A Whole Lotta Tabata

I decided it was time to do a little more strenuous workout than I have done lately so I went with the following:

Tabata Intervals in three flavors
Cycle
Thrusters
Row
5 minute break between each.

First some explanation. Tabata intervals are named after a Japanese exercise physiologist who pioneered the protocol. Google it for lots of information but basically it calls for 20 seconds of effort followed by 10 seconds of rest repeated eight times. So you're only talking four minutes of actual hard work but it's a damn long four minutes. I've done these several times on both the Lemond Revmaster spinning cycle as well as the Concept2 rower. So I thought what the hell--I'll do both and throw some thrusters in between

The cycle portion went ok but I didn't elevate my heart rate as much as I have doing these in the past. I didn't get it above 150bpm until the last three or so work intervals.
The thrusters were another story. I originally was going to do them with barbell but I needed to be able to see a clock (note to self: order a Gym Boss) so I took a pair of 15lbs dumbbells over to where I could see a clock. I thought going in that 15 pounds would be kind of light but that I didn't really need to kill myself with the rowing session yet to come. Well it turned out that these were tough! After four work intervals I decided to finish them off just holding the dumbbells in the rack position. I just couldn't get them overhead--perhaps a consequence of doing those TGUs yesterday. But it still turned out to be a tough workout and my HR was getting up into the 160s.
Of course, I saved the best for last. The C2 rower never fails to kick my ass. Here's some stats from the eight work intervals (read meters rowed and stroke rate)

1. 90 42
2. 89 39
3. 90 42
4. 91 42
   
5. 85 39
   
6. 77 39
7. 77 39
8. 85 39

Obviously I was feeling it for #6 and #7 but I sucked it up a bit to finish it out. I got a glance at my heart rate during one of the rest periods and it was at 168! All in all, a good workout that left me tired but feeling good at the same time. Now I'm typing this up while enjoying a glass of Cabernet Savignon (for the nutritional benefits, of course) !!