strength

Wednesday

A rest day. Flying to Brussels. Waiting at Munich airport, I saw a tweet on the FISA coaching conference. In Brussels, I looked up the site and discovered a nice set of presentations:

http://www.worldrowing.com/events/2015-world-rowing-coaches-conference/event-information

I like the presentations about nutrition as they give a practical way to be smarter with food, without reverting to extreme diets. I am convinced you can get all the basic carbs, proteins, vitamins and what have you by eating “healthy and normal”. I am also convinced that I have tremendous room for improvement, while still continuing to enjoy good, tasty food.

The other presentation that I found very interesting was the one on developing endurance,  by Nick Clarke from Rowing Canada. I have no time to go into the details now, so download that presentation and see for yourself:

First time in Brussels after the shutdown. The city seemed more lively than ever before. Lots of people on the street. Anspach boulevard turned into a gigantic pedestrian area. Is that new? Haven’t been on Anspach in a long time, so I couldn’t tell.

The odd armed soldier walking around. But they were already part of Brussels after the Charlie Hebdo attacks.

I walked around the area of Ste Catherine after dinner. Here’s a quick phone picture of the atmosphere:

Thursday

This morning I did hotel room strength training using the bands. A variation on the usual set.

1. Curl
2. Squat
3. Situps
4. Pistol squats
5. squatted row
6. lunges
7. “bench press”

Today’s session

Strength training today, preceded just by a prolonged warming up on the erg (3km at very easy pace).

The same set as last week.

1. Pull ups – 10/9/7
2. Pistol Squats with a dumbbell – 15/15/15
3. Dorsal raise on Gym Ball – 15/15/15
4. Squats – purple bodylastics band – 15/15/15
5. Crunches & twist with dumbbell 10/10/10
6. Squatted row with orange bodylastics band  – 15/15/15
7. Lunges with dumbbell – 15/15/15
8. Breast press with black bodylastics band – 15/15/15

The bold is where I went up a notch in terms of resistance. I need to find a way to increase the resistance on the leg exercises. I’d like to work in a 10-15 rep range, lowering the resistance if I can’t do 3×10, increasing it if 3×15 is achieved easily.

I feel I am nearing the end of the first “block” of strength training and need to start defining the second block.

Some play with numbers

All the lactate measuring has stimulated me to reread a physiology book I own. In chapter 2, “fuel for exercising muscle”, I found an interesting figure that indicated the “typical” maximal rate of ATP generation (in mmol ATP/kg dry mass/s) for the different energy pathways, as well as the maximal available energy.

Assuming 7.3 kJ/mol that can be released from ATP, of which 60% goes to heat directly, and assuming a mechanical efficiency of 25%, a 72kg LW man should be able to produce 630W for about a minute. (I am ignoring the PCr pathway.) Assuming that on shorter rows (<500om) the average power from glycolysis is determined by the maximum available energy through glycolysis, I am able to make a crude approximation for the power and pace dependence on distance rowed.

The blue dots are the Nonathlon target pace/power for my age and weight group. The black line is my prediction.

I am amazed that this crude calculation even ends up in the right ballpark. Sometimes calculating things seems to work. My calculation also gave as a result that during a 2k, roughly 85% of the power comes from aerobic energy pathways.

Of course a couple of things are wrong. First, the nonathlon values are an average over age group records. They don’t represent one typical rower. We all know that there are sprinters and steady state rowers. Second, I have no model for the decline of the power from Aerobic processes as the distance increases, so my prediction. is too fast for any distance above 10k. It is also interesting that the 2k is faster on nonathlon. Could this be because the 2k is the standard distance? Finally, the balance of the different pathways as a function of power is individual and much more complex than my crude model.

Thursday 

No training. In the morning I was in our Falcon doing the flight test. 

  
We did 1 approach in Ostrava and 2 in Brno. Doing a low fly over the runway in a bizjet is always impressive. 

Then I took the taxi to Vienna airport and a regular flight to Toulouse, arriving there at 10pm. 

Friday

Almost an hour of strength in the hotel room:

1. Curl biceps 15 15 15
2. Squat 15 15 15
3. Push ups 15 15 15
4. Sit ups 15 15 12
5. Pistol squats 15 15 15 each leg
6. Row 15 15 15
7. Squat 15 15 15
8. Dips 15 15 15
9. Back 15 15 15
10. Bench press 15 15 15
11. Pull up 15 15 15

For the squats and curls I used the bodylastics bands. Row, bench and pull up where with bodylastics bands and door anchor. 

Good workout. Here is my travel bag:

  
With the bands and door anchor it contains:

1. A wardrobe
2. Toiletries
3. An office
4. A library
5. A fitness center

Not bad. I am approaching one bag ninja warrior status. 

Too bad I discovered that I left the door anchor in the hotel room. Well, I believe there is another one in the set at home, or else I can call the hotel if they found it – or order a replacement. 

Full day of meetings. Now waiting for flight at Toulouse airport. Arriving home after midnight, but the good news is that I will go through Amsterdam so I will have a chance to purchase Dutch reading stock. 

In other good news, I have an offer for a very reasonably priced lactate meter and strips. I will get it to try out of the lactate religion is something for me. 😉