4 x 1.8km Threshold on Treadmill

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Ooof.  Hard work.

I hit the fitness center at 6am on the dot.  My legs and back are still sore from the weights, but loosened up during my warmup.

Plan:

  • 20 minute warmup with 3 – 2 minute chunks at 5:30 pace
  • 4 x 10′ (2.5% grade, 5:30/km pace)
  • 5′ recoveries (2.5% grade, 12:00/km pace)

I made it through the first two intervals at my target pace, but I needed to to dig really deep to finish  the second one.  I gave myself a break and took the pace down to 6:00/km for the last two intervals. This took just enough of the edge off so I could complete the workout.  HR monitor started to act up again in the last two intervals.

I’m really tired now.

Tonight I fly out around 5pm.  I am flying through Dallas and get home to Boston at 11pm Boston time.  I can’t wait to get home.

Tuesday: 2 x 30′ fitness center

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I was planning a 3 x 30′ session this morning, but I just got bored and tired and then I stopped.

  • 30′ inclined march (15% grade, 5 km/h)
  • 30′ on some weird version of an cross trainer.

I walked over to a stationary bike, and got on and started pedaling.  But my thighs hurt a bit, and I was feeling pretty unmotivated.  I decided 60 minutes was enough for today.

Now, my whole body hurts with DOMS from the puny weights I was lifting.  I imagine it will hurt even worse tomorrow.

Tomorrow:  Threshold run on the treadmill – 4 x 10′

I have a couple more meetings tomorrow and then fly out of Korea in the early evening.  I am so tired of being on the road.  I can’t wait to get home.

 

Week 13 Review

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Date Day Workout Type mode Planned Workout Actual
10/3/16 Mon rest  rest  rest
10/4/16 Tue Long Intervals otw 5 x 2000 / 5′ rest r28

45′ HIT
45′ LIT

 40′ treadmill

40′ LIT
10/5/16 Wed Steady State otw 4 x 3000 / 1′ rest r20 (HR limit at 80% HRR)

75′ LIT

  3 x 30′ cross train

90′ LIT
10/6/16 Thu Short Rest Intervals otw 12 x 500 / 1’30” rest (sr 22,24,26,28,30,32,32,30,28,26,24,22)

30′ HIT
50′ LIT

  30′ Threshold run

30′ HIT
20′ LIT
10/7/16 Fri Technique UT2/UT1 otw Bungee Row first half, Steady state r20 second half

75′ LIT

  3 x 30′ cross train

90′ LIT
10/8/16 Sat warmup only  erg warm up only

20′ LIT

  3 x 30′ cross train

90′ LIT
10/9/16 Sun Snake Race  race  25′ HIT
45′ LIT		  14 x 500m / 1′ rest
treadmill

38′ HIT
20′ LIT
Totals  100′ HIT
310′ LIT		 68′ HIT
350′ LIT
  • HIT
    • Planned: 100′, Actual: 68′ (68%)
  • LIT
    • Planned: 310′, Actual 350′ (112%)
  • Polarization
    • Planned: 24%, Actual: 16%

So, good work on the endurance training.  I definitely fell a bit short on the HIT.  I do wonder how effective HIT cross training is, but I really should have tried to do one additional HIT session over the week.

Now I have 13 days to the HOCR.  Looking forward, here’s the plan…

Monday: 40′ LIT plus weights
Tuesday: 3 x 30′ LIT cross train
Wednesday: 30′ Threshold Run
Thursday: 4 x 20′ erg or 75′ OTW
Friday:  OTW interval session
Saturday: 90′ LIT (either bike or Open water row)
Sunday: 4 x 20′ erg
Monday: OTW Head race piece
Tuesday: 75′ OTW LIT
Wednesday: OTW 4 x 500m
Thursday: OTW 3 x 500m
Friday: Practice run on HOCR course
Saturday: Race Day!

Monday: 40′ elliptical, a little strength training

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Back in the fitness center at the JW Marriott in Seoul.  I slept well, and a long time too, maybe 8 hours.  But I woke up sore and tired.  Looking back over the past week, I’m not too surprised.  My volume is a lot higher than normal.  I think it’s OK to push a bit past normal for these two weeks to try to get a little bit of supercompensation when I taper back for the HOCR.  I’ll be forced into a rest day when I travel back over Wednesday/Thursday.

Today, I thought it would be good to do a little strength work, especially for rowing related moves.  But I wanted to do a little aerobic work first.*  So, here is the plan

Plan:

  • 40′ elliptical (easy intervals)
  • Front Squats
  • seated rows

The work on the elliptical felt pretty damn hard, but my HR was pretty low.  I guess that is accumulated fatigue.

As for strength, I had no idea what to expect.  The fitness center was admirably equipped.  There was not one, but two, squat racks.  Not Smith machines, but actual squat racks.  So, I decided that doing some front squats would be a good idea.  Why Front Squats?  Well since I haven’t done any lifting for the longest time, I didn’t want to do back squats and be tempted to go too heavy and mess myself up.  By doing front squats, I was much more limited in what I could lift.

I warmed up with 12 reps of just the bar (20kg).  I was surprised that I was feeling it in my thighs just from the warm up set.  Then I loaded two 10kg plates and embarked on my first set.  I managed 8 reps with good form, but my thighs were complaining.  Wow!  I think I need to do some remedial strength work!  I did 2 more sets of 8 reps.

Then I went over to a cable pull station and got myself set up to be able to do seated rows.  I set it up so that I got tension with the bard over my toes, and I essentially did the body/arms part of the stroke with as much acceleration as I could.  I loaded the full stack (45kg) and managed 2 sets of 20 and 1 set of 15.

After that I thought about doing some more, but I was pretty torched, so I had a drik of water, and called it a day.

Tomorrow:  The fitness center triathlon (again).

Sunday: Intervals, they’re good for the Seoul

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Sorry, couldn’t resist the pun.

Check out what I saw in the hotel fitness center.  Yes, indeed, that is a mechanical horse.  In fact, I saw someone riding it.  This was not a wild bucking ride like the mechanical bulls in a bar, more like the little horsies you see in small arcades.  Imagine, they had two of these things, about 40 treadmills, 20 ellipitcals, countless stair steppers, free weights, weight machines…BUT NOT A SINGLE ROWER!  Arghhhhhh!  What the hell is wrong with these people!

Sorry, back to the workout.

Plan:

  • 5 minute warmup
  • On the treadmill
  • 14 x 500m at 5:30/km and 2.5% grade
  • 1′ rest at 8’/km and 2.5% grade

At first I thought I might have made things too easy.  By the end I was pretty sure I hadn’t.  It was a struggle to get through the last few reps.  The HR monitor was problematic today.  It kept sliding down and was getting some bad readings at the beginning, and dropouts at other times.

Tomorrow:  40′ endurance plus strength.  I have all these weights here, I might as well use them.

 

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.