I couldn’t immediately find an image to go with today’s title, so the above photo of an indoor rowing meet featured on the British Rowing website will have to do.
Though the above photo show dozens of over 700 people at an indoor rowing meet, my rowing session was done alone at home. As I rowed one of the things I imagined was riding a horse among windmills while holding the reins so as to restrain the horse from breaking into a gallop.
Today was not a day to race or gallop. The goal was to maneuver and keep the heart rate in a range of between 120 and 140.
There are two competitive events to do before this month’s end. One is for c2ctc.com and the other is for the indoor rowers organization, whose website seems to be down at the moment…
Today’s indoor rowing was followed by a 2K warm down, the results of which will be shown first:
Finish screen of today’s warm down.Report of today’s warm down.Charts of today’s warm down.Report of today’s 8K main session.RowPro graphs of today’s 8K main session.Concept 2 online logbook graphs of today’s 8K main session.
The mind is always looking for entertainment, escape, meaning and freedom, among other things. And that remains true when a person is doing indoor rowing. In that respect, the lyrics of “The Windmills of Your Mind” seem relevant in their freely interpreted meaning, which will be fluid and different for every person who hears the song.
Some of the words of the song’s lyrics are:
“Round,
Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel,
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever-spinning reel
Like a snowball down a mountain,
Or a carnival balloon
Like a carousel that’s turning
Running rings around the moon
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on its face
And the world is like an apple
Spinning silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind!”
Did any of the words mean anything in particular to you? To me, they evoke countless images and many recollections. For example, the phrase “….wheel within a wheel…” reminds of a famous verse from the first chapter of The Book of Ezekiel: “The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.” (verse 16). And it reminds of the times long ago when I first read that verse, and other contexts within which that verse was spoken of or referenced.
Today’s rowing was 30 minutes online but solo, preceded by a short warmup and followed by a brief warm down.
Finish screen for today’s 30 minute session.Report for today’s 30 minute session.RowPro graphs for today’s 30 minute session.Concept2 online logbook graphs for today’s 30 minute session.
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.
finish screen for today’s 10K.Report for today’s 10K.RowPro graphs for today’s 10K.Concept 2 online logbook graphs for today’s 10K.
Happy rowing to you and may you have healthy heart rate dips as a result.
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.
Finish screen for today’s 12K.Report for today’s 12K.RowPro’s graphs for today’s 12K.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.
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.”
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.
Finish screen for the 30 minutes online.Report for the 30 minutes online.Graphs for the 30 minutes online.There was a 5 minute warmup which is not included among the screenshots. This is a screenshot of the 10 minute warm down finishReport for the 10 minute warm downGraphs 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.
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.
Finish screen for today’s 7,000 meter heart-rate-targeted session.Report for today’s 7,000 meter heart-rate-targeted session.RowPro graphs for today’s 7,000 meter heart-rate-targeted session.Concept 2 online logbook’s graphs for today’s 7,000 meter heart-rate-targeted session.
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.
Finish screen for today’s main piece, the 30 minute online sessionReport for today’s main piece, the 30 minute online sessionRowPro graphs for today’s main piece, the 30 minute online sessionConcept 2 online logbook graphs for today’s main piece, the 30 minute online sessionConcept 2 online logbook graphs for todays 15 minute warmupConcept 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.
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.
The graphs for today’s session as generated by the Concept 2 online logbook.The graphs for today’s session as generated by RowPro 5 for the MacSession report generated by RowPro 5 for the Mac
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%.
Summary list of today’s rowing.WarmupFirst of three 2500 meter pieces.Second of three 2500 meter pieces.Third of three 2500 meter pieces.A 25 minute pieceA final 15 minute piece.
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.
Finish screen for today’s 30 minute session.Report for today’s 30 minute session.RowPro graphs for today’s 30 minute session.C2 online logbook graphs for today’s 30 minute session.RowPro analysis graphs comparing today’s and yesterday’s sessions.RowPro analysis stats comparing today’s and yesterday’s sessions.
