Sunday and Monday were days without rowing so today’s resumption was a special treat, in the respect that absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Today’s session was 10K online but alone. I started out with the intention of rowing 1,000 strokes with my eyes closed and then opening them to see how pace and heart rate compared to my subjective estimates. But Diane came into the room to chat for a bit and so I rowed with eyes open most of the time.
Below are screenshots of the Apple Watch’s views of today’s warmup + 10K and the post-10K HR recovery graph:
There was a 5 minute warmup/down which I won’t bother documenting here. If anyone really wants to see them, just say so.
Finish screen for today’s 10K session.Report for today’s 10K session.RowPro graphs for today’s 10K session.Concept 2 graphs for today’s 10K session.
For today’s rowing, I decided to apply a bit more than usual effort, so as to raise heart rate enough to get a relevant reading of heart rate recovery. One of the nicer additions/improvements to the capabilities of the Apple Watch is that it will measure and display heart rate recovery after a workout. The image at the top of today’s blog post is a screen shot of the results today, for the two minutes after the main rowing session ended. A heart rate decrease of from 15 to 25 BPM, by the time two minutes has elapsed immediately after stopping exercise, is healthy. A heart rate decrease of 12 BPM or less is unhealthy.
As you can see in the screenshot above, my heart rate decrease seems to be healthy, since 58 BPM is more than the minimum healthy amount of 15 BPM. So… In that regard I guess I can be a happy chappie.
The main rowing today was 10,000 meters. It was done online but alone. There was also a 5 minute warmup and warm down.
Finish screen for today’s 10K.Report for today’s 10K.RowPro graphs for today’s 10K.Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 10K.
Today’s indoor rowing was done on earth, the best planet for that activity. The above photo might at first glance resemble a Martian landscape, but at second glance it can be seen to be infinitely more lush than any landscape ever photographed of Mars. It is a view of some unknown location in the Sonora desert.
The atmosphere where I did my rowing was indoors, so it wasn’t as fresh as any outdoors atmosphere in the Sonora desert, but it was fresh enough and far more oxygen-rich than the hostile-to-humans Martian atmosphere.
Today’s rowing was 10,000 meters done online but alas alone. It was followed by another 5 minutes of supplemental rowing for the sake of a few more meters.
After doing the rowing, I glanced at one of the new features in the Apple Watch (photo and screen shot above) for the heart rate recovery display. I don’t know what use, if any, to make of it yet, but from what little I’ve read about it, the steeper the angle of decline for the graph of recovery heart rate during the first two minutes after a workout is logged as “done” on the watch, the better. Of course, it would seem to depend on how hard or easy a person had been working out in that workout, so I don’t know if there is a chance of comparing apples to oranges by looking at the heart rate recovery results after workouts of different intensities and duration.
Some of the things I did for fun were to aim for an almost constant, gradually increasing pace and heart rate, with a maximum heart rate target today of around 130. Some other things I did for fun, were to close my eyes and count the strokes until an estimated 1,000 meters had passed. That was done about ten times, so I rowed with my eyes closed most of the time. If other rowers had been rowing with me, I would have watched their avatars to see their stroke rate and watched their numbers for distance separation and pace, on the right of the screen. But nobody else joined, as I’ve already said… so I rowed with my eyes closed and spent a fair amount of time flying through the ethereal realm of thoughts.
Finish screen for the online 10K session today.Report for the online 10K session today.RowPro graphs for the online 10K session today.Concept 2 graphs for the online 10K session today.
Yes, I know – today is not Halloween and it won’t occur until about 5 days from today – but today was the day I completed the Concept2.com Skeleton Crew Challenge. The challenge is simply to row a total of at least 31,000 meters in the period that begins October 25th and ends at midnight on October 31st. Today I exceeded 31K and was awarded with a certificate, which is displayed at the top of this page.
Today’s indoor rowing started out with 10K done online in the company of Bobo, who is located in France. After that, I rowed in a 45 minute session with two others – a woman who is located in New Zealand and a man who is located in I Don’t Know What Country. Finally, I rowed a 5 minute warm down. Then I checked the meters rowed and saw that by rowing another 5 minutes I could surpass 31K since October 25th, so that was done to earn the certificate.
If you wonder why the HR graphs are “messy” most of the time, its probably because the heart strap battery is getting low. Yesterday I removed the battery from the heart strap transmitter and checked it with a battery tester. It tested to be at somewhere above 40% but less than 60% of its maximum new charge. I decided to keep using it until it quits completely, so there may be more messy HR graphs for a few more sessions, depending on how long it lasts.
For the 10K, I rowed at about 2:20 until it counted down to 9,000 meters, then rowed at about 2:15 until it counted down to 7,000 meters, then rowed at about 2:10 until it counted down to 3,000 meters. At 3,000 meters to go, I increased the pace to about 2:00 until distance counted down to 2,000 meters. Then I rested a bit, did a short sprint at about 1:40 for a couple hundred meters and rowed the remaining distance at a leisurely warm down pace.
For the 45 minute session, I rowed a pace between 2:30 and 2:40 until the time counted down to 20 minutes remaining. At 20 minutes remaining, I increased the pace to about 2:00 for four minutes then rowed easy for a few minutes, then did a short sprint for about 10 or 20 seconds, then eased off to a slower and slower pace, to warm down as the 45 minutes counted down the final few minutes to zero.
The two 5 minute warm downs/ extra meters were each done at exceedingly slow paces.
Finish screen for today’s main session, 10K online.Report for today’s main session, 10K online.Graphs for today’s main session, 10K online.Finish screen for the 45 minute online session.Report for the 45 minute online session.Grapsh for the 45 minute online session.Finish screen for the first of two 5 minute warm downs.Report for the first of two 5 minute warm downs.Finish screen for the second of two 5 minute warm downs.Report for the second of two 5 minute warm downs.
Since I did all my rowing indoors today, as usual, none of my sweat was shared with the usually-thirsty cacti in the area.
Today’s session was 10K scheduled many hours in advance online. And it paid off, to schedule many hours in advance because one guy in England joined the session. But he had some kind of problem, perhaps with software or with his connection, because after 100-200 meters, his rowing icon showed to be “finished” even though we still had almost 10,000 meters remaining.
So I stopped that online session and set up another 10K, so he could join that one. But he was non-responsive in the chat room, so I assume there was some kind of connection problem.
I started out the 10K at about 2:20, then after about 1,000 meters increased the pace to about 2:15 and maintained that pace until there were 4,000 meters left. As the distance countdown to 4,000 meters remaining, I increased the pace to about 2:00/500m and kept it there for 1,000 meters, when there were 3,000 meters remaining.
I rowed very easy for about 600 meters and then sprinted at about 1:50/500m for 400 meters until the distance counted down to 2,000 at which point I slowed down and used the last 2K as a first warm down.
After the 10K was over, I did a second warm down of 5 minutes.
Finish screen for today’s online 10,000 meters.Report for today’s online 10,000 meters.RowPro graphs for today’s online 10,000 meters.Concept2 online logbook graphs for today’s online 10,000 meters.Finish screen for 5 minute warm down.Report for 5 minute warm down.Graphs for 5 minute warm down.
This is a good place for indoor rowing, since there not enough water to float a boat.
Today’s indoor rowing was 10,000 meters scheduled and rowed online. A guy who is located in Norway joined the session, so I considered that I’d been rowing with a Viking, assuming he is a native Norwegian with Viking DNA.
I guess he was feeling either a bit tired or under the weather though, because he said he didn’t “feel like a Viking”.
Finish screen for today’s online 10K. The heart rate graph looks weird because it has a low battery and didn’t have a signal for most of the time.Report for today’s online 10K. Heart rate shows zero when there was no signal from the heart strap.RowPro 5 for the Mac graphs for today’s online 10K. The heart rate graphs look weird because the chest strap had a low battery and didn’t have a signal for most of the time.
Today’s main session was 1,609 meters. It was done for the sake of the Indoor Rowers League challenge for the month of October. It was preceded/followed by 10 minute warmup/down. The distance of 1,609 meters is about one mile.
Today’s session is categorized as a race, because it was rowed as fast as I thought I could do it.
Finish screen for the 1,609 meter portion of today’s rowing.Report for the 1,609 meter portion of today’s rowing. It was divided into only one split, because 1609 is a prime number and RowPro 5 for the Mac doesn’t do well with the reports unless every split is an equal length to each of the others.RowPro 5 for the Mac graphs for the 1,609 meter portion of today’s rowing.Concept 2 online logbook’s graphs for the 1,609 meter portion of today’s rowing.Finish screen for the warm down portion after the 1,609 meter challenge was finished.
The longest session today was 10,000 meters done at a very easy pace. Then it was time for a race. The race was to do a specific set of intervals and then log the total time for those intervals in the c2ctc.com website.
The specific intervals were 500 meters, followed by two minutes rest, then 1,250 meters, followed by 1 minute rest and finally a 250 meter sprint. Each interval distance was to be done from a stopped flywheel. It managed to get me to breathing very hard.
The 10K was done online but alone. The 10K was done first, so as to serve as a long warm-up for the C2CTC race. The rest of today’s rowing was done offline.
Tomorrow, or one of the other days between now and the end of the month, there will be a 1,609 meter (about one mile) race.
Finish screen for today’s very easy 10K.Report for today’s very easy 10K.Graphs for today’s very easy 10K. Yes, there were interruptions.Finish screen view of today’s C2CTC.COM challenge effort.Reportof today’s C2CTC.COM challenge effort. In between each interval, I stood up and walked while the timer counted down the rest times.RowPro 5 for the Mac graphs of today’s C2CTC.COM challenge effort.
After doing a very leisurely 10K this afternoon, I ran the RowPro 5 for the Mac comparison analysis, to compare performance change to yesterday’s session which was done at a bit faster average pace. “Net Performance Increase,” it said. But what does it mean, really? Your guess is as good or maybe better than mine.
There was neither warmup nor warm down. The session was scheduled about 25 minutes in advance as an online session but nobody else signed up so it was done alone.
Finish screen for today’s 10K session.RpwPro 5 for the Mac report for today’s 10K session.RowPro 5 for the Mac graphs for today’s 10K session.RowPro 5 for the Mac’s comparison analysis stats comparing today’s to yesterday’s 10K session.
When I used the search terms “October 20 2017 rowing” to look for an image today, this was one of the top results. It is from the website of a rowing club in Frankfurt, Germany.
Today’s indoor rowing consisted of 10,000 meters rowed online but alone, followed by a warm down. There are only screenshots of the 10K below.
