May 2017 – Ethereal Rowing

Turin Silver Skiffs Inspiration

literal-silver-skiffs — When I searched for images related to today’s inspirational video of the Turin Silver Skiffs 2012, this image showing literal silver skiffs was among the results. It is jewelry from a British website site called Fay Page. The photo is found on a page showing solid silver rowing boats which are made in Scilly, which is a place in England, NOT in Italy (where Turin is located). You would have to ask the people who design the search engine’s artificial “intelligence” why this jewelry is logically related to the Turin Silver Skiffs sculling race.

The inspiration for today’s workout was a youtube video which I’ve resorted to a few times before but which I’ve not gotten tired of yet. It is called Turin silver skiffs 2012 and the actual rowing in the video is around 10K. The guy who is wearing the GoPro camera and doing the actual rowing is a young British rower.

Before starting the video and rowing along with it, I chose a custom RowPro session of 11K distance. Then I started the video. The actual race doesn’t start until a couple minutes into the video, but I started about 40 seconds ahead of the actual race start, since I would be rowing about 1,000 meters further. The guy who is rowing has to row against the current and much slower than me for the first half of the race course. Then he turns around and rows with the current and has a pace much faster than mine for the second half. I chose paces which resulted in me finishing the 11K at about the same time as he finished 10K.

When people race together online using RowPro and the digitalrowing.com Oarbits server, they usually follow the race with a 9 minute warm down but 4 minutes seemed more than enough to warm down after today’s 11K which was done at less than a race pace.

A minor software glitch showed up when RowPro generated the main session report. It’s visible on the line for the 16th split.

Though today would have normally been a day for strength-training, I skipped it today and will try to make a spreadsheet for the results of the new strength-training program, before doing the next session, so they can be displayed in this blog.

Here are screenshots from today’s indoor rowing:

AQq-May-30th-2017-11K-finish AQq-May-30th-2017-11K-rpt AQq-May-30th-2017-11K-gph AQq-May-30th-2017-warmdown-finish AQq-May-30th-2017-warmdown-rpt AQq-May-30th-2017-warmdown-gph

Happy and refreshing rowing to you.

Some Rowing And Viewing Of

the-rowing-life-Screen-Shot-2017-05-30 — A screenshot from the video called The Rowing Life, which was 4 minutes 24 seconds long.

The grammar of the title of this post leaves something to be desired but it works. Today’s exercise activity was rowing only. And while I was rowing, I went to youtube and found a short video titled The Rowing Life and watched it. When it was over, youtube automatically started another one which its algorithms decided to be similar and so I watched one after the other, all rowing videos. The last one that was playing when the 11K finished was titled Full Day of Eating + Training | Student Rower, by a guy who seems to have posted quite a few videos on the topic of being a student rower.

The 11,000 meters was mostly easy with a little sprinting near the end. It was followed by a 4 minute piece, as additional warm down.

AQ-May-30th-11K-finish AQ-May-30th-11K-rpt AQ May 30th 11K gph AQ-May-30th-warmdown-finish AQ-May-30th-WD-rpt AQ-May-30th-WD-gph

Happy life with rowing to you.

A Few Pushups and a Fractional Piece

05292017-rowing-video1of2 05292017-rowing-video2of2

Today’s rowing was preceded by a new approach to pushups/strength-training. More about that later or in a following post, because there isn’t much time before dinner to write today’s post.

After pushups, I started to row 11K but there were interruptions so it wasn’t finished. An interesting video I watched on youtube is the one above, called Rowing HR and POV which has some interesting real-time readouts displayed on the screen. It shows the heart rate of one of the rowers (second from top right corner of the screen) simultaneous with the instantaneous speed of the boat in mph (bottom left of screen). It also shows accumulated distance (top left). Top right of screen is a heart rate graph. Bottom right of screen is a representation of the boat’s position on the course they row.

$APp-May-29th-fractional-11K-finish$ $APp May 29th fractional 11K rpt$ $APp-May-29th-fractional-11K-c2-log-pg$ $APp May 29th fractional 11K gph$

May you derive much happiness from your rowing.

Take A Nap And Then Go Rowing

take-a-nap-and-then-go-rowing

Believe it or not, when I used the search terms “take a nap and then go rowing” to look for images, the above image was one of the top results. It doesn’t show napping or rowing. It shows a yoga pose. Mysterious.

I really expected results which were less non sequitur than the above image. But it’s interesting, so it won the contest today. It’s from a Pinterest assortment of images related to yoga, most of which were more eye-appealing than the few images among the results which actually showed rowing. I’d rather row, so I did my usual of rowing instead of my never-ever tried of yoga.

They each have their unique photogenic aspects.

Today’s rowing was 11K done very easy. It was done so very easy that it burned 58 calories less than the same easy 11K done yesterday. But today is Sunday, which is considered to be an apt day for rest by many people.

The title for today’s post is in reference to the fact that I only got about 1/2 a normal night’s sleep last night and then was wide awake before dawn. I tried to go back to sleep but just got warmer and more awake. Since I still haven’t found the master control for my body’s metabolism, I got up, had coffee and breakfast and than a few hours later took a long nap. Then I went rowing on my Concept 2 model D.

AP-May-28th-11K-finish AP-May-28th-11K-rpt AP-May-28th-11K-gph AP-May-28th-11K-data

Happy restful rowing to you.

Happy Ness After Rowing

After rowing, Ness was happy. But even if your name is not Ness, there is happiness for you after rowing because aerobic exercise that is sufficiently vigorous significantly elevates the happy mixture your body is capable of manufacturing and spreading throughout your body. Which includes your brain. Which is somehow connected to your mind.

her-name-is-propably-not-ness

The above photo addresses another subject related to happiness: a person’s relationship to God. I found this photo while looking for rowing photos, even though it doesn’t show any rowing. It is located on a blog relating to its pictured theme, at THIS LINK.

Today’s rowing consisted of 11K while watching two DVDs about the next strength-training/pushups program I’m going to do. Here’s a hint: It won’t be a continuation of the “7 Days To 100 Pushups” program. It will be something different and in my opinion better, but it will still focus on pushups as its general exercise specialty.

The DVD-watching of the two instructional videos seemed to help enhance being focused while rowing. The only break I took while rowing was for the purpose of swapping DVDs. The session was done at a mostly constant, easy pace with the exception of the aforementioned break and a moderate sprint during the second-to-last of the 20 splits into which this session was divided by RowPro software.

Yes, my happiness level was enhanced afterwards.

AO-May-27th-11K-finish AO-May-27th-11K-rpt AO-May-27th-11K-gph

Below is a view of today’s session from its information screen in my Concept2.com online logbook:

05272017-logview

Much happiness derived from rowing to you.

Racing With Eyes Closed

HOCR-Vesta-W9+-champs-2012 — This screenshot shows you the title of the video which I used for inspiration today.

I kept my eyes open… but the champion rower who was in the stroke position in the race video pictured above rowed with her eyes closed.

Today was a double-duty day which started with a little rowing to warmup and then a strength-training/pushups session, with rowing to occupy the rest times between pushups sets. After that, I chose a POV video of the coxswain’s view of the winners of the 2012 HOCR W8+. I chose a video of the women, because I had a better chance of keeping up with them, than with a crew of young men. It was quite a workout, nonetheless especially considering that I also let myself have a little head start of some gentle rowing after starting the video and before the race actually started.

another-of-HOCR-Vesta-W9+-champs-2012 — For a large part of the race, the stroke rower seemed to be making up for the lack of sunglasses by keeping her eyes closed. The coxswain maintained a constant, stroke-by-stroke stream of instructions and encouragement, so she the rower could do just fine with her eyes closed … and she did, because they won the race in their category!

ANn-May-26th-pu-warmups-and-rests-just-row-c2logview — This is a screenshot from the concept2.com online logbook which shows data from the rowing done during pushups/strength-training.

ANn-May-26th-HOCR-Vesta-2012-finish — RowPro software finish screen of my 3 mile row-along session with the HOCR 2012 Champs video

ANn-May-26th-HOCR-Vesta-2012-C2log — Data and graphs for the 3 mile session. This is the report view from the concept2.com logbook instead of from RowPro.

Nothing to brag about but here’s the results of the last session of the 10th week of pushups/strength-training (on the bottom line labeled F for Friday of week 10):

pu-wk-10-session-3

Happy inspirational rowing to you.

Rowing Easy Is Good Too

rowing-easy-is-good-too

But of course if you are racing, like the two you see above, rowing easy is not the thing to do.

Today was another day for easy rowing. The session was 11,000 meters and it was done mostly easy, with a few more vigorous parts. There was one long interruption somewhere around the middle of the session, so I could use the telephone to order Chinese food take-out.

Long, easy aerobic sessions, whether rowing, running or anything else, all have healthy benefits so don’t be afraid to row slow.

AN-May-25th-11K-easy-finish AN-May-25th-11K-easy-rpt AN-May-25th-11K-easy-gph

Happy easy rowing to you.

Burning 131 Calories In About 8 Minutes

Today’s exercise time was divided into four pieces as follows: (1) 4,528 total meters rowed while warming up for and resting in between doing sets of pushups. (2) 8,000 meters mostly easy while watching a few videos of crews racing the 2K. I rowed faster for about 1,000 meters of that time, when syncing with the rating of one of the crews. (3) 2,000 meters at a vigorous but not all-out pace, when racing against a video of a crew of lightweight 8+ who were themselves racing a 2K. They finished about 100 meters ahead of me, after which I slowed down for the final 100 meters. (4) a warm down of 520 meters very easy.

The one piece that was 2K in length is the one referenced in the title of this post and it will also be the only one shown in the screenshots, because it was the most interesting one. That 2K burned 131 calories and it would have been a few more, if I hadn’t slowed down when the crew I was racing finished about 100 meters ahead of me. All totaled, today’s rowing burned 814 calories and went a rowing distance of 15,048 meters.

AMm-May-24th-2K-practice-finish AMm-May-24th-2K-practice-report AMm-May-24th-2K-practice-gph

Today’s strength training results were somewhat ambiguous but I’m happy with them.

pu-wk-10-session-2

Happy burning of calories to you.

Head Of Brisbane POV Inspiration

head-of-brisbane-cox-seat-position

Today’s rowing was 11K done while watching a youtube video of the November 8, 2014 Head of the Brisbane. The camera was from the perspective of the coxswain whose legs are in the above screenshot. The view, most of the time, was of the stroke rower who is pictured in the below screenshot.

Stroke-rower-head-of-brisbane

I tried to stay in sync with the stroke rower, though since it was the first time I’d rowed while watching that video, I had to pause a few times to try different damper settings to try to find the best drag factor.

AM-May-23nd-11k--finish AM-May-23nd-11k-rpt AM-May-23nd-11k-gph

Felt like a good workout, so I’ll probably do it again. And again and again, once in a while.

Happy rowing machine syncing to you.

Today’s Rowing Was Just Ducky

just-ducky-rowing — The above photo of ducky-ness combined with rowing was found on row2k.com .

You can take the applied meaning of the phrase “just ducky” in reference to today’s rowing either way and you will be right. By “either way,” I mean you can take it literally in the most common sense or sarcastically.

Today’s rowing was partly used as warmup and rest activity during a strength-training, pushups workout. That part of the rowing was just ducky in the sarcastic sense.

The last 2/3 of the session was done partly to music and partly in synchronization with videos of people rowing. That rowing was nice, in the more common, non-sarcastic use of the phrase “just ducky.”

Below are screen shots of today’s rowing results and the strength-training session.

ALl-May-22nd-15k--finish ALl-May-22nd-15k-rpt ALl-May-22nd-15k-gph

Below are the strength-training results. You might notice that I didn’t make any progress and in fact seemed to regress. I guess that was a result of taking a whole week off. I was really surprised – thought that taking 7 days off would leave me the same or a bit stronger, though I had no scientific or experiential reason for those thoughts except that I thought that the week-to-week, every day muscle-soreness which I’d been having ever since starting the strength-training indicated that my muscles never recovered from the workouts from session-to-session and that if they were given enough time to stop being sore, maybe they’d be stronger than if they were never given enough time to lose the soreness.

Guess I was wrong and a constant, low level of soreness is a good thing?

pu-wk-10-session-1

Happy just ducky rowing to you.