Row For A Healthy Heart Rate Dip

sub-opt-vs-normal
The Normal HR dip result on the right was measured for a night’s sleep after a day during which I rowed 12,000 meters. The sub-optimal HR dip result displayed on the left was for a night of sleep, following a day with no rowing at all.

One of the apps I use daily is a nifty sleep tracker called Sleep Watch.  One of the things it tracks is “heart rate dip” during sleep, compared to average heart rate during the day.  Supposedly, the more the HR dips during sleep, compared to while awake during the rest of the day, the healthier it is for a person.

I’ve noticed that if I don’t do any rowing during the day, I get a sub-optimal HR dip.  If I do a moderate amount of rowing, I get a “normal” dip.  If I do a LOT of rowing, like either a leisurely half marathon or a shorter distance but at a higher effort level… I will get a greater than 20% HR dip and will be commended by the app for having done a “Good job!’.

Today’s rowing was 10K at an easy pace, with the goals of finishing the entire distance and keeping heart rate at least 100 and below 140.  Much of the time today, I rowed with eyes closed.

AGg-Oct-15th-2017-10K-finish
finish screen for today’s 10K.
AGg-Oct-15th-2017-10K-rpt
Report for today’s 10K.
AGg-Oct-15th-2017-10K-rp-gphs
RowPro graphs for today’s 10K.
AGg-Oct-15th-2017-10K-C2-gphs
Concept 2 online logbook graphs for today’s 10K.

Happy rowing to you and may you have healthy heart rate dips as a result.

A Fine Job

 

a-fine-job
Speaking of fine jobs, Benjamin Manceau has a fine one as the coxswain of this rowing crew.

Today’s rowing was 12K with the goals of doing the entire distance at a heart rate of above 100 but below 140.  I took the low rowed and kept heart rate closer to 100 than to 140.  A fine job and a good feeling afterward.

AG-Oct-12th-2017-12K-finish
Finish screen for today’s 12K.
AG-Oct-12th-2017-12K-rpt
Report for today’s 12K.
AG-Oct-12th-2017-12K-rp-gph
RowPro’s graphs for today’s 12K.
AG-Oct-12th-2017-12K-C2-gph
Concept 2 online logbook’s graphs for today’s 12K.

May you do a fine job and have a good feeling after your rowing is completed.

Ready, Set, Crash

rowpro-crashed
I didn’t make a screenshot of the aftermath of RowPro 5 for the Mac’s crash today. There wasn’t much to see. The above photo of broken glass looks far more dramatic than RowPro, which totally vanished / disappeared from the Mac computer desktop. After I re-opened RowPro, there was a little window with a message in it informing me that RowPro had quit unexpectedly (In case I didn’t know) and offering to share the data aftermath with Apple. I shared it and went on with rowing.

Today’s indoor rowing was supposed to be an online 30 minutes with 7 other people who were at locations around the world including the US, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and New Zealand, as you can see in the screenshot below.  But after the session start was initiated, RowPro 5 for the Mac crashed.  The system message was a bit more euphemistic and it said that RowPro 5 for the Mac “quit unexpectedly.”

AFf-Oct-11th-2017-30mins-online-prestart-precrash
This is what RowPro 5 for the Mac looked like about 1 minute before Pam initiated the starting process and RowPro crashed.

So, I set up another online 30 minute session and rowed it alone.  Not quite alone… Pam, the New Zealand rower, joined the session but she didn’t row because she was located in the RowPro office and had other sessions to watch and other things to do.  But she was available to assist, in case RowPro 5 for the Mac decided to make a habit of crashing … which it didn’t.  🙂

The only goal for today’s 30 minutes was to aim for a target heart rate of 130.

AFf-Oct-11th-2017-30mins-online-finish
Finish screen for the 30 minutes online.
AFf-Oct-11th-2017-30mins-online-rpt
Report for the 30 minutes online.
AFf-Oct-11th-2017-30mins-online-gph
Graphs for the 30 minutes online.
AFf-Oct-11th-2017-10min-wd-finish
There was a 5 minute warmup which is not included among the screenshots. This is a screenshot of the 10 minute warm down finish
AFf-Oct-11th-2017-wd-rpt
Report for the 10 minute warm down
AFf-Oct-11th-2017-wd-gph
Graphs for the 10 minute warm down. Notice that the slope of the effort level, from left to right, is down for the 30 minute session which had a target heart rate of 130 and the slope is up for the warm down.

Happy and as crash-free as possible rowing to you.

Interrupted By West Side Story Flashbacker

west-side-story-1957

The only goal for today’s indoor rowing was to go the full 10K distance.  There was no stroke, pace or HR target.  The session was interrupted a few times to switch from one video to another, while searching for something that I wanted to watch in its entirety.  During one of those interruptions, Diane looked in and noticed that I was just sitting on the erg without rowing, so she walked in and said something strange that she’s never said before.  Not to me, at least.

She said, “I wish you were a girl.”  I replied, “Well, I’m not a girl.”  Then she explained that if I were a girl, I could understand something that just happened to her.  So I invited her to talk about it anyway and she said that she had been looking through some old sheet music and had come across the sheet music for the stage musical called West Side Story, which she had seen when she was around 12 years old, plus or minus a couple of years.

It was the first Broadway production she’d ever seen and she tried to describe how enrapturing the experience was, of live symphony, actors and choreography.  I don’t know how a girl would have responded to what she shared with me… there probably would have been a lot more talking back and forth.  But I was glad she shared that little bit of her happy flashback to childhood with me. I’m sure it was an “out-of-this-world” experience, judging by how her face lit up when she talked about it.

Diane’s reminiscing about seeing one of the original stage productions of West Side Story was during the 5th split of the 10 into which this session was divided.  This 10K was done online, but it was setup online and nobody else was present at the time, to join in. As I’ve said before… indoor rowing is a small world and online indoor rowing is a much smaller world.

AF-Oct-10th-2017-10K-online-finish
Finish screen view for today’s 10K.
AF-Oct-10th-2017-10K-rpt
Report for today’s 10K.
AF-Oct-10th-2017-10K-RP-gph
RowPro software generated charts for today’s 10K.
AF-Oct-10th-2017-10K-C2-gph
Concept 2 online logbook generated graphs for today’s 10K.

Happy rowing with or without flashbacks, to you.

Steering The Heart

steering-heart
The above image was found on Etsy and was listed as Vintage Boat Steering Wheel With Heart.

Today’s indoor rowing was 7K with the only goals being to finish the 7K and to keep heart rate as near 130 BPM as possible.

There was neither warmup nor warm down.

AE-Oct-9th-2017-7K-finish
Finish screen for today’s 7,000 meter heart-rate-targeted session.
AE-Oct-9th-2017-7K-rpt
Report for today’s 7,000 meter heart-rate-targeted session.
AE-Oct-9th-2017-7K-rp-gph
RowPro graphs for today’s 7,000 meter heart-rate-targeted session.
AE-Oct-9th-2017-7K-C2-gph
Concept 2 online logbook’s graphs for today’s 7,000 meter heart-rate-targeted session.

Happy rowing to you, whatever your goals.

The Wind Had No Influence

Sunday-row

The title of today’s blog post was going to be “Sunday Row” because today is Sunday and there was no other immediate and more unique inspiration that came to mind in the little time allowed to write today’s blog post.

So I searched to see what might be a good image for the top of today’s page by using the terms “sunday row” and the very first result among the multitude of images was the one you see at the top of this page.  It is located on the website of a rowing club called The Firth of Clyde Coastal Rowing Club, which is located in Scotland.

If there was any wind here today it wasn’t noticed, because my rowing was all indoors as usual.

Today’s rowing consisted of a 15 minute warmup, 30 minutes online with 3 other guys and then a belated 5 minute warm down.  A warm down really wasn’t needed, but I decided to row another 5 minutes, to bring the total meters for today to something more than 10K.

AD-Oct-8th-2017-30min-online-finish
Finish screen for today’s main piece, the 30 minute online session
AD-Oct-8th-2017-30min-online-rpt
Report for today’s main piece, the 30 minute online session
AD-Oct-8th-2017-30min-online-gph
RowPro graphs for today’s main piece, the 30 minute online session
AD-Oct-8th-2017-30min-online-c2-gph
Concept 2 online logbook graphs for today’s main piece, the 30 minute online session
AD-Oct-8th-2017-warmup-c2-gph
Concept 2 online logbook graphs for todays 15 minute warmup
AD-Oct-8th-2017-WD-c2-gph
Concept 2 online logbook graphs for todays warm down. It was done so late after that main piece, that I actually warmed up while doing it, as you can see from the HR graph.

Happy rowing to you no matter what the wind conditions.

No Company No Inspiration

no-company-no-inspiration

Today’s indoor rowing was 10K that had been scheduled online, about an hour in advance of start time.  I was hoping for company, because I didn’t feel like rowing.  Nobody joined, so I rowed in a lackadaisical manner, while watching a couple videos.

There was no goal or HR target, except to finish the 10K, which was done, hooray.

ACc-Oct-7th-2017-online-10K-cruise-finish
Finish screen for today’s 10K
ACc-Oct-7th-2017-online-10K-cruise-rpt
Report for today’s 10K
ACc-Oct-7th-2017-online-10K-cruise-gph
RowPro charts for today’s 10K
ACc-Oct-7th-2017-online-10K-cruise-C2-gphs
Concept 2 online logbook graphs for today’s 10K

Happy and more inspired rowing to you.

Rowing For Fun With Someone In Thailand

row-for-fun
When I searched for today’s top-of-the-blog-post photo using the search terms “rowing for fun” the above image was one of the top results. It is from the website of a personal trainer located in England. The name of the website is Fluid Fitness.

Today’s indoor rowing session was 30 minutes done online with a guy who was located in Thailand.  Just before the session started, he typed “Row for fun :)”.  A third guy, who was located in Ireland, had signed up but he didn’t show so it was just the two of us to share the fun.

My goal was to aim for a heart rate target of about 130, while watching a video documentary.  So if the graph of my effort looks a bit unfocused, you are right because I was trying to read all the captions on the documentary.

AC-Oct-6th-2017-online-30mins-C2-gph
The graphs for today’s session as generated by the Concept 2 online logbook.
AC-Oct-6th-2017-online-30mins-gph
The graphs for today’s session as generated by RowPro 5 for the Mac
AC-Oct-6th-2017-online-30mins-rpt
Session report generated by RowPro 5 for the Mac

Happy and fun rowing to you.

Some Social Rowing

aBb-social-rowing-result
When I searched today for images related to the two words social and rowing, the above image seemed to be among the most relevant. It was found on the website of a Washington DC rowing club with the appropriate name of Capital Rowing Club.

Today’s indoor rowing was all done online in the virtual company of other rowers. With the exception of the warmup session which was done online but alone.

The other rowers were located around the world, from the US and across the Atlantic ocean in Europe, all the way to the one of the most distant places in the world from the US, in New Zealand.

Because there were so many rowing sessions done today, I’m only going to include a summary listing of all of them, followed by a screenshot of the Concept 2 online logbook graph for each of them.

There were only two goals for today’s rowing:  to log at least 10,000 meters and to keep heart rate at or below about 130 BPM. The first goal was accomplished 100% and the second goal was accomplished about 99%.

ABb-Oct-5th-2017-Summary
Summary list of today’s rowing.
ABb-Oct-5th-2017-online-warmup-C2-gph
Warmup
ABb-Oct-5th-2017-online-1st-of-5-C2-gph
First of three 2500 meter pieces.
ABb-Oct-5th-2017-online-2nd-of-5-C2-gph
Second of three 2500 meter pieces.
ABb-Oct-5th-2017-online-3rd-of-5-C2-gph
Third of three 2500 meter pieces.
ABb-Oct-5th-2017-online-4th-of-5-C2-gph
A 25 minute piece
ABb-Oct-5th-2017-online-5th-of-5-C2-gph
A final 15 minute piece.

Happy rowing and socializing to you.

I Won’t Be Able To Stop Time

light-speed-will-have-to-wait
This is what it might look like, if a person were able to row at the speed of light.

Yesterday, the consideration of the increase in rowing speed at the same heart rate as compared to the session of the prior day, led to the happy extrapolated conclusion that I would be rowing at a supersonic speed in 7 or 8 years, as long as there was the same speed improvement every day.

But today there was no improvement and in fact there was a decrease in performance compared to yesterday!  The speed decreased by a larger amount today than it had increased yesterday!

So it seems that the dream of rowing at a supersonic speed is now quashed, because in order to reach that rowing speed there needs to be an increase in pace of about 1/4 mph every day, for 7 or 8 years.

That disappointment can be taken in stride.  But the much bigger disappointment is that if I can’t even hope to improve to the point where I can row at the speed of sound, then there is even less hope that I’ll ever be able to cause time to stand still by rowing at the speed of light. Unless someone invents an affordable warp drive for the Concept 2 rowing machine.

The screenshots for today’s session follow this paragraph. The disappointing RowPro 5 for the Mac comparison analysis of today’s session to yesterday’s session are the last two screenshots at the bottom of today’s collection.

AB-Oct-4th-2017-30min-finish
Finish screen for today’s 30 minute session.
AB-Oct-4th-2017-30min-rpt
Report for today’s 30 minute session.
AB-Oct-4th-2017-30min-gph
RowPro graphs for today’s 30 minute session.
AB-Oct-4th-2017-30min-C2-gph
C2 online logbook graphs for today’s 30 minute session.
AB-Oct-4th-2017-30min-analysis-grphs
RowPro analysis graphs comparing today’s and yesterday’s sessions.
AB-Oct-4th-2017-30min-analysis-stats
RowPro analysis stats comparing today’s and yesterday’s sessions.

Happy subsonic, sublightspeed rowing to you.