Stationary bike

It is quite cold here in Belgium. Last night it was freezing again. Not good for training. I also did not bring enough clothing to go on a run, although it is sunny this morning. I rode 45 minutes on a little stationary bike last night, and another 50 minutes this morning. Not much to write home about, but it is something.

In the meantime, the "dental marathon" continues unabated. So far, two crowns, a cleaning session, and one new filling. There is more to come. Fortunately, the dentist is my sister and that helps when it comes to dealing with all this. Two days ago, I was so tired from jet-lag that I dozed off while she was working so she had to wake me up to continue.

Burlesque

Another rainy day with some pretty heavy downpours. Went to the club and did my 45/35 routine. Ended up almost as wet as if I had gone outside. I was sweating a whole lot today because the room was so hot. Easily lost 2.2 pounds there. 

I don't understand what management is thinking. The exercise room is way too hot. So hot in fact that people open all the doors to let cool air in from the outside. Which only drives the room heater to new highs. Sure there is a thermostat in the room, but last year, these managers decided not to let users interfere with their settings anymore. They encased the thermostat and made it de facto inaccessible. 

Today there were three people in the room. All were pretty serious about working out. So here we were, all sweating buckets, fans blowing, doors open to get a breath of fresh air, heaters spewing out hot air in an effort to keep up, and all that while the outside is a comfy 52 degrees. I was thinking about dragging the stationary bike outside, but that would have caused serious problems. So I just imagined I was training for Arizona.

More swimming

Yesterday, the weather was not great and I had lots of stuff to do so I went to the club and did my 45/30 routine. I actually ran an extra 5 minutes and finished 4.2 miles. I also worked out at a higher level on the stationary bike. The device lets you enter your weight and calculates calories burned, but my suspicion is that the numbers are too optimistic. I typically work out above 20 METs and burn nearly 1,200 calories in 45 minutes. 

I have to work really hard to burn 1,200 calories in one hour on my Griffen with the Ergomo power meter. Since the Ergomo measures power it can add calories burned. According to the documentation, Ergomo postulates a 25% muscular efficiency here. It seems the device at the club uses a much higher %.

Today started out pretty poor, but then it cleared up in the afternoon. Since it is Wednesday and school ends early, we all went to the pool. I swam 3,000 meters again, all freestyle and no stops. I think I am getting better. The long swims seem to help and I have two indicators that support this idea.

1. Part of the time, Alistair was swimming alongside and I found it much easier to keep up with him. He is always competitive and will try to swim faster than I do. Since we were the only two in the pool, that was easy to do. Under normal conditions, he gains one lap on me for every 5-7 laps I do, but now it was more like 1 lap every 10 or 12. Before I had been able to swim like that but never for longer than 10 laps. Now I can hold it.

2. I finished 3,000 meters in one hour so the 100m rate is 2 minutes even. In Arizona my 100m pace was 2:11. A 2:00 pace would result in an Ironman swim time of 1:15:47 or almost 7 minutes faster than what I did in Tempe. Seven minutes is a significant improvement.

We'll just keep hacking away at it. Eventually it will give.

Rain and fog

Today started out pretty bad. Heavy fog and drizzle followed by rain. We need the water, but I would still prefer if it only fell at night. No such luck. It has cleared up a bit now but there is still a heavy cloud cover over 4/5 of the sky, and the ground is wet and soggy.

I went to the club and did a "45/30," workout. Even though I label them all 45/30, i.e. 45 minutes on the stationary bike and 30 on the treadmill, the more recent ones have been quite a bit more heavy duty than the first ones I did several weeks ago. I now routinely "bike" 17 miles, whereas before I barely reached 15, and I run almost 4 miles, whereas before I made it only up to 3 at the most (I was injured too).

The stationary bike reads 1,200+ calories, but I think it is way off. I have to work a lot harder to burn 1,000 on my Griffen (with Ergomo) and that takes more than one hour to do. Here I am supposedly burning 1,200 in 45 minutes. Clearly something is not right. Although I do work hard on the stationary bike and my heart rate is above 160 for the better part of the effort.

The treadmill is more accurate, although still optimistic. I should probably say it is  more in line with my expectations--and other treadmills.  It records an effort of about 500-600 calories for the 30 minutes. I seem to recall other treadmills read around 400 for a 3.1/5k run.

According to my Ergomo, I burn about 40-50 calories per mile, at cruising speed, on the bike -nothing on descents of course, and a bit more on the climbs. My healthrider treadmill, which is now broken, always put my running effort at about 120 calories per mile. Somewhere between 110-130 seems to be the treadmill "consensus."

Cold and colder

The weather has taken a turn for the worse. Now it is getting cold. As in freezing or near freezing. The cold weather has made it so the pool stays closed for a few more days. Apparently it will take longer than expected to bring it up to temperature. The club people also blame a "chemical imbalance" whatever that may be. Emptying and refilling such a huge pool is no trivial matter. Not to mention the enormous waste of water. Those valves better be worth it.

It is also too cold to ride outside. With temperatures near 35-6 and constant rain or drizzle, this is not the time to go for a nice ride. If I did, I would probably return blue and hypothermic. I am keeping Alistair at home too. 

So I am stuck with my 45/30 routine at the club -my treadmill broke so no running in the garage either. 45 minutes on the stationary bike, which reads 1,000 calories by the end-I don't believe it, I have to work a whole lot harder to burn 1,000 on my Griffen and there I am measuring my actual power, hence energy use; 30 minutes on the treadmill, because my right calf is still hurting and tense. I run anywhere from 3 to 3.5 miles in that half hour, nothing to write home about, but usually enough to make me aware of the problem in my leg. Actually I spend the first 3-5 minutes walking just to make sure my muscle is warmed up properly.