Today’s main session was to do 10K on SkiErg, for the Concept 2 February challenge. This certificate was the reward.
Today was the the day before the deadline to do 10K on the SkiErg, for the Concept 2 February 2019 challenge. I wasn’t looking forward to it, because I’d not done any SkiErg distance over 5K and didn’t know what pace or drag factor would be best. So I decided to simply be satisfied to do the distance at any pace and then use resulting average pace as a target next time.
A complication was this very poor reading from EliteHRV this morning. But since the HRV session heart rate graph had an artifact and it appeared not to have compensated correctly, I decided to ignore it.
Sleep logged by the SleepWatch app was good, at 7 hours.
Finish screen for today’s 10K on the SkiErg.
At the start of today’s 10K, the pace I had in mind was about 2:21. But after the first 1,000 meters I decided to just do the distance at an easy pace, with some variation in pace and a few intervals of 100 meters or more once in a while. It worked out well. I sweated a LOT, as evidenced by the large wet spot on the towel that covered the SkiErg platform. So I rated it at RPE Level 7 even though I was breathing easy most of the time. The RPE chart (it is in the Terms and Abbreviations area of this blog) is not an exact science gauge.
Report for today’s 10K on the SkiErg.RowPro graphs for today’s 10K on the SkiErg.
Actually, I didn’t want to do a half marathon today. How I feel after today’s HM, including how I sleep tonight, will help to decide whether I do any more half marathons this season.
Last night I logged on to Oarbits Live Feed (the online rowing website) with the intention of scheduling a 10K session for 07:00 (7:00 a.m.). There was already an online session scheduled for that time, but it was a half marathon. I joined it instead of scheduling a 10K, because there were already two people signed up for it and therefore by joining the HM I was virtually guaranteed to have some virtual company.
That’s what makes rowing online so worthwhile: the virtual company of other REAL PEOPLE who are also rowing the same session. You can watch their pace and other information about each other rower and empathize with them. And they can do likewise.
I entered today’s half marathon results in the Concept 2 online world ranking for this season, since it is the only HM I’ve done this season and is therefore my best HM so far this season…
Today’s session was scheduled online and it didn’t vanish. By “vanish” I’m referring to what happened with the 10K which had been scheduled online two days ago, on the 28th. On that day, when I logged in to row that particular session, it had already “sailed away” even though it was not yet starting time.
The target pace I had for today’s session was a pace somewhere between 2:08 and 2:09/500 meters. So I aimed for a pace of about 2:09 with the intention of sprinting near the end to bring the average pace to 2:08 point something.
At first, it felt easy. Soon, it felt “Medium,” then “Medium Hard” and during the last 5K it felt “Hard.” When there were about 3,000 meters remaining, I eased off to a very easy pace and decided to try again perhaps a week from today.
Today’s indoor rowing session was 10K done on the internet in the virtual company of two other rowers. The other two were located in Germany.
The session started out feeling like it would be in the category of Easy effort. Soon it moved into feeling like Medium. By about halfway, it started feeling Medium Hard. When the remaining distance counted down to between 4,000 and 3,000 meters left to go, it started to feel Hard. Respiration rate near the end confirmed that it had become “Hard” because respiration rate increased to about 60 breaths per minute which is a lot higher rate than when rowing “Easy”.
So today’s rowing session is tagged with all four of those effort levels. It was definitely both in the category of a Fun and a Mentally absorbing workout from start to finish.
There was a screen recording made for any of you who want to use it as something to row-along with. The screen recording link is here: Indoor Rowing 10K Online 09212018
Today I decided at the last minute to do the Indoor Rowers League challenge for the month of February. So … it wasn’t literally at the last minute, but was literally on the last day for which results could be entered.
I wanted to avoid stirring up another bout of irregular heartbeat, which the doctors have been referring to as atrial fibrillation. So I started out with a 3K warmup. Before doing the 3K warmup, I did a 1K warmup warmup.
Before doing the actual 2K time trial, I did another 2K at what seemed like a reasonable warmup pace.
For the 2K TT itself, I thought it would be reasonable, barring any irregularities from the ticker, to pace it at between 1:52 and 1:53. So I started out at 1:49 and it felt good. But anything, no matter how fast the pace, ALWAYS feels good right at the start … so I slowed to 1:53 and maintained an average of between 1:52 and 1:53 for the first 1,000 meters.
At about 900 meters, it started to feel like I had bit off more than I could chew and that I wouldn’t be able to maintain that pace for the last half. I didn’t like the idea of rowing slower than 1:53 for a 2K, so I just gave up and slowed way down.
One hundred meters passed at the super slow pace and I watched the average pace slow from 1:52 point something, to 1:55 point something. Another hundred meters passed and the average pace got nearer to 2:00. After about 300 meters passed, the average pace became slower than 2:00/500 meters and I decided I couldn’t allow it to be slower than 2:00/500 meters, so I picked up the pace to around 1:57 and rowed at that pace until the remaining distance counted down to around 250 meters. Then, I gave a bit more effort and rowed faster for the final 250 meters, consoling myself by finishing in less than 8 minutes total for the 2K.
There was some GOOD NEWS, as far as I was concerned: Heartbeat only went irregular one time. I could feel it as it happened and then the HR display confirmed it by going blank. But it only lasted a few seconds. That one occurrence was during the final warm down and think it was because I may have been slowing down a bit too much, too soon. So I picked up the pace a bit and slowed down more gradually. It has behaved itself since then.
The 3K warmup was uploaded to YouTube as a screen recording and is available at the following link: “Indoor Rowing 3K Warmup 02282018“.
Today’s indoor rowing started with a 10K session which was done at a pace of 2:20/500 meters. It served as a warmup for the “race” which followed. The Apple Watch graph of HR recovery for two minutes immediately following the 10K warmup is below this paragraph:
The “race” was 4 intervals of 750 meters, with 3 minutes of rest after each 750 meter interval or 4×750 r3:00 in rowing shorthand. The latter was done for this month’s c2ctc.com challenge, called The Red Line Rev Up, after the rowing club whose idea it was. The Apple Watch graph of HR recovery for two minutes immediately following the 4×750 r3:00 is below this paragraph:
As a final warm down, I rowed gently for 5 minutes. The recovery graph after the 5 minute warm down is not worth looking at since the heart rate was already so low at the end.
A comment about the “race”: Since I so seldom row hard, I wasn’t sure what pace to attempt. The first 750 meters was attempted at a pace of 1:48 but that turned out to be too fast, when I started having trouble getting enough air into my lungs with each inhalation. So I did the next two 750 meter intervals quite a bit slower. Those seemed a bit too easy, so I did the final interval a bit harder than the middle two, but slower than the very first interval. As a result, the graph of pace for the string of 4 intervals is shaped a bit like a lop-sided bowl.
Here are screenshots relating to the rowing done today:
Finish screen for the 10K warmup. It was done online but nobody else noticed it in time to join, so it was done alone.
Report for the 10K warmup.
Graphs for the 10K warmup.
Concept 2 online logbook charts for the 10K warmup.
Today’s main session was 1,609 meters. It was done for the sake of the Indoor Rowers League challenge for the month of October. It was preceded/followed by 10 minute warmup/down. The distance of 1,609 meters is about one mile.
Today’s session is categorized as a race, because it was rowed as fast as I thought I could do it.
Finish screen for the 1,609 meter portion of today’s rowing.
Report for the 1,609 meter portion of today’s rowing. It was divided into only one split, because 1609 is a prime number and RowPro 5 for the Mac doesn’t do well with the reports unless every split is an equal length to each of the others.
RowPro 5 for the Mac graphs for the 1,609 meter portion of today’s rowing.
Concept 2 online logbook’s graphs for the 1,609 meter portion of today’s rowing.
Finish screen for the warm down portion after the 1,609 meter challenge was finished.
The longest session today was 10,000 meters done at a very easy pace. Then it was time for a race. The race was to do a specific set of intervals and then log the total time for those intervals in the c2ctc.com website.
The specific intervals were 500 meters, followed by two minutes rest, then 1,250 meters, followed by 1 minute rest and finally a 250 meter sprint. Each interval distance was to be done from a stopped flywheel. It managed to get me to breathing very hard.
The 10K was done online but alone. The 10K was done first, so as to serve as a long warm-up for the C2CTC race. The rest of today’s rowing was done offline.
Tomorrow, or one of the other days between now and the end of the month, there will be a 1,609 meter (about one mile) race.
Finish screen for today’s very easy 10K.
Report for today’s very easy 10K.
Graphs for today’s very easy 10K. Yes, there were interruptions.
Finish screen view of today’s C2CTC.COM challenge effort.
Reportof today’s C2CTC.COM challenge effort. In between each interval, I stood up and walked while the timer counted down the rest times.
RowPro 5 for the Mac graphs of today’s C2CTC.COM challenge effort.
Today’s indoor rowing consisted of three online sessions of 30 minutes each, followed by a warm down. There was only one warm down session and it was after the third of the three 30 minute sessions. That 3rd of 3 was the only one that needed a warm down. The first two 30 minute sessions were done at a very easy pace.
Today’s title was chosen after I noticed a comment made in the online rowing chat room, by one of the other rowers. I didn’t immediately see the comment, because as soon as the session was over, I typed the words “gotta warm down immediately, bye all”, clicked “Send”, snapped a screenshot and clicked the “Finish” button to exit. I know from recent experience that when I get the heart rate up very much with a sprint of any sort, I have to keep rowing in an immediate warm down or the heart will get wacky and either start beating too fast or go into skipping mode.
So I warmed down immediately and everything has been fine with the ticker.
But later, when I looked at the screenshot that was snapped just before I clicked the Finish button to exit the online session, I noticed that another rower had noticed how I’d sprinted a bit, near the finish. His words, “monster finish john” made me feel good, so I will try to remember to thank him for it the next time we’re online in the same session.
I started the final sprint when I noticed that the countdown screen showed around “40” and my brain had forgotten that the countdown for this session was time, not meters. So I increased the pace to around 1:45 and I looked, to watch as the meters counted down to 0 but … it only counted down to something in the 30s. The rational part of my mind was off in space somewhere and the part of brain connected to what I was seeing was just in a sort of automatic mode. That same part of my brain was mildly surprised that it hadn’t counted down to zero yet and I pulled harder, increasing the pace to about 1:40 and holding it at 1:40 while staring at the countdown, to see it go to zero. It should have decreased by about 10 per stroke, but it was only decreasing by about 2 per stroke. Then the rational part of my mind came back to join the audience looking out through my eyes at the monitor and I remembered that it was a timed session, not a distance session and that what I was looking at was seconds, not meters counting down.
So I thought… I don’t want to keep pulling at 1:40 for another twenty seconds, and eased back to a warm down effort level for the last few seconds.
You can see a picture of it in the session graph.
This blog post is categorized as both boring and fun, because the easy 30 minute sessions were boring but the hard 30 minutes was fun (and mentally absorbing). It is also categorized as both easy and hard, because of those same different effort levels.
Finish screen for the 3rd of today’s three 30 minute online sessions.
Report for the fastest of today’s 3 online sessions.
RowPro software graph for the fastest of today’s 3 online sessions.
Concept 2 online logbook graph for the fastest of today’s 3 online sessions.
The above image was one of the first results when I searched using the terms “various indoor rowing” and it is from a Hong Kong Indoor Rowing website.
Today’s indoor rowing was a few sessions offline and two sessions online. The effort level varied from easy to hard.
First there was a 10 minute warmup, then a 30 minute online session. Then there was a hard 4 minute session for entry in the rankings. After that, there was a 10 minute warmdown and then a “just row” mode warm down.
Finish screen for the online 30 minute session
report for online 30 minutes
Online 30 minute graphs
Finish screen for the 4 minute session, which was entered into World Rankings
Report for the 4 minute session
4 minute session graphs
This is a summary listing of all indoor rowing I did today. The other 3 session reports aren’t worth bothering to post.
Happy rowing to you.
