Month: October 2016

Saturday: Fitness Center Drudgery

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Well, it’s Saturday morning now.  I’ve been on the road for 5 full days and I am getting tired of it.  Yesterday was another day of customer and internal meetings and I finished off with a dinner with the guy who is responsible for sales in this region.  After that, it was back to my hotel to join a couple of conference calls.  This lasted until after 2AM.

I slept from around 3 to around 7, and then headed down the the gym.  On tap for today, another fitness center triathlon.  Today, I was determined to keep it nice and easy so that I would have no excuses in another threshold session tomorrow.

Plan:

  • 30 minutes inclined march (15% grade, 3mph)
  • 30 minutes bike (“foothills” program, level 14)
  • 30 minutes elliptical (“around the world” program, level 17)

I was working out a bit later and its pretty obvious that they turn off the AC at night because it was much cooler and dryer in the fitness center at 8am than it is at 5am.  This was reflected in much lower HR and RPE for all three chunks of the workout.

For example, both yesterday and today started with a 30′ inclined march at 15% grade and 3mph.  Yesterday, my HR at 30 minutes was 151bpm.  Today, 143 bpm.

This afternoon, I am heading to the airport for a shortish flight to Korea.  I hang out there on Sunday, and then have 3 days of internal and customer meetings before I fly out on Wednesday afternoon.  It can’t come soon enough.

Tomorrow:  I think a 20 x 2 minutes on/1 minute off interval session on the treadmill.

 

Friday: 3 x 30’Sweatfest

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I remain in Taiwan.  I’m in the city of Hsinchu, which was a pretty grimy place, but is rapidly changing into a pretty cosmopolitan, energtic place.  There is ton of public art in Taiwan, and many public buildings have sculptures outside.  The featured image is probably my favorite.  It’s a sculpture outside the Hsinchu cultural center.  To give you an idea of scale, the magnifying glass is probably about 6 feet in diameter.  You can walk right through it.

Plan:

  • 30′ Inclined march on the treadmill (15% grade, 3mph)
  • 30′ run (1% grade, 5.7mph)
  • 30′ Elliptical (“Cascades”, level 14)

That wasn’t too bad.  The time seemed to pass a bit faster today.  During the first 30 minutes I listened to the NPR Politics Podcast.  They were talking about the Vice Presidential Debate.  After that I listened to the Original Cast Album of the musical Hamilton, which was great.

My biggest issue was that my shorts got so heavy with sweat that they started falling down during my run.  I needed to hoist them up every minute or so to keep from losing the around my ankles.

My HR monitor seemed to be acting up.  Popping up to higher heart rates and then dropping back down.  In general, my HR seemed to be running a bit hot today, but in terms of RPE, the workout was solidly aerobic.  I think I will change the battery in the strap just in case that’s the problem.

Here’s a measure of the humidity.

2016-10-07-06-56-43

That’s the elliptical machine after finished using it.  And, yep, that is a genuine puddle in front of the pedal.  That is sweat that ran down my leg, through my sneaker and collected there in last 30 minutes of my workout.  I think that rates an “ewww!”

 

Thursday: 30′ Threshold Run

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Yesterday I went up to Taipei for a meeting.  One of the best developments in Taiwan was the construction of a High Speed Rail line from the north end of the island to the south along the west coast.  Most of the population of Taiwan is along the western coast, the east coast is rural and wild.  It used to be miserable to get from one city to another on the clogged highways, now it is a modern marvel.  We hopped on a train in Hsinchu and we were in Taipei in less than 30 minutes.  Fantastic!

I had a couple of other meetings in the afternoon, and then I begged off of dinner with the local team.  Since I had woken up before 4AM, I was tired, and frankly, I was also weary of being with people.  I needed a little time by myself to think and recharge.

I guess I was pretty tired because I fell asleep before 8 and woke up around 4AM.  I had time for a hella long workout if I wanted, but I decided to stick to my plan for a hard threshold session.

Plan:

  • 10′ warmup on the treadmill.  Gradually speeding up.  Last 2 minutes faster than target pace.
  • 30′ Threshold run on the treadmill.  2% incline, 10km/h
  • Adjust speed as necessary to push HR well into TR through second half of the run.
  • cool down

I actually kind of enjoyed that.  I cranked up my sprinting playlist on Spotify, and generally ran to the beat.  I held 10km/hr until I had 5 minutes left.  Then I sped up just a little bit, about 0.2km/h and held that until I had 2 minutes left.  OK, 500m left, time for a last push.  I pushed the speed up another 0.4km/h and finished strong.

Not to make excuses for myself, but just an acknowledgement of reality.  I know that my running speed is slow (damn slow).  I will never win a road race, nor do I aspire to.  I enjoy a run ever now and then, and it is a hell of good way to exercise.

Today, I have a full day of internal and customer meetings, and a big team dinner.  Tomorrow morning, I’m planning another fitness center triathlon.

3×30′ HR cap at 150.

 

Wednesday: 3 x 30′ Fitness Center Triathlon

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Still in Hsinchu.  Woke up at 4am (jetlag).  Gave up trying to sleep at 5am and headed to the gym.  (pictured above)

Plan:

  • 30′ ellipitcal (“around the world” hill profile, level 17…too easy)
  • 30′ stationary bike (“classic hill profile”, basically 1′ intervals, level 18)
  • 30′ treadmill (inclined walk, 3mph, incline 11 to 12%, keeping HR just below 150)

Well, that was pretty boring.

Tomorrow:  Threshold session on treadmill.  Probably interval format.

Week #11 and #12 Training Review

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Week 11

Date Day Workout Type mode Planned Workout Actual
9/19/16 Mon Rest  rest  40′ steady state
40’LIT
9/20/16 Tue Long Intervals otw 5 x 1500 / 5′ rest r26
40′ HIT
30′ LIT		  75′ OTW SS
75’LIT
9/21/16 Wed Steady State otw 4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r20 (HR limit 150)
75′ LIT		  4x2K hard OTW
40′ HIT
40′ LIT
9/22/16 Thu Short Rest Intervals otw 4 x (5 x 2′ on / 30″ paddle) / 2′ rest
40′ HIT
40′ LIT		  rest
9/23/16 Fri Steady State otw 4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r20 (HR limit 150)
75′ LIT		 4x5x2′ hard OTW
40′ HIT
55′ LIT
9/24/16 Sat Hard Distance otw 5.5K r30
25′ HIT
45′ LIT		  40km bike
80′ LIT
9/25/16 Sun long and easy erg 4 x 30′ / 1.5′ rest (lactate)
120′ LIT		  rest
Total 105′ HIT
385′ LIT		 80′ HIT
290′ LIT
  • 80′ vs 105′ of planned HIT (79%)
  • 290′ vs 385′ of planned LIT ( 75%)
  • Polarization:
    • Planned: 22% HIT
    • Actual: 22% HIT
  • So, two rest days versus one and 2 HIT sessions versus 3 and I undershot the plan by 20%.  The good news is that I shaved both end of the plan the proportional amounts.

Week 12

Date Day Workout Type mode Planned Workout Actual
 Week #12
9/26/16 Mon Rest rest  3 hard intervals OTW
30′ HIT
30′ LIT

40′ easy erg
40′ LIT
9/27/16 Tue Long Intervals otw 3000 / 2500 / 2000 5′ rest
40′ HIT
40′ LIT		 4×20′ L4
80′ LIT
9/28/16 Wed Steady State otw 4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r20 (HR limit 150)
75′ LIT		  4x5x2′ hard OTW
40′ HIT
50′ LIT
9/29/16 Thu Short Rest Intervals otw 5 x 20@32/10 off / 5 x 20@34/15 off / 5 x 20@36/20 off, 8′ between sets
15′ HIT
40′ LIT		  OTW SS
71′ LIT
9/30/16 Fri Steady State otw 4 x 2900 / 1′ rest r20 (HR limit 150)
75′ LIT		 6km OTW hard
27′ HIT
30′ LIT
10/1/16 Sat warmup only erg warm up only
20′ LIT		 3×20′ L4 erg
60′ LIT
10/2/16 Sun Textile  race  25′ HIT
50′ LIT		  3×20′ L4 erg
60′ LIT
Total  80′ HIT
300′ LIT		 97′ HIT
421′ LIT
  • 97′ HIT vs 80′ planned (121%)
  • 421′ LIT vs 300′ planned (140%)
  • Polarization:
    • Planned: 21%
    • Actual: 19%
  • So, this week is over plan because I changed  my plan to skip the Textile River Regatta this year.  I was flying out to Taiwan that day so it wouldn’t work from a schedule perspective.  Also, since I knew I would be traveling, I skipped rest days and did as many sessions as I could.  I’m happy with this week.

Tuesday: 40′ Inclined March in Hsinchu

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After flying from Boston to Tokyo, waiting around for a couple hours, then flying on to Taipei and taking a car from there to Hsinchu, I arrived at my hotel around 10pm.  Roughly 21 hours of travel time.  I slept about an hour on the first flight and maybe 2 hours on the second one.  I knew I needed a full nights sleep and I didn’t trust my body’s internal clock to let that happen, so I took an ambien and was out cold for 6 hours.

I set the alarm for 4:45 so that I could get a quick workout in before I needed to head to the office at 6:30.  I was in the hotel gym at 5am, and I figure I had time for a 40 minute workout.

I decided to keep it pretty tame, so I headed to a treadmill and set the incline to 15% and the pace to 3mph, basically a fast walk.  When I’ve done this workout in the past, I end up with a HR that rises steadily through the session, today was no exception.  I slowed to 2.8mph with 5 minutes to go, and then back up to 3.2 for the last 2 minutes.

It was humid in the gym and I was very sweaty when I finished.

Tomorrow:  I have more time tomorrow morning, so I think I will do a fitness center triathlon 3 x 30′ on different machines.

Sunday: 3 x 20′ L4 w/lactate (morning)

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The rest of Saturday was a blur.  We went out shopping, and had a little dinner, then came home and I did laundry, packed and did some paperwork.  Then we watched the season premier of Saturday Night Live.  It is intriguing that it requires nothing more than to repeat exactly what Donald Trump says to effectively parody him.  But enough of that.  On to the training.

I got up around 8:30 and hopped on the erg at 9 for a steady state session

Plan:

  • Just like yesterday
  • 3 x 20′
  • 1′ rests
  • L4 format
  • target power 185
  • HR cap at 150
  • Measure lactate at the end

20:00   4813    181W 18
40:00   4894   190W 19
60:00   4861    186W 19

Basically the same session as yesterday.  I did a different sequence from 40′ to 50′ but otherwise exactly the same.  It felt harder, but the HR stats are very close.

Lactate level was 1.8mmol/l, so 0.4 higher than yesterday.  From yesterday’s results, it would be logical to increase training power a bit.  From today, it’s pretty close to the limit.  I guess I stick with ~185W for now.

For fun I compared yesterday’s session with today’s.  Looks like I had a slightly higher HR in general yesterday.

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I am posting this from the plane.  I’m flying to Taipei and I’ll arrive Monday night local time.  I will be in Asia for through next Thursday, or about 12 days.  It’s a long trip.  I’m going to be trying to follow my training plan roughly but I am sure this is going to impact performance for the HOCR.  I think the most important things to focus on are:

  • Limit drinking
  • get enough sleep
  • avoid getting sick
  • maintain aerobic base.

Saturday: 3 x 20′ L4 w/ lactate

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I ran out of energy in a big way Friday night and crashed around 10pm.  I slept until almost 9am, and then started a day of chores and errands.

Around 3pm, I headed off to do an easy erg session.

Plan:

  • 3 x 20′
  • 1′ rests
  • L4 format
  • start at low power and ramp up to 185avg

I measured lactate at the end…1.4mmol/l.  Nice.  Of course this was an afternoon session.