Supposedly, the heart has its own brain or perhaps “brain”. If the heart has a brain, I don’t know how to talk with it. It’s probably just as well, because we might get into an argument and make things worse.
Today’s indoor rowing plan was originally to do 10,000 meters. That part was done. But the plan was also to raise the overall effort level a bit, without exceeding zone 2 of the 5 heart rate zones mentioned yesterday. Specifically, I was going to row the first 2K at about 105 Watts, the second 2K at about 145 Watts, the third 2K at about 185 Watts and the fourth 2K at 225 Watts or until heart rate reached the magic number of 158 BPM which is the top end of my personal heart rate zone 2 of 5. After reaching 158, I was going to do a gradually tapering warm down for the remaining distance of the 10K.
But I just barely got into the third 2K, at somewhere between 145 Watts and 185 Watts, when the allegedly brainy heart started beating to a different drummer, getting irregular and going too fast too soon. I tried adjusting the effort level to bring it back to where it should be based on recent sessions, but it just went faster and reached 158 when I was rowing easy.
So, when there were about 3,000 meters remaining, I got off the rowing machine, got a drink of water, walked around a bit and basically didn’t do any rowing for about 15 minutes. It seemed to return to normal, so I finished the last 3,000 meters at a very easy pace, so as to not stir it up any more.
Will try another 10K tomorrow.
Happy rowing and heart co-habitation to you.