Lightweight Eats

Monday:
I finally got my bike fixed last week, so I started off the morning with a 20-minute ride down to the boathouse. The morning workout was about 14km total, with a 4km race in the middle. Overall, it was a decent piece, although not as good as previous ones. Finished off the workout with a nice cool down ride home.

In the afternoon, I did an endurance lift: 1000 repetitions total, in long sets, with medium weights. I'm still settling into the amount of weight I can do on these lifts, and our apartment gym doesn't have a very finely graduated weight set which makes it more difficult.

Tuesday:
Starting a run test at 6AM = leaving the house very, very early. We repeated our 5.6-mile run test and I improved my time significantly: 39:16, a 45-second improvement! I paced myself much better this time, and didn't absolutely crash in the 3rd lap (of four).

I'll be amazed if you can find me in this picture.

We followed up our run with 12km of rowing. The water was really clean which always makes rowing more fun.

In the afternoon, I hopped on our erg at home to discover the batteries were dead! I wasn't too upset--I didn't really want to see what the heat did to my times. (Early in the week, we had highs in the 80s and low 90s--yikes!) I completed the workout without any times, which was oddly liberating.

Finally, I headed over to Lake Merritt to cox the masters women. My practice schedule has changed and I can now only go on Tuesday evenings. We did a fun 5k mock race around the lake. Well, it was fun for me--I think painful is a better descriptor for them. I've been working on steering a lot--a coxswain's most important skill!

Wednesday:
Again, I started the morning off with a quick ride to the boathouse, followed by 20km and another ride home. Overall, it was a very exhausting morning! My endurance is improving, but it's still not where it needs to be. I also felt a bit under-fueled for the length of the workout.

In the afternoon, I did another round of endurance weight-lifting.

Thursday:
The morning workout was the same as yesterday. The group was a bit more split up, so our coach worked with me for the first half of the row. I have a lot of technical issues to focus on, and they are all interrelated. Having the coach there reminding you to work on all of them is super productive but also incredibly exhausting!

The quality of rowing in the second half definitely decreased, partly from the intense focus in the first half, but also because I was a bit worn down from Wednesday's long row. Still, I have a long list of things to work on in future rows, and a better sense of what rowing properly should feel like.

I also worked in some extra heavy-lifting today, in an effort to gain muscle mass. Some of my favorites: single leg squats, pull-ups and push-ups. I also do bicep curls regularly, much to Dan's dismay.

In the evening, another round of coxing at LMRC! I was helping one of their boats prepare for the upcoming Head of the Charles regatta in Boston.

Friday:
More weight lifting! The day's only workout was an endurance lift. Because my body was fresh, I was able to lift a bit more weight and slightly more aggressively than normal. I also added some heavier weight work on to the end of the lift, mostly upper body work. My legs get plenty of extra work from bicycling!

Saturday:
This morning, we rowed forever. Ok, it was really only 24km, but tack 4.5 miles of biking onto either end of that and it becomes some serious mileage. All-in-all, I spent almost 3 hours in the heart rate 140-155bpm zone this morning--comfortably difficult.

Although I haven't quite finished the week out, this afternoon I'm planning on an 80-minute run, and a short, high-intensity lifting session. In the meantime, eating, eating, eating!

I know it's probably a figment of my imagination, but I feel like I'm already getting more muscular from all of my lifting. Either way, it's good motivation!