It's the ides of March. We've been in the gym doing circuits since late October and we are all itching to get back on the water. Time to keep focus and keep working. This week, starting today (Saturday) I'm doing a diary of our training week for my group, almost all of whom are racing for Canada at the World Championships in August.
Saturday March 7th
Morning - Circuit Training - 8 AM start
stations - Bench Press (40 kg), Upright (20 kg), Tricep extensions (20 kg), woodchops (20 kg), sit ups on stability ball, one arm row (60 lbs), dips, chin ups, push ups, sit ups, lat pull downs on machine (30 kg), one arm curls (25 lbs each arm), seated military press (25 lbs each arm), bench row (40 kg), back extensions
Workout - one round (all 15 exercises) going 40 seconds on/ 15 seconds off to change stations. One and 1/2 minutes rest. Repeat. Then one round 20 sec on/ 10 seconds off as many reps as you can do. One and 1/2 minutes rest. Then one final round of 20 sec on/ 10 sec off averaging one rep per second on each exercise.
Me, Tim, Bruce Chaisson, Bruce Oakley, Kirk, Steve Gallant, Barry Ring trained this morning. Good to see Barry back with the group. I was a little sluggish today cause I did a hard bike yesterday. Guys weren't happy cause Tim didn't have a theme tape. Listened to Doobie Brothers mix - I liked it. I did 397 reps on the round of 20/10 - 97 over averaging one a second. Beautiful day out - a litle open water up at the top of the lake. Some of the guys are going to run, swim or bike this afternoon, but I've trained 7 days straight so I'm going to rest and then go watch the AUAA basketball final tonight - Dalhousie versus St FX.
Sunday, March 8th
Morning - 8 AM start
Workout - 3 stations of medicine ball throws with a partner, paddling erg. You do 3 various throws with a partner for 2 minutes and 20 secs which makes 7 minutes a loop. 6 total loops for 42 minutes. two of the loops you come out and do paddling erg so you do 14 minutes of paddling and 28 minutes of throwing. Sounds more complicated than it is.
Me, Tim, Kirk, Steve, Sean Gibson and Barry managed to figure out the time change. We like Sunday mornings because its very relaxed and the medicine ball throws loosen you up like stretching (if you do them consistently). We have 3 ergs, kayak, left dragonboat and right dragonboat/left canoe so you have your choice of paddling. No theme tape, too hard to hear with the ergs. It's snowing - again!! After workout we had our usual coffee - rest of the day off.
Monday, March 9th
Morning - 6 AM start
Stations - Circuit as Saturday but heavier weights on bench press (50 kg), wood chops (30 kg), bench row (45 kg), lat pulls (40 kg).
Workout - 6 times 20 sec on/ 10 sec off with 2 of the loops on the paddle erg (1 minute on/ 1 minute off on the erg)
Me, Tim, Kirk, Steve, Brian Melanson, Barry. Guys are sluggish, still suffering from time change. No theme tape - listened to random artists. It was cold this morning - and dark. Paddled on the C1 erg which is a lot harder than the dragonboat erg.
Afternoon - 4 PM
Abs - 3 different cybex machines at Sportsplex - 300 reps. One times cybex circuit. (12 exercises). Exerbike - virtual workout (today was Wicked Workout). The virtual workout shows you, on your bike, on the screen, riding different courses. You race against other bikers (in my case fellow Beast Dustin Whalen) and your ghost, which I have set to my best ride ever on that course. Wicked workout is 7.8 miles of extreme hills (grades up to 40%). I beat my all time ride today by 45 seconds - 23:02, averaging 20.1 mph, burning 477 calories. It was very hard, but a very good ride for me.
Tuesday, March 10th
1 PM - Dartmouth Sportsplex
Workout - Exerbike - Redwood Course - 1.5 miles - small grades - 3 times loop in 4 mins or less, one every 6 mins. Did 3:56, 3:53, 3:52 (averaged over 23 miles an hour). Rode against Dustin Whalen.
Swim - 6 times 50 meters, one every 2 minutes, did 45 sec, 45 sec, 46 sec, 48 sec, 49 sec, 49 sec. Dustin did under 38-40 sec per 50 meters - he's a better swimmer than me.
Whole workout takes less than an hour. Very difficult to do the swim after the bike.
8 PM - Senobe -
Me, Tim, Kirk, Brian Melanson, Beth Moriarity, Annie Baert and a special guest appearance from the Rocketman himself, Trent Waterhouse, who now lives in BC.
Light weight circuit - bench press, bench row (55 lbs), abs, dips, chin ups, push ups, lat pulls, woodchops, back extension, no rest, change stations every 22 seconds, go through 10 times, skip 2 loops to do dragonboat erg.
It's about 40 minutes straight of cardio. You have to work the dips, chin up and push ups to get something out of it. I do 25 dips, 14 chin ups and 25 push ups every round to give me 200 dips and push ups and 112 chin ups. Great to see Trent, I actually felt pretty strong tonight despite the long day.
Wednesday, March 11th
2 PM - Dartmouth Sportsplex -
Me and Dustin
We really try to pack in a hard hour, so today it was the 6.9 mile "Stump Puller" - new PB in 21:12 - we finished together but Dustin led most of the way and controlled the pace -my legs were a little heavy today. Stump Puller has some long grades up to 20%, but nothing extreme. Averaged 19.5 mph - average watts around 275.
Then we went directly to the pool. It's interesting doing swim workouts with your legs dead and your lungs burning before you start. Today we did 50m, 100m, 100m, 100m, 50m on 2',4',4',4',2' (i.e. if you swam 45 sec on your first 50 you would get 1'15" rest). We went head to head - he's a lot better swimmer than me but it's still competitive - I try to get inside of 5 sec on the 50's and 10 sec on the 100's. I swam the 50's in 45 - he was 39,39. My 100's were 1:49, 1:49, 1:46. Dustin was 1:39, 1:41, and then he emptied the tank and got a 1:28.
Very hard today. I felt good last night but was just hanging on today. Off tonight - heavy weight circuit tomorrow at 6 AM with the guys.
Thursday, March 12
Morning - Circuit Training - 6 AM start
stations - Bench Press (40 kg), Upright (20 kg), Tricep extensions (20 kg), woodchops (20 kg), sit ups on stability ball, one arm row (60 lbs), dips, chin ups, push ups, sit ups, lat pull downs on machine (30 kg), one arm curls (25 lbs each arm), seated military press (25 lbs each arm), bench row (40 kg), back extensions
Workout - two rounds (all 15 exercises) going 40 seconds on/ 15 seconds off to change stations. Then three rounds 20 sec on/ 10 seconds off. During one of the rounds 20/10 you do paddle erg for 7.5 minutes, I went with Barry and we did 3 times 1'30" hard/ 30" rest on the paddle erg.
Me, Tim, Kirk, Steve, Barry. The boys are starting to make comments about appearing in the blog. Steve Gallant, who paddles the C1 erg more than anyone said smugly this morning, "I hear the C1 erg is harder than the other ergs." Yes Steve, it is. I was the last guy to arrive today and Tim greeted me with, "I thought you might not show - how would that look on the blog? You'd have to write, "the other guys did...."". That's the price we pay for relentless journalism. Tim's Dal Tigers made the Canadian University Championships which start Friday, so we have to listen to "Eye of the Tiger"at the start of every circuit till they lose. Oh well, no one can say he's a bandwagon fan. The trick to benefitting from the circuits is to be consistent. You have to continually try to do more repetitions, with more range of motion. You can really improve if you work at it. The downside is you are trading time efficiency for increased boredom. It ain't much fun. Light aerobic circuit tonight.
8 PM - Senobe
Stations - 8 exercises - very light - bench press (50 lbs), bench row (55 lbs), kayak twist on stability ball, push ups, medicine ball throw against wall, lat pulls (20 kg), wood chops (20 kg), back extensions, switch stations every 20 ', no rest. go through twice. Then do 5 minutes of medicine ball or 5 minutes on paddle erg. Repeat 4 times (i.e. 8 rounds of the 8 exercise circuit, 4 rounds of throwing/erg) 40 minutes steady
Me, Kirk, Suzanne McKenzie, Annie Baert, Anne Gallant, Sean Gibson, Bruce Oakley
Try to do one rep per second on the circuit - 160 reps per round. The weights are so light you have to really go at it. The throws are for range of motion. I like this circuit because for dragonboat you work on one rep per second, range of motion/flexiblity, and paddling on the erg which is sport specific. The 40 minutes goes by quick.