Post
by Bob S. » November 4th, 2006, 4:04 pm
Yesterday’s (Friday’s) session was a real comedy of errors. It started Thursday when I had a new eye problem develop, but went into town anyway to do my treadmill and weight workout. It didn’t get any worse, but it didn’t get better either, so I stopped by the optometrist before going home. The next available appointment time would have been in December, but I convinced the receptionist that this was a possible emergency, so she said that she could work me in late Friday morning. I didn’t get up early enough Friday to get in my usual routine and do my planned erg session as well, so I decided to wait until after the appointment to see how I felt about doing the IP erg session in the late afternoon.
The optometrist came to the conclusion that I should see the opthamologist (the only one in town) and gave him a call. I really lucked out on that one. I found out later that he doesn’t usually work on Friday, but he was in that day and was willing to see me right away. Very convenient, since my eyes were already doped up with belladonna or whatever they use nowadays to dilate the pupils. It was a short six blocks to the other office and I managed to navigate it in spite of the blur. I was there a couple of hours getting checked out and treated — very bright lights and an injection in the cornea —ugh. It was about 13:30 when I was ready to go home and the fog had cleared enough that I was ready to make the 15 mile trip home, with possible stops to give the eye a rest. I had a couple of in-town errands to run in order to make full use of the 30 mile round trip, but all thought of these had evaporated completely from my mind. I got home with no real problem, had a belated lunch, and checked out all the usual crap on the net. It was almost 16:00 by the time I finally got on the erg.
I am currently using level three which calls for 4-5 days a week, but I have convinced myself that I should erg only on alternate days, so I pick three of the four to do each week. This left a choice of 2x7’AT or 2x12’UT1 for the third session this week. The AT was just a repeat of Wednesday, so, naturally I went for the UT1.
The room where I use the erg was once part of the garage and has garage type fluorescent lights. I have suspected that the occasional failure of the erg heart monitor to register might be due to interference from the ballasts of the lights. Friday, with that in mind and my eyes still looking like black saucers, I decided to leave the lights off and workout in the light from the little window at the far end of the room. There was enough light, but I was getting a direct reflection of the window and had a lot of trouble trying to read the monitor. After I finished a 12’ minute warmup (3’ each @ 15/18/20/22 2559m (2:20.6) ave HR 116), I turned the erg at an angle to get rid of the reflection before I started the first IP piece.
The first piece, 12’ UT1 @ 24spm with a goal of 2:18.3—2:23.2, was quite sloppy. I ended up with 2607m (2:18.0), ave. HR 137, but I was having a tough time trying to read the monitor, even with the reflection gone and my splits were quite irregular. I assumed that it was just blurry because of the eye dilation, but was puzzled because it seemed better when I briefly removed my glasses. An hour later, long after the workout was done, I suddenly realized that I had the wrong glasses on all that time! I still had my computer glasses on instead of my regular ones! No wonder the monitor was blurry! I had also forgotten to bring in a towel and had mistimed my water consumption and pit stops.
That was not the last of my miscues that day. I was disappointed in the HR monitor performance. The down times seem to be just as bad with the fluorescent lights off as when I had them on. In both the warmup and the first piece, I had left the monitor set on the default split time of 3’ for the 12’ total time. On the second piece I decided to use 1’ split times in order to pick up more HR readings, instead of just the four averages. The piece did not go well at all. It was very difficult to keep my focus and the pace was much too fast for UT1. It ended up at 2656m (2:15.5), ave. HR 148. I was eager to see the 12 split breakdown of this piece, but when I clicked on the details button, there were only two lines! Just the average line and one split! I had set it for one 12’ split instead of twelve 1’ splits!
The cool down was an anticlimax. Just for the symmetry of it, I took 12’ for that as well — 3’ each @ 20/18/15/12 — 2392m (2:30.5) ave. HR 121, final HR 116.
Not my best day. I suppose that I was screwing everything up because I was upset about this eye business. Monday is supposed to be a test piece. After doing a USIRDS time trial just 8 days ago, I need another test like I need another hole in my head, but I suppose that I will go along with it. At least it will be another comparison of altitude vs sea level.
Bob S.
). Like Carla, finding the time to squeeze in a workout is a major challenge and I have short changed warm-up times. And, other physical activities (OTW, strength training, running) could be culprits in draining my energy...Enough confession and excuses.