Blog #4

Another week down and another week closer to stepping on land.  I have to admit it has not been a very exciting week.  The work we do up here is repetitive, but this week was painfully monotonous.  Everyday I would get up and workout then go on watch.  I swear I did the same thing on watch all week.  I relieved the watch while we were finishing a science station.  I would make a few throttle changes to hold position until the science was done, then drive less then ¼ mile and get the ship stuck in ice (on purpose this time).  We would then put a brow over so the scientists could go out on the ice and do numerous different experiments and research.  Once we were parked in the ice, I just stood there and made sure we didn’t break free and float away and that no big scary animals ate the scientists.  After watch I would do some work, workout again, finish up some more work, read or watch movies and go to bed.  That was my entire week!  Pretty darn dull….. I do have some pictures of wildlife.  We saw an arctic fox and some walrus.
 

Now that I summed up my entire week in one paragraph I will discuss my workouts.

Monday: In the morning I ran for :45 min and then did some swim specific exercises and stretching.  In the afternoon I got on my bike and spun at about 140 watts for 1:45 while I watched Corpse Bride. 

In the morning, I let my mind get the better of me and I got super depressed.  I woke up and worked out.  After I showered and got changed for watch the knowledge that I would be doing the same thing every day for the next 5 weeks overwhelmed me.  I had this picture of a little hamster with my face running around a wheel.  Hamster Rachel was running really hard, but getting nowhere.  When you are out here the days just blur together and you end up going through the motions because there isn’t anything else to do.  I workout, do my job, eat and sleep.  I do these things over the same 420 ft for months at a time.  I hate when I start to dwell on these facts.  I really do some cool stuff, but at the same time I am stuck on a boat in the middle of nowhere.  Sometimes I step outside to get some fresh air and clear my head, but a 40 kt gust of wind chases me back in side.  I had to remind myself that this too shall pass and this time next year I will be in Hawaii.  Yes I will be on another boat that is even smaller, but it doesn’t go to desolate places like the arctic, and it pulls into port much more often.  I think after this next 2 year tour I will seek out land jobs.  I just love the chaos and excitement of being on land.  Everyday there is something new and exciting to do.  Some place I have not yet been, some hill I have not yet run.  I struggle to find new and exciting things to do while underway.  Sorry about being a downer.  I always recover from these episodes quickly, but I often struggle with keeping a positive outlook while floating on a hunk of steel in the arctic.

Tuesday:  Today I did a bike circuit training session.  It was pretty awesome.  It was a lot more challenging then when I do these circuits on a normal trainer.  There is no slacking on power output when the CompuTrainer is controlling it.  The circuit combined some upper body and core exercises with high intensity pieces on the CompuTrainer.  After the circuit I did a :15 min ab session followed by the runner core fix the hips, fix the knees circuit.  After all of that, I stretched out for a while.  I almost fell asleep on the mat I was so tired after that session.

Wednesday:  In the morning I did an hour run.  It started with a :15 min warm up to zone 2.  Then I got off the treadmill to do some one leg hops.  These are great for building neuromuscular strength and coordination.  I got back on the treadmill and gradually increased my pace over 5 minutes.  The main set was 4x 2 min at 3-5% incline at 5K pace with 2 min easy between.  Then :15 min steady running to cool down.  I felt really good after the workout.  It was a great way to start the morning.

In the afternoon I got on my bike for a spin.  I put in the classic movie ‘Empire Records’ and spun away.  I was feeling good and enjoying my movie.  I was going to stick around and ride for a while when suddenly ‘BANG…squeak, squeak, squeak!’  What the heck???  I just blew out another tire!  Man how the hell did I manage to do it again.  Maybe I have been enjoying one too many desserts underway???  I looked at my tire this time and there was a good 3 inch hole.  See picture.  The tread had separated from the tire wall.  I have a friend who I went to school with that is an avid cyclist and triathlete.  My coach made a genius move and asked him if he knew why this was happening.  I got some great info on better tires to use, unfortunately the arctic does not have many bicycle shops or post offices.  He did provide some suggestions on keeping the tire cooler so that the glue does not melt and the tread does not separate from the tire wall.  Hopefully I can get these 2 tires to last me until mid-May when we stop in Juneau.    

Thursday:  I was supposed to get up and do some yoga before watch.  I never heard my alarm.  Instead I did about 5 min of stretching before I had to get ready for watch.  I tried to stretch as much as I could through out the day to make up for my missed morning relaxation period. 

In the evening I did a strength session.  I warmed up with :15 min on the versa climber and then got into a functional strength circuit.  I have to admit it has been a while since I have done an actual lifting session.  It felt great to do again.  Back in my gymnastics days we would condition until we could barley lift our arms and the weight of our bodies could make our legs buckle.  I sometimes miss that feeling, but I am much older and wiser now and realize the type of damage that kind of lifting does to your body and the recovery that is necessary.  It still felt great to get my pump on again.

Friday:  In the morning I got up and did a :50 min steady state run.  I felt fine doing the run, just a little tired.  I showered up and went to stand my watch.  I felt really exhausted all day long and I ended up taking a nap in the afternoon.  I finally got myself out of bed to do my afternoon CompuTrainer workout.  The workout should have been challenging, but not an all out effort.  It was terrible!  I started out with a :15 min warm up to Z2.  Then there was a 3 minute build to Z3 followed by a few more minutes of easy spinning.  The main set began with 2x 10 min.  The wattage gradually increased from 210-230.  I didn’t think it would be that difficult.  Just last week I did 2x20 min at 230, but I questioned whether I would finish the 2x10 min.  My cadence kept dropping and I just couldn’t keep up the intensity.  I probably should have stopped the workout and just spun.  Instead I pushed through.  After the 2x10 min there was about 5 min of easy spinning followed by 3x 2 min at 250-270 watts.  The 2 minutes felt like 10 to me.  My legs were just dead.  I was very thankful to finish the short pieces and spin it out.  I actually passed up ice liberty to get the workout in.  I would have been better served playing on the ice in knee deep snow, rather than finishing a workout my body just was not up for!  Oh well.
 

Saturday:  After yesterdays meltdown I knew I should take it easy.  I stretched and did yoga and that was pretty much it.  I am not sure why I was so exhausted yesterday.  There are so many factors I really do not have control of here, so it could have been a number of things.  Anyway, I was still dragging all day so I took it as easy as I could, but it is so hard to resist using free time to workout.  Plus I usually can’t sleep very well if I have not worked out.  This proved to be true again and I spent a sleepless night listening to the ice beat against the hull.

Sunday:  I had been awake for hours, but I finally got out of bed and did a 1 hour steady state run on the treadmill.  The treadmill is starting to ware on me.  In the past we came up a bit later in the year and I was able to do my easy runs outside on the weather decks.  This year it has been ridiculously cold and windy not to mention there are huge patches of ice everywhere.  Hopefully, we will have a heat wave soon and the temps will rise above freezing. 

After watch I did another circuit session on the bike.  The bike segments were mostly out of the saddle.  I don’t do a lot of work out of the saddle so it was a nice mix and quite challenging.

BIKE WARS have continued.  Brian went to a whole new level.  Brace yourselves this is pretty gross.  In typical cyclist fashion Brian shaved off most of his body hair.  He then coated Jim’s bike in neon green tape (sticky side out) and stuck his body hair all over Jim’s bike.  Now Brian is a pretty hairy guy.  I am talking part Yeti (don’t worry he will not be offended by this).  It seriously looked like there was a dead animal on Jim’s bike.  See the pictures below of the strange Cannondale animal that spawned from this attack.  Man I can only imagine what Jim will do to get Brian back.  I still remain neutral; I just antagonize the two of them and laugh my butt off with what they come up with.

Thanks for reading