December 2018 – Page 2 – Ethereal Rowing

Weathering The Stormy Heart

Notice, that though the needle is in the green area of relative balance, it is also in the “sympathetic” area, which is the “fight or flight” mode for the nervous system.

Today’s HRV readiness reading says harder training is okay. But it is still in the “Sympathetic” zone. A bit of ambiguity/uncertainty there, it seems. Because of that ambiguity, the question: Row harder today? Or easier?

10 1/2 hours of actual sleep last night erased all of the recently acquired sleep debt.

The biggest factor which helped improve the Morning Readiness score today was probably sleep. I was able to sleep in and got about 10 1/2 hours total sleep, which completely erased all the recent sleep debt.

So after careful though HRV-reading-inexperienced consideration, my decision is to row a session similar to the recovery sessions of yesterday and the day before yesterday, but to row today’s session at a pace which will be a mere 1 second per 500 meters faster than yesterday’s. The total calorie and Wattage difference between yesterday’s and today’s should be small? We shall see. Now… I’m off to do the rowing and will return to compose and publish the remainder of this blog post afterwards…

Afterwards – The title of this post was relating to HRV before today’s rowing session was done. But during the last 2000 meters of today’s 10K, the heart started acting up, so I deleted the original title and gave it the one you see at the top now.

By the time I’d rowed about the first 8,000 meters, heart rate was lower than at the same point in yesterday’s 10K. I thought that was good news which could be credited to more rest and an improved HRV score for “Morning Readiness”. But things got stormy during the last 2,000 meters. Heart rhythm got so erratic that it sometimes disappeared from HR display. I could feel it flit and flutter in my chest. Other than those two symptoms, I felt the same in every respect. And since I REALLY WANTED to finish the 10K with an average pace of 2:15, I kept on rowing.

Today’s rowing session was screen-recorded for those of you who’d like to row along with it. It’s link will be available in about three hours from now (the current time is 03:45 GMT on Dec 13th) at about 06:45 GMT on Dec 13th, according to the uploading predictor, at this location: Indoor Rowing 10K Through the Storm 12122018

Happy rowing to you.

Sleep Issues Complicate Things

The HRV Morning Readiness score got a little worse today.

The influence of yesterday’s target heart rate choice of recovery session rowing is unknown, because sleep issues last night probably had a larger negative influence on HRV than anything else.

The big empty space in the graph of last night’s sleeping heart rate is the period during which there was no sleep. Only about 3 hours 25 minutes of sleep logged.

After writing the above few words, I had to dash off to jury duty.

I assumed it would last all day and prevent any rowing. But whoever was going to be put on a trial-by-jury decided to plead guilty. So the trial wasn’t necessary and my jury duty only amounted to answering roll call, filling out a form and listening to informational talks. It only lasted half a day, allowing rowing in the afternoon.

Today’s rowing was very similar to yesterday’s, except instead of using a target heart rate as the goal, I aimed for an average pace of steady-state effort at 2:16.0/500 meters. That average pace was 7/10 of a second faster than yesterday’s average pace, but heart rate today was lower, at 128 BPM average, compared to yesterday’s higher heart rate of 131 at a slower average pace than today.

So today’s recovery 10K should have seemed slightly easier to the body than yesterday’s 10K. If I can get a lot more than 3 1/2 hours sleep tonight, then perhaps tomorrow’s EliteHRV Morning Readiness Score will improve.

Once the EliteHRV Morning Readiness Score moves back up into the green zone that indicates I’ve recovered, then I will do harder rowing again to push it back to the yellow zone.

For those of you who’d like to row-along with today’s 10K, a screen recording was made and it will be available in about three hours from now on YouTube at this link: Indoor Rowing 10K with target PACE 12112018

Happy rowing to you.

EliteHRV Says Its A Recovery Day

**For 3 days, I’ve been taking daily HRV readings with the EliteHRV app. Today it is advising recovery.**

Before today’s rowing: I was actually happy to see the YELLOW – CAUTION indication for today’s “Morning Readiness” because yesterday and the day before yesterday I deliberately did some harder rowing than has been typical for two days in a row, to see if the reading would react accordingly on the EliteHRV app.

Happily, it seems to be doing what I hoped it would do. I feel fine this morning, but Heart Rate Variability shows that I’ve dipped into the “sympathetic” or “fight or flight” mode for the nervous system.

So I have a choice to either take it easy and recover today, or do another harder rowing session and see if tomorrow’s reading dips further into the Sympathetic zone. I’m tempted to row another session like yesterday’s and see if the reading will move further in the Sympathetic direction. But then again… I’d also like to see if it responds to a recovery day by moving back into the Green of the Parasympathetic.

Decision is: make this a recovery day with some Overdistance rowing. Without a training partner to set the pace today, I’ll have to make the choice myself. There are so many different ways to calculate what is the “ideal” effort level for recovery rowing. But the rowing I’m doing is definitely not an exact science so I will just choose a target heart rate zone which seems moderate and maintain rowing effort to keep HR in that zone once it climbs high enough to reach that zone.

I will aim for a slow climb toward a target heart rate of 133 BPM, plus or minus 5 beats. So that will be from 128 to 138. If tomorrow’s Morning Readiness gets back into the green, I’ll know that the approach and that particular HR zone was good for recovery.

After today’s rowing: So today’s rowing is done. It was 10K with a target heart rate of 133 BPM. A screen recording was made and it is in the process of uploading to YouTube now. In a few hours, it will be available for rowing-along-with, at this link: Indoor Rowing 10K Recovery 12102018

Happy rowing to you.

A Variety Of 7 Intervals

Today’s indoor rowing started with a vague inclination to row 10K at an average pace of 2:09 for 9500 meters and then row faster during the last 500 meters of that 10K. But I seemed to have plenty of energy at the start and so I rowed at a pace faster than 2:09. After about 8 minutes, I decided to change the plan and do some intervals of varying times and paces.

The 10K was preceded and followed by 1K warmup/down.

A screen recording for those of you who’d like to row along with it will be available a few hours from now at this link: Indoor Rowing 10K with 7 intervals 12092018

Concept 2 online logbook chart of today’s 10K.

Happy rowing to you.

A Quartet Of 8 Minute Intervals In A 10K

Today’s indoor rowing was 11K arranged as a 1K warmup followed by the main session, which was a continuous 10K.

The pace of the 10K varied periodically, starting with a faster pace for the first 8 minutes, then 4 minutes at around 2:45/500m and that 8 minute faster/4 minute slower arrangement repeated another 3 times. The indoor rowing shorthand for the arrangement and sequence is: 4×8 minute R4 minute.

The intervals were announced and timed with a GymBoss Interval Timer. I got mine directly from gymboss.com but you can also find them on walmart.com and elsewhere.

A screen recording was made of the session. The screen recording is available for those of you who’d like to row along with it, at this link: Indoor Rowing 10K with 4X8 min 12082018

Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 10K.

Happy rowing to you.

Better Than Yesterday

Today’s rowing was young at heart, compared to yesterday’s spoilsport heart.

Today’s main rowing was 60 minutes at “overdistance” pace. It was done online. There was no screen recording made of it, but a screen recording was made of the 2K supplemental that followed it.

The 2K was done with a target pace of 2:15. For those of you who’d like to row-along with the 2K, its screen recording link is here: Indoor Rowing 2K in 9 minutes 12062018

Happy rowing to you.

Spoilsport Heart

My heart’s behavior during today’s rowing fit the definition of this word.

I was looking forward to the rowing session today. It was a 6,000 meter piece and the plan was to row at about 2:06 until the last 500 meters and then row faster to the finish. If all had gone according to plan, the 6K would have been done in about 25 minutes or less. But the plan assumed regular heart rhythm.

And today, for whatever reason it has not shared with me, my heart was a spoilsport and began acting erratically after 4 or 5 minutes of rowing. Everything felt fine and I might not have known anything was irregular, if it had not been for the heart strap. When heart rate spiked from around 130 to 180, I decided to slow down and let the heart computer* sort things out in its programming pathways and circuits. After 20 something minutes, the rhythm settled down to what seemed like normal. But by then there was no chance of finishing the piece in 25 minutes or less, according to the original hopeful plan. So I picked up the pace a little bit but kept it very easy from there until the finish.

After finishing the 6K, I did another 1K, to bring the grand total up to the day’s minimum distance goal of 10K.

For any of you who’d like to row along with a very easy 6K, a screen recording was made and its link is here: Indoor Rowing 6K with spoilsport heart 12052018

Finish screen for 6K portion of today’s rowing.

Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 6K.

Happy rowing to you.

*”Heart computer” is a figure of speech in this instance. There is no pacemaker, bionics, etc in my body.

Anticipating The HRV Coach

This helpful diagram relating to things that influence Heart Rate Variability was found on the blog/website called Minding The Borderlands

Today’s rowing session was the third day in a row in which I boldly included a small degree of relatively intensive (for me) rowing. The reason I have been so bold is because I recently ordered a device which will enable me to get a daily reading of Heart Rate Variability, to use as a “coach”, “guide” or whatever analogy you’d like to use for the biomarker or medical “signpost” provided by the day to day trend of HRV.

Before learning about HRV, I had backed off from and mostly avoided rowing very hard, lest I overdo it and cause injury of some sort. But after reading about and watching video talks about HRV, it looks like the answer to that problem. If properly used, the cumulative analysis of daily HRV readings can tell if a person is stressed to the point where rest is needed.

The image at the top of today’s entry is from a website named Minding the Borderlands, in an informative article focusing on HRV titled “Heart Rate Variability: The Amazing Biomarker for Understanding Our Body, Health and Fitness“.

Today’s session was 30 minutes online in the company of several others who were located in the US and Europe. Though I finished a distant last place compared to all the others, I rowed at what was for me a relatively intensive pace compared to what has been typical for quite a while. It felt good.

For those of you who would like to row-along with today’s session, a screen recording has been uploaded and is available at this link: Indoor Rowing 30 mins online and WD 12042018

Finish screen for 30 minute portion of today’s total meters.

Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 30 minutes.

Happy rowing to you.

Four Easy Pieces

Today’s indoor rowing consisted of four pieces, in this chronological order: 30 minutes online with a training partner, 1K online warm down, 2K offline with a RowPro paceboat (a RowPro 5 for the Mac bug was uncovered during this session) and a 500 meter warm down.

The only screen recording made was of the 2K. For those who’d like to row along with that 2K, the link is here: Indoor Rowing 2K with pace boat 12032018

The 30 minute piece was done at a pace that was determined by the other rower, who was aiming for a constant heart rate of between 80% and 85% of his maximum heart rate, to make it an AT session for him. So his rowing pace slowed gradually through the 30 minutes, to keep his heart rate fairly constant. I paced him and my heart rate remained fairly constant. The 1K warm down was done at a pace of about 2:28. The 2K was done at a pace of 2:06 for the first 1,500 meters and then faster for the final 500. The 500 meter warm down was done super slow.

Concept 2 online logbook graph for the 2K.

The last piece was this 500 meter warm down.

Happy rowing to you.

Late Start Little Time To Spare

Finish screen for the 2nd of 3 pieces today, the 2K.

Today’s indoor rowing consisted of 3 pieces. But I have little time to spare to blog about them so I will just share a little but not “all” like usual. If you want to see more, say so in comments and I will return another day to edit and add more screenshots.

The first and main piece was 10K done online with company, at an overdistance pace. The 2nd piece was 2K done at 2:07 until the last 400 meters when I indulged in what was for me a little bit of intensive rowing. The 3rd piece was an extremely leisurely 1,700 meters, to reach a goal in the current Concept 2 challenge.

A screen recording was made of the 10K but it hasn’t been uploaded to YouTube and won’t be unless one of you readers asks for it. A screen recording was made of the 2K and is available here: Indoor rowing 2K 12022018

Report for the first of three pieces done today, the overdistance 10K.

Of the three pieces rowed today, the 2K took the least time but was the most fun. This is the RowPro chart for that 2,000 meter session.

Happy rowing to you.