When some people think of a symphony of motion, they think of rowing. Into what genre would the above rowing symphony be classified? Avant garde? Romantic? Classical crossover? (Actually… the two rowers above were doing a crossover of sorts, to switch seating positions.)
Today’s indoor rowing was the same distance and feeling-of-effort goal as yesterday’s. But yesterday’s was not posted to this blog yesterday. So today’s blog post will do double duty.
When some people think of “symphony of motion,” instead of thinking of rowing they think of something else, such as trains.
Since yesterday’s and today’s were the same distance, this blog post will include the results of a RowPro 5 for the Mac comparison analysis of today and yesterday.
Part of today’s blog post title was inspired by some of the inspiring words of George Pocock, who is famous in the world of rowing. He said: “It’s a great art, is rowing. It’s the finest art there is. It’s a symphony of motion. And when you’re doing well, why it’s nearing perfection. And when you reach perfection, you’re touching the divine. It touches the you of you, which is your soul.”
The order of presentation of screenshots etc will be yesterday’s first, then today’s and finally the RowPro 5 for the Mac analysis comparison of the two sessions.
A video watched during part of today’s rowing session was called “Rowing: A symphony of Motion,” found on youtube. That’s a screenshot of it, just above.
Finish screen for yesterday’s 8K.Report for yesterday’s 8K.RowPro charts for yesterday’s 8K.Concept 2 online logbook graphs for yesterday’s 8K.Finish screen for today’s 8K session.Report for today’s 8K session.RowPro graphs for today’s 8K session.Concept 2 online logbook graphs for today’s 8K session.RowPro 5 for the Mac analysis comparison graphs of today and yesterday.RowPro 5 for the Mac analysis comparison STATS of today and yesterday.
I couldn’t immediately find an image to go with today’s title, so the above photo of an indoor rowing meet featured on the British Rowing website will have to do.
Though the above photo show dozens of over 700 people at an indoor rowing meet, my rowing session was done alone at home. As I rowed one of the things I imagined was riding a horse among windmills while holding the reins so as to restrain the horse from breaking into a gallop.
Today was not a day to race or gallop. The goal was to maneuver and keep the heart rate in a range of between 120 and 140.
There are two competitive events to do before this month’s end. One is for c2ctc.com and the other is for the indoor rowers organization, whose website seems to be down at the moment…
Today’s indoor rowing was followed by a 2K warm down, the results of which will be shown first:
Finish screen of today’s warm down.Report of today’s warm down.Charts of today’s warm down.Report of today’s 8K main session.RowPro graphs of today’s 8K main session.Concept 2 online logbook graphs of today’s 8K main session.
The mind is always looking for entertainment, escape, meaning and freedom, among other things. And that remains true when a person is doing indoor rowing. In that respect, the lyrics of “The Windmills of Your Mind” seem relevant in their freely interpreted meaning, which will be fluid and different for every person who hears the song.
Some of the words of the song’s lyrics are:
“Round,
Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel,
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever-spinning reel
Like a snowball down a mountain,
Or a carnival balloon
Like a carousel that’s turning
Running rings around the moon
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on its face
And the world is like an apple
Spinning silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind!”
Did any of the words mean anything in particular to you? To me, they evoke countless images and many recollections. For example, the phrase “….wheel within a wheel…” reminds of a famous verse from the first chapter of The Book of Ezekiel: “The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.” (verse 16). And it reminds of the times long ago when I first read that verse, and other contexts within which that verse was spoken of or referenced.
Today’s rowing was 30 minutes online but solo, preceded by a short warmup and followed by a brief warm down.
Finish screen for today’s 30 minute session.Report for today’s 30 minute session.RowPro graphs for today’s 30 minute session.Concept2 online logbook graphs for today’s 30 minute session.
The Normal HR dip result on the right was measured for a night’s sleep after a day during which I rowed 12,000 meters. The sub-optimal HR dip result displayed on the left was for a night of sleep, following a day with no rowing at all.
One of the apps I use daily is a nifty sleep tracker called Sleep Watch. One of the things it tracks is “heart rate dip” during sleep, compared to average heart rate during the day. Supposedly, the more the HR dips during sleep, compared to while awake during the rest of the day, the healthier it is for a person.
I’ve noticed that if I don’t do any rowing during the day, I get a sub-optimal HR dip. If I do a moderate amount of rowing, I get a “normal” dip. If I do a LOT of rowing, like either a leisurely half marathon or a shorter distance but at a higher effort level… I will get a greater than 20% HR dip and will be commended by the app for having done a “Good job!’.
Today’s rowing was 10K at an easy pace, with the goals of finishing the entire distance and keeping heart rate at least 100 and below 140. Much of the time today, I rowed with eyes closed.
finish screen for today’s 10K.Report for today’s 10K.RowPro graphs for today’s 10K.Concept 2 online logbook graphs for today’s 10K.
Happy rowing to you and may you have healthy heart rate dips as a result.
The above photo of a novel method of rowing is for your amusement. Laughter is good for the soul and for anything that may be ailing you. 🙂 The photo was found on a website called Flickriver.
Although I could probably do 10K or more of gentle rowing today, it is going to be skipped again because there are still tinges of pain left from the cinder-block catalyzed back pain of yesterday.
Today’s rowing is classified as “Boring Workout” because there was no rowing. 🙂
This is a screenshot from a video on a rowing website called Rowing Machine Pro. The video demonstrates some stretches to do, to help alleviate back pain.
Yesterday I lifted some cinder blocks, to use as temporary modification for Diane’s desk. My back started to hurt a little bit yesterday and … when I sat on the rowing machine today, it started hurting a lot, before I even picked up the handle to start any rowing.
So today’s rowing was cancelled. Hopefully, everything will be better tomorrow. 🙂
Speaking of fine jobs, Benjamin Manceau has a fine one as the coxswain of this rowing crew.
Today’s rowing was 12K with the goals of doing the entire distance at a heart rate of above 100 but below 140. I took the low rowed and kept heart rate closer to 100 than to 140. A fine job and a good feeling afterward.
Finish screen for today’s 12K.Report for today’s 12K.RowPro’s graphs for today’s 12K.Concept 2 online logbook’s graphs for today’s 12K.
May you do a fine job and have a good feeling after your rowing is completed.
I didn’t make a screenshot of the aftermath of RowPro 5 for the Mac’s crash today. There wasn’t much to see. The above photo of broken glass looks far more dramatic than RowPro, which totally vanished / disappeared from the Mac computer desktop. After I re-opened RowPro, there was a little window with a message in it informing me that RowPro had quit unexpectedly (In case I didn’t know) and offering to share the data aftermath with Apple. I shared it and went on with rowing.
Today’s indoor rowing was supposed to be an online 30 minutes with 7 other people who were at locations around the world including the US, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and New Zealand, as you can see in the screenshot below. But after the session start was initiated, RowPro 5 for the Mac crashed. The system message was a bit more euphemistic and it said that RowPro 5 for the Mac “quit unexpectedly.”
This is what RowPro 5 for the Mac looked like about 1 minute before Pam initiated the starting process and RowPro crashed.
So, I set up another online 30 minute session and rowed it alone. Not quite alone… Pam, the New Zealand rower, joined the session but she didn’t row because she was located in the RowPro office and had other sessions to watch and other things to do. But she was available to assist, in case RowPro 5 for the Mac decided to make a habit of crashing … which it didn’t. 🙂
The only goal for today’s 30 minutes was to aim for a target heart rate of 130.
Finish screen for the 30 minutes online.Report for the 30 minutes online.Graphs for the 30 minutes online.There was a 5 minute warmup which is not included among the screenshots. This is a screenshot of the 10 minute warm down finishReport for the 10 minute warm downGraphs for the 10 minute warm down. Notice that the slope of the effort level, from left to right, is down for the 30 minute session which had a target heart rate of 130 and the slope is up for the warm down.
Happy and as crash-free as possible rowing to you.
The only goal for today’s indoor rowing was to go the full 10K distance. There was no stroke, pace or HR target. The session was interrupted a few times to switch from one video to another, while searching for something that I wanted to watch in its entirety. During one of those interruptions, Diane looked in and noticed that I was just sitting on the erg without rowing, so she walked in and said something strange that she’s never said before. Not to me, at least.
She said, “I wish you were a girl.” I replied, “Well, I’m not a girl.” Then she explained that if I were a girl, I could understand something that just happened to her. So I invited her to talk about it anyway and she said that she had been looking through some old sheet music and had come across the sheet music for the stage musical called West Side Story, which she had seen when she was around 12 years old, plus or minus a couple of years.
It was the first Broadway production she’d ever seen and she tried to describe how enrapturing the experience was, of live symphony, actors and choreography. I don’t know how a girl would have responded to what she shared with me… there probably would have been a lot more talking back and forth. But I was glad she shared that little bit of her happy flashback to childhood with me. I’m sure it was an “out-of-this-world” experience, judging by how her face lit up when she talked about it.
Diane’s reminiscing about seeing one of the original stage productions of West Side Story was during the 5th split of the 10 into which this session was divided. This 10K was done online, but it was setup online and nobody else was present at the time, to join in. As I’ve said before… indoor rowing is a small world and online indoor rowing is a much smaller world.
Finish screen view for today’s 10K.Report for today’s 10K.RowPro software generated charts for today’s 10K.Concept 2 online logbook generated graphs for today’s 10K.
Today’s indoor rowing was 7K with the only goals being to finish the 7K and to keep heart rate as near 130 BPM as possible.
There was neither warmup nor warm down.
Finish screen for today’s 7,000 meter heart-rate-targeted session.Report for today’s 7,000 meter heart-rate-targeted session.RowPro graphs for today’s 7,000 meter heart-rate-targeted session.Concept 2 online logbook’s graphs for today’s 7,000 meter heart-rate-targeted session.
