Continuing the past few days’ theme relating to rockets, the above photo is showed parts of someone’s recovered rocket.
Today’s workout was done as a recovery session after yesterday’s harder work on the SkiErg. It was a steady though sloppy pace for all but the last few hundred meters. Picked up the pace a bit near the end. There were a few brief bits of atrial fibrillation but none of them lasted long. In almost every instance of Afib, the heart rate display went to zero when the fluttery bits happened.
After finishing, I noticed that I hadn’t yet ranked a rowing 10K this season, so this one was entered into the online rankings.
Finish screen for today’s recovery day 10K.
RowPro report for today’s recovery day 10K.
RowPro graphs for today’s recovery day 10K.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s recovery day 10K.
Today’s 500 meter push and final sprint was successfully launched after the countdown on the 5,500 meter launchpad was 100% AOK with all heart systems go.
Today’s main workout was another attempt to do the SkiErg 6K which had to be scrubbed the day before yesterday.
Today’s plan was same as previous: Use a Pace Skier @ 2:19.6 and stay even or slightly ahead until distance counted down to the launch.
The “launch” was a faster pace beginning when 500 meters remained. Pace was increased from start to finish of the final 500 meters and was just short of an all-out sprint during the last 100 meters.
There was a 3 minute warmup before the 6K and there were two warm downs after the 6K. Of those warmup/warm downs, I’ll only show screen shots for the last warm down.
The “launch” is the circled area to the right of the 5,500 meter “launchpad”.
That’s what today’s workout was: A single 10,000 meter rowing session. No intervals. Mostly steady pace with variations but no sudden or extreme changes.
Today’s main workout was originally intended to be a respectable 6K time on the SkiErg. The plan was to target a pace of 2:19.6 for the first 5,500 meters and then do a fun sprint for the last 500. But the launch of that sprint was postponed and the countdown halted because of technical difficulties with heart rate.
In the screenshots of today’s SkiErg charts, below, you can see where heart rate first spiked even though there was no change in pace to cause it to spike. That happened with a little over 2,000 meters remaining. So I slowed down and fiddled with the pace to see if I could influence the heart rate to return to normal, but it was to no avail and the launch of the final sprint had to be scrubbed for today.
Chart and data for today’s SkiErg 6K.
Close-up view of where heart rate first spiked though I hadn’t provoked it with any change in pace.
Close up view of the end of the session where heart rate spiked the highest, though the pace was still moderate and a lot slower than original target pace of 2:19.6.
A view of the SkiErg PM5 monitor at about halfway through today’s 5K. I also use the Concept 2 app called ErgData. ErgData is shown on the iPhone which is resting in the $5 cellphone holder perched on top of the PM5. ErgData provides an easy way to save & upload data from each workout, directly to your concept2.com online logbook.
Today’s workout started late again. So it was abbreviated to a main workout on the SkiErg and then a couple of warmdowns.
The SkiErg workout was a 5K done with a tentative target pace of 2:19.6. A “pace skier” was setup on the SkiErg PM5 monitor, for help with staying close to the target pace.
After the SkiErg 5K, there was a 3 minute warmdown on the SkiErg, then a 2,500 meter warmdown on the rowing machine.
Chart and some data for today’s 5K on the SkiErg.
Chart for 3 minute warmdown which was done immediately after the 5K.
The heart strangeness happened before the last work interval. Heart rate increased before I started working again (first green arrow on the left) and then after I started working to increase the pace, heart rate slowed down. After I stopped working hard, heart rate increased again. But it seemed normal by the end of the session.
Today’s main workout was supposed to be 10K on the rowing machine but it had one falst start and finally got started too late in the day to finish it in a timely manner before dinner.
Before rowing, I did 143 calories of alternating work/rest on the SkiErg (see screenshot, above). The SkiErg session went well except there was a wee bit of strange heart behavior near the end, when heart rate started to rise before I started the last in a series of work intervals. But heart rate seemed to return to normal by the end of the SkiErg session, so I put it out of my mind.
Next, I set up a 10K session and was intending to include 8 intervals of 500 meters each, spread throughout the 10K. But heart rate became irregular, so I got annoyed and went to take an aspirin. To buffer the aspirin, I had something to eat. The rowing workout resumed quite a bit later and there wasn’t enough time to finish it and be back to normal before dinner time, so I limited the 10K to about 4K and quit.
The first attempt at a rowing 10K was cut short after only about 500 meters.
There isn’t much of a graph for the first attempt at a rowing 10K today, but you can see that heart rate display was zero for quite a bit of the time during that 500 meters. When heart rate is zero, that usually means heart rate is too irregular for the heart strap to transmit a readable signal to the rowing machine monitor.
Finish screen view of today’s “main workout,” the 10K Cut Short.
Report for today’s “main workout,” the 10K Cut Short.
Graph for today’s “main workout,” the 10K Cut Short.
This morning I managed to muster enough motivation to engage in some erg-motion. After the workouts on the ergs, emotion was positively enhanced.
Recently I asked another guy who also uses the concept2.com online logbook what he does to motivate himself. I hadn’t done a workout in about three days and my better half had remarked about that. Her remark was part of what led to me asking the question of another concept2.com logbook user.
His reply in part was: “Most important to me is keeping healthy, active, keeping my mobility and living a long happy life, as much as is possible. “
What he said wasn’t actually anything I hadn’t heard or thought about before, but it was in my mind this morning and thinking about it was a catalyst to get me on the ergs today.
The first of two workouts today was on the SkiErg.
Today’s workouts consisted of 142 calories on the SkiErg (see above) and 10,000 meters on the rowing machine (see below). Both workouts included intervals of alternating work and rest.
The second workout today was 10K on the rowing machine. This is a view of the RowPro finish screen for that workout.
Report for today’s 10,000 meter rowing session.
RowPro graphs for today’s 10,000 meter rowing session.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 10,000 meter rowing session.
This caution sign seemed appropriate for the top of today’s post. It was found on a website whose focus is dark matter and related stuff. A link to the website where it was found is in the text of the first paragraph below.
Today was a cautious workout day. Avoidance of atrial entropy was the reason for caution. The above image seemed appropriate as a header for today’s blog post. It was found on a website about dark matter and related stuff. Pardon my lack of precision after merely glancing at a few articles on the website, which is titled: Dark Matters a Lot
The reason for today’s caution was today’s Morning Readiness score with the EliteHRV app.
The cautious approach chosen was: Do one workout each, on SkiErg and rowing machine, but do each of them moderately without getting carried away with exuberant effort no matter how good I felt.
The SkiErg workout was done first, as a 141 Calorie session with alternating work/rest intervals of about 10 calories each. Following the SkiErg, a 30 minute rowing session was done as single combination session consisting of 2 minute warmup, four 4-minute intervals and a warm down.
Atrial entropy didn’t increase, so the two sessions must have been sufficiently moderate.
This SkiErg session was done first.
After the SkiErg session a 30 minute rowing session was done. This is a view of the finish screen for that rowing session.
Report for today’s 30 minute rowing session.
RowPro graphs for today’s 30 minute rowing session.
This curious looking photo was chosen for the top of today’s blog post only because it is a photo of an interrupter. ( For more about it see this Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_circuit_interrupter )
Today’s workout wasn’t much of a circuit: A 140 Calorie SkiErg workout followed by a 30 minute rowing session. The SkiErg session was completed but the rowing session was interrupted and cut short, from the planned 30 minutes, to a little more than 10 minutes.
The SkiErg session was done first, without interruption.
A little more than 1/3 of the planned rowing session was done before interruption.
The damp area on the towel is about a pint of sweat lost during today’s SkiErg 5K session.
Today’s main erg workout was the shortest of two. It was a 5K done as a time trial on the SkiErg. To intercept the sweat, there is an old towel covering the SkiErg platform. In the photo above, you can see the damp area where the towel caught the rain of perspiration.
After the 5K SkiErg, I did 30 minutes on the rowing machine. The rowing session was done as a series of eight 2 minute work/1 minute rest intervals. Though I worked harder on the rowing machine, my legs did most of the work and the rowing wasn’t enough effort on the legs, to cause much sweat at all. Just a few scattered droplets near the end of the 30 minutes rowing, instead of a rainstorm as happened with the shorter SkiErg session.
Chart and some data for today’s 5K time trial on the SkiErg.
