Resting during recovery

Winter conditioning started this week.

After being woken up by a fox early monday morning, it took everything I had to guilt myself out of bed and go. I hadn't run all weekend and was looking forward to this for a long time, which got me out of bed. I was house-sitting for a woman from the boathouse and I couldn't find her blender, so I missed out on my protein shake, but settled for scarfing down a banana and one of those salty/sweet "granola" bars. They really are addictive. A quarter of my daily calories in like 3 salty sweet tablespoons of goodness.

I had purposely fought to get into the M/W/F section since I really liked the coach. I was nervous about being able to row the whole time and justify my slot. Thankfully, the coach had us doing 5 minute build intervals with 2 minute rest sessions. With a few modifications, I was mostly able to keep up, but it was frustrating to basically have to re-learn how to erg and to have such bad output.


The workouts go like this:

You row indoors on a rowing machine (erg)

You row for one minute at 18 strokes per minute (spm), the next minute for 20 spm, then 22, etc., until you've rowed for five minutes. Then you have a two minute rest session where you can either paddle through, rowing at a super easy pace for two minutes, or completely stop rowing. Last year after a season of triathlons and running, I preferred to paddle through and log as many meters as possible. This year, I am working just to finish the five minute sets.

The next five minute set, you start one higher than the last set, so you row the first minute at 20, the next at 22, etc.

Last year, I could row comfortably at a 30 or a 32, this year, I'm struggling to hold a 26.

Pre-surgery, mybiggest problem was rushing the slide, which is basically coming back up to stroke again too quickly. On the water, you stroke to move the boat, and sort of glide, then stroke again. If you're late, it's like flooring the accelerator then slamming on the brakes. If you're early, it's like driving with the parking brake on.

This year, I'm not rushing since I need the recovery to rest to keep up.

It was good to be back, but incredibly frustrating not to be able to perform the way I want to.

And don't even get me started about the winter holiday challenge. I've had to delete all the emails about it to remove the temptation to push too hard and ruin my recovery. 100,000 meters in a month isn't hard, is it?

Our workout:

5/2

18, 20, 22, 24, 26

20, 22, 24, 26, 28

22, 24, 26, 28, 30

20, 22, 24, 26, 28

18, 20, 22, 24, 26


2 sets of 10 crunches, 2 2 sets of planks for 1', 1 set of planks for 1' on each side, 1 set of 10 crunches.

Even not being able to do the planks, my abs are sore.