Blog # 6

Monday:

I finally got off the 0400-0800 watch.  That means that I was able to sleep in until 0445, and workout in the morning.  It felt so much better to actually workout before starting the day.  I began the day with a 20 min warm up run and then did a strength session.

My watch was fairly hectic.  We had numerous equipment casualties that interfered with science operations.  It is difficult to communicate with the scientist, the engineers, and my supervisors and make sure everyone knows what is going on while getting the mission done.  It did, however, make the watch go by quickly.

It was nice to get off watch and not want to crawl back into bed.  Instead, I actually got work accomplished in the afternoon.

I followed a productive day up with a 1 hr CT erg workout.  I found it really challenging.  I had a 10 min all out piece, followed by 5x 3 min segments at 250-300 watts.  I was just happy to keep my cadence above 65 rpm by the end.  I finished the workout off with an easy :30 min run on the weather decks.  It felt so much better than my outdoor run last week.  I barley noticed the pain in by butt and hip. 

Since we are near the ice edge we get a pretty good swell.  The picture below is a view of our aft A-frame looking out on our stern.  We were taking some pretty good rolls while we were still in the ice. 

Tuesday:

In the afternoon I did a 2 hour easy run around the ship.  I did not expect the run to be that challenging.  You are continually making small adjustments to account for the movement of the ship, and the non-skid on the decks is not very forgiving.  I was really sore after the run.  My shins, hip, and butt were screaming.  I felt like I ran for 4 hours on land.  I stretched out for :15 min which helped loosen things up.  I keep doing the same stupid thing.  My butt and hip feel better so I do a long run or hard workout and wreck myself for a few days.  I get really frustrated b/c the amount of training I can physically do underway is so much less than what I can do on land.  I really don’t understand why it is so different.

Wednesday:

I got up in the morning and attempted a moderate to challenging run.  I was still extremely sore and tired from yesterdays run so I scraped the workout.  Instead I just ran for :15 minutes and then completed a strength session followed by two runner core circuits. 

In the afternoon, I did an easy :50 min spin followed by a lot of stretching.  The spin and stretching helped loosen my hip and butt.  I felt a lot better after the session.  I hope the recovery continues.

Thursday:

In the morning I did some yoga and stretching.  My hip was feeling better and I felt nice and relaxed and ready to start another day in the arctic.

In the afternoon I did a CT session.  I warmed up for about :15 min and then completed two cyclo core body weight circuits.  After the circuits I got back on the bike and completed a 70 min workout where the main set was 2x15 min at 215-230 watts.  It was challenging, but I wasn’t dead by the end.  I stretched out and called it a day.

Friday:

I did an easy 1 hour run in the morning followed by some stretching.  In the afternoon I did an easy hour spin on the trainer.  That was it for the day.

There was a ping pong tournament in the evening.  I did not partake because my eye hand coordination skills are about as good as a five year old.  It was, however, entertaining to watch.  Below is a picture of the ping pong champs.  It was our communications guru on the left vs. our doc on the right.  Doc ended up winning!

Saturday:

After watch I went straight to the helo workshop to get in my workout before we had to finish cooking for morale night.  I began riding one loop of the IM Switzerland course.  I was supposed to maintain 180 watts for roughly 38 miles, but about 12 miles into the ride something unsettling and familiar happened.  It felt like I was riding over grooved pavement.  The last two times that occurred, my tire exploded.  I stopped riding and inspected my tire.  There were six bulges in my tire wall and it looked like it was about to blow.  I was short on time so I ran down to the gym and finished the distance on a life cycle.  I set the wattage to 180, but a life cycle is not half as cool as a computrainer so I was pretty disappointed.

After the ride I got on the tread-mill for :25 min.  It was all I had time for.  After 1 mile at an easy pace I put the treadmill on max speed (only a 6:30 mile for this crappy treadmill) and ran 1.5 miles at that pace.  I did a little easy running followed by some stretching and then I had to take off to do some cooking.

We decided to cook Indian food for morale night.  It seemed like an interesting and fun idea.  We were rocking out to some Bollywood tunes as we cooked.  It was a lot harder than I expected.  Indian food is time consuming to prepare.  We actually started on Friday night b/c some of the recipes were so complicated.  We barley finished cooking in time for dinner.  We actually had the cooks getting short with us for not being ready on time.  I can not say it really did much for my morale.  On the bright side the majority of people really enjoyed the food.  We served pineapple vegetable curry, coconut rice, beef and chicken masala, beef and veggie samosas, and naan ( I probably slaughtered the spelling of those words).  I thought all the non-animal stuff was delicious (The only animals I eat are fishies).  I was just happy when the night was over.  I was covered in a plethora of pungent spices, and I had destroyed my last pair of clean pants.  That meant I had to get up and do laundry in the morning.  At least it would force me to get up and work out…or so I thought.

After all the cooking I had to write my daily operational summary so I went up to the bridge to get the information.  There were a surprisingly large number of scientists on the bridge.  I asked what they were looking at.  An owl decided to use our ship for a perch.  See the pictures below.  It is not common to see this particular type of owl (already forgot what they said it was) hundreds of miles from land.  I think he was a little loco!

Sunday:

I intended on getting up before watch so I could wash some laundry and have clothes to wear, but the next thing I know it is 0545 and time to get up for watch.  I actually had to steal a pair of pants from my roommate to wear on watch.  After watch I grabbed some lunch, did a little work and then finally got to my workouts.

I started with 3 runner core circuits.  I followed the circuits up with a :40 min run.  I added in some 30 second striders, and some small incline work.  After the run I got on the life cycle since I still need to replace my tire.  I rode for :50 minutes with the following structure. 

:10 min warm up to Z2

:10 min at 105 rpm with a super spin every 2 min

5 x 1 min at Z3 with equal rest and then

4x:45 sec at Z5 w/ equal rest

The session was a Z2 session with some short higher intensity pieces, but nothing to leave me feeling wiped.

I always think I should have spent more time working out on the weekends.  I have more free time and I am accustomed to spending hours and hours training on the weekends.  I still need to reprogram my way of thinking.  Overall, I feel good and I am ready to start another week of what looks to be some good workouts.

On a non-workout note I saw the luckiest seal in the world earlier this evening.  I was on the bridge and a scientist pointed out that there was a seal on the ice right in our path.  We tried to maneuver, but the ice would have none of it.  The little fella didn’t move until we were almost on top of him.  I thought for sure we had squashed the little guy.  I went to the back window and who do you think was sitting on a piece of ice?  The luckiest seal in the world.  He was alive and well and had somehow avoided a 16,000 ton ship that ran right over him. 

That is all I have for this week. 

Adios.