Who the heck am I anyway???

My name is Rachel Beckmann and I work on an ice breaker home ported in Seattle, WA.  My ship transports scientists to the Arctic for a variety of experiments and research.  I am also a triathlete.  I began triathlons my junior year at college.  After 2 years of being a triathlete I was not ready to give up the sport despite the obstacles I would face working on a ship.

Ice breakers go out to sea for months at a time.  The last 2 years I have spent my summers underway patrolling the arctic.  During my months at sea I was unable to swim, my running was done on treadmills and slow laps around the ship, and my riding was done on a trainer.  I recently got underway again and will be gone for 2.5 months.  This time, however, I have a new toy.  I have a CompuTrainer with me.  While in port I attended my first evening CompuTrainer workout.  I really did not want to go considering the amount of time I spend riding indoors.  This time I actually enjoyed riding indoors.  I could not conjure up a better training tool.  The following blog will track my training and progress as I get down and dirty with possibly the coolest thing since sliced bread.

The First Week Underway
 

I set up my CompuTrainer the first day we got underway.  I had only ridden a CompuTrainer twice so it was quite the comedy show as I plugged in chords and read manuals while attempting to keep my balance on a rocking ship.  I then had to figure out the best way to secure the contraption to the deck.  Some seagoing folk might know what securing for sea means.  Basically, when the ship gets rolling things not secured go flying.  I have seen TV’s jump off shelves, desks come unbolted from the deck, and an assortment of objects go flying across rooms.  The last thing I wanted was my CompuTrainer to take flight and break before I even had the opportunity to use it.  After figuring out a good system, I decided to load a course and just ride while I read through the manuals.  I wanted to get intimately familiar with my new friend.  Who would have thought I could ride the Coeur d’Alene IM course while seated in a small room on a ship heading hundreds of miles away from land.  The thought made me giddy.  I eventually had to get off the bike and get back to work, but escapes from underway life are now quite enjoyable.

The second day underway I only had :50 min in the morning to get in a quick workout.  I was curious to see whether you could start a course and return to it.  So I started the Kona course.  I couldn’t figure out how to change the background scenery so I was riding Kona and looking at the space needle.  I love Seattle (when I actually get to spend time there), and I am pretty sure I would love Kona, so I suppose it wasn’t that bad a deal.  I finished my workout for the morning and returned in the afternoon to find that you can not start a workout where you left off.  I may be wrong, but I read through the manual again and did not find any answer that would indicate otherwise.  I did figure out that you can change the background by clicking below the start course icon.  If you have the scenery package you can load in other backgrounds, but with the standard package you only have a few choices.

Instead of continuing the Kona course I spent 90 min in the afternoon riding in the stand alone mode.  I did some wattage intervals, and then tried some of the preset programs.  My playing on the bike will be over soon as I establish some base line data to guide my training over the next few months.

The next day I intended to run in the morning and ride in the evening.  I did a 10mile treadmill run in the morning that consisted of 800 repeats.  I left the workout tired, but not exhausted.  Unfortunately, the seas were picking up and I was feeling a little green.  Conditions got much worse and a second workout was not going to happen.  Our ship made it out into the Bering Sea to face 20-30ft seas and roaring winds.  I was standing the 2000-2400 watch.  We were taking consistent 15 degree rolls and things were coming loose and crashing into bulkheads all over the ship.  With one hour left in the watch I received a call about a blinking beacon off of our stern.  We were the only ones out there so the flashing beacon was hopefully just a life ring that came loose, but it could also be a man overboard.  I had to turn the ship around and find out what the flashing beacon was.  Turning a 420’ ship nearly 360 degrees in 20-30 ft seas is not a fun experience.  We were getting tossed around and things were flying across the bridge.  People were holding on to whatever they could.  Waves were pounding the ship and knocking things loose on the weather decks.  The waves caused 3 of the life ring strobe lights on the weather decks to go off.  We had our deck lights on and we were shinning our searchlights out onto the water.  At some point, someone bumped into our navigation lights and turned them off.  I can only imagine what another ship would have thought if they had seen us out there.  We looked like a floating rave with strobe lights blinking and search lights panning the horizon.  Luckily, it turned out to be a life ring and not a man overboard.  We turned and kept making way.  Right before watch relief the ship took about 10 hard rolls.  There were double the number of people on the bridge since both the oncoming and off going watches were there.  The rolls caused all the mats on the deck to lift up and slide sending all those standing on them to the ground.  I decided that course was not a good one to steer.  I turned the ship and surfed the waves.  It didn’t improve much, but at least people were not going flying across the bridge.   That is one night I was glad finally ended.  The weather conditions continued through Sunday so I quickly gave up any notion of working out.  I spent as much time in my rack as I could.  Sleeping was next to impossible in those conditions and by Monday I was exhausted, but the weather was finally calming down.

On Monday morning I did some cross training.  We were still moving a lot so I used the versa-climber, did some body weight circuits, and rowed.  By the evening it had calmed down enough to get on my bike.  I rode for 90 minutes, but was still feeling woozy.  Being connected to a stationary object makes the motion of the ship more pronounced.  I kept it to an easy spin and just tried not to tip over as the ship rolled.

On Tuesday I finally did a real workout.  My coach gave me a 4K TT and a 10mi TT.  I warmed up and then began the 4K TT.  It was a gradual up hill course.  This test was used to establish my VO2 max.  I then recovered completely and did the flat 10mile TT.  I was told to keep it consistent.  After finishing the 10mi TT I pushed F2 to save the workout and the computer crashed.  That is the worst feeling in the world.  Knowing all of your hard work just disappeared into oblivion.  It looks like I will be taking that test again.  Sigh…I am not a big fan of Windows Vista right now.

On Wednesday I did an hour run that mixed race pace and sub race pace running with hill work.  I followed it up with some focused stretching.  My left hip flexor and butt have been ridiculously tight lately so I try to spend a lot of time stretching and massaging them.

Thursday we pulled into Dutch Harbor to on load our scientists.  We only pulled in for about six hours so there was no time to enjoy land.  I was, however, able to enjoy some trash off load.  There is nothing I like more then carrying dripping plastic bags that smell like vomit and curdled milk.  I know you are jealous.  Dutch Harbor is basically our second home.  It is really the only place we pull in.  After being out at seas for a few months you would not believe how excited you can get to be in Dutch Harbor.  They have a drive through (or bike through if you have no car) java hut, a nice swimming pool, a library (yes I have a Dutch Harbor library card), a sushi restaurant (fish is quite fresh out here), a restaurant called Amelia’s with amazing avocado milkshakes, and a few other bars and restaurants.  There is probably less then 10 mi of paved road so mountain biking is the only way to go.  Needless to say I am still looking forward to the two times we return to Dutch Harbor this patrol.  I was able to sneak in :45 min on the elliptical before I got summoned to take care of some work.  It was better then nothing. 

On Friday I received my first Ergo test from my coach.  My plan was to stand my 0400-0800 watch.  Change and do the workout.  Everything was going well.  I changed grabbed my flashlight and braved the wind, snow, and sleet to get to the hangar.  I got the Computrainer all set up did my warm up, set the press on force and went to load the workout.  The coaching software couldn’t find the file.  I could see it w/ my own two eyes, but the coaching software refused to acknowledge its existence.  I clicked everything and read the provided manuals before I finally gave up.  I jumped on the bike to get in :45 before I had to get ready for flight quarters.  I really get frustrated when plans don’t workout.  Time is a precious commodity for me and I hate wasting it.  Oh well, that is over and now I will tinker with the software during lunch and determine what is wrong (hopefully).  I suspect user error.

When I tried in the afternoon everything worked flawlessly.  I completed the workout and sent the results to my coach.  This was the workout:

Warm up and set press on force.

- 5min continued w/up at 110w. Maintain self selected cadence, around 105-110 rpms

- 3min 'build' from 160-195w (2min)

- 3x 1min gradual and progressive (1min), (3min)

 So you know, the 3-1min intervals are: 190-205, 200-215, 210-225w, all w/ 1 min rest at 45-50w (that's what most of the rest intervals are, e.g.

very low watts for recovery!)

- 5min progressive from 195-210w (5min)

Then...you'll repeat the entire sequence of 3x 1min and 5min, followed by...

-          a 5min interval at 105w where your only goal is to spin at 110-120rpms, to "spin out" the legs...

I enjoyed the workout.  I felt worked, but not destroyed.  I feel good and ready for some longer session over the weekend.

On Saturday I did a 2.5 hour treadmill run.  I missed the trails of the Pacific Northwest so I warmed up and then did a 60 min hill run increasing the incline from 3% to 9%.  I followed this with 10 min easy and then: 45 min at 6:50 pace.  This workout reminded me how much I hate treadmills.  Everything hurt by the time I finished.  My hip and left glute were killing me.  My knees hurt, and my feet hurt.  I spent the afternoon stretching as much as I could and using my trigger point massage tools to alleviate some of the pain I was feeling.

On Sunday when I got off my 0400-0800 watch, I ate some breakfast then got on my bike.  I rode for three hours trying to maintain a high cadence and to determine what wattage I could maintain for three hours.  I kept it right around 130-140.  I am not yet sure what my training wattages are so forgive my sporadic workouts.  As I get more accustomed to the Computrainer and work with my coach, my training will start to come together.  I followed this up with a short run, but I have to admit my left hip and glute made it nearly impossible to run.  I struggled to finish: 15 min of painful running.  I may need to take some time off to let inflammation go down and figure out what is causing this pain.   

Now a little boat life update.  We broke into the ice on Friday evening.  We have never come up north this early in the season and the ice is much further south then I have ever seen.  It snowed hard all Friday and Saturday and winds were around 40 kts.  There were snow drifts on the boat decks and we had to shovel it off in order to have flight ops.  I attempted to do a round before my 0400-0800 watch and could barley walk into the wind.  I actually got brain freeze from the intense cold.  It was apparently -20 degrees with the wind chill.  Brrrrrrr.  Did I mention I want to go to Hawaii after this????  I have had enough bitter cold to last a life time.  While driving two days ago, I came up on a small pool of water that appeared to have chunks of ice in it.  It was pitch black outside, but even in the dark the motion of the ice looked unusual.  The ice chunks turned out to be beluga whales coming up to get air.  I am pretty sure I didn’t hit any, but I did drive right through their water hole.  This did, however, open up a much larger breathing hole for them.  So for my peace of mind I will say no whales were injured, but many were helped.

That is all for now.  See you next week.