Week 2 of the Concept 2 Dog Days of Summer challenge, so 20,000m requirement this week.
Monday morning skiing, 1000m (5:06.0) warm up, 5000m for the challenge (22:42.5), another new PB, beating last Friday’s time by 43.6 seconds, then a 1126m (6:45.8) cool down.
Monday evening at the gym, another treadmill interval warmup, 3 intervals of 2:00 @ 6Km/h alternating between zero incline and max (15%) incline, 3 intervals switching out the incline for 12Km/h then a cool down of 2:00 @ 6Km/h, 2:00 @ 4KM/h and 2:00 at 3Km/h.
This was followed by some rowing, 2K (7:38.0), 3353m steady state (15:32.5), keeping my HR below 140bpm, 500m (1:41.2) and finally 2243m cool down (10:23.5) before heading back home.
Tuesday, calisthenics pull day, a repeat of last weeks session, but increasing the reps on a couple of items.
- Inverse Knee Rings Row – 3 x 3 x 5
- Rings Row – 3 x 3 x 2
- Rings Scapular Pull – 5 x 0:30
- Band Assisted Rings Pull Up (Purple) – 3 x 3 x 2
- Band Assisted Rings Chin Up (Purple) – 3 x 3 x 2
- Angled Rings Row – 5 x 10
- Static Rings Hold – 5 x 0:10
- Various Isometric Rings Holds – 0:10 each
Tuesday evening archery, shooting at 50m again more practice for impending Short Metric shoots.
Wednesday morning skiing, 1000m (6:13.2) warm up, 5000m for the challenge (23:01.9), then a 1127m (6:12.9) cool down. This brings the weekly skiing total to 14,253m.
Wednesday evening at the gym, another treadmill interval warmup, 3 intervals of 2:00 @ 6Km/h alternating between zero incline and max (15%) incline, 3 intervals switching out the incline for 12Km/h then a cool down of 2:00 @ 6Km/h, 2:00 @ 4KM/h and 2:00 at 3Km/h.
This was followed by more rowing, 2K (7:26.4) – I was interested to see what I could maintain after a day of exercise, turns out I can still manage a sub 7:30 2K. 3347m steady state (15:52.5), keeping my HR below 145bpm, 500m (1:42.2), I was suffering a bit from the earlier 2K and finally 2239m cool down (10:17.3) before heading back home. This brings the weekly rowing total to 16,182m.
Thursday, calisthenics pull day, a repeat of last weeks session, but increasing the reps on a couple of items.
- Knee Push Ups – 3 x 10 (low parallettes)
- Rings Support Hold – 3 x 0:10
- Bar Support Hold – 5 x 0:30
- Rings Bent Knee L Sit – 5 x 0:10
- Reverse dips (chair) 5 x 10
- Rings assisted dips – 3 x 10 (feet on floor)
- Rings lift to support hold – 3 x 5
- Numerous Rings Isometric holds
- Rings Push Ups – 3 x 10 (45 degree)
I did not have a good night, I woke up several times and struggled to go back to sleep and felt tired this morning, my heart was not really in it for the calisthenics workout but struggled through anyway.
No exercise this evening as it is takeaway night, plus I think I need a break from all the recent cardio.
Friday morning skiing, 1000m (5:19.9) warm up, 5000m for the challenge (23:11.5), then a 1125m (6:18.8) cool down. This brings the weekly skiing total to 21,378m and covers off the 20,000m requirement for the Dog Days of Summer challenge.
Friday evening at the gym, another treadmill interval warmup, 3 intervals of 2:00 @ 6Km/h alternating between zero incline and max (15%) incline, 3 intervals switching out the incline for 12Km/h then a cool down of 2:00 @ 6Km/h, 2:00 @ 4KM/h and 2:00 at 3Km/h, the 12Kmh intervals are definitely becoming easier to maintain.
This was followed by yet more rowing, 2K (7:51.6) – I was feeling tired, but still determined to achieve a sub 8:00. 3347m steady state (15:23.8), keeping my HR below 145bpm, 500m (1:41.6) and finally 2235m cool down (10:01.8) before heading back home. This brings the weekly rowing total to 24,264m and likewise covers the 20,000m requirement.
So far, so good, I am managing to hit the weekly goals with only 3 days of skiing/rowing, next week will be a bit tougher, but still possible with a 10K each day, week 4 may require an extra day.
Saturday morning, took the dog on a 1 hour walk, then later on headed over to Staines for a session with the Leisure crew.
There were 8 rowers and 2 coxes present, so we took out 2 training quads that are quite wide and do not have shoes, but foot straps much like the indoor rower, I had the number 3 seat in one of the boats behind a lady guest from Twickenham Rowing Club, then behind me was a chap who had been rowing for about a year and at bow another chap who had recently completed a learn to row course with the club.
We rowed a total of around 6.9km, up and down the stretch of the Thames in Staines, over the course of an hour and 20 minutes at an average pace of 5:47/500m (I am still trying to work out how to download the data from RowingCoach 5.0)
The temperature was around 33C/91F and quite humid although there was a bit of a breeze out on the water.
My sculling was a little rusty at first, but the cox/coach allowed me to sort myself out without prompting as she could see I was self correcting all of my little mistakes: gripping the oars too tightly, not squaring the left oar enough so it ‘dug in’, etc.
It was interesting to note that the two of us at the stern of the boat seemed to have a stroke length nearly double that of the bow pair.
I took a bunch of photos during one of our rest breaks, the cox and stroke were using the opportunity to cool their feet in the water.
Selfie time
This one was taken by the lady at stroke.
My biggest mistake was wearing a t-shirt that was not tight enough as I kept catching the fabric with my thumbs.
I thoroughly enjoyed the outing and asked the coach if I was good enough to approach the masters group, to which she replied that absolutely I should approach them and that I would do well with them.
Sunday was another 1 hour dog walk and then largely chilling using it as a rest day although I did go 10 pin bowling with my son and daughter.