Author: dad

Inspiration for today’s bit of workout time came from my training partners. Four of them had logged workouts today. I looked at what they had done, released the reins of my thoughts and the next idea that trotted into my head was: do four separate workouts, each at the average pace done in each of 4 workouts done by my training partners.

I started with the one that had been done at the slowest average pace of 4:44.2 per 500 meters. I made that the shortest distance workout of 500 meters. It turned out to be the hardest goal to reach and I came close but failed by ending up with an average pace of 4:45.4 instead of 4:44.2. I couldn’t get the hang of maintaining a steady pace near 4:44.2.

The second workout session was easier. In fact, all of the remaining sessions were easier because I found it much easier to stay near the projected target pace when the target pace was a bit faster than 4:44.2. The second one was 2,000 meters with an average pace target of 2:54.2/500m.

The third workout session was 7,000 meters with an average pace target of 2:34.2/500m.

None of the 4 workout sessions were fast but the 4th workout had the fastest target pace of 2:22.7/500 meters. The distance chosen for the 4th session was 4,000 meters. But the session was interrupted before 1,000 meters was completed when the iPhone and ErgData app lost its connection to the PM5 monitor or the WiFi network. So that 4th session was divided up into two sessions that totaled 4,000 meters.

There were actually six sessions done today. They were the four above mentioned, a brief test session at the start and another session because the 4th session was interrupted and broken up into two pieces.

The goal for each session was a steady average pace. That goal was mostly achieved. But heart rate was something else because the heart was still in atrial fibrillation for… what? the third day now? So the heart rate graphs wandered and did not resemble the graphs of the pace.

All today’s data and live, granular clickable graphs can be seen via this link to the online logbook. To see any session’s data & clickable interactive graph, click the corresponding “+” sign in the “Action” column for the particular session.

Happy rowing to you!

Today’s workout times were late in the afternoon instead of the morning which seems to work better. The heart was in its atrial fibrillation mode and percolating like the unsteady rhythm of one of those old percolator coffee pots. Though heart rate made its appearance most of the time in the graphs, it was quite contrary … like Mary in the garden with her cockle shells. In other words, it spent quite a bit of the workout time responding in a rather opposite manner to what it should have been doing in relation to the effort being expended in rowing.

All today’s data and live, clickable graphs can be seen via this link to the online logbook. To see any session’s data & graph, click the corresponding “+” sign in the “Action” column for the particular session.

Happy rowing to you!

Though I may not have mentioned it before, I try to make a practice of putting off eating for the first time each day until after doing daily workouts. That way, the time between the last meal the previous day and the first meal on the current day is pretty much guaranteed to be 12 hours or more.

From what I’ve read, fasting helps the body to do the best job of rebuilding, boosting its immune system and also of calibrating all of its myriad of clocks which all relate to circadian rhythm and stable sleep cycle. And I’ve also read that doing a little exercise before breaking fast each day helps to enhance the benefit of that limited fast of 12 hours+.

I have no references for what is mentioned in the above paragraph, so you can do your own research & verification if you have any smidgen of doubt.

So today after doing some little first-thing-in-the-morning chores, I started with the workout sessions. There were eight of them. Punny though it may seem, after the eighth one, I ate.

A screenshot is shown here for only one of them. All data and graphs can be seen via this link to the online logbook. To see any session’s data & graph, click the corresponding “+” sign in the “Action” column for the particular session.

There was no atrial fibrillation last night or during the workouts today. Nor is there any now. Hurray!

Happy rowing to you!

Today’s most funnest* workout was an easy-paced 30 minutes online in the company of three other rowers who were all in the US. The session was another “handicap 5K chase” within a timed 30 minute session.

The slowest rower, whom I’ll refer to as Tucson-1, started rowing immediately at the start signal. Tucson-1 rowed at a pace of about 2:42/500m. I started almost immediately after the start signal, but rowed at around 5:00/500m for the first minute and about 4:00/500m for the second minute. After two minutes, I increased the pace to somewhere around 2:29/500 meters until I was within 25 meters of Tucson-1.

The third rower to start was a woman in Ohio, whom I’ll refer to as Ohio-1. She waited two minutes after the start signal before she began rowing at a pace faster than 2:29/500. The last rower to start, whom I’ll refer to as Tucson-3, waited about 5 1/2 minutes and then rowed at about 2:03 or thereabouts in his effort to catch up to Tucson-1 and everyone else.

After I became as near as 25 meters behind Tucson-1, I slowed and made small adjustments in my pace in order to maintain a constant separation of 25 meters between me and Tucson-1.

Ohio-1 caught up to and passed both me and Tucson-1 before either of us reached the 5,000 meter mark.

When Tucson-3 caught up to me I sprinted from that point until I caught up to Tucson-1 and then I slowed and paced evenly with Tucson-1 until the finish. Tucson-3 passed me and Tucson-1 before we reached the 5,000 meter mark.

When there were about 3 minutes remaining of the 30 minute session Ohio-1 and Tucson-3 slowed and dropped back to be even with me and Tucson-1 and from that point on the 4 of us kept each other company until the end of the session.

All-in-all it was a very nice session that everyone enjoyed.

There was a total of ten workout sessions done today but screenshots for only one of them, the online session, are displayed here. All workout sessions were done without company with the exception of the 30 minute online session and a 2,500 meter online warm down which immediately followed the 30 minute session.

All data and graphs can be seen via this link to my online logbook. To see a session click the corresponding “+” sign in the “Action” column for the particular session.

There was atrial fibrillation all last night and it still persisted at the beginning of today’s 30 minute online session -boo! By the end of the 30 minute online session the atrial fibrillation had vanished, heart behavior returned to normal and it is still acting normally, more than 8 hours after today’s workouts were finished – hurray!

Happy rowing to you!

* Note regarding the word “funnest”: “Grammar Girl” Mignon Fogarty did a lot of research to determine whether or not it is a legitimate word and in the process of doing that research, which she said was not fun to do, she forgot to call her mother on her mother’s birthday. You can read her article about the word “funnest” at this link: Is “Funnest” a Word?

Today there were a half dozen workout sessions. Total time for all of them was about 1 hour 34 minutes.

Their data and graphs can be seen via this link to my online logbook. To see a session click the corresponding “+” sign in the “Action” column for the particular session in which you are interested.

For enhancement of time spent working out in a tiny room, I played a video found on YouTube called Rowing Video for Indoor Rowing, by Captain Steve. It is almost two hours long, which was more than enough time for today’s workouts.

Unlike yesterday, there WAS atrial fibrillation today. Instead of saying “hurray” today, what should be said? Boo? But if boo, then boo who?

Happy rowing to you!