Day: April 8, 2016

Tues: 60′ fitness center, Thurs: 3×20, Fri: 3×20

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Monday morning:  My flight was cancelled, and I rebooked on a later flight to San Diego, arriving there right around dinner time.  No training.

Tuesday:  hit the tiny gym in the Courtyard Marriott.  30 minutes on the elliptical, and then 30 minutes on the treadmill set to max incline and a fast walk.

 

Wednesday:  I was originally going to fly straight from California to Germany, but I changed plans and took the red eye home, then a full day on the phone in meetings.  No Training

Thursday: Working from home and shuffling my wife to a doctor’s appt.  I finally found some time for a workout in the evening.

I was lacking in creativity, so I just stole Sander’s session from earlier in the week, an L4 with alternating r18 and r20 segments.

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Easy.

Friday:  Back to routine.  Up at 5:15, into the gym at 7.  Still getting used to rowing on slides.  Started with a alternating 18/20, then let that slide up to 19/21.  This was pushing my HR a bit too much, so I backed off in  the second 20 minutes to 180W at r20.  Even this was a bit to much for me.  So I backed off to r18 and about 170W for the last 30 minutes.  I guess you could say that this session was just “shoveling it”.

One interesting thing (at least to me) is to look at the drive length.  In my session last night on a static erg, my drive length was around 1.46m.  Today on slides, it settle in around 1.42m.  As far as I can tell, I am getting just about the same amount of compression at the catch, but I row with less layback on slides than I do on a static erg.  Not sure what to make of that, it’s just an interesting data point. Another interesting data point, peak force was higher on slides, even though the average was about the same.  Some of this might be due to the difference in drag factor (126 yesterday, 117  today).    I really like painsled.  Having this data to mull over is great.

Tomorrow:  On the water in the morning, and flying off to Germany in the evening.

“Grit”

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Today while I rowed, I listened to a podcast called “Hidden Brain” on the topic of “Grit”.  Here’s a link if you are interested.  

There is a fair amount of research that links success in many fields not to innate talent, but rather to the tenacity, passion and drive needed to put in the work.  The key appears to be a willingness to engage in the most unpleasant type of practice, the deeply mindful concentrated work on the things you find most difficult.  I think another aspect to “grit” is the ability to take setbacks and then just go back to work on improving.  To quote a slightly different source, there is a lyric in the musical “Hamilton” that is stuck in my head.  There is a character in the play named Hercules Mulligan, a spy in the revolutionary war.  I have no idea what he was like actually, but in the play he is a brash talking, tough guy.  Here’s the quote…

MULLIGAN:
To my brother’s revolutionary covenant
I’m runnin’ with the Sons of Liberty and I am lovin’ it!
See, that’s what happens when you up against the ruffians
We in the s**t now, somebody gotta shovel it!
Hercules Mulligan, I need no introduction
When you knock me down I get the f**k back up again!

I like the attitude embodied in “somebodies gotta shovel it” and “When you knock me down I get the F back up again”.  I think success has a lot more to do with getting back up again, than anything else.

Sorry to get all philosophical, but the past month and half have been difficult for me.  My new role at work is demanding a lot more travel, and frankly a much deeper commitment, and I have been dealing a bunch of minor disruptions at home as well.  The result is a dramatic reduction in training volume.

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Week 41 is the beginning of February, and I went from averaging over 100km per week to around 50km per week.  This is just rowing meters, so, there was training volume in week 42 (while on vacation), and other weeks while on travel, but it is inevitable that I will have a decline in rowing fitness with this reduction.

So, the plan is to just keep on plugging.  I will train as much as I can, and make maintaining my aerobic base the priority until  things are a little more under control.  So, as much endurance training as I have time for and then 1 or 2 spicier sessions a week.