training

easy

Nov 20 2015

Steady State & Strength

Working from home today and taking the opportunity to start a little later.

I sat down on the ergometer when I normally start working. What happened next shows how conditioned we human beings can be. I did easy steady state and was listening to a lecture in parallel. About 5 minutes into the row, just as I was starting to sweat a little, ideas started flowing.

Work related ideas.

The nice thing about long rows and runs are that you get into this trance state where you are not overcritical to your own ideas any more. A big opportunity for the creativity muscle to start working.

So I had to stop, open up a text editor, and start taking notes.

Row.

Take notes.

Row.

Take notes.

The result was something like this:

easy.jpg
Rowing combined with note taking

By the way, rowing like this, starting “cold” and slow, then steady state but with a big drop in intensity at the end, messes up the value for Heart Rate Ratio Drift. For this row the value ended up being 11%. I have looked at a few older rows and I am normally below 0 and 5% in my steady state rows.

After the 30 minutes easy erg I did a strength session. I believe that variation is not bad, so I try to change exercises according to what I have available. Today I was working from home, so it was body weight, bodylastics bands, a small 3kg dumbbell, a pullup bar, and a Swiss exercise ball. Stations, i.e. 3 sets in a row on one exercise, then move on to the next

  1. Pull ups – I did them slow and thoroughly and managed 10/9/7
  2. Pistol Squats with a dumbbell – 15/15/15
  3. Dorsal raise on Gym Ball – 15/15/15
  4. Squats – black bodylastics band – 15/15/15
  5. Crunches & twist 10/10/10
  6. Squatted row with orange bodylastics band (somewhat like a bench pull) – 15/15/15
  7. Lunges with dumbbell – 15/15/15
  8. Breast press with blue bodylastics band. I put the door anchor higher than in the bodylastics instruction booklet, which I feel makes it more like a bench press but it has some aspects of a push-up as well: 15/15/15

Then some stretching, a glass of milk and some yoghurt, and a black coffee, and on to the home office.

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41daomg9thl

Nov 19 2015

Rest Day

The lactate meter

… has left Krakow and is traveling to Brno by UPS. The Polish town of Katowice was passed as well (80km from Krakow, but the parcel made a 500km D- Tour in order to see other parts of Poland), and now my lactate meter is somewhere along the way, probably in a truck. Expected delivery is Friday end of the working day. I am planning a light erg and a good strength training tomorrow, so that will not be the first opportunity to use the meter.

I have been re-reading the Lactate Training thread over at Free Spirits Forum yesterday and today. It’s a long read but very useful. There are a couple of posts where the discussion turns and new insights are generated.

In breaks between work I also took some time to make a summary of the different tests one can do with a lactate meter. Here’s a summary:

lactaattesten
Can anyone tell me how to increase the size of this image?

(I am still struggling with the new WordPress.com editor. I believe I used to be able to copy excel tables directly into the editor and it would render a readable table. Now I had to save it as an image …)

Talking about tests, I am wondering if this book is worth buying. Boris, do you have an idea?

41daomg9thl

Training

Still feeling Tuesday’s run in the legs. Also had too many teleconferencing meetings in the evening, so my only exercise was a bicycle ride home:

https://www.strava.com/activities/435565785

Average HR: 132

Max HR: 157

For those who are interested, I have added Heart Rate Ratio Drift to Dan Burpee’s spreadsheet. Write me at r o o s e n d a a l s a n d e r “at” gmail.com if you want to receive a copy. It is only useful for those of us who use RowPro to record erg sessions.

In other news, my team was on Czech Television. You can see my Group Leader Jolana and our pilot Ivan during the flight testing of last week in following videos:

http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/10122427178-udalosti-v-regionech-brno/315281381991118-udalosti-v-regionech/obsah/435974-nove-technologie-pro-letadla

http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ct24/domaci/1618722-bezpecnejsi-letani-se-dela-i-v-brne

The first link is from “News from the regions”. The second one is from a daily Economy program on the main news channel.

Here’s another attempt at a readable table:

lactaattesten2.jpg

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jeh128

Nov 18 2015

Steady State erg

A long working day ending with a meeting that started at 9am – Arizona time.

Standard steady state erg today. A 25 minute solo row, then a 30 minute online row on RowPro, and a 9 minute cooling down. My legs hurt quite a lot from DOMS from yesterday’s intensive run, especially the climbing muscles.

My lactate meter is on its way to me. UPS says it is in transit and on time, and has left Krakow, Poland, an hour ago. Exciting times. It will be interesting to see if I have been doing my steady state rows at the right intensity.

I have the feeling that I am rowing at a lower heart rate than a year ago, and I tried to compare “beats per km” which would slightly eliminate the pace effect … Beats per km was mostly above 600 in the 2014/15 winter, and mostly around 590-600 in this winter season. Could also be different clothing, or a different humidity/temperature etc.

Here are some pictures from yesterday’s run that I discovered on the internet. The guy with nr 416 was the guy I tried to run towards to during the second loop. I didn’t make it all the way to him but he was a good target. I am #313.

jeh125

jeh126

jeh127

jeh128

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Food market 002

Nov 17 2015

Jehnice running event

A national holiday today. Last event in my test week(s). The 10km run in Jehnice, three bus stops from my home. For some reason, I skipped this event in 2014, but this year I participated.

First, the kids run. Dominik came last on the 1000m which is a quite intensive run. The first 500m is a steep climb.  Then a loop around the cemetery and then a steep descent. Robin was somewhere in the slower half of the 600m run.

Then the 6km. Lenka ran and finished 279th place but happy with the effort. 35 minutes and a few seconds.

The 1ok consists of a 1k segment, then two loops on Rakovec hill, and then the 1k segment again. Here is the Strava record of my run:

https://www.strava.com/activities/434324951

It’s nice to run an event with a few more Strava users. I set a personal record on the Rakovec – Koně segment. Also, I clocked 47.07 for the run, which is 41 seconds faster than two years ago. I ran negative split. Started to push the pace a bit on the first climb and passed quite a lot of people. Then relaxed on the descent and started to push the pace harder on the second climb. The climb is that Rakovec – Koně segment mentioned above. In the first loop I did it in 12:26, in the second loop I managed 12:03. My previous PR was 12:31. This is 2.6km with an average climb grade of 3%, 91m of climb in total.

Good effort.

jehniceRunning 11-17-2015, Elevation

In the afternoon I visited a local  food market.

Food market 003Food market 002

It was very nicely situated in an old rail cargo building. Good atmosphere. Nice food to taste.

Test evaluations

VO2 Max vs Peak Power. The ideal is 40-45%. My value is 50%.

Anaerobic threshold vs VO2 max. The ideal is 80-85%. My value is 81%.

I didn’t do a test to determine aerobic threshold. The “Rowing Faster” book recommends a 60min to 75min full-out steady state row. Greg uses his power at 2.0 mmol. I am sure he can row a fater full-out 75 min steady state than the 195 W he uses.

The Jehnice run tells me I am in better general fitness shape than 2 years ago (or perhaps running a little more often). My anaerobic threshold vs VO2 max is in the right ballpark. I may be able to improve on my 6k a bit. Peak Power is too low and could be improved.

Conclusion: I am on the good path with my current training schedule. I expect that adding the strength training into the mix makes me row my 2k at a lower percentage of my peak power, which will make it a more sustainable effort. I hope to improve my 2000m score in the coming winter.

On the 6k I may or may not PB this winter but I should really try. 🙂

 

 

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jehnice

Nov 14 2015

Saturday: Running Jehnice with the girls

jehnice

On Tuesday (a national holiday), there will be the Jehnice run. The girls, my daughter Lenka and her training partner Iva, will run the ladies 6km. I will run the 10km. Today we took the bus to the starting point and ran the 6km loop.

Instead of taking the bus home, the girls were happy to run 4km more, so all in all it was a nice 10km. I did a little back and forth running but all in all their running pace between 5 and 6 minutes per km is not bad.

For me it was a nice recovery run. I arrived at 00:30am after a tiring trip back from France.

Paris

When I checked my email in the morning, I noticed one of those automatic travel alert emails that we get when on business trips. Usually this information is quite innocent (strikes, demonstrations, traffic disruptions), but this time I read about the terrible attacks in Paris:

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IMG_0557-0

Nov 13 2015

Hotel strength session

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. 😉

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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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