 and 4. Yes, in total it was fatiguing.

Is it wrong that I felt some satisfaction that on the faster-pace piece the university post-doc student I was rowing with (who's probably in her later 20s - an excellent rower) and I (age 69) steadily gained on two college-club-team women rowers in another double, finishing multiple boat lengths ahead of them after an even start? 😆

Physical therapy exercises still need to be done later.

I've loved swimming since I learned how as a little kid. Once in a super sprint triathlon (my first) I came in second in my age group for the swim, men and women combined. But since then . . . it's felt like more of a struggle.

My neighbor, who was on a college swim team years ago, gave me some pointers in the pool a few weeks back. It has helped me to follow proper freestyle technique but it is just hard, swimming as fast as possible and also breathing!

I went caving yesterday. We were leading beginners again, so aiming for something not too strenuous. The entrance is down a concrete shaft; there are points you can't see the footholds. One of us found this a bit alarming.

Then there is a very mildly sporting free climb. She was feeling a bit shaken, and didn't fancy it. So we took her back to the top, and did a short trip.

The main feature is about 200 metres of crawling after the free climb. It's pretty chilled; there is one patch which is slightly tight but then it is hands and knees, so pretty chilled.

That leads to an ultra pretty bit of cave, where we turned back.

Of course more rowing, 3 seat in the quad, moderate steady state because the crew wanted that on account of windy conditions, so I worked on technical stuff, mostly suspension and glute engagement. About 7k, fairly equal amounts of zones 1, 2, and 3.

Resting HR has been 48 and below every day for the past week, which makes me think I'm maybe doing something right on the cardiovascular front.

Tonight at open rowing, carried a bunch of boats and wrangled weed mats that were around the dock, using a sweep oar to try to push them out into the current so they move downstream.

Also some shoulder mobility exercises. Still need to do my physical therapy exercises.

So after a week off with the flu or whatever I had, today's workout was a 4 miler on the treadmill. Foam rolling and stretching