Oct 23 2015
Citius – Altius – Fortius & Ossenworst
Thursday
I flew to Brussels but then traveled on to Amsterdam with the Benelux train. This was a bit longer but a lot more economical than buying a last-minute ticket to Amsterdam. I had to be there for a funeral in the family.
Arrived an hour early so I took a strawl through the neighborhood around the cemetery. A five minute walk brought me to the 1928 Olympic Stadium:
Almost torn down in the 1980s but luckily conserved and restored in the sober, original design.
The reception afterwards was at de Veranda, so we parked at De Bosbaan, the Amsterdam rowing track where I have rowed so many trainings and races:
Then I went for dinner with my sister on the Zuidas (South Axis), the Amsterdam financial district, in a jazz restaurant called “Jazz on the South Ass”.
I am not the kind of person who tries to escape his roots as hard as he can. Even though I live 11 hours of driving from this place, it felt good to be back in a place where they know how to eat ossenworst and where z and s are pronounced the same way (as an s).
Ossenworst, an Amsterdam specialty
Then I took the Thalys to Brussels, arriving to my hotel at 10pm. I was pretty tired, having been up since 3am, but I couldn’t resist to have one Leffe and talk to the bar guy. I am a regular guest to this hotel. In bed at 11pm.
Friday
Up at 6:15 for the workout. I couldn’t really drag myself out of bed, feeling very sleepy, but I managed eventually, at 6:40.
The workout was simple. The motto was of course Citius – Altius – Fortius, with the emphasis on “stronger”: Fortius
10 minutes running on threadmill
10 minutes cycling
10 minutes ellyptical
3 rounds of strength exercises, weights adjusted to do 15 reps in each round:
- Shoulder press
- Bench press
- Bench pull
- Lat pull
- Leg extension
- Leg curl
- Push ups
- Sit ups
- Burpee
- Dorsal raise
Had to switch the order a few times because there was another person using the exercise machine.
After that, an Administrative Bore Meeting and then traveling home.
Oct 30 2015
Some deliveries, rowing, strength training
Some deliveries
My sportgraphics.com photos arrived and I picked them up yesterday. Last week I received an email from the Czech Post, telling me that my merchandise from the US had arrived and that they could do the customs for me if I mailed them the original invoice. So I did. Due to travel and public holidays, it wasn’t until yesterday that I could pick up the parcel.
It’s a framed picture of Romana and I doing our Mixed 2x in Hazewinkel and it will be a birthday present. The only downside is that Czech Post also charged VAT over the delivery costs … not sure if that is correct. Well, I discovered way to late to protest.
On Wednesday, Romana and I were discussing the resistance bands for strength training and in an impulse I ordered these ones from Amazon.co.uk. The German Amazon appears to have a lower quality German rip-off of the originals, so I ended up going to Amazon.co.uk. While I was there I also threw in the 2nd edition of Rowing Faster and clicked on next day delivery, which seems to be very reasonably priced on the UK Amazon, compared to the German Amazon.
The bands and the book were delivered to our neighbours yesterday. My sons immediately got hold of the bands and started to play/exercise with them. The idea is that I throw one or two bands and a door anchor in my luggage and I can do a hotel room workout. The other use is to have a “home gym” without having to create a weights room. We’ll see how it works out. The price is much more pleasant than the TRX stuff that is popular with the big guys in my rowing club, so the decision wasn’t that hard. I am only regretting a bit that I went for the anti-snap handles, instead of the bands that connect to the handles with carabiners, which seems a bit more foldable and flexible to me, especially if you want to combine two or more bands to one handle.
Wednesday being a public holiday, I am taking Thursday and Friday off to relax. The original plan was to go to the mountains and do some hiking and mountainbiking, but we decided to skip the longish drive and enjoy a few lazy days at home. After writing up this blog, I will relax on the couch and read Rowing Faster.
After breakfast we headed to the rowing club and I did two sessions, a 40 minute extensive row in the single and a strength session.
Row
Perfect conditions:
After the many reactions to yesterday’s blog, I decided to do a few tests, so I added a few 15 stroke pushes at >30spm to the session. I am glad to say that something of a double peak appears on my RIM analyses at higher stroke rates:
Strength Session
Three rounds in the rowing club weights room:
I had to guess the weights a bit, as this was with free weights which is different than the hotel gym system. If I managed less than 10 repeats in the first round, I lowered the weight for round two. If I underestimated my own strength (pah!) and easily managed the 15 repeats, I increased the weight for the second round.
As the girls were still working out, I played a bit with the bodylastics bands and tried to find the equivalent exercises using the bands, and determine which band strength is the one to throw in my travel bag. The exercise were of course slightly different, but I am confident I can create a demanding strength workout using them.
By sanderroosendaal • Uncategorized • 0 • Tags: OTW, rowing, single, strength, training