Winter 2021-2022 PT program

The Goal!
A Fluidesign Boat! 

Since getting a Concept 2 RowERG, I have been introduced to a whole new world of virtual rowing and physical conditioning.  As some may remember, I have had 4 years of horrible health issues impacting my exercise program.  First, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever - 60 days of antibiotics killed all the bacteria in my gut and the bad stuff took over.  It took me nearly 2 years (and a change of doctors) to convince someone I was not "just getting older".  I had H Pylori, which prevented iron from binding to my red blood cells, thus causing severe fatigue.  We got rid of that and I went to the Y, just in time to catch Covid in March, 2020.  I ended up sick nearly the entire year.  I went back to the Y the Summer of 2021 after getting vaccinated,  then quit because of the Delta variant.  I got Covid TWICE anyway; once very mildly in August, then sick as a dog in September.  So now, I am ready to get back all the muscle and conditioning I have lost in the last 4 years!  I got a Concept 2 RowErg for the house because I just don't want to take the risk at the gym till Covid is under better control. 

I ran into a Facebook group called "The Diamonds" which is a rowing group, primarily in England.  Their guru, Robb Chin, preaches UT2 heart rate rowing.  This is long, continuous rowing in the UT2 heart rate range of 50-75% of ones' maximum.  They use the classic formula of 220-Age = Max HR.  Well, that give me a max of around 150.  My actual max, determined with a nuclear stress test is 202-205.  So, here is a little problem.  His method would have me train at a pulse of 105.  Using my actual, I would train at 140.  Which is correct? 

The important point of UT2 (or that rate, as called different names) is that it is indeed a training range that produces great health benefits, including reduced risk of cancer, inflammatory disease, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and dementia.  It it likely the most important aspect of exercise.  Over the years, perhaps the last 100 years, this HR has been the center of most physical conditioning programs.    Accordingly, any PT program should include hours in this range.  This rate should allow one to continue at the same pace for an extended time, which leads to its name of Continuous Training (CT). 

However, I have been doing High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) under the guidance of my cardiologist for a number of years.  I have experienced some fantastic measurable results:  Lower resting heart rate, less a-fib, and a requirement of harder work to obtain the target HR.  I am basically a lazy guy, and like the idea that I can maximize my results with a minimal amount of work.  :)  

There are computers to use on boats when rowing that give all kinds of information.  One was developed by a multi generational rower with some obvious electrical engineering background when his kids' high school asked him to coach their rowing team. Creds go to Dr. Henry Thomas.    https://scullr.com/  

As Dr. Thomas describes how he developed some of his programs, he was scientific enough to make footnotes to studies and articles upon which he based his training methods at the bottom of the page.   Again, thank you very much!  

The studies I have been reading basically took Olympic medalist athletes of 10-15 years ago (who are now coaches) and followed their training. They mostly trained 12 hours a week using CT 53% of their time, lifting 23%, and the rest HIIT and cross training.   Recent studies show that HIIT can produce better muscles and endurance (perhaps +15%) in a shorter time. However, this is slow to be adapted because of the history of CT.

Another great source is:  https://teaching.shu.ac.uk/hwb/sport/techandinnov/showcase0809/daniel_grant/index.html

CT is significant in general overall health.  There is no denying that routine exercise in the range of 50-75% of your max has tremendous positive impacts on a myriad of health issues by producing EcSOD, which helps prevent all kinds of health issues,, including cancer and dementia.   CT does a better job burning carbohydrates. On the other hand, HIIT is better for increasing one's maximum ability to take in oxygen, thus keeping muscles performing and "burning" fat.  These 2 lead me to some interesting findings about exercise and diabetes. 

In my case, I know that HIIT in the morning, when my blood sugar is lowest, results in max fat burning.  I have seen my blood sugar go up as much as 30 points after doing HIIT and CT without eating!  This blood sugar came from converting fat.  On the other hand, recent studies indicate that CT exercise in the afternoon helps stabilize blood sugar by consuming the carbs introduced by breakfast and lunch. I have noted that a 15 minute walk in the afternoon is as refreshing as a 20 minute "power nap"

The common sense approach is to do both, as do most athletes.  However, I will do more HIIT than is popular in rowing; because, I have seen how my body responds to HIIT.  The great thing about HIIT is that there is a wide variety of selections preprogrammed by Concept2.

Until some trainer convinces me otherwise, I have decided to do CT (continuous training at 60%-70% of max HR) 3 days a week and HIIT (high intensity interval training at up to 90% max HR) 3 times a week, along with floor exercise or lifting. I will walk 6 days a week producing a HR of over 50% of my max.  I am using my actual Max HR, not the one calculated by the popular formula. This is really the 3rd re-iteration of my workouts based on HR and intervals and wish I knew some of this in the 70's when I was racing motorcycles.  

So... 3 days a week I will do CT rowing. Some constant  low speed, moderate effort, and when I get bored, I will do "steps" where the speed varies. The C2 is such a great machine because one can vary speed, intensity and resistance independently. One can program rest periods based on meters rowed or time. When I get my skiff restored, it will be easier to do extended CT; because, rowing around the  lake is just more fun than rowing inside, on a torture machine.  Watching rowers, I note that they throw in "power 10's" which are a maximum effort 10 strokes taking anywhere from 30 seconds to less than 15 seconds, depending on their strokes per minute.  I can do that while doing CT training, also.  I have a new chest strap HR monitor on the way and will keep my HR below 70% of the max.. or 140.  

Three days a week I will do HIIT and combinations of floor exercises and weight lifting.   In all honesty, I used to have legs that did not look like toothpicks.  I have a lot of muscle building to do in my legs!  There are a number of ways to do that.  The quickest is lifting weights... heavy weights that max out at somewhere around 6-8 reps with 3 sets and a day of rest in between.  OK, that is hard, but it doesn't take much time.  Or course there is a plethora of floor exersies championed by rowers and snow skiers for legs.  I have my favorites, and my hated ones.  LOL 

The elite athletes workout 10-12 hours a week.   Part of my CT time (until I get my skiff rowing again) will be walking and biking.  The problem with biking this month is Dunlaps Disease - my gut dun laps over my belt.   But, I can walk.  I can row. I can bicycle.   I can add 30 minutes of exercise easily enough every afternoon to burn those carbs and help stabilize blood sugar. 

Here is how the plan looks for the next 6 weeks:

MWF 

AM - CT on the rowing machine, primarily following the guidance of UcanRow2 and Concept 2's workout of the day.  60 minutes including stretching and warmups/cooldowns.  

PM - walk 1 mile (approx 20 minutes) 

TTS

AM - HIIT  30 on/30 rest, 500 meters/1 minute rest and/or 1000 meters/ 2 minute rest.  35 minutes including stretching and warmups. 

Weight lifting and floor excercises.  30 minutes including stretches and cool down.

PM - walk 1 mile.

This will give me 9.5 hours of training a week... if I don't do anything on Sunday. 

My baselines the first of December, 2021 are less than I was able to do in 2018.  But I have seen improvement in the 3 weeks since I started back.  We will see where I am at January 1st.   Who knows, I could be snow ski racing.  LOL

What will be my reward?  Rowing the Cumberland in May.  And a race boat from   https://www.rowfluidesign.com/

Footnotes: 

Physiology of Rowing Home page

https://teaching.shu.ac.uk/hwb/sport/techandinnov/showcase0809/daniel_grant/index.html

https://www.kellybailey.fit/blog-1/5-weight-training-exercises

HIIT vs CT

Another view of HIIT vs CT

More work on the Water Ballast Holes

I have been patching the holes up. First, I took a grinder and ground the area around the holes, so I could layer in fiberglass.

Next, I superglued in some fiberglass out of a 737 cabin that protects the hull from things inside the cabin. It is fine Boeing fiberglass a 1/32" thick. I put in the superglue and held the fiberglass disks down to form a smooth joint with the hull.

Then I started layering up finish fiberglass. I added a later of 8 oz cloth in for some bulk and strength and continued with some more finish cloth.

I have 5 layers of finish cloth, a layer of 8 oz cloth and the Boeing disk. This is thicker than the original hull. I will put another layer in 3 of the holes. Finally, I will fare the repairs smooth with West Systems epoxy and micro balloon faring additive.

One picture is of a gouge. I will fill all the gouges with micro ballons and then sand/fare the entire hull.

Hopefully I will be done with all the fiberglass tomorrow, so I can start sanding and faring the hull. LOL, being the lazy old man I am, this boat will have the minimum surface friction!

I have blue Awl Grip aircraft paint to make the bottom beautiful and slick as gorilla snot. Yes, I know Awl Grip is not for use underwater... But, I hope it will never be in the water for more than a couple of weeks at a time during some adventure. If I ruin it, I will have to grind the Awl Grip off. It is impossible to sand after it dries. LOL

I would really like to paint it this week while the weather is warm and dry enough.

Can I tell you how happy I am to be well enough to accomplish some things?

After I get it painted, I will turn it right side up and redo the gunnels. I tried to put in 1" lumber of the gunnels and that just didn't work out well. I am now ripping the 1" lumber in half to make the pieces much more flexible. I will only use a 1/4" in the middle over the hull, so the gunnels will extend further down than before. The main wood is Ash and I will go to the lumber store to pick out a dark wood for some contrast.

Sealing up the water ballast...

There were some holes in the bottom of the hull to fill the water ballast.  Eddie had sealed these up with little metal plates and tar.  They had leaked and the hull was full of water and sand.  I assume Mississippi River water and sand.  LOL  The sand was very, very fine.   I do not plan on sailing this boat, so really don't want to drag the 200-500 pounds of water around that would be in the water ballast.  

I flushed most of the sand out.  I now need to turn the boat over and flush out as much of the remaining sand and let it dry out.  Then I will finish patching up the holes. 

 

 

I am going to follow the West Systems Repair Manual guidelines which describe tapering the repait area back at a 12:1 ratio.  I used my calipers to measure the thickness of the fiberglass at the hole and determined it was .31"  At the recommended tapering, I need to go 12x.31", or 3.72"



As you can see in the picture below, I need a bigger taper area.  About 1.5" radius larger than I have ground so far.   BTW, I am using an angle grinder with a metal grinding disk to do this work.  I will try a flap disk for the next phase. 

There are also some various dings and gouges from previous uses  Around the metal keel stip.  I will fix them with epoxy filled with colloidal silica.  I am thinking I might fair the area between the hull and the keel.  I have decided to repaint the hull with some left over Awlgrip and thinking I might as well do the long board and complete job on the boat.  

This boat rows shockingly well.  I feel  guilty not making the hull as good as I possibly can. 

Next, I need to figure out how I want to make a backing plate.  I am going to try the method described in the manual where I will make a single layer fiberglass piece which I will cut out with some scissors or the Dremel, then bend it enough to get in the hole where I can fasten it while it is bonded to the inside of the hull. 

My boat has a foundation in history

This is an interesting article.  I note that my boat is the same ratios as this ancient boat.  :)

http://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/08/22/prirority-skuldelev-ships-5-original-viking-ships-recovered-waterway-peberrenden-skuldelev-1962/

Working on the Oars... 09/13/16

Maybe they were a little more rough shape than I thought before we sanded them. LOL. 

 

This is the oar that was broken into 3 pieces. It's epoxied back together. I think one more layup of epoxy on both sides of the blade and sanding will make it ready for the layer of fiberglass.

Note the piece on the end of the oar. That piece on the other 3 oars was knocked off during usage as is shown to the right. That oar was marked because we had the piece that needed to be re-attached. 

I used some of the trim pieces from the Ash to make new ends for the other two oars. Here is one of them epoxied up. 

This one was more complex because an end was missing from the tip of the oar. 

I will fill in the gaps with some epoxy with colloidal silica in it.

This oar was in the best shape of all. 

I've got a couple of more epoxy layups to go before they can be sanded and wrapped with fiberglass. 

I have some Kevlar I will cut and try to fit onto the ends, after they are shaped.  

The Kevlar can't be sanded, so it will need an extra layer of fiberglass over it, so I can fair it.  But that will make the oars ends very, very tough! 

Started on the masthead today

I am trying to copy this painting from Waterhouse entitled "Lady of Shalott".  The painting is from a Tennyson poem of the same name and seems to fit my goals.

Waterhouse - in the Tate Gallery in London

Tennyson- 

And down the river’s dim expanse
Like some bold seer in a trance,
Seeing all his own mischance –
With glassy countenance
Did she look to Camelot.
And at the closing of the day
She loosed the chain, and down she lay;
The broad stream bore her far away,

My plan is to make two pieces like this.  One to be epoxied on to both sides of a bow stem that will mount to the boat.  The bow stem will be varnished and the outer pieces painted. 

I have a scroll saw I inherited that I used as a kid making swords.  I  don't know if Dad knew about that!   

Luckily we never poked anyone's eyes out sword fighting!

I had to get some new blades which that made the process go much faster. 

Next, I cut out the "feathers" for the dragon's head.  Yes, it is a stylized dragon's head in the style of a Viking ship - only my ship is 17 feet long, not 60.

This is oak, so the sanding is not going very fast.  I hope to have everything epoxied together this weekend.











Waterhouse's painting doesn't have a stern piece.  Of course, the Viking style would be the tail of the dragon.  I'll do a similar assembly for the stern, but more elongated with long flowery feathers.

The New Gunnels are mounted.

There were multiple boards on the side for support that had to be removed along with a hundred SS sheet metal screws and caulking of some sort.  Luckily the caulking came off with WD-40, some scraping, and elbow grease.  

I was worried the Ash boards would not conform to the shape of the hull.  When I got enough clamps to hold both the inside and outside boards together, they would bend to the shape pretty well. 

The next operation was epoxying the boards togehter (and to the hull), then holding them with brass wood screws.  

As of 5/25/16 I have both the inner and outer boards glued and screwed on the outside.  I still need to get in the boat to put the set of screws in from the inside.  

I will start on the masthead and tail piece (whatever it is called).  These fixtures are not on decorative, but structural and will hold the ends together.