This is a screen shot to show how useless are the videos from today’s GoPro camera experiment. At the moment this was recorded, I was looking at the screen of the cellphone that was being used for the phone conversation.
Today’s indoor rowing session was put off until it was getting too late to row, because I was engaged in a long telephone conversation. So – rather than totally abstain from any rowing at all today, I changed into rowing clothes and did some extremely slow rowing, while continuing with the phone conversation. Also, I experimented with using a GoPro camera to record the rowing, while having the camera situated on a short tripod and located on the shelf in a closet which was behind the rowing machine.
The result of the GoPro experiment was to learn that its videos of indoor rowing would be of no use to anyone else, because the most important thing for anyone else to relate to in such a video would be what is displayed on the RowPro screen, and it is too far away and unclear to be of any use to anyone who might be looking for a video to “row along with.”
So I didn’t bother to upload the video to YouTube. The next time I try making a YouTube video, it will be with a screen recording while having the screen displaying two windows: The RowPro graphics and the YouTube video I will be watching and using to time the session’s included intervals.
Today’s rowing was 7K. The first half was at an extremely slow pace, because I was simultaneously having a phone conversation and for part of that time was holding the phone with one hand. The second half of today’s 7K was done with an effort that kept heart rate at around 130 BPM.
Finish screen for today’s 7K.Report for today’s 7K.RowPro graphs for today’s 7K.Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 7K.
Since my first attempt to use a GoPro camera for the purpose of making a helpful recording of the display screens during an indoor rowing session was a flop, I have no screenshots of today’s video recording attempt with a GoPro, to display here. But … for consolation, I searched on YouTube using the search terms “concept 2 gopro” and found a couple of videos other guys had made with GoPros while they were using their Concept 2 rowing machines. Like one of the commenters to this particular video remarked, “Interesting but why?” I would say “Curious. What was the point?” Perhaps he was just experimenting with different camera angles while trying out his brand new rowing machine. He is the first person I’ve ever seen to wear gloves while using a rowing machine. You can view his curious video at this link: GoPro – Concept 2 Rowing Video
Today’s indoor rowing session was limited to 30 minutes. But the time involved was quite a bit longer than a half hour, because I tried to use a GoPro camera to record the session. It is the earliest/oldest model of GoPro that I could find, for the sake of getting the cheapest one. So the time above and beyond the 30 minutes for today’s rowing session was spent with learning how to use it, trying it a little bit and then setting it up. Also, I typed a “script,” of what to day at the beginning of the recording.
Another result of my search on YouTube with the terms “concept 2 gopro” was this video. This one is even more curious than the first one, in my opinion. It is extremely boring, because you can’t see the monitor screen for progress, pace, strokes per minute, heart rate… so it would be impossible to “row along with” in that regard. The guy who made it said that he had just bought the rowing machine. He rowed 5000 meters at an easy pace. If he rowed it at a harder pace, he would get his lovely wooden floor all sweaty. I don’t recommend this video as something to watch for inspiration but if you want to watch a boring indoor rowing video, you can find it at this link: 5000m Row – Concept 2 Indoor Rower . If you watch it, don’t imitate his rowing form, because as someone who commented on the video said, he needs some improvement in rowing form. The author of this video replied to that comment and said that his rowing form has improved since he made this video.
I have a hunch that the GoPro video I was trying to make wouldn’t have been very usable for the intended purpose.
My intended purpose in making a video recording of an indoor rowing session is so that anyone else who has access to the internet and does indoor rowing – might find it useful as something to “row along with” during one or more of their rowing sessions.
For such a video to be useful to row along with, I think it needs to clearly show the screen for the rowing session. If they can see the screen and what was happening moment by moment, then someone else who watches the video can set up their rowing session for a relevant (though not necessarily same) time or distance and they can “row along,” in a fashion similar to what people find helpful for inspiration when they row online with other people.
The most interesting video that came up in my search today is a short one called Fat Man Rowing. The above screenshot shows his brand new, still-in-the-box Concept 2 rowing machine. You can see part of his wife’s hands on top of the box.
So what I did was: set up the GoPro video camera on a tripod and position it as near as possible to the two monitors that I watch while rowing. One of the monitors displays RowPro 5 for the Mac and the other monitor is a small TV connected to an Apple TV which is usually used for displaying YouTube videos.
This is a screenshot of the “Fat Man” before he tries out his rowing machine for the first time. His video, Fat Man Rowing, was the most enjoyable of the three videos mentioned.
Before the 30 minute rowing session was finished, the GoPro camera quit recording. At least- it lost its connection to my iPhone. It looked like the battery died. I guess you get what you pay for, and if you want a GoPro camera that will record for 30 minutes or more, maybe you need one of the later, more expensive ones. But I will try it again, because its also possible that the battery just needs to be conditioned. If its a lithium battery, they need to be fully charged and then discharged three times, to be conditioned enough to last an optimal amount of time.
Here’s the stuff on the rowing I did today:
Finish screen for today’s 30 minutesReport for today’s 30 minutesRowPro graphs for today’s 30 minutesConcept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 30 minutes
If you look at the screen recording of today’s 8K, the above screenshot is what you will see at about 45 seconds after it starts – unless you have the window maximized, in which case you will only see the image of what was on my computer and not any of the YouTube stuff below it as is displayed in this screenshot. Note: This video will eventually be deleted from YouTube, when I can replace it with something that has not had its sound track muted and mutilated by YouTube (see note regarding the YouTube problem, below)
Today’s indoor rowing session was the second experiment in making a screen recording and uploading it to YouTube. Today’s video recording has a sound track which consists of a few spontaneous unrehearsed words at the beginning and then, after the start, there are the sounds of the room and also you can hear the sounds of the YouTube videos I watched.
The title of today’s rowing session screen recording on YouTube is “8K Indoor Rowing 136 Watts Average Pace with Intervals” . Note: This video will eventually be deleted from YouTube, when I can replace it with something that has not had its sound track muted and mutilated by YouTube (see note regarding the YouTube problem, below)
NOTE REGARDING VIDEO POSTED TO YOUTUBE DECEMBER 28: (8K session mentioned above): after posting it to YouTube, I noticed that it had been tagged as “containing copyrighted material” which turned out to be some of the music that was playing over the speakers in the room. YouTube said that because of that, there would be Ads placed on the video and the advertising profits from the videos thus being monetized would go to whoever had claimed copyright rights. So I used YouTube’s tools to “remove” the copyrighted tracks. After taking a long time to re-process and “edit” the video, YouTube announced that it hadn’t been able to remove the song and gave the option of leaving it as is and having ads displayed, or muting the song. So… rather than have ads plastered over it while someone is trying to watch it during their rowing, I chose the “mute” option. The worst case is that there will be blank areas of audio. In the future, I will only have sounds playing from the speakers that are not copyrighted!
ADDITIONAL NOTE REGARDING THIS VIDEO WHICH WAS POSTED TO YOUTUBE: After YouTube “edited” the sound track of the video, the sound track was ruined and the relevant signals (interval timer beeps) are either removed or re-positioned. So … I will put other videos up to replace these, when I can. After those videos are up, I will delete these videos from YouTube. Once that is done, I will also delete the links to them. It has been educational, to learn about how the music industry is listening to the sound tracks of all videos posted in public places on the internet and making copyright claims so that they have the right (and so that they are the only ones who have the right) to “monetize” the video by placing whatever advertisements they like on the video. Screen recordings of indoor rowing sessions aren’t nearly as helpful or relevant if the actual sounds, including the signals from any interval timer used, are audible.
The “136 Watts” is the average of the entire rowing session. The instantaneous effort level was sometimes much lower than 136 Watts and other times much higher. You can see the instantaneous Watts effort level displayed in big blue numbers in the center of the bottom right pane of the RowPro window. The big red numbers in the bottom right of that same pane are an instantaneous reading of heart rate.
One of these days, I might try recording the session using a GoPro camera mounted either on my head or on a tripod. Or both…. to see which one works better. But until then, there’s only the screen recording which shows only one of the two monitors.
All of the 8K was rowed at an easy pace except for the intervals. The first 8 intervals were done at a moderate pace and the 9th & last interval was done at a hard pace. RowPro 5 For The Mac is what was used to display everything on the screen, once the rowing started.
The music was provided by another YouTube video and its name and link are on the second-to-last line near the bottom of this blog post.
Finish screen for today’s 8K.Report for today’s 8K.RowPro graphs for today’s 8K.Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 8K.
The music which played during the first 27+ minutes of this rowing session comes from the YouTube video called HOCR Rowing Power Workout.
Today’s rowing session was recorded and uploaded to YouTube as an experiment. The recording was made using Quicktime to make a “screen recording”. There is no sound, so you can supply your own music if you want sound accompaniment.
I was going to record the ambient room sound, which would have included about 27 minutes of music from the YouTube video HOCR Rowing Power Workout, which is what I watched and what supplied the timing for the nine intervals. But the Mac Mini didn’t have a port for a non-powered microphone, so as a result it is a silent film and you will have to supply your own music. 🙂
The rowing session I did today and which has been uploaded to YouTube is titled “10K Indoor Rowing 92 Watts Average Pace With Intervals“. If you click the link, you can watch it and row along with it, if that floats your boat.
There are 8 intervals which I did at a moderate pace and the last interval was done at a hard pace. “Moderate” and “hard” are subjective, relative terms and they might be something quite different for you.
So if you want to row an easy 10K with a few intervals, you might want to try rowing along. Diane thinks it will be among the most boring videos on YouTube and I’m sure it would be, for many people. But there are a small number of people in the world who do indoor rowing. And of that small number of people, some of them might possibly want to row 10K as a very easy pace, with a few intervals thrown in. 🙂
Finish screen for today’s easy 10K.Report for today’s easy 10K.RowPro graphs for today’s easy 10K.Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s easy 10K.
The only way you can row one-handed without a lot of unnecessary awkwardness is to hold the handle in the center.
How do you row and chat via text message at the same time? Its a lot easier on an indoor rowing machine, than in a boat on the water. To do it, you remove your dominant hand from the handle and use the other hand to row with, while holding the handle in the center instead of on one side of the handle. It slows everything down, but you don’t have to totally stop.
That’s what I did today, several times while rowing. It only made the 10K session about 10 minutes longer than it would have been if all rowing had been done two-handed.
Today’s session was 10K with first and last parts as warmup/down and the middle part done while watching HOCR Rowing Power Workout and doing the intervals it includes.
Finish screen for today’s 10KReport for today’s 10KRowPro graphs for today’s 10KConcept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 10K
Today I thought I’d be sociable and do some online rowing. So I logged in to Oarbits via RowPro 5 For The Mac to see if anyone was online and available in the general chat room. There were two rowers logged in, so I asked them if they were going to be rowing soon. Depending on what followed, maybe I could row with one or both of them. My question to them is visible in the above screenshot. But I guess neither of them was present at the keyboard of their respective computers, even though they were logged in to Oarbits with their RowPro programs. There was no reaction to my question.
So I found rowing satisfaction by rowing 8K offline and doing intervals in synch with the intervals in the youtube video HOCR Rowing Power Workout.
Finish screen for today’s 8,000 meter piece.Report for today’s 8,000 meter piece.RowPro software graphs for today’s 8,000 meter piece.Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 8,000 meter piece.
A sign of the times and of declining revenue for the US Post Office: This year, we only received a half-dozen Christmas cards. In years gone by, there used to be dozens, but as internet usage has grown and people have moved around from one universe to another, the numbers of old-fashioned actual physical cards have dwindled.
Today was the first day of rowing after two days of abstention from rowing. To make up for some of those lost-in-the-past meters, today’s session was longer than usual at 24,000 meters. I rowed at a mostly very easy pace and it was fun and not the least boring. Until around 17,000 meters with about 7,000 meters remaining. Then it started to get a little boring, so I turned on the monitor connected to an original model Apple TV, went to YouTube and started the Head Of The Charles Rowing Power Workout video.
With that video running and nine intervals to do in the remaining distance, it became fun again. The intervals were done with restrained effort, not very hard, because I didn’t know if any of the body’s systems would make a fuss if I just jumped back at the usual pace after two lazy days off.
All systems were AOK, as an astronaut might say.
Finish screen for today’s 24K.RowPro graphs for today’s 24K.Report for today’s 24K. Note that RowPro 5 For The Mac had a glitch again, and reported blatantly incorrect data in the columns Time, Meters and Avg DPS for split number 5. Everything else looks okay and the bottom line results correctly match the results in the rowing machine’s PM.Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 24K.
If you are wondering what this photo has to do with rowing, it has nothing to do with rowing that comes to my mind at the moment. But the photo does feature a Great Pyrenees sheep dog in the foreground, and that is what we were talking about just before the end of the three hour+ phone call. It is a very protective and cuddly breed of dog. But also very large. So… when it cuddles, all it can fit into the lap of the person with whom it is cuddling, is its gigantic head.
Today, I was on the phone in one of those rare and precious phone calls again. And… like yesterday, had the deja vu experience of once again doing no rowing.
The phone calls are “precious” because they are so infrequent. They would be “precious” even if they were very frequent, but … I won’t say the rest because you can figure out where I’m going with that train of thought, if you board that train.
The phone call started quite a bit before the time I would have done my rowing and lasted until after I would have finished. As a result, there was no rowing again today. At this rate, it will take a marathon to make up the difference for the days of abstention from rowing. But … only if I abstain for one more day. As it is now, if I row anywhere between 24,000 and 30,000 meters tomorrow, that will make up the difference and bring me back up to the fuzzy-math zone of where I should be in average daily meters rowed.
In case you don’t know what “fuzzy math” is, this picture is worth a thousand somewhat irrelevant words on the topic.
Even though I didn’t do any rowing today, this blog post is categorized as “ethereal rowing” because every day, including today, has an ethereal element to it. Also: whether I do any rowing or not, there’s not a day that passes when I don’t think about rowing. Today’s blog post is also categorized as “Mentally absorbing workout,” because the phone conversation was quite a workout, from the mental perspective, and also very absorbing.
There was no rowing today, ethereal or otherwise, due to a longer than anticipated phone call this afternoon. Maybe I’ll make up for the lost meters by rowing more tomorrow?
Today there was a phone call scheduled for four pm. It was about 3 pm when I started rowing, so I once again limited the distance to 8K, so as to be certain to be done in time to change from rowing clothes to regular garb and be ready for the phone call.
The 8K was done similar to yesterday, with no warmup and while doing the intervals in HOCR Rowing Power Workout, then using the remaining time to warm down.
Report for today’s 8K.RowPro graphs for today’s 8K.Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 8K.
