Concessions

Monday

Plan: Free form steady state

Execution: Did a 4x2000m “biathlon game” Concept2 with 250m penalty rounds each interval for

1. Exceeding 190 strokes – penalty round 250m for every 10 strokes)
2. A 250m round for each second above 2:00 average pace for the interval (2:00.9 – zero penalty; 2:01.0 – 2:01.9 – one penalty; and so on)
3. A 250m round for each part of the interval where HR was 161 or higher.

I ended up doing a few penalty rounds as you can imagine. It made the time pass quick.

Tuesday

Plan: No training, rest day

Execution:

1. Alarm clock at 2:30 am to catch taxi to airport, then flight to Brussels
2. 10 am to 5pm – meetings in Brussels
3. 7pm to 11:30pm – travel home by flight to Vienna, then taxi home

What a rest day!

Wednesday

Plan: 3×20 minute steady state erg @ 200 W

Difficulty to wake up. Decided to work from home and do the workout before work. Would give me time in the evening to spend with my family.

Execution:

1. Wrote important email briefing on Tuesday’s meeting to my boss and other stakeholders. I bring home a few facts that may change a few important decisions. Then quickly sat down on erg. Between this and my first meeting of the day, there was only just enough time to do the workout and a quick shower
2. A 1km warming up, followed by the 3x20min
3. Power seemed to come easy. HR was high but the perceived rate of exertion (PRE) was OK and I didn’t have difficulty holding the 200W average.
4. Started second interval. RPE was a bit higher now. Still holding 200W.
5. A few minutes into the second interval, my audio stopped (I was playing some course material) and I noticed an incoming call from my boss. Stopped to answer the call and talked to him for the rest of the interval and the beginning of the third interval.
6. Finished 3rd interval and measured lactate: 1.7 mmol/L

I am not sure about the significance of the Lactate reading as I had an interrupted row.

I had 10 minutes left between end of shower and first meeting. Made a coffee and went to work.

Did some of the urgent “emergency” tasks, multitasking during the meeting and am now caught up enough to take 10 minutes to write this blog.

I had to make a few concessions but this week there are a more than a few crucial work topics to finalize and decisions to make. Also, I preferred a compromised row in the morning over spending the evening in the erg room without seeing the kids.

It’s a low volume week anyway, and the recovery is the most important part of the training. So, in that light, the decision to sleep in that caused the compromised row was a great one.