After the race on Saturday, we had lunch in Cambridge, and then headed home.  I had some organizing to do since I was heading off to Taiwan.  My flight was scheduled  to depart at 1:45AM Sunday morning, and my wife and I had a nice afternoon and evening.

I headed off to the airport around 11pm, and got on the plane, and waited.  We taxied out from the gate, and then the pilot came on and said that there was a problem with one of the engines so he was heading back to gate to wait for maintenance to come deal with it.  After about an hour parked at the gate, the call came over the PA asking if there was a doctor on board.  Apparently, someone on board had had a heart attack.  Now it seemed to me that the engine trouble was a real blessing for both the heart attack victim and the rest of us on the plane.  He was wisked off the plane within minutes.  If we had been in flight, they would have had to divert the flight and that would have taken a lot more time.  And I bet it would have delayed the rest a lot too.

We didn’t get going until after 4AM.  Then it was fifteen hours and 30 minutes of flight time to Hong Kong.  Then a quick shuffle through the airport to catch the next flight to Taipei.  I was in Taiwan by 11am on Monday morning, and at the hotel by 12:30.  I made it just in time to shower and change before the event I was going to.  I slept pretty well on the flight, getting maybe 8 hours of sleep total, but in short segments.

The work event lasted from 1:30 until 10:30PM.  I crashed hard as soon as I got back to my room.

So, I guess that means:

Sunday:  Travel Day – No training.

Monday: Rest day?

Tuesday: 

I had a flight Shanghai in the early afternoon so I planned to sleep in, but I woke up around 5am, and couldn’t get back to sleep.  Eventually, I made my way down to the fitness center.  I had plenty of time, so I did a long fitness center triathlon.

• 30 minutes: Treadmill death march, 15% grade, 5km/h
• 30 minutes: Elliptical, level 14, random
• 30 minutes: Stationary bike, level 14, “Hills”

It was sweaty.  It was boring.

Then I headed to the airport and flew off to Shanghai.  I had a customer dinner in the evening and some conference calls after that.  I got to bed around 1AM.

Wednesday:

I got up at 6 and headed straight to the fitness center.  I was staying at the Kerry Hotel in Pudong, which has the one of the finest fitness centers I’ve ever seen.  They have two Model D ergs.  Mechanically they are both fine, but one of them has a display problem so you can’t see the time remaining.  The good rower was being used, so I grabbed the one with the display issue.

Plan:

• 3 x 20′ / 1′
• rate: ~20
• power: 175W
• HR limit: 145/150/155

I noticed that my heart rate took off like a rocket from the start and by the time I got through the first 20 minutes, I knew I had to ease up.  Even then, I was really struggling.

After 40 minutes, the other erg was free so I swapped over to continue.  I basically gave up after 3 minutes in the last piece and just paddled the rest of it out.

Lack of fitness?  Lack of Sleep?  Who knows.  Anyway, time to reset my power target lower for the next session.

After my workout, I headed to the office for some internal meetings, a customer lunch, more meetings, and a customer dinner.  I got back to the hotel around 10, and had a beer with a colleague.  I was in bed by 11.

Thursday:

I was up at 5:30 to fit in my workout.  Back to the fitness center for some more rowing.

Plan:

• 3 x 20′ / 2′ (longer rest to allow stretching between piecese
  • rate: 20
  • power: 165
  • HR limit: 145/150/155
• 2 x 1′ / 1′ (I see Paul Buchanan doing these at the end of aerobic sessions and I’ve read that it’s has a beneficial training effect.  It’s also an energizing way to finish the workout – In theory)
  • rate: >32
  • power: >360W

This was much better.  Based on my HR, the power was pretty close to right on for base training.  I could probably push a couple more watts, but not much.  My HR plateaued nicely right around 149 and stuck there for most of the second and third interval.

And the 1′ sprints were a blast.  I think I will make them a regular part of my routine.

And I left a nice sweat pattern on the floor.

After that, I packed up, had a work breakfast, then headed to the airport.  I’m now in Narita in transit back to Boston.  I will get home around 7:30pm Thursday night.

I’ve decided to start working with a coach, Marlene Royle.  Next week I have a bunch of erg tests to do. I may start them this weekend, but only if I am not having jetlag issues.