Struggles

[jjpisano]

Hello forumites:

I'm struggling. I took a two week vacation and was away from the erg for 16 days. I didn't do anything aerobically challenging over the last two weeks. I'm also returning to incredible humidity levels at home.

My rows are unsuccessful slogs. Before my vacation, I was doing 228w @ 20 s/m for 24 minutes and I thought I'd return to 228w @ 21 s/m (slightly lightening the stroke, while keeping the total work intensity the same) for 20 minutes. I broke after 11 minutes on the first attempt at that watt/stroke rate combo and now I'm spooked by the effort. Right now I'm breaking up my work into small bits so that now, it's becoming longish intervals at 228w & @ 21 s/m.

I think probably my volume of work is not high enough to progress to levels that I would like although my volume is running about 10% higher than last year. I did 2 million meters last year.

These struggles are a perfect opportunity for learning through experience. I'll push through this difficult period and hopefully I'll be back on track soon. But if I continue to struggle with this intensity and combo of watts and stroke rate, I might have to revise my final goal for the year.

Summer is always a challenging time of year for me. My log books are riddled with failed workouts in past years during June, July and August.

Jim Pisano

[ancho]

Will take you a couple or three weeks to catch up. Take it easy!

[Tyn]

Will take you a couple or three weeks to catch up. Take it easy!

Dito!

Take your erg with you next time!

We know some people do!
I'm planning to do it?

But How?
Any suggestions??


Take it easy, be Happy!

[jjpisano]

Ancho:

I just reviewed my workout journal and I was struggling before vacation too. I had a series of failed workouts right before vacation. Each with hot and humid conditions. The last workout which was successful was the 24 minutes @ 228w & @ 20 s/m. I wrote in my journal that it was cool in the basement that AM.

Perhaps, some of my struggle is due to a mild loss of conditioning while most of the struggle may be due to the hot, humid conditions.

I'm wondering if fans in my basement would be a good idea. I'm using a C-breeze to primarily change the drag factor not to blow air on me. But perhaps I can change the C-breeze to it's primary function (i.e. blowing air on me) and put up with a higher drag factor for a while.

Jim Pisano

[mpukita]

Jim:

It could also be overtraining, allergy, or illness ... a virus perhaps. All could have a longer-term effect that could result in the feeling of "sluggishness" I believe (I'm no doctor). My allergies kick up every spring and fall and I feel drained, even while on medication.

My daughter was feeling sluggish for months. We'd go to the doctor over and over, and nothing seemed to change. Finally, they diagnose a couple of common (these days I guess) viruses I had not heard of (from a blood test), that teenagers are subject to because of proximity at school (she's 16), and the doctor said they would just go away ... and she'd feel better ... IN 10 OR 12 WEEKS! I was schocked at how long it took, but she (the doctor) was right, after about 8 or 9 weeks, she (my daughter) started feeling better. No medications could treat it, it just had to run its course.

Wild stuff.

-- Mark

[tennstrike]

I'm struggling. I took a two week vacation and was away from the erg for 16 days.

Hello Jim:

I think I remember reading a Mike Caviston post about a three to one ratio, e.g. take a week off and it takes you three weeks to get back to where you were. Mike's training levels are perhaps quite a bit beyond the normal "forumite".

When I had to take one week off, I went back three weeks in my training journal and just started over at that point. (I "caught back up" in a little over two weeks.) So, if my recollection of Mike's comment is correct, you would need to go back in your journal about a month and a half. If, after a week or two, it seems too easy, then just move faster.

At least that's one plan. Good luck.

[ancho]

Jim:
I think most of this goes in our heads.
I had a "hard phase" by december-january, just didn't seem to have the energy to achieve the "old" splits, and even quitted some workouts before finishing.
Then, from february on, I got "the flow" again, and have made quite a few PBs (let me remember: 0,5k, 1k, 5k, 6k, 10k, 60min, HM and FM). Maybe I don't feel as easy on the erg, but the results speak for themselves...
Take it easy, but be consistent (I know you are systematic enough), and you'll sure be back.

Good luck!

[RowtheRockies]

Jim,

Just be patient and push through it. It is very frustrating to lose fitness. I just recently got back from vacation and had 10 days off the erg. It took about 5 sessions to start feeling like I was getting back in the groove but my HR is still elevated.

I think breaking up the session into pieces until you get back to form is a great idea. I use two fans pointing right at me and it seems to help keep me cooler.

Rich

[jjpisano]

Another thing I was thinking of doing: decrease the length of my warmup - after all I'm already warm.

Problem is I already have a relatively minimal warmup as it is. I basically warmup for 10 minutes at easy pressure with 3 of my target strokes thrown in at 7 minutes down. I used to not warmup at all until one day a few years back in mid winter a few weeks before the 2k competition in Pittsburgh I has a really bad muscle pull. After that, I always warmup.

I could go from a 10 minute warmup to a 5 minutewarmup or something like that. I think much of my problem now is being too warm. Or is a warmup more than for warming up the muscles? Is part of the reason for a warmup to get the cardiovascular system pumped up and primed?

Maybe I should be increasing my warmup. 10 minutes is pretty pitiful. But with minimal time as it is, if I lengthen the warmup then I might be eating up time I could be using for high quality training strokes. Just throwing these ideas out there to provoke some thoughtful responses. My initial posting has prompted my fellow forumites to give me some good ideas.
Thanks for the feedback.

Jim Pisano

[Bob S.]

Another thing I was thinking of doing: decrease the length of my warmup - after all I'm already warm.
Jim Pisano

Check out:

http://www.concept2.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2330).

There is a lot more to "warmup" than just getting warm and revving up the CV system.

Bob S.

[TomR]

Jim--

Re warm-up, my understanding is that you are trying to accomplish a couple of things physiologically, all of which are probably important if you're doing intense workouts:
1) Get the heart pumping at max volume per beat
2) Open up capillaries so blood (and therefore oxygen) gets deep into the muscle
3) Other stuff, no doubt.

I would think 10 minutes would do it, although I think you might want to do more strokes at target pace. 5 minutes might not be adequate, but I have no idea whatsoever how heat affects stroke volume, etc.

Your approach of breaking the workout into intervals makes sense. I'd probably try to do intervals totaling a couple of minutes more than the time of the session if it were done w/out breaks.

You might also have to ease back a watt or two on pace, which, alas, could affect your ultimate goal. It's difficult to believe that a short break from trainng in July could cost you a couple of seconds in February. Who knows, perhaps you'll win the time back later in workouts.

Tom

[ragiarn]

I think I remember reading a Mike Caviston post about a three to one ratio, e.g. take a week off and it takes you three weeks to get back to where you were.

It is a fairly well established dictum in the endurance community that for every week off it takes about 3 weeks to get back to the level of fitness established prior ot the lay off. It might be longer if the cause of the layoff is illness. I have no studies to back this up but I have heard it so many times and repeated for so many years that there must be some truth to the dictum.

I do remember reading a study several years ago in which individuals who underwent a strengthing program for a period of time. All stopped the strengthening workouts. Some did one workout a week for several months while the others stopped all together. On retesting the individuals who did once a week workous maintained their strength while those who stopped all together lost considerable amount of their strength. Unfortunately I no longer have the reference to the above study.

My advice is that if you go on vacation try to get 1 or 2 good high intensity workouts weekly for the duration of your vacation. You may lose some of your endurance but you should be able to retain you strength.

Whenever I go on vacation I research the area for suitable workout facilities.

With regards regaining the fitness lost by your vacatio I agree with the advice to be patient and go back to exercise level you had reached 2-3 weeks prior to your workout and be patient in re-establishing your goals.

Besides what is your rush. You have the rest of your life to workout. Once you reach potential maximum it will only be down hill after that.

If I am not mistaken Mike Caviston set his world record the first year he began competing on the ERG and he has been chasing that goal ever since.

[TomR]

Jim--

How are you doing in your effort to get back on track?

Tom

[jjpisano]

Tom:

Thursday I attempted 33 minutes including 10 minute warmup & 23 minutes @ 228W & @ 21 s/m. It was a clear crisp summer morning and I was more confident I could do it because of the conditions.... but I broke with 8 minutes to go. (Which means I did 15 straight minutes at the desired workout intensity) I continued the row and performed the workload 6 of the last 8 minutes of the row.

Friday had even more crisp conditions but my 7 year old son needed me during the small window of opportunity for my workout. So I missed my workout on Friday.

This AM the conditions were slightly warmer and more humid but I was well rested so I attempted 34 minutes including 10 minute warmup & 24 minutes. Again I broke with 8 minutes to go ( Which means I did 16 straight minutes at the desired workout intensity). I continued the row and performed the workload again 6 of the last 8 minutes.

I'm not too discouraged. I know I'm not doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing but what can I say.... I'm weak willed.

I'm thinking of using a heart rate monitor to give myself an added boost of confidence because when I'm suffering through the minutes of pain I can look at the heart rate number and say to myself something like "You know you can handle that heart rate, you can keep going because you've done it before for much longer than this".

Nevertheless, I'll just keep plugging away and look for small victories.

[johnlvs2run]

I think you're pushing too hard every day and need to back off.

Also, you're not taking enough time to warm up, and not making enough allowances for conditions.