Oh Sh!t - back twanged - squats

Had a "oh shit" moment this morning during my squats - warm up sets done OK but on the third rep of the main set as I was lowering I felt a nasty twinge in lower back and re-racked the weight - stretched and although I am not in any pain my mind/body has gone into protection mode - I was going to do the bench press after but once i had the warm up set done as I rose up to add weight while on the bench I just felt a ache - enough to bin the weights today and not likely to be rowing for a few days now - currently in hyper protection mode in terms of what I do for every day movements... FFS!

For anyone who has been in severe back pain they will know the fear of going back to it - I am literally terrified

Early early start - scar healing well

So got up very very early today in order to walk the dogs - grab quick breakfast - and drive to work to do a 30 minute row - aimed at r22 and at the start wasn't sure how to pace it - started hard and got sub 1:50 split and then as the HR creeped up I decided on targeting 80% HRR (160) have to say it was bloody tough in comparison to my best and the pace - but got through it and that's all that's needed sometimes. HR dipped in the middle and I thought my v8 had come back on line - alas I think it was a low battery ... on the strap not mine.

Lunchtime CTC r24 – target 1:38 – 30r20 70%HRR pre work

Got in early this morning so went for a 30r20 70% HRR – little overcooked it but result was OK – 7704m 1:56.8 HR Ave 142 Max 151 (70% for me was 143 but guessing it’s slightly higher at moment as I am “untrained”)

Lunchtime wanted something more challenging so went for the CTC – r24 having done the r20 at 1:42.6 and the r22 at 1:39.9 pace I figured 1:37.9 would be a good target – so after upping the drag to 135 (was at 126) I went for about a  1000m warm up and then set off. Hmmm – that was a bit faster than expected – oh well best stick with it. Apart from the hands and feet and backside blisters I’m developing (not only the inners that go soft from lack of time on the mistress!) it wasn’t too bad – messed up the start of the 10th rep and a few reps I took the last stroke a little too early and had to watch the “predicted meters” reduce as the fan slowed down but apart from that and a lot of sweat all is well :o)

30r20 - kinda like old school

Couldn't decide on what to row at lunchtime - considered a r24 ctc shot but came to my senses and went for a 30r20 - instead of targeting HR specifically I thought I'd row to pace and see how I got on - target 1:55.0 pace and keeping a check on my back all went well. Ave HR was 140 which is below 70% HRR although I topped out at 156 bpm which is just over 75% all seems well with the back - but will continue to take it easy

When is a 2k test not a 2k test

When you bottle it and do a CTC rate capped instead ...

Went out to train tonight after a heavy weekend of household chores - not training at all since last Tuesday - life been putting the boot in in terms of time needed for extra ordinary "stuff" - but tonight I saw a opportunity to train so after fighting for half an hour with my old car to try and get it started in the damp (it's over 20 years old and don't like the damp ....) which I failed to do in order to get it to a salvage yard I then took the dogs for a walk in the damp and misty evening - sounds romantic unless your have four soggy dogs who insist on walking right next to you so you become soaked by proxy - did I mention it was damp .... So the "plan" was to do a 2k - target between 6:30 (ideal) and 6:40 (I could deal with) on the model B in the shed - so once I put it in place and organised everything else up there I went through the 5k warm up - although I got it wrong and had to restart it - been a while lol. OK 2k set up and off I set - got about 250m in and basically bottled it - not sure if it was concern for the back or complete lack of confidence in rowing hard for more than a minute or so at a hard pace - but I stopped. Thought about going again and reduce the target - but the thought went quickly as I turned my mind to the CTC - 15 by 1min 1min rest - gives a workout and gives me time to assess as I go - so last time was rate 20 figured r22 this time with a target of 1:40 (1:42.6 on r20) set off and it all went reasonably well - wasn't blowing too hard - did mess up a couple of starts (5th one in particular) and about 4 or 5 times messed up the timing and took the last stroke with 5 seconds left - still target attained and split. Also managed to get some lovely blisters on my hands and heels - actually that was something else that put me off on the 2k - the heels on the model B - I suppose its something the guys got used to. Oh back seems ok so thats good :o)

 

OCT C2CTC - r20

So saw the consultant yesterday about my back and he was happy enough to sign me off - still need to wait a while before full bore erg training can commence but he said I would be OK to do some small amounts if I was careful - so 15 by 1min on 1min rest (October ctc) and rate cap it at 20 to keep an eye on my form seemed good - started with a target of 1:45 and kept a conscious aim to listen to my lower back although there was an ache to be honest I get worse from merely sitting in the chair or car for more than half hour - followed it up with some stretching and all seems fine now :o) still won't be going to silly yet .... had the drag down at 105 which strangely felt quite heavy

Getting a sweat on..

Out tonight to the shed for some light weights and then hopped on the bike on the turbo - changed the setting on the turbo from 7 to 4 (it's very high tech ....) and this seemed to mean I could spin the wheel s bit faster so kind of means that as far as keeping record is concerned the speed/distance isn't going to mean much - so if I need to track anything it would need to be HR and cadence I think - anyway got a great sweat on with it being 20c in the shed and 70% humidity - it's nearly October in Ireland!!

134ml/kg
HR High 174
HR Ave
TE 3.5
Ave Speed 49.8
Max Speed 57.2
Distance 24.9km
Ave Cadence 95rpm
Max Cadence 109rpm

Beware of an old man in a profession where men usually die young...

After a full day in work (was supposed to be a half day still as sitting at my desk seems to cause me more grief than anything - well that and in the car for any amount of time) and a very early start - 5:30a.m. - by the time the daughter was in bed and the dogs where walked it was gone 9p.m. and I really fancied just lounging on the sofa - but then the power of Facebook struck - firstly seeing Lloyd Gilby powering through some training then this "meme" popped up - that was enough to get me up and changed and into the shed - a few light weights (nothing involving anything with the lower back even supporting) and then onto the bike - did manage to get on Sunday night for 20 minutes and averaged over 40km/h from the start so that was the plan for tonight - still getting a numbness in the "man area" which I needed to relieve a couple of times and then grabbed a video of the last minute - used that as a motivation to be honest - I dunno why but it worked.

TE 3.8

EPOC 157ml/kg

a long day but the motivation is there

my daughter woke early today, at 4am then 5am ... and next doors dogs where out and about at 6am so lets say we had a early start - up and fed with daughter ready for gymnastics at 11am with a quick stop for lunch and then dropped her for creche - home to potter around the house doing "standing up chores" sitting is still a pain ... literally. Then picked her up and home for tea, more "standing up jobs" and some play time then off to bed for her and a dog walk for me and the pack. Back in the house about 9.30pm .... do I want to train? Well yes I blinking do - so got the bike gear on and up to the erg shed (needs a tidy - see photos) on the bike and after a fiddle with the Garmin to get the displays I wanted I set off - about 6 min in I wanted to check the overall times and clicked the button on the Garmin to scroll the screens -nuts - forgot to start it FFS - OK start again and off I went - intention was to beat last nights average speed so got the speed up to 38 km/ph and kept it there - had a few issues with numbness in my "man areas" does anyone else feel like "it's" gonna fall off? lol Piled on the pressure gradually at the end and happy enough bearing in mind the time of day and how long I've been awake - back in work tomorrow and ironically sitting at a desk is going to be more of an issue than doing this!

Broken but not destroyed

After the 100m session on Monday I had problems with my lower back. Tuesday more problems and no training then on the way home I went into the GP to see what was going on - drugs and rest ordered. 

Wednesday 8th July morning - Broken - had to get ambulance as back completely locked up and was not able to stand after sitting on the sofa even sitting I was in huge amounts of pain - took on board a lot of gas and air to get upright and then more to get from the ambulance stretcher to hospital trolley. Faced with lying on a trolley and getting more drugs or going home on lots of drugs after diagnose that my back was in spasm I chose to go home - that took a lot of time to stumble a small distance on crutches - after getting home my wife told me the nurse had said she was concerned at the amount of pain I was still in as they had given me enough drugs to kill most sensations!

Tuesday July 14th 

Still not able to walk very well - bending over to the ground is still very painful and often not possible (pain is now in right hip and lower back and travels down right quad) but erging doesn't seem to cause a issue so went up to the shed and on the model B knocked out a 30r20 with about 80% HRR. Garmin 910xt would not turn on!!

 And then I thought about some weights - again the moving about between sets caused more of a problem than moving the weights 

10 by 50kg (2by15kg plus 20kg bar) bench free weights x 3

10 by 30kg (2by10kg plus 10kg bar) EZ barbell curl x 3

8 by 60kg (2by15kg 2by5kg plus 20kg bar) bench free weights x 3

8 by 35kg (2by10kg 2by2.5kg plus 10kg bar) EZ barbell curl x 3

5 by 70kg (2by20kg 2by5kg plus 20kg bar) bench free weights x 3

5 by 40kg (2by10kg 2by5kg plus 10kg bar) EZ barbell curl x 3

Wednesday 15th July

Back in Work today and early enough to set a 60 minute row up - but after 30 minute I'd more sweat rolling of me than Niagara falls has water plus  the HR wasn't playing ball so stopped just after 30 minutes. Ended up at 30r20 80% HRR

 At lunchtime today I set another 30r20 up and kept to the 70% HRR as depressing as that was ... also got the Garmin 910xt working again - although I now can't turn it off!!