Rowing blind

Looks like everyone's at it this week! I will jump on that bandwagon...

Yesterday, after the usual backpacking hike:

Seven rounds:
2 minute hard row*
10 thrusters - 45#

* The batterry has died on the rower console, so I don't know exactly how far or hard I'm going. Luckily I have a new watch, so I can time it, but "hard row" is a bit subjective...

Also, my sweetie brought home for me a brand new iPod on the weekend, so rowing is fun again, regardless of the lack of stats.

Long, slow, and tedious

I love having a rower at our disposal. It's so perfect for sprints and intervals. A little bit on the tedious side over a longer haul. Nonetheless, despite the shitty weather (what's winter in Ottawa without a little freezing rain), I still wanted to do my Tuesday podcast. So rowing it was. Nice and easy.

5 km = 23:45 minutes.

Another rowing circuit

I think the title describes what my winter will look like, workout-wise. Luckily, aside from the rowing part, the possibilities are (almost) endlessly variable.

Today, four rounds of:

500 m row (average 2:08 min)
10 thrusters (45#)
10 sort-of-goblet squats (35#)

(I think with goblets you're meant to hold the dumbbell at your chest? I let my arms hang so the weight was between my knees - necessitated by the fact that I was using weights on a stick rather than an actual dumbbell. Likely reminiscent of the gym in Dar).

Finished with a set of 10 45# presses and an easy 2000 m row (< 10 min).

I didn't time the circuit (lost the g-damn watch again!), but worked through it all as quickly as possible (not counting the finishers). Rested about 20-30 seconds at the end of each round.

Yesterday, I opted for an hour of kid-free Christmas shopping rather than a workout, but had squeezed in a Sunday 5K (24:55 min) to make up for it.

We've also been playing a lot of Boing-Boing -- a game consisting of holding Tim under the arms and "bouncing" him from floor to ceiling (or off various pieces of furniture) seven or eight times while walking through the house before finally throwing him on the couch and collapsing there with him. That's gotta count for something, right?

Sprints and bodyweights

Only the second workout of the week (Tim was too snotty to send to school on Monday). So, I did my sprints and my "lifting heavy things" all in one go. The sprints were a little long, but not as long as a 400 m run. :-)  It looked like this:

Row 250 m in just < 1 min (1:55 min/500 m pace)
Rest 1 min
25/leg Bulgarian squats
Row 1/rest 1
5 pike position presses*
90 sec plank
Row 1/rest 1
25 push-ups (knees)
Row 1/rest 1
5 + 5 cheater pull-ups (two legs for support)

(In summary, that's 4 sprints and one round of five bodyweight exercise that theoretically hit the key functional areas.)

Cool down with 1000 m easy row.

* Start in a downward dog position and do a shoulder press til your head hits the floor (or thereabouts). This is about a half-dozen steps on the progression ladder from a handstand push-up.

Emma - if you guys are looking to increase your indoor workout possibilities, I recommend the Concept 2 rower (we are currently babysitting Daddy-o's). Once you get over your hatred of rowing, it's fabulous: versatile, compact, and easy on the joints.

Another rainy day row

Plus big presses!

Here's the rundown:

1000 m row - 4:32 min (fairly intense but not a race)
split squats - 45 lb x 8/leg (back leg on bench w two risers)
1000 m row - 4:30
presses + push presses - 65 lb x 4+1, 3+2, 3+2
1000 m row - 4:30

Stretch + latté.

I bailed on the split squats because I didn't want to suck at frisbee tonight. If the game is canceled, I'll punish myself tomorrow. Tuesdays: nursery school is half an hour longer!

From under the rubble

After so much summer, a rainy, autumnal day. I headed down to the basement for today's workout. It was such a mess down there, it took me longer to set up for this workout than to do it. After clearing away laundry, crayons, trainset pieces, boxes, balls, etc, and setting up the rower with enough space left for squats, I did this:

Five rounds:
5 squats - 110 lb (will easily up this weight next time)
500 m row - 2:10 min per round (give or take a couple secs)

The advantage of rowing over running is that with the rowing, you can close your eyes when you start to pray for it to be over.
Finished with:
20 squats - 65 lbs
1000 m leisure row (4:50 min)

Later at the park: 3 "real" dips (individuals - not consecutive) on the spiderweb climber. Tim made me hold him and raise him up and down for dips, too. He giggled the whole time.

Monday, Rock Star Style

I am not really a RS, just a dad.

On the physio weight regime (all glossy white machines with images of anatomically correct men in the prescribed positions -the same people that make airline safety cards do these illustrations, they must):

3k row, 12:42
155 BP x 5 x 5 x 5, supersetted with knees to elbows x 10,8,7

3 sets each of 15 reps:
170lb leg press
145lb adductor
145lb abductor
Need to up all ove above.

3 sets each of 15 reps:
10kg overhead split squat/leg
40 calf raises with 25 lb plate.

Rowus interruptus, v. 2

The bed called too temptingly this AM, so I tried a nap-time workout in the basement, care of Fisher Price Sounds 'n' Lights. Turns out, the lights don't work when the monitor is running on batteries, and I had 'phones in (listening to The Count of Monte Cristo via Librivox Podcast - so invigorating during a long row!)... So I didn't realize that Tim had awakened... I finally clued in with 300 m left on my route.

So:

4700 m row (I failed to look at the final total time. My average pace, 2:24/500m)

Tomorrow, I try a Smurph.

Slow row

5K, 25 min.

I'll warn you right now that tomorrow will be another 5K (probably a run, hopefully not slower).

I know, even my eyes are glazed over with boredom. I promise that I'll join a gym the minute I get back from the cruise. So I can add some spice to these workout reports.

Almost a roll

Today at 7:30 am, in the basement:

5K row in 24:12 min. And 60 sit-ups (4 x 15).

This morning training is "practice" for when I join a gym (any day now) and need to go in the mornings while hubby looks after kid. I want to make sure I can actually do it so I don't waste myKen's hard-earned money.

More rowing

AKA basement torture session.

3 rounds:
500 m row (2:06, 2:02, 2:06)
Push-ups (10, 9, 9)

Getting harder to knock seconds off those 500s!

Then,
1500 m leisure row (7:15, or ave. 2:25/500m)
15 bench dips

No stretching; Tim woke up.

Sprints

Short and sweet, and thank god it ended quickly because I felt quite nauseous at the end, which doesn't bode well for frisbee season, which is five months of lame winter workouts away.

4 rounds:
500 m row (2:09, 2:06, 2:06, 2:15)
Bench dips (15, 13, 12, 11)

That's all. Seriously. The rows were pretty intense, and at least 5 seconds faster than I've ever done them before. And it wasn't so long ago that I could do only 10 bench dips in a row. :-)

I'd like to note that my legs are still sore from Monday's workout. The tabata, I assume (but maybe the dogs?) Also, I'm trying to think of this as my 3rd workout of the week, because on Tuesday I vacuumed the house with Tim on my back, and then shoveled the driveway. Counts, right?

Should've been napping

The greatest achievement of this workout was that after the third set of rowing, I laid down on a soft bed in the semi-darkness cuddled up to a warm little lump of coziness for five minutes... and then GOT UP AND FINISHED THE WORKOUT.

Tim woke up 20 minutes into his nap/my workout. Are you fucking kidding me, kid? NOT long enough for a morning nap. So I laid down with him a bit and he went back to sleep, and I finished up. I'd hit the wall after round 3 (as the numbers show), so the lay-down actually enabled me to finish.

In the nursery, pre-nap...

4 rounds:

15/leg hip raises (shoulders elevated)
Plank (90 count)

[Break to put Tim to bed]

In the basement...

4 rounds:

750 m row (3:23, 3:23, 3:35, [break to lay down with Tim], 3:25)
One-arm db presses, 22? lbs (6/arm each set)

Sometimes I do extra exercises I wasn't going to do simply to make it easier to record in the subsequent blog post. For example, I really only wanted to 3 sets of the dumbbell presses, but it would've been more complicated to write it down (as above), so I just did another set.

The twenty minute concept

I set up the Concept 2 in the basement with the intention of also setting up the playpen so Tim and I could "play" together. Unfortunately, the playpen confounded me so I had to wait until nap time.

3 rounds:

1000 m row (4:50, 4:35, 4:35)
push-ups (8, 9, 10. No idea why I was able to do more instead of less.)

Intended to add some glute exercises to this workout, but the little bugger work up early.

Rowus interruptus

First day attempting to work out solo while managing Tim. I got through this:

2 rounds:
Row 1000 m (4:40, 4:33)
5 push-ups

I'd intended to do three rounds, but Tim woke up halfway through the first set of rowing. He was inconsolable by about 750m of the second round. Talk about incentive to row harder!

I limited my push-up reps to 5 in an attempt to perform them with good form -- nice and low, etc. They were hard.

95's with a happier aftermath

Hi. I worked out again, finally. Actually did something last week (other than frisbee) involving a 5K run and some sit-ups and push-ups but I forget the details other than the run was easy and the other stuff was hard.

My gym membership is running out in a month, so I'm going to try to get there a few times before then. Yesterday before noon was nice and quiet there, so I did this:

3 rounds:
500 m row (2:18 min each - finally beat the 2:20 hump!)
Squats - 95 x 7, 7, 5
Bench press - 65 x 10, 10, 8

Killed the legs and chest with:
18 x 45 lb squats
22 x 45 lb bench

Then for the back/core:
Bent-over rows - 30 x 8; 35 x 4, 4 (each arm)
Back extensions - 11, 10, 10
L-sits on the roman chair - 10, 10, 10

In 35 minutes or less. And I beat the boys home so I could eat my avocado salad without dripping it onto Tim's pate.

The giant neck strain from the 95 lb squats I did several weeks ago is finally abating, thanks to a bit of massage therapy (the professional kind), and a little less baby-carrying. I think I can move on to 100+ now. Finally.

Next post: new goals for the upcoming training season!

My gym membership is still valid.

It turns out they don't take it away if you don't show up for a month or two. It was Saturday, usually very busy at the gym, but I bet on the place clearing out in the last half an hour or so

While Ken and Tim picked up some groceries, I did a workout:

Alternating sets:

1000 m row - 4:50; 4:55; 5:00min
Bench press - 45 x 10 + 65 x 10; 75 x 7*; 8 push-ups

Squats - 85 x 6, 5, 5 (How can I have sunk so low!?)
Calf press - 250 x 10, 10, 10

Deadlifts - 85 x 8; 85 x 10; 95 x 10 (experimenting with set-up since I'm not up to lifting with full plates. Yet.)

And then a quick stretch to be the last one out of the gym.

*I think I could go as heavy as 95 lb on the bench press if I had a spotter. My numbers here are about 2 reps shy of a max so as to not risk life and/or limb. (Well, I'm not sure I could actually hurt myself too much with 75 lbs, but it would be embarrassing.) I planned to up it to 85 in the last set, but the bench was taken so I moved on.

m-w-f

chins: 35 x5, x2, x2, x2, x2.
press: 105 x4, x1, x0.

done at the two minute mark.

evening . . .
rowing intervals 5x500m w/ 90s rest.
1 148.0/171bpm
2 155.3/174
3 156.0/178
4 157.5/181
5 156.8/182
total 2500m/9:33.6/154.7 for 500m

did this previously on Sept 27, 2008 (and performed slightly better at that time - which makes sense I guess because I was still playing frisbee).

elevated pushups: 15/11/11. feet on the counter.

forearms:
3 rounds of
-5 wrist rolls @ 20
-captain of crush trainer gripper 10 reps a side
-15 lateral hammers a side.

After those three rounds I did plate pinches with two 10 lbs plates. Longest was 1:18 on the left side (1:02 on the right). So I gave the right a couple of extra reps. Did similar on Dec 22.