Monday was a fairly busy work day. We conducted numerous flights for walrus surveying and tagging, spectacled eider surveying, and filming. In between flight operations I was able to do a Runner-Core circuit session. I really enjoy circuits. Back in my college days I was a rower. We spent many winter training days engaged in some pretty intense circuit sessions. These sessions bring back some fond memories. The circuit consisted of runner-core exercises mixed with short 10K pace run segments.
I still had the 0400-0800 watch. When I woke up it was unusually quiet (no ice crashing against the hull). I thought it was a good sign and meant we were out of the ice. I also noticed we were not pitching or rolling which would mean we had to have nearly perfect weather conditions and sea state. The steady 30+ kt winds that had kept us company for the last few weeks made me highly doubt that the weather was good. My suspicious were confirmed when I walked outside and saw that we were stopped, and surrounded by large menacing looking pieces of ice rubble Either the ice was so thick we were stuck, or we were having engineering plant problems. It turned out to be the latter. I will not get into the dirty engineering details, but basically we kept losing power to the shafts. Without control of the shafts we didn’t have the power we needed to get through the thick ice. We eventually got power to the shafts, but the intense reverberations caused by the thick ice against the hull exacerbated the problems we were having. We were forced to take a 100+ mile detour into thinner ice. This just meant our arrival in Dutch Harbor on Wednesday was going to be much later. Sigh…
Crew Members on Ice. Lift with the Knees!
Tuesday I did a :45 min steady state run in the morning. My butt still hurts, but my legs feel amazing. I haven’t felt this good running on a tread mill ever. It was an easy run, but I usually still have some shin or foot pain from the crappy surface. Maybe my pain receptors can’t keep track of multiple areas at once. Needless, to say I will take the hurt butt if the rest of my legs are going to feel this good. I followed the run up with some stretch chords (I like to call it underway swimming), and abdominal work. I hit up the wonder wheel, or ab roller (whatever you prefer to call it). That is by far my favorite abdominal exercise. Doing just 20 slow ab roll outs is difficult. It works the core, the shoulders, and the back. So many muscle groups can be challenged with such a simple tool. It is magnificent.
In the evening I got on my CompuTrainer, put it in stand alone mode and rode for 1 hr 40 min at 150-170 watts. Another aspect that has been making riding indoors more enjoyable is the company. Brian, an avid cyclist and runner who always brings his trainer underway, and Jimbo, a former water polo/swimming extraordinaire, both have bikes set up on trainers and keep me company sometimes. I don’t always like distractions when I am focused on a challenging session, but it makes the steady state rides go by much quicker. In addition, a little thing called ‘BIKE WARS’ has evolved. It started with a few motivational pictures taped to pipes and steel beams. It evolved to expertly covering Brians’s entire bike with pictures of sweaty men in speedos. You would be hard pressed to determine the color of Brians’s bike after Jimbo got his hands on it. I thought it was hilarious, until I was accused of the bike attack. Apparently ‘WAR’ has been declared. I’ll let you know if anything unfolds.
Wednesday I did a 1 hour run in the morning. It consisted of a :10 min warm up and then 5 min at 1-3% incline at a steady state pace, followed by 5 min ez. I repeated this process for the remainder of the run. I decided to test if the legs would feel good at a fast pace so I brought the pace down for the last 10 min. They still felt great!!! How long will this running bliss last? I followed this run session up with Runner core circuits #2 and #3.
As I mentioned earlier we pulled into Dutch Harbor late. Our 0900 arrival ended up being a 1600 (4 pm) arrival. After we pulled in I thought it was going to be a late day, but the trash van wasn’t ready and food on load got postponed until Thursday. This meant that I would be able to get to the pool. Jim and I pulled out our mountain bikes and rode over to the pool. The winds in Dutch Harbor are ridiculous. One second you are sheltered by a mountain, then you round a turn and you are punched in the face by gusts that nearly send you and your bicycle backwards. In fact, if you stop pedaling for more then a few seconds you are stopped in your tracks. The roads are mostly dirt and gravel, and there is this cement like mud that covers every surface. When Jim and I arrived at the pool we were a mess. I know someone has a picture of us, but they haven’t sent it to me. Standby for that one…it is a winner. I cleaned myself off and got in the pool. I have no idea how many yards we did, but I felt terrible. It was expected, but it is always frustrating to fell that awkward swimming. I felt like my bottom half was not connected to my top half. After some swimming, Jim forced me to do some water polo drills. Needless to say I am not super coordinated and I have not been able to figure out how to do an egg beater tread. It was pretty pitiful to watch, but I had a blast.
After the swim we met up w/ some friends and went out for some Mexican food and liquid carbohydrates. Yes, Jim and I went into a restaurant covered in Dutch Harbor filth. Honestly, in Dutch Harbor things like that almost fly! They were fairly entertained by us. After some good non-boat food, Jim and I jumped back on the bikes. It was now much later and colder. While my fingers and toes were not enjoying the ride, I was not getting covered in Dutch Harbor cement. We biked over to the Unisea, a sports bar, to meet a bunch of other crew members. Jim and I spent the entire night with our helmets and mud covered riding gear on. I think Jim’s ski goggles really made the outfit complete. People were entertained, and I stayed warm. We eventually made it back to the boat via bicycle. I have been trying to get a picture of Jim and me out in Dutch Harbor. We were quite the dynamic duo. It may have to wait until next week too. Here is one of just me.
I awoke fairly early on Thursday. We had to do a trash off-load, a food on-load, and I had a number of items that needed to be attended to while in port. In addition, four of us were recently promoted. It is tradition to throw a party for the crew when you get promoted. It is called a wetting down. The four of us were having our wetting down in Dutch Harbor which meant we had to go and get the food and drinks, and set up for the party. I finally finished up work around 2pm. I threw on some running clothes and ran toward Mount Ballyhoo. In the summer there is a road that you can drive up that takes you almost to the top. Unfortunately or actually fortunately it was covered in ankle to knee deep snow. I decided to go for it anyway. The weather was actually pretty good and winds were light for Dutch standards. I was having a blast trudging through snow up the mountain. Toward the top the trail ended and I followed someone else’s foot prints and ski pole prints toward the summit. It started to get fairly steep. I was forced into primate mode and attempt to scamper up on all fours. My Mizuno sneakers and Nike running gloves were doing very little for traction. I would scramble up about 15 feet, and then slide back down about 50 ft on my stomach. It was pretty darn windy and cold, so after three failed attempts at the summit, I decided to turn around. I was running late for my party anyway. It was so steep I could almost ski down in sneakers. I would slip and fall flat on my butt, or get tripped up in the deep snow and fall on my face. I would laugh, get up and then repeat the process all the way down the mountain. I took a few pictures on my way up. They are below. The snow covered peaks are beautiful, but the mud covered roads and eagles picking out of the trash take away from the beauty that is Dutch Harbor.
The party was a blast, but I ended up staying out a lot later then I had wanted. On Friday I got up and took care of more work related items. Man work sometimes interferes with my hobby!!! I intended on taking a short nap in the afternoon and never got up. The only working out I did was the 90 min walk I did in the rain, sleet, and snow to get to the library to e-mail my CompuTrainer data to my coach. Not one of my better days. Too many late nights for me!
Saturday I got up early with Jim to bike to the pool. We met at 0530 to get to the pool by 0600. The winds seemed even more ferocious then earlier in the week. It took everything I had to keep that bike moving forward. As we crested the hill in front of the pool we noticed all the lights were off. We pulled into the parking lot and that is when the light bulbs went on in our heads (too bad they didn’t go on inside the pool). We had lost track of the days and it turned out it was Saturday. The pool wouldn’t be open until 2pm. We felt like such fools. We sat for a minute laughed it off, and then got back on the bikes to battle the winds. In the immortal words of a former gymnastics coach “If you are going to be dumb, you are going to be STRONG and dumb!”
After we got underway I was able to sneak in a :45 min run during dinner. I warmed up and then repeated the following set: 5 min at 3% incline at SS pace, 1 min ez, 2.5 min 5K pace, 1 min ez….repeat. My legs do not feel quite as good as they did earlier in the week, but I think I am still recovering from having too much fun in port.
I finally have a new watch schedule. I have the 0800-1200 for at least the next week. I thought about getting up early to run this morning, but decided to just sleep until watch (still recovering from too much fun in Dutch). After watch I got on my CompuTrainer. I did a fairly challenging 1 hr 40 min erg workout my coach wrote out for me. I would write out the whole workout, but it was extremely varied and would take up a lot of space. After the erg session I continued riding for another hour. After the ride I got on the vasa trainer that I was able to convince my boat they needed last year, and did some swim strength exercises. The vasa trainer kicks my butt. I can swim thousands of yards before I fatigue in a pool, but I can only do about 20 reps of most exercises before it burns REAL bad. The vasa dominates me!!
That is it for this week. Here are some more pictures.
