Month: July 2018

Shorter But Better Than Yesterday

Today’s distance was chosen so as to match the distance rowed on July 13th by training partner DN.  It was short – only 2,667 meters – but it was nonetheless far better than yesterday’s 10K because today’s heart rhythm was 100% regular.  The heart strap signal was therefore measurable and RowPro displayed it throughout the session.  Also, heart rate was normal for the effort instead of way too high, like it had been yesterday.

A screen recording is on YouTube at: Indoor Rowing 2667 meters 07162018

Happy rowing to you.

The Remedy Lost Its Charm Today . . . Almost

Today’s session was a 10K and the main goal was to once again use it as the remedy for irregular heartbeat.  But it didn’t work this time.  Heartbeat was irregular and way too high for the low effort level, throughout the entire 10K instead of clearing up after a few kilometers of rowing.

For a large part of the time during the session, heartbeat was too irregular for heart rate to even be measured and displayed.  When heart rate could be measured and displayed, it was about 40 or 50 BPM higher than it should have been at that low effort level.

The 10K remedy didn’t totally lose its charm … An hour after the 10K, heartbeat returned to being regular.  So perhaps it is just a lot slower to work its charm if there are not at least 11 hours of fasting in advance of the 10K.

Today’s rowing session is therefore not categorized as “Fun Workout” because irregular heartbeat through the entire rowing session inhibited me from rowing as hard as I’d wanted to and that involuntary restriction is not fun.

I think the reason it didn’t work this time is because I broke fast too early.  The “rowing 10K to cure irregular heartbeat” method seems to be most reliable if I row in the morning before breaking fast and if it has been at least 11 hours since I’ve eaten anything.  But I ate a little before rowing today.

The session screen recording is on YouTube at: Indoor Rowing 10K 07152018

Happy rowing to you.

For The Sake Of The Heart

I could have chosen to row a shorter distance today by setting the session distance to match the most recent two unmatched rowing sessions by my training partners, but I decided to go with a longer distance and did a 10K instead.  Because the 10K, if done not too easy and not too hard, seems to be a “magical” distance for heart health.

A screen recording was made for anyone who wants to “row along” and it will be available at this link: Indoor Rowing 10K 07122018

A suggestion for anyone who wants to row along is to try matching heart rate instead of keeping pace with distance.  If your maximum heart rate is different from mine, you might have to either add or subtract a certain number of beats.  But it should be a good workout for you, without turning into a race to see who can get to the finish line first.

Happy rowing to you.

Smoothing Out The Rhythm

The main goal for today’s indoor rowing session was to fix the problem of irregular heartbeat which had at about 3 a.m. today.  If you’ve ever had that problem, you know it can interfere with sleep.  I tried to go back to sleep but finally gave up on that and made some coffee, checked the news and did a couple chores.

Irregular heartbeat persisted, so I changed into rowing clothes and started rowing.  After about 3,000 meters of easy rowing, the rhythm smoothed out.  After it became regular again, I increased the pace slightly, to aim for an average pace of 2:18.9 or so for the 10K.

A screen recording is on YouTube at: Indoor Rowing 10K 07092018

If you have rowed-along with any of the screen recordings and wonder why I just sit in silence for about two minutes after the session is over, its because I’m checking heart rate recovery.  The Apple Watch keeps track of and graphs heart rate for two minutes after a workout is over, so you can see how that goes.  Here’s its recovery chart for the two minutes after today’s 10K:

And here are the rest of the screen shots from today’s 10K:

Happy rowing to you.

Couldn’t Flatline At 137 Watts

Today’s session was 10K with a target pace of 2:16.7/500m which is about 137 Watts.  It wasn’t possible to keep the heart rate graph flat/horizontal at any particular rate because it kept increasing throughout the 137 Watt session.  Perhaps it would have leveled out if the session was longer than 10K?

A screen recording will eventually be available for rowing-along-with on YouTube at: Indoor Rowing 10K at 137 Watts 07072018 but it is uploading very slowly and might take a few hours at the current rate of upload.

Happy rowing to you.

Trying To Flatline Above 140

Today’s session was another 10K because yesterday’s 10K was good in what it accomplished.

There was a target pace of 2:17.5/500m and during the last half of the 10K, I tried to adjust pace to hold the heart rate graph as flat (horizontal) as possible, just above 140.

A screen recording is uploading to YouTube at: Indoor Rowing 10K 07062018

Happy rowing to you.

Sputtery At First Then Smoothing Out

Today’s rowing session was a standard 10K.  Heart rate had been irregular, so I decided to do a longer session than what I’ve been doing for the past few weeks, to help smooth it out.  It worked.  HR was irregular during the early part of the session, but then heart rate smoothed out.

Screen recording for rowing-along-with is: Indoor Rowing 10K 07052018

Happy rowing to you.