The Race Course

Jogged the course for Saturday's race yesterday morning. It's a good, honest course--a bit of an uphill at the start then flat and fair. Much of the race is on a road which fronts a lovely beach (pictured here in the summer).

Here's the challenge: it's supposed to be in the mid-20s F with "severe winds". It is (will be) December in Maine. I suppose cold and wind is fair too.

A Useful Workout

I ran on one of the new treadmills in the gym this morning--it's a great piece of equipment that I'll get to know better through the winter.

The workout was a nice race week jump start: 8 X 2 minutes at slightly faster than race pace with a 90 second recovery between the work pieces.

With the warm-up and cool down I ran 5 miles (8K) in 45 minutes. I ran my work pieces at 7:00 / mile pace. I think I can hold 7:15 pace during the race this Saturday. 7:15s would be a minute faster than I ran on Nov. 18 so this is perhaps a bit aggressive but I think I can get there. The much flatter course helps, obviously. We're going to jog the course tomorrow morning.

The Executive Summary

and then some really boring stats from my workout this morning.

1. Rowed 10K in 39:33.9. It was a good, solid workout and a nice start to the week. I just gritted my teeth and tried to ignore the chaffing pain.

2. The machine gives splits, every 500m. The newer machines give more splits and have an adjustable split distance. But I generally row on an older machine, and I was on the older machine this morning. Anyway, here's more information than anyone needs to know. 500m split on the right, HR on the left. The first split is meter 1 through meter 500, the last split is meter 9501 through meter 10,000:

158.9 103
157.7 110
158.2 113
200.1 110
157.7 117
200.6 110
201.0 116
200.1 114
155.5 124
159.1 117
154.2 130
202.4 115
158.7 121
159.5 123
155.2 133
201.3 122
200.4 120
153.5 132
201.2 121
158.5 121

Capping a Solid Week

On a cold (26 degrees F), clear, crisp, windy, beautiful Maine morning with 5 laps of Mackworth Island. George joined me for the first 2 laps and a bit. The data:

Lap 1 14:22 148

Lap 2 13:38 107

Lap 3 12:58 114

Lap 4 12:33 120

Lap 5 12:45 122

72K total for the week. I'm tired and a bit sore but other than the aforementioned (prior post) plumber's smile issue I have no specific injuries.

The Long Row, interupted

I got 20K in today although it didn't exactly go as planned. I supplemented my normal seat supplement, bubblewrap, with a foam pad. Somehow the combination of those items and my backside didn't agree, and my backside lost out in the deal. Specifically, nasty chaffing of my "plumber's smile" forced me to temporarily abandon the row at 10K (after 39:54) and run to the locker room and apply antibiodic ointment to the blistered and bloody area (sorry about the TMI). Although I'm a little self conscious whenever rubbing my butt with lubricant in the men's locker room, this was a medical necessity. I return to the rower, removed the foam pad, and continued my workout. I brought the second 10K home in 39:38.

So, 2 X 10K in less than 80 minutes total, with an unplanned 4 minute break between the pieces. My HR hovered between 115-120 during the first bit, rose to 125+ for the second. All in all, a good workout.

5 laps of Mackworth (12K) lie between me and a very good workout week. I'm confident I'll bring it home. It'll be cold, though.

Winter Beckons

It's a cold, clear morning, 16 degrees F (I guess that's -9 C) with a big full moon still visible despite the sunrise. I snapped a couple pictures from the rooftop, one of the aforementioned moon and another of the bay. Since the leaves are down, the view is actually better in the winter.

The good news is that it's a rowing day and therefore I will not have to brave the elements (until tomorrow) for my workout. The bad news is that the plan is for as tough a workout as I've done recently: 19K on the erg. I hope to log it in in triumph later today. We'll see.

I did log a pedestrian 6K running yesterday: 32:17. The heart of the workout was in the 8:00-8:30 per mile range. It seemed tougher than it should've been.

A Couple of Light Days

It's a holiday (my favorite, Thanksgiving) and I have a tough weekend coming up and have had a pretty good week. Enough excuses? Oh yeah, and I', still capping my total kilometerage. Anyway, I rowed 6K this morning (23:50.6) and I'll run 6K tomorrow morning. Then it's the big one: a 19K row on Saturday morning. On Sunday, it's a 12K run, that'll be 71K on the week.