concept2

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Nov 11 2015

A normal day in the office – and a 6km Season’s Best

A normal day in the office …

First a group photo with the Honeywell Aerospace Advanced Tech Group. This group started in 2006 and will soon celebrate it’s 10th anniversary. I joined in 2007 and I am leading one of its departments (about 50 people). From 1 person in 2006 to 150 people, located in Prague, Brno and Toulouse, in 10 years and still growing!

DSC_0830
A couple of us posed for the photographer

After the picture taking I had to rush back to work, to the airport in fact, for ongoing flight testing.

Our
Our “own” aircraft, the Dassault Falcon 900EX, parked at Brno airport
The Precision Guidance Team
The Precision Guidance Team
Avionics Bay
Avionics Bay

Today was just picture taking and talking to the team for me. Tomorrow I will fly … yay!

6km test

Doing a test week in the fall is a good thing, and I already did the “1 minute test”. What’s left is a 2k test and a 6k test.

Originally, my schedule called for another very useful steady state session, but today I decided to be a bad boy and ignore the training plan. 6km testing OTW has been a staple for me in September and October, so in the evening I sat down, did a warming up of 2k with a few bursts, plugged a few pace boats into RowPro and set off to row the 6000m.

6kmb 6kma


Workout Summary - Nov 11, 2015
--|Total|-Total-|Total|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|Dist-|-Pace--|Watts|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS|-SPI
--|06000|22:28.3|06000|01:52.4|246.7|27.5|177.0|185.0|09.7|09.0
Workout Details
#-|EDist|-Etime-|SDist|-SPace-|Watts|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-|-SPI|Comments
01|00500|01:52.4|00500|01:52.4|246.5|26.7|147.7|166.0|10.0|09.2|ahead of PB schedule
02|01000|03:44.3|00500|01:51.9|250.0|26.8|169.7|172.0|10.0|09.3|2 seconds ahead of PB
03|01500|05:36.0|00500|01:51.7|250.8|26.8|173.6|176.0|10.0|09.3|3 seconds ahead of PB
04|02000|07:28.0|00500|01:52.0|248.8|26.8|175.8|179.0|10.0|09.3|
05|02500|09:20.3|00500|01:52.3|247.4|27.3|178.2|179.0|09.8|09.1|
06|03000|11:11.9|00500|01:51.6|251.9|27.4|179.8|182.0|09.8|09.2|
07|03500|13:03.2|00500|01:51.4|253.5|27.5|182.3|184.0|09.8|09.2|
08|04000|14:53.9|00500|01:50.7|258.0|28.2|183.8|184.0|09.6|09.2|4 seconds ahead of PB
09|04500|16:45.8|00500|01:51.8|250.2|27.9|184.0|185.0|09.6|09.0|3 seconds ahead of PB
10|05000|18:39.7|00500|01:53.9|236.8|27.9|183.0|184.0|09.4|08.5|2 seconds ahead of PB
11|05500|20:33.6|00500|01:53.9|236.7|28.4|183.0|184.0|09.3|08.3|2 seconds behind PB
12|06000|22:28.3|00500|01:54.7|231.9|28.8|181.7|183.0|09.1|08.1|9 seconds behind PB

Until 1500m to go I rowed at the edge of breaking my PB. But to break a PB, one needs to be fresher than I am after a long working day and having done 90 minutes of endurance work the day before. Perhaps I also need a bit more pace discipline.

This time a year ago, I did a slightly cowardly 23:00.0. Happy I can crank out a 1:52 pace 6k now.

The 2k will have to wait. I may row it on Sunday or Monday. Tomorrow I will travel to Toulouse, returning Friday late. On Saturday, I promised to run with the girls. It will be a reconnaissance run for an event that we will partake in on Tuesday. They will run the Ladies 5k. I will run the 10k. It’s a hilly run close to my home, and the girls should do it once to pace it.

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4km

Nov 11 2015

Tuesday: Cycling, Rowing, Learning

I cycled home from work. First I was chased by the 77 bus but it was faster. Cycling along the trolley bus route of #33 I noticed full bus stops. Indeed, a few stops later, the 33 bus was chasing me. It’s a very simple game. The trolley bus aims to overtake you at the narrowest part of the street between two bus stops, preferably where a car is parked or there is another obstacle. When it arrives at the next stop, you overtake the bus.

Here is a picture of one of those buses along one point of my route:

I arrived at the railway station before #33. The next part of the commute was competing with trams, which is less exciting because they don’t do lateral movements.

https://www.strava.com/activities/430191759

Taking the flatter route, average HR 129 bpm (including traffic lights), max 152 bpm. Elapsed time 45 minutes.

At home, I shifted to the erg. I signed up for a “genfit” row at 8pm and had time to do a 15 minutes before. Eleven km in total.

4km
30min

Nothing special. Just steady state. I listened to an e-course during the row. Interesting, although I had lapses where I focused on the rowing or my mind wandered elsewhere so I missed a few points in the lecture.

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30min

Nov 5 2015

Wednesday: Cycle / Thursday: Erg + “Weights”

Wednesday

Just rode home from work on the bicycle. Because of the darkness, I decided to try a new route, straight through the center of the town. My traditional route is less busy but also has a few bike paths that are badly illuminated. I have enough  lights on my bike to be seen, but I cannot use it to avoid holes in a dirt bike track in the dark.

It was better than I thought. I ended up riding at about the same speed as the trams, and faster than the cars.

https://www.strava.com/activities/426401831

In time, it is not longer.

Thursday

30 minutes on the erg, just a slow row.

30min

Then three rounds of “weights” at home, using body weight and the Bodylastics(TM) bands.

  1. Biceps Curl (blue band)
  2. Squat (black band)
  3. press up
  4. sit ups
  5. pistol squat
  6. pull up
  7. squat (black band)
  8. dips
  9. dorsal raise
  10. “bench press” (blue band and actually “inclined chest press”)
  11. row (orange band)

15 repeats for each exercise (15 per leg for the pistol squats) and three rounds. I had to look up the fancy English names for some of the exercises, so I hope I got them right. “Pistol squat” is what I would call in prosaic Dutch “kniebuigingen op een been” (knee bending on one leg).

The strength training took me about 40 minutes to complete. I am wondering if I should do one longer session per week or three 15 minute ones after the extensive steady state OTE rows.

In the nerdy section, I worked on my excel list of strength exercises. I have more than hundred of them now. I have information on recommended weight and equipment needed and main muscles trained. Then I created a pivot table which will come in handy when I need to improvise a weight/body weight circuit. It will be good for inspiration when stuck a hotel. Within a few seconds I can create a suggested list of workouts given the equipment available, ordered by muscle group worked. Probably doesn’t save a lot of time, but I enjoy creating something that gives the impression of being organized.

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15k

Nov 3 2015

15k recovery boring row and flu shot question

I had steady state on the schedule and originally planned to do a 3x20min row. Then I found a 15k planned row on RowPro at exactly the right time. Signed up for it. There were two of us.

Lost connection at almost 4km in. Lost some time trying to reconnect during the row.

After 10k my podcast stopped, so I had to switch on the radio. I really need to sign up for some educative listening. I checked “the teaching company” as recommended by Greg, but was overwhelmed with the choice of courses, and the price of the more interesting ones. I guess I will just sign up for a cheap one with good reviews and try it out.

When I completed the row, I got a RowPro window telling me that the connection was lost during the row, and that was it. No option to save stroke data. So I am left with just the bare data.

15k

Average HR 143 bpm. Average pace 2:08.2 including the breaks. Most of the time I was going at 2:04 – 2:07.

On Friday morning I will get my annual flu shot. I have been trying to get information about training on the day of the flu shot. My original plan has a strength session there. Romana tells me I should take total rest. I am thinking of moving the weights session to Thursday and do a gentle row on Friday. Any thougts from the readers?

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wf1

Nov 2 2015

Waterfall After Dinner

In a comment to yesterday’s blog, Greg Smith of Quantified Rowing fame encouraged me to follow my dreams. I guess even in my dreams my wishes are relatively small, like in a song by Daniel Landa. Here are English lyrics in my bad English translation:

I am grateful for the chance
that there is heaven after life
where they give you a dry blanket
and maybe they have nice trees there
and clean toilets, I would appreciate those

The song is about a guy waiting to be rescued after a car accident. That’s a slightly more serious situation than being uncomfortable during an erg session. Still I can very much relate to feeling lucky with a dry blanket, dry socks, clean toilets …

The day started with another bike ride to work. It was cold initially, but after 10 minutes it was OK. Strava tells me I broke my record for Na Lesnou nadrazi (towards Lesna railway station). I know exactly why. At Kralovo Pole railway station, another cyclist entered from the park and rode in front of me. On the Strava segment Za Kociankou which is a “false flat”, I passed him, which meant that on the climb to the Lesna station I had to stay in front of him.

In the afternoon, I left the bike at work and took the train home. After dinner it was time for the dreaded Wolverine/Pete Plan Waterfall session: 3km, 2.5km, 2km at 5 minutes rest.

After a 2km warming up with some “speed” bursts (at 24spm, 28spm and 30spm), I started. Knowing the Handle Down risk, I took the 3km very conservatively. As a precaution, I also played one of my favorite erg music lists, Rowbeats #1, which has quite the right rhythm for L2 sessions, enabling you to forget that you still have 2230m to go and just take it stroke after stroke on the beat of the music.

I also started the 2.5km carefully. I usually give up a session somewhere at the beginning of the second interval. About a kilometer into the 2.5km I lost the fear and started to pull. The final 2km was fun.

wf2 wf1


Workout Summary - Nov 02, 2015
--|Total|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Pace--|Watts|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS|-SPI
--|07500|01:52.9|243.3|26.5|168.4|183.0|10.0|09.2
Workout Details


#-|SDist|-SPace-|Watts|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-|-SPI|Comments
01|00500|01:54.4|233.5|25.2|141.5|158.0|10.4|09.3|3km
02|00500|01:54.6|232.6|25.1|160.5|164.0|10.4|09.3|
03|00500|01:54.1|235.3|25.8|165.6|168.0|10.2|09.1|
04|00500|01:54.2|234.8|25.2|168.0|171.0|10.4|09.3|
05|00500|01:54.1|235.8|25.8|171.1|173.0|10.2|09.1|
06|00500|01:54.6|232.8|26.2|173.1|174.0|10.0|08.9|


07|00500|01:54.0|235.9|26.3|154.4|173.0|10.0|09.0|2.5km
08|00500|01:54.0|236.4|26.3|170.0|172.0|10.0|09.0|
09|00500|01:53.6|239.0|26.4|173.1|175.0|10.0|09.0|
10|00500|01:51.9|249.8|26.3|176.4|178.0|10.2|09.5|
11|00500|01:50.7|257.7|27.6|179.3|180.0|09.8|09.3|


12|00500|01:51.6|252.1|27.4|158.4|180.0|09.8|09.2|2km
13|00500|01:52.7|244.3|27.1|174.0|177.0|09.8|09.0|
14|00500|01:51.5|252.5|27.4|178.1|181.0|09.8|09.2|
15|00500|01:47.2|284.1|30.2|180.8|183.0|09.3|09.4|

Happy with the result.

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Erg 002

Oct 27 2015

Tuesday: 4x2km in Blagnac

Monday

Flying to Toulouse, this time through Zurich. A grandiose view on the Alps during the Fokker 100 flight from Zurich to Toulouse. Never boring.

In meetings all afternoon and evening. No training.

Tuesday

Up early after a night in a too warm hotel room. Couldn’t get the climate control to start cooling. Couldn’t open the window. I chose this hotel only because of the gym and C2 erg. Not sure if I will stay with this.

It was very warm in the gym as well but I wanted to finish a 4x2km session this time. This meant that, after a 2km warming up, I started conservatively, at 1:55 pace, with a 1:55 pace boat. I rowed the first 2km flat, with a few fast pace intervals when there was someone passing. The second to fourth row I changed strategy. I started with 10 strong strokes, then flat at 1:55, then a ten strokes push at the 1km mark, and rowing the final 500m a bit faster. In the last interval I wanted to be under 7:30, and succeeded.

I made a nice puddle under the erg.

Erg 002

I managed a nice 2km cooling down.

Erg 003

https://www.strava.com/activities/421107956

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30min

Oct 6 2015

Tuesday: 30 minute erg + circuit training

Working from home today because in the afternoon I had to give a lecture at the technical university, which is close to my home.

So just before lunch I took an hour to do my workout for the day. I am mixing strength workouts into the mix, and the current recipe is 30 min erg (or running) followed by either weights or body weight circuit.

I am still not settled on the exact format of my strength training, so today I was going to go with what I could do from home, with the limited equipment I had.

First, 30 minutes of light erging (after a warming up of course):

30min

Perhaps I should try Greg’s method of starting slower, then increasing. And I guess that without lactate testing this a bit a shot in the dark. Had I not worn my HR belt, I would probably have gone a little faster …

Then, the circuit. Here’s my draft circuit:

  1. Triceps dips using a chair 20 reps
  2. Dorsal Raise 30 reps
  3. Press Up 20 reps – leg assisted when form started to break down
  4. Sit up 30 reps
  5. Pull ups – as many as possible with good form (not many, too embarrassed to tell the number)
  6. Burpee – 20

I did three rounds which took me about 20 minutes. I will probably expand this to 30 minutes but I don’t think it is wise to ignore that I am in a lousy shape, strength exercise wise, so I will try to do the number of reps that I can do with good form.

The good thing about this circuit is that there is nothing that cannot be done in a hotel room.

I am also reading up on strength exercise, so maybe with increased wisdom absorption I may change the routine.

Actually, I hope to change the routine, unless the literature tells me that I have to absolutely do the exact same routine every time. I am hoping for variation, though.

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