Perhaps I will try duplicating today’s workout again tomorrow. But if I do, there will be one difference. That difference will be to postpone eating until after all parts of the workout are finished.
Usually, eating before a workout seems to make no difference.
Zero heart strangeness happened during the first session, which was 200 Calories at RPE Level 2 on the SkiErg.
Zero heart strangeness, likewise, during the first of five lively though moderate 2K rowing pieces which followed the SkiErg session. Well, I should say almost zero during that session.
Lively though moderate rowing continued in the second and third of five 2K rowing pieces and heart behavior was perfect during each of those. My stomach had been completely EMPTY during each of those sessions.
In between the third and fourth of five 2Ks, I ate breakfast. Stomach went from Empty to Full. It was a big breakfast, volume-wise, because it included a couple quarts of water in the form of protein drink, Chia drink and 12 ounces of coffee. Plus, there were 3 pita sandwich things.
Needless to say, but I’ll say it anyway in case it is not obvious, I felt very “full” in the stomach area after breakfast. But I didn’t want to wait for the sandwiches and liquids to percolate through the digestive tract, so I didn’t wait to go the rowing machine.
Going at a moderate pace of about 2:17/500 meters, heart rhythm disruption made itself felt after about 1,500 meters of the 4th 2K. It wasn’t drastically irregular, but I could feel it now and then and the heart rate display went blank a few times during both the 4th and 5th of the five 2K rowing sessions. If you look at the screenshots (below) of the finish screen views for the 4th and 5th 2K sessions, you can see that in each of them the heart rate display (bottom right corner of the RowPro screen) is blank. That’s because heart rhythm was too erratic at the finish, for the heart strap to transmit a heart rate signal.
It is PUZZLING and I’m wondering if rowing on a rather full stomach was a significant factor to have caused the fibrillation.
Everything became normal again, after all the rowing was done.
Happy rowing to you!