Unexpected Busy Week

A colleague of mine is in town suddenly and the week was very busy due to that and it being the end of the quarter, so projects needed completion at work and I had some other important stuff I needed to compete outside of work. That being said, I still made it to Sunday double practice, and also tried out a paddle to commit to buying my first carbon paddle from my coach for a small discount on the new price. Very excited to get it in a couple of weeks.

Coach also said I’m making quite a lot of progress and encourages me to keep up the good work!

There also seems to finally be someone closer to where I live with a paddle ERG or pERG aka a paddling machine on land, so I hope to hit that up more regularly as it’ll be closer than going to SF.

Hope to make up the miles this week, but first! New DK30 time!

Total Miles this week: 21 miles

Upcoming

• Still need to get out and paddle on the single boat - probably won’t be this week as I’m going hiking, so I should check the weather and pencil in next week
• Aiming for 29 miles to make up for last week.
• Going to coordinate with the person closer to me with the pERG to see when I can go over to paddle.

Listening to my body

Well if nothing else I got to see day9 Thursday for lunch, and that and having some done on my one day of PTO for this month, which has no holidays otherwise, is worth me being just a bit too tired to round out my 25 miles this week. I got pretty close, and my extra 3 miles each week for the last 2 weeks does cover the 25 miles, so I am very proud of the work I did this week. I even drove an extra 2 hours (to and from) to do an extra paddle session on the pERG machines this Wednesday with the team.

Also I helped move and bail water from some of the boats that just sit in the lake today and there was a dead bird in one of the defunct boats that needs repairs and doesn’t get used. The water was also deep green with algae and smelled absolutely rancid. Even before that, I realized I was very tired today, so I decided to skip the farewell lunch for one of the coaches to save time, energy, and money (I’ll send the coach a gift a bit later).

Total Miles this week: 23.0 miles

Upcoming

• I still need to do that 1 boat 1 hour OC paddle with my teammate. I’m thinking not this week but the following, will figure it out.
• No going below 25 miles this coming week - should be easy with double practice this upcoming Sunday.

Achievements unlocked: PRs again! Engaged and sore Abs!

Contrary to my prediction, I PRed again on both sides during pERG benchmark night!

• Left side: 2 min 59.8 seconds (YES FINALLY UNDER 3 MINUTES YESSSS)
• Right side: 3 min 4.6 seconds (honestly this side has so much better form)

Speaking of form, we’ve been focusing a lot on form and I am happy to report that for the first time after practice, my abs are still sore today, one day after Sunday’s double practice.

Gotta keep it up!

Total Miles this week: 28.5 miles

Upcoming

• Aiming for under 3 min on right side next month, and hopefully 2min 55 seconds on the left? Big goals, but I am getting back into regular working out, so I think this is reasonable
• I want to build in regular, daily ab and core workouts, so I want to say I’ve started them by the next update
• Gotta keep it up!

We back like the terminator

But we not terminating this progress.

I learned again this week that Peloton is a very very efficient workout, so I’m going to try to get at least 1 ride in a week at the office - it’s just easy and fun. I chose a T-Pain ride this past Wednesday and T-Pain himself showed up 15 minutes into the ride on-screen. Definitely super hype and got a better workout because of that.

I also got in 2 ERG (rowing machines) workouts at home Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning - that was just what I needed to take it easy during Wed-Fri, 3 very busy days where a lot was going on at home and work, and be able to round out the 25+ miles at practice through Sunday single practice.

Total Miles this week: 28.1 miles

Upcoming

• I’m excited that weekday (Tues/Thurs night before sunset) water practices are back. I’m going to be getting more water time by end of month as soon as my Stanford class ends.
• I also won 1 hour on a single person boat (OC) with one of my teammates through our team raffle. This’ll be great!
• I am sad to report that the gym next to my partner’s place got WAY expensive this coming year, so I am not paying for that since I can always run if the weather is nice and do strength exercises. I’m also probably going to just start using the lesser, but still a gym in his apt building anyways - it’s free.
• Tomorrow is pERG (paddling machine) time trial day, and we’re having dinner after to celebrate the birthdays of a couple of our coaches. I don’t usually go to the social events, but it’s much easier for me to stay behind on a Monday night, so i’m going to do so.

Not too bad, at least went to double practice

The good news is because I enjoyed double practice so much, during which we got poured on by the rain for 5 minutes while on the lake, I feel more compelled to workout this week. I did almost 6000 meters, 5 x 5 min on 2 min off on the rower today, Mon March 4th. First time working out outside of regular dragonboating practice in 4 weeks. Things are looking up again. We also had our team meeting Saturday which included a fundraiser raffle and potluck that was a lot of fun. I won a paddle bag and 1 hour time on an OC (single person paddler boat, which we did time trials on). The $100 Costco card I donated had over 100 raffle tickets in its pot, each worth either 10, 15 or 20 USD, so simple math says people think 1 dollar at Costco is worth 10 due to what you can get there hehe - obviously I’m very proud of that.

Total Miles this week: 18.8 miles

Upcoming

• pERG night is next Monday, March 11th. Hoping I’ve not gotten slower. Going to train hard this week.
• Hoping to continue to be consistent this month and maybe even get more exercise in and hit 30 miles one week.
• Still going to listen to my body on how much to work out when I ramp back up, but I have scheduled in my workouts this week woot!