Ergging and Trish's Birthday

It is getting colder now. My Google homepage has the current temperature pegged at 51°. The bedroom where my computer is registers at 60° and the furnace is running as I type this out.

With the temperatures cooling, my Daggy wants to be on my lap as much as possible. I tried to note while she was perched there. However, it is impossible to type an entry with her in that spot. She is now happily curled up on the bed while her “brother” Stumpy is exploring outside.

I met with Alison, Trish, Laurie, Amy, Rachel, and Will to erg at the Aquatic center at 8:00 a.m. We did two 15 minute intervals on the Concept II’s. It is so great to train in a group like this. Truth be told, I was set to call it quits five minutes into the first set! But I had to keep face so I sweated it out and pushed myself. The second interval was a bit easier.

In the room we use above the mirrors we face Alison has posted a large banner type poster of the Alabama Crew with a message at the bottom. I wish I could remember it word for word, but it goes into how competitive rowers hit their aerobic thresholds on the first strokes of a sprint at 52 strokes per minute. That is when the body kicks into the anaerobic mode obtaining oxygen from stored fats in the body.

I remember learning about this when I took a Health and Wellness class back in 2003. It made sense to me back then and now I can actually witness the results first hand. I see so many of the same people at the “Y” working out and not pushing themselves to utilize this concept. I can understand because it is not pleasant while you are doing it. It is so easy to make up an excuse to stop when working out on my own. Rowing with the crew makes me really push myself. There is something to be said about pride. When I finish and know I’ve kept up with the others it really is a feeling of accomplishment.

Today was Trishes birthday. We all went to City Café for breakfast to celebrate. I made up a CD of some of the horrible music I forced her to listen to going to the Huntsville Race! I also gave her a Metropolitan Paving Brick that I acquired in Defiance, Ohio. We had such a fun breakfast. I was bad and got my favourite of chicken fried steak, white gravy, eggs over easy, grits and biscuits. I know I’ll have all the bad stuff from that meal worked out of my body in a day or two.

I was talking about this commercial at breakfast; I don’t think the gang believed me. Here it is…the cold cream that was made for the “atomic age!”