I’m here in San Diego, and one of the things I like about it is that there is nearly constant military air traffic in the area. I had lunch outside and we had trouble carrying on a conversation because F/A-18s were tearing up the sky above us. It’s a beautiful plane.
Back to training.
I wanted something easy, and that’s what I got.
Not a typo.
I was staying in a hotel in Incheon called The Charis. It did not have a fitness center, but they had a deal with the sports club across the street to let their guest go work out there.
I headed over and there was a sign for the Spoarts Club on the door. Some clever indication that they focus on rowing…Sp..oar..ts? Afraid not. Not a rowing machine in sight, and the place was a bit shabby. They had a bunch of working tread mills and I managed to make one of the ellipticals to work, but I could not find a working stationary bike. So, I ended up doing 2 – 20 minute pieces.
As boring as it looks.
I didn’t want to put too much stress on my knees, so I hit the fitness center at the hotel on Sunday morning. The goal was a low impact, easy workout.
20 minutes treadmill (15% grade, 3mph)
20 minutes elliptical (random program, level 15)
20 minutes stationary bike (random program, level 15)
Maybe too easy.
So, my flight to Boston last night was cancelled because of winter storm “Niko”. A huge Nor’easter that is pummeling the northeastern United States.
(side note: One of the main online weather services in the US, weather.com has taken to naming major storms, not just hurricanes. I like it. It solves a referencing problem and it’s fun to talk about storms by name…back to the narrative)
So, I am stuck in San Diego until my rescheduled depart, tonight around 9pm. I had a conference call at 6am, so I was unable to go to Crossfit Del Mar today. I was relegated to using the hotel fitness center.
I decided to just do 60 minutes of aerobic maintenance.
The treadmill felt like hard work, the elliptical felt easier, but my HR was a bit higher.
Tomorrow: I arrive (hopefully) around 8 am. I plan to work from home and get in a marathon plan workout.
| M1 | 4 x 15′ / 4′ | 6′ @ 5KP, 9′ @ MP | 92.5% | (172) |
Still in Korea. I’m writing this in the KAL Lounge prior to my flight to Tokyo, and then on to LA.
I had a conference call at 2am local time this morning, I slept from 10pm to about 1:45, so almost 4 hours (plus almost 30 minutes in the car on the way home from the restaurant). After the call, I did some email and called some other folks to get some work going while I am on my flights. I wrapped this stuff up around 5:00 or so, and decided to head down to the gym.
The objective today was to do another marathon training session, this one is 3 – 20 minute intervals at different intensities. I decided to do them on the elliptical to avoid too much stress on my knees. I also didn’t really feel like doing this session on the bike.
Since the power ranges on the erg are not applicable, I did this session to heart rate. The HR cap is 167, so I wanted to stay under 150 for the MP piece, get my HR up in the mid 160s for the 10KP piece, and then choose a level between those two for the HMP.
This turned out to be level 17 (of 25) for the MP section, level 21 for the 10KP and level 19 for the HMP. The 10KP felt very heavy, like I was working in molasses, but it sure was hard work. My HR ended up a little below target, but not too far off.
The last 20 minutes felt like forever. I guess that’s the whole point.
I will now fly east, so I’m going to land at LAX about the same local time that I’m leaving behind in Seoul. I will probably hit the hotel fitness center Wednesday morning, but I might get ambitious and drop in at a local crossfit to use an erg for a 2×30′ MP session.
Wednesday: First teleconference at 7am. Then another at 8. Then off to the airport to fly to LAX, then more meetings and dinner with the team from our facility there. No time to train.
Thursday: It was going to be another long day. First teleconference at 6am, which lasted until 8. I had a bit of time before I needed to drive to San Diego, so I went to the hotel gym. This session was more about stress management than training. I just wanted to do something.
I did 30 minutes on the stationary bike (rollings hills, level 15). Then 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer (rolling hills, level 15). It turns out that rolling hills are easier on the elliptical.
After that, I showered, hopped in my car and drove down to San Diego. Straight in to a prep meeting for 3 hours, then a meeting with our customer from 6pm until 8:30. That left me just enough time to drive to the airport and catch the redeye home. Well not quite home, I am now in Charlotte waiting for my connection and writing a journal entry.
After I get home, I think I’ll take a nap, and maybe do an easy erg session.
In San Diego. Hotel Fitness Center
As boring as it sounds.
Tonight: back on the red eye.
Tomorrow: I should do something higher intensity. Maybe I’ll do the 15×3’/1′ with an easy-ish pace target like 1:52.
I was planning a 3 x 30′ session this morning, but I just got bored and tired and then I stopped.
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.
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:
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).
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:
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.
Quantified Rowing 