Christmas is always my favorite time of the year. It is one of the few times that my entire family is together each year and we have always celebrated it at our home in Buffalo and I cherish the tradition and routine. It was especially nice this year because it rounded out a solid three-week training block in Austin.
Following the strength and conditioning camp in Lake Placid NY, I headed back to Austin where I got settled back into the 6 day routine that has come to govern my training schedule. As work has been quite busy, I am usually only able to do at most 2 workouts a day. I row every morning for between 60 and 120 minutes and after a quick change and refuel at my apartment, head into the office. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are lift days and I meet the other high-performance athletes at the gym for 60-90 minutes of warmup-lift-stretch. I have been trying to increase my morning on-water minutes and almost hit 80k on the water in the highest volume week, which is a record for me. I can hit much higher on the erg since I am about 30 seconds faster, which adds up. I also spent a week duplicating my seat so that I can leave one where I erg and one in my boat (which is much easier than trying to bike while carrying it!)
During December I also had a 6k and 2k erg test with significant PRs (personal records) in both, which reflected the strength that I have felt. One big takeaway from the strength camp (huge thank you to Joe Deleo) was that Joe put together personalized lifting plans for all of the fixed-seat athletes present. This has solved one of my biggest annoyances, planning out lifts, and makes my sessions much more efficient and effective.
The past two weeks have been a bit lighter while home, which has been a nice chance for my body to recover. I also caught some sort of head cold/sore throat that took a lot of sleep to resolve. Other than that I have been quite healthy. I was reviewing my HRV for December and was surprised that it seemed to peak on Thursday and Friday (which is days 4 and 5 of the 6-day cycle so presumably when I am most worn down.) I think this may be because I end up getting less sleep early in the week due to work, or maybe just a sign of good recovery practices.
I can’t wait to get back on the water this month and keep logging miles. I want to devote the next blog or two (I will try to write it sooner!) to answering questions you have, so either comment them below or email me with any questions you want answered from what supplements I use to what the progression for Paris is or anything else!
It was great to have you home for Christmas break. Nice recap of your training and sweet pictures. Keep at it!