Time was slippery and elusive and it got away from me today, so instead of rowing the usual 10 or more, I only rowed 5K.
Because of the heart problem recently, I restrained myself from jumping in and doing any fast rowing. Not right away at least. Instead, I started out with some featherweight rowing at about 60 Watts and then tried to gradually increase the pressure with each split. The splits for this session were 250 meters.
So the effort was sort of like climbing a hill that got steeper, every 250 meters. By the 16th split, I had worked up to about 300 Watts and kept it at about 300 Watts for that entire split, then used the last four splits, the final 1,000 meters, to warm down gradually so as to not set off any heartquakes in that persnickety heart.
If a person’s heart acts up or throws a fit because it doesn’t get enough time to warm up, warm down or the person goes faster than it is inclined to accommodate that day, then it seems to me that it is being persnickety.Report for today’s 5K.RowPro graphs for today’s 5K. The messy heart graph during the first part of today’s 5K was only because the heart strap was a bit too dry. There was no irregular heartbeat, which is another cause for a messy heart graph.Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 5K. The messy heart graph during the first part of today’s 5K was only because the heart strap was a bit too dry. There was no irregular heartbeat, which is another cause for a messy heart graph.
It seems like this has happened several times before. But this one was the worst so far. From the middle of yesterday’s rowing session until shortly after the beginning of today’s rowing session, heart rate was too high. By that, I mean: normally, resting HR is around 50-60 but instead it was around 100 BPM and it felt like it was skipping and galloping all the while. Part of the result was, that I was awake most of the night and got less than 3 hours of fitful sleep last night.
Today I decided to not do any of the most fun type of rowing, which is to row fast. So I started out super slow and maintained a super slow pace for a couple thousand meters, then gradually increased the effort every couple K but never rowed very hard. Heart rate started out high because it was already too high and had been for about 24 hours. But it settled down to a regular rhythm and a normal rate within the first 1,000 meters and behaved normally!!! for the rest of the 10,000 meters!!! Thanks be to God!!! – maybe I’ll get a normalish night’s sleep tonight.
Report for today’s 10,000 meters.RowPro graphs for today’s 10,000 meters.Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 10,000 meters.
Today’s indoor rowing was shorter than usual due to lack of time due to having done some things with Diane today that had been past due. So it was a 5K instead of 10K or more.
The session was scheduled online at the last minute and I was very happy to see that someone joined it, Larry T. of Canada. Larry did an energetic job of rowing which inspired me to aim for a fast 5K. But, about the middle of my 5K, the heart started acting up and going too fast, so I had to slow down and vary my pace to find out what would straighten things out again. But it didn’t fix itself, so the 5K was disappointingly slow.
Yesterday I heard about another inspiring rower. Her name is Darlene Brennan. The above image (including the text on the left and the title, etc at its top) is a screenshot of part of the Concept2.com September 2014 article about her. She’s the one in the middle of the group photo on the right of the screenshot. If you’d like to read the entire actual blog article about her, you can access the article at this link on the concept 2 blog.
Today I had the good fortune to again have energetic company in an online rowing session. Jim D. and Brent R. both joined today’s 10K. Jim D. rowed at his usual amazing pace of around 1:50 and Brent R. also rowed an energetic pace. So I was once again inspired not to be lazy.
If I’d been alone, God only knows what pace I would have rowed but my guess is that it would have been around 2:20. With today’s inspiring company, I started out the 10K at 2:15 for the first 1K, then increased the pace to 2:10 for another 2K. After rowing for 3,000 meters, I increased the pace to about 2:05 and held it there for another 3K until the total distance rowed was 6,000 meters. At the 6,000 meter point, I increased the pace to 2:00 and though I wasn’t committed to anything in particular, had a general tentative intention of holding the pace at 2:00 until the total distance rowed was 9,500 meters, then sprint for the final 500 meters.
But after 1,000 meters at a pace of about 2:00, I decided to wind it down, so I slowed to 2:05 for 1K, then 2:10 for the next 1K. Then I did a little sprint for a couple hundred meters and then finished the remaining distance at a pace of about 2:15, so no warm down was necessary.
Finish screen for today’s 10K.Report for today’s 10K.RowPro graphs for today’s 10K.Concept 2 online logbook charts for today’s 10K.
After today’s rowing, this particular song came to mind. Perhaps it was because today the announcement was made that the United States officially recognizes Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel. That’s good news, big news, happy news and ethereal news. A youtube recording of the particular song whose screen shot is above can be found at THIS LINK
Today’s indoor rowing was another 10K. It was scheduled online, about 15 minutes in advance. Miraculously, another rower noticed it and joined the session. It was Jim D., who did a Jim Dandy impressive rowing effort and inspired me not to be lazy.
I did the first 1,000 meters as a warmup, then picked up the pace for the rest of the 10K. When the distance counted down to where I could see that Jim D. had about 500 meters left to go, I picked up the pace a bit more, to perhaps help inspire him to a good finish. After that 500 meters, I resumed my previous pace and held it to the finish line.
Finish screen view for today’s online 10K.Report for today’s online 10K.RowPro graphs for today’s online 10K.Concept 2 online logbook charts for today’s online 10K.
A screenshot of Apple Watch’s record for two minutes following the end of today’s 10K. If you have an Apple Watch and want to see useful data on this “recovery chart,” you have to IMMEDIATELY tell the Apple Watch workout app that you are done with the workout, as soon as you are done. Then, you have to remain motionless for two whole minutes, so it can record how your heart rate slows during the first and second minute after you tell it your workout is done. Personally, I’d rather segue immediately into a warm down instead of being motionless.
Today’s indoor rowing was scheduled online but didn’t garner any company so it was rowed solo. And it was somewhat so-so, without the inspiration of one or more other rowers’ avatars on the screen.
The rowing session consisted of 10,000 meters at an easy pace, with a slight pickup in effort level in the last of the session. There was no warmup or warm down.
Finish screen for today’s online 10,000 meter sessionReport for today’s online 10,000 meter sessionRowPro graphs for today’s online 10,000 meter sessionConcept 2 online logbook chart for today’s online 10,000 meter session
Today’s indoor rowing consisted of a 10K piece done online with Jim D. and a 2K warm down. Jim rowed at a “blistering” pace of about 1:50 per 500 meters and that inspired me to row faster than my original intention of 2:15/500m. Good rowing company is frequently hard to find and Jim was good rowing company for this 10K.
Afterwards, when I looked at my online rowing log and glanced to see what my “training partners” had done today, I felt “inspired” to row another 2K as a warm down after seeing that Frank R. had rowed 12K today.
Report for today’s online 10K.RowPro graphs for today’s online 10K.Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s online 10K.Finish screen for today’s warm down 2K.Report for today’s warm down 2K.RowPro graphs for today’s warm down 2K.Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s warm down 2K.
Today was a day for working on the water heater enclosure and that resulted in a late rowing session. After rowing, Diane wanted me to look at and admire the “super moon” which you can see above. I guess by “super” it means that the moon appears larger than usual. It looked empty and luny, as usual.
Part of today’s water heater work involved putting its protective metal enclosure in place and slightly re-routing the exhaust pipe.
Today’s rowing session was a quick and very easy 5K.
Finish screenshot of today’s easy 5K.Report of today’s easy 5K.RowPro graphs of today’s easy 5K.Online logbook chart of today’s easy 5K.
A screenshot of the Celebration Party session chat room a few minutes before start time.
Today’s indoor rowing main event was an online “celebration party” to celebrate Anne Badane’s having rowed more than 20 million meters. The online session was maxed out, with 16 rowers participating. It was a merry crowd and a happy thing to be celebrating in the small world of indoor rowing.
Before the Celebration Party 20 minute session began, Anne announced that she’d be giving a prize to the person whose distance during the 20 minutes had the most zeros and/or twos. There were four winners who each had 3 twos in their final distances. There were actually five, but one of them was Anne. The winners were Damien Roohr with 5,222 meters, Doug Rolland with 4,222 meters, Albert Kavsek with 4,222 meters and Vincent Guéret with 5,222 meters.
As for me, I chose to aim for an easy pace that would give a target heart rate of about 130 and then during the final minute of the session, I went faster to the finish.
Finish screen for today’s 20 minute online celebration party.Report for today’s 20 minute online celebration party.RowPro graphs for today’s 20 minute online celebration party.Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 20 minute online celebration party.
After today’s main event of the 20 minute celebration of Anne Badane’s 20 millionth meter, I did two supplemental 3K pieces at even easier paces, to bring today’s total distance rowed to over 10K.
Finish screen for the first of two easy-paced 3,000 meter pieces which followed today’s main event.Report for the first of two easy-paced 3,000 meter pieces which followed today’s main event.RowPro graphs for the first of two easy-paced 3,000 meter pieces which followed today’s main event.Concept 2 online logbook chart for the first of two easy-paced 3,000 meter pieces which followed today’s main event.Finish screen for the final 3,000 meters of today.Report for the final 3,000 meters of today.RowPro graphs for the final 3,000 meters of today.Concept 2 online logbook chart for the final 3,000 meters of today.
Today’s indoor rowing session was another 10,000 meter piece. It was done at a gradually increasing and mostly easy effort, with the main exception to “easy” being a single kinda hard 500 meter sprint.
The rowing session was done online but it was a solo session. Mental focus on rowing effort was maintained throughout. Time flew by.
