Saturday, September 19, 2009

ERG it

So I went in to meet with the owner of L.K.V., who, it turns out, doesn't want to work out with me. However, he did want to introduce me to Hank. Hank is the last remaining member of the #1 Dutch Weightlifting Club in Holland to still train at the gym. The rest have either moved away or become too busy with family, work, etc. to continue coming in regularly. So, of the original 10 or so, Hank is the last man standing. He's still young, very strong, and ultra nice. He brings his 5 year old son to the gym to watch him workout, which I thought was pretty cool.
Anyways, he agreed to train with me consistently Monday nights! I think, along with the help of the owner, this could be an incredible opportunity to learn from some serious Olympic lifters. Now if I could just get some shoes....
My workout today was simple:
5000 meter row for time.
I'd never done a distance longer than 2k, so this was a little scary, and pretty challenging. Having no real frame of reference, I set my goal time at 20 minutes. I was able to finish well under that, at 19:17. I think, when I do this again, a better goal will be 19, and maybe eventually under 18. I definitely felt my legs and back from the squats yesterday, but my heart and lungs held out fine. It was good to get a solid pure endurance effort in... there haven't been enough lately.

3 comments:

  1. Good work on the row. have you gone to any classes yet?

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  2. Sadly no. I was planning on getting to munich this weekend, but it fell through. Looks like the first affiliate I'll be able to get to is Ramstein AFB in early October. Also going to do Basel, Switzerland that weekend I hope.

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  3. Blair, Josh here... we'll miss you in coed hoops league! If you can believe it, I rowed for a hot second at UVa (novice crew) and splashed around on the Belly of the Carnegie up in Princeton. May have mentioned that before, not sure. I remember my first 5k on the erg, I think instead of dismounting I just fell off to the side afterward! Enjoying the blog, have it setup in my google reader, giving me some ideas for fall and doing things outside here in DC. Looks like a grand time, if I make it to Europe anytime soon (I want to) I'll look you up.

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