Actually it wasn’t an eventful day unless you consider having atrial fibrillation beginning at about 05:45 am and continuing all day to be eventful.
Today’s morning workout time was on the rowing machine for a total of around 11,500 meters. The afternoon workout time was on the SkiErg for a total of around 500 Calories.
Screenshot of the main part of SkiErg time is immediately below this paragraph.
Because of the AFib, HR was too high from start to finish and sometimes heart rate went up when it should have gone down and vice versa. The heart acted like it had a mind of its own….
Any workout sessions for any day can be seen in detail via this: link to the online logbook. To see a session’s data and interactive graph click the “+” sign in “Action” column for that session.
Today’s time spent working out consisted of three rowing sessions in the morning and one on the SkiErg in the afternoon. Two of the morning sessions were online with three other guys.
Heart rate/rhythm came and went in flurries on the HR display during all of the erg sessions.
Finish screen view for today’s main online rowing session.
RowPro report for today’s main online rowing session.
RowPro graph for today’s main online rowing session.
Any day’s workout sessions can be seen via this: link to the online logbook. To see a session’s data & interactive graph click the corresponding “+” sign in the “Action” column for that session.
That’s what this blog post is about: just the facts of what I observed and experienced during today’s rowing workout. The verdict is anybody’s guess, though I do offer my opinion/theory.
Blog posts have become less frequent and at the start of today I once again wasn’t intending to write one but today’s heart rate behavior was strange enough that I decided to say a little about it and also mention my vague theory as to why two heart monitors were in such radical disagreement.
For today’s rowing session I wore two heart monitors. One was a Garmin chest strap which detects periodic electric pulses from the heart. The other was a Scosche armband which uses lights instead of an electric pulse detector and which detects periodic variations in reflected light for pulse measurements.
The Garmin chest strap gave a much lower BPM reading than the Scoshe armband. By that I mean the Scosche displayed a heart rate which was between 140-160 BPM most of the time while the Garmin was giving a reading ranging from 30 BPM to as high as around 125 BPM. For much of the time the Scosche heart strap reading was 200% to 300% higher than that from the Garmin heart strap.
I experienced atrial fibrillation all of last night and it persisted to and through the rowing session so that was probably the main reason for the strange difference in heart rate readings. My vague theory as to why the big difference is: I assume the Garmin uses an algorithm that chooses the strongest periodic electrical signals which are also above a certain level and then averages those. When atrial fibrillation is happening the heart beats a lot faster than normal but some of its beats are stronger, others are noticeably weaker (if a finger is held on the wrist to feel the pulse) and heart rate varies & wobbles with incoherent rhythms. Therefore since the Garmin was (I assume) paying attention to only the strongest signals and ignoring weaker signals, that’s my opinion as to why it resulted in a much lower heart rate display: it wasn’t actually counting each and every beat of the heart, only the stronger ones.
Contrastingly the Scoshe heart strap doesn’t detect or measure electrical signals at all. Instead it only detects periodic variations in reflected light as the blood flow speeds up and slows down with each beat, no matter how strong or weak each heartbeat is. So based on that assumption that’s my opinion as to why the Scosche heartstrap always shows a higher heart rate than the Garmin, when atrial fibrillation is happening: It “sees” more heartbeats because it counts not only the heartbeats associated with the stronger electrical pulses that the Garmin counts, but also the heartbeats associated with the weaker electrical pulses which the Garmin does not count.
Screenshots below show heart rate graphs from both the Garmin and Scoshe heart straps so you can see a bit of what I’m trying to write about. Below those two sets of screenshots is another screenshot of a typical ECG reading of what my heart rate is doing right after I finish a workout session on the rowing machine. I don’t discern any particular heart rate in that graph, do you? Based on a non-mathematical analysis of that graph I’d be at a complete loss as to what heart rate should be displayed by any heart rate monitor.
Full view screenshot of today’s rowing workout data and graph as it is presented in the Concept 2 online logbook.
Closer view of the Concept 2 online logbook graph for today’s rowing workout. This HR graph was made from data supplied by the Garmin electric-pulse sensing chest strap. Notice how much lower the heart rate range is in this graph than in the ones (below) from the Scosche optical heart straph.
This heart rate graph for the same rowing session was made using data from the Scosche optical blood-flow-pulse sensing heart strap. It shows an average heart rate of 147 BPM, which is much higher than the highest heart rate displayed by the Garmin chest strap.
Though I didn’t mention it above, this is a two minute graph using Scoshe optical heart strap data of my heart rate recovery. It should go down, not up, during the two minutes immediately after a rowing session ends. The average heart rate during this two minutes of recovery is 152 BPM, which is higher than the average 147 BPM it measured when I was actually rowing. There is no heart rate recovery graph from the Garmin chest strap so no comparison can be made between them for the 2 minute recovery time.
When I’ve taken a 30 second ECG immediately following a rowing workout, this is usually a typical result: neither sinus (normal) rhythm nor atrial fibrillation, but “Inconclusive” because no sensible periodic readings can be detected.
Though there hasn’t been a blog post made since June 25th, there have been daily workout sessions from then through today. Any session can be seen via this: link to the online logbook. To see any session’s data and interactive graph click the corresponding “+” sign in the “Action” column for that session.
Finish screen view for today’s main piece of indoor rowing.
Yesterday a reader and fellow indoor rowing enthusiast commented and said he hopes I’ll continue blogging. So perhaps I will. But because it takes a lot of time, perhaps I’ll only post to this blog once in a while.
For days when I don’t post to this blog and if I do any rowing workouts, their data and graphs may be viewed at this link: my logbook at Concept 2.
For what seems like quite a while, I’ve been bothered by atrial fibrillation. A month ago (Christmas 2019) my wife gave me the gift of a book titled The Haywire Heart. When I opened the gift wrapping to discover that book inside, she remarked “You probably won’t like it.”
The focus of the book is about “How too much exercise can kill you and what you can do to protect your heart.” I looked through the book, read a few chapters and then told her that I liked it very much and that it is the best or one of the best Christmas presents she has ever given to me.
You would have to read the book yourself to appreciate it. It seems that if people indulge in too much high-intensity activity, a result can be that those people will develop atrial fibrillation or injure their hearts in other ways.
I have read somewhere that the most common cause of death for competitive rowers is heart failure.
If anyone has read the non-fiction book, “Born To Run,” by Christopher McDougall, the name “Caballo Blanco” is probably familiar as the name of one of the runners. Caballo Blanco’s name at birth was Micah True. He engaged in a lot of high-intensity, long duration running. And he died of heart failure.
So a simplistic way of summing up the message of the book, “The Haywire Heart” is that there can be too much of the good thing we call exercise. The challenge is to find out how much we can do before it is too much. 🙂
Some of the remedies or treatments for atrial fibrillation involve drugs, surgery and implanted devices which are connected to the heart. Some other possible solutions for atrial fibrillation involve “detraining” (reducing the duration and intensity of regular workouts) and discovering if the person is deficient in anything important such as iodide, magnesium or other things the body needs.
Enough of that for now. On to today’s workout: It consisted of a “detraining” session of 10,000 meters indoor rowing at 2:35.3/500 meters.
I started the “detraining” approach on December 31, 2019 by rowing 10,000 meters and ignoring pace while focusing only on heart rate and trying to keep heart rate at about 100 BPM. The average pace for that session turned out to be about 2:38/500 meters.
Since then, I’ve been rowing a 10,000 meter session daily and have increased the pace a bit. For the past few sessions I’ve been having atrial fibrillation before, during and after each session and so I have left the pace at 2:35.3/500 for each of those sessions and will only increase the pace by 1/10th of a second if and when the atrial fibrillation stops again.
A view of the finish screen for today’s main workout.
It’s been a long while since anything has been posted to this blog because though I’ve continued doing daily rowing and cross-country ski workouts, enthusiasm for blogging has greatly waned.
There have been many, many episodes of atrial fibrillation which have interfered with sleep and hampered working out at any sort of vigorous speed.
After a few too many days spoiled by atrial fibrillation, on the last day of 2019 I adopted the current approach to daily workouts:
On December 31st I was experiencing no atrial fibrillation before doing any workout. From past experience, it seemed that Afib would frequently be triggered by indulging in rowing hard or sprinting. So on Dec 31st I decided to try exploring how fast and hard I could row without triggering atrial fibrillation. My approach was to focus on heart rate that day and try to maintain heart rate at the very low rate of 100 BPM for 10,000 meters.
After that 10K was completed I noted what the average pace had been and rowed at a slightly faster average pace target for the next day’s 10,000 meters on the first day of 2020.
On January 2nd and each day from then until now, I’ve increased the pace by 1/10 second/500 meters faster than the day before, while carefully watching heart rate during each day’s 10,000 meter rowing session. If atrial fibrillation develops during any of those sessions or is happening when it is time for the next day’s 10K, then the target pace for the next day is not increased. But if there is no Afib connected with or following each day’s 10K, then the pace the next day will be increased by that 1/10th second per 500 meters.
Hopefully, this will have a positive effect on whatever has been messing up the heart rhythm.
Atrial fibrillation started during the last part of yesterday’s workouts and continued all night and was still doing its flutter-flutter dance in the chest at the start of today’s workouts, so pace for today’s 10,000 meter session was not increased. After about 17 minutes of today’s 10K, the atrial fibrillation disappeared, heart rate settled down to normal and remained normal for the rest of the 10K rowing session and for the approximately 20 minutes of workout on the SkiErg which immediately followed the rowing.
If I don’t post every day or even every month, don’t be surprised because with no evidence of or interaction with an audience of even one, I have almost no motivation to continue spending time with this blog.
Here are screenshots for today’s workouts:
Report for today’s 10K rowing.RowPro graphs for today’s 10K.
Concept 2 online logbook chart and data display for today’s 10K.
Concept 2 online logbook chart and data for today’s workout on the SkiErg.
Happy rowing to you, whether you have an audience or are all alone in your endeavors on the erg!
Today’s workout time was handicapped by atrial fibrillation throughout. Heart rate was mostly too high but I never worked hard at all, so it didn’t get extremely high. However, it also did its new trick of going too low and ranged as low as 40 BPM during the SkiErg session.
In chronological order the workout sessions were: 30 minutes rowing at very easy pace of 2:27.2, SkiErg session with goal of 200 Calories done at easy average pace of 3:00.4 and a rowing warm down of 1,000 meters done at an average pace of 2:17.0.
Finish screen for 30 minute rowing session.
Report for 30 minute rowing session.
RowPro graphs for 30 minute rowing session.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for 30 minute rowing session.
Chart and data for 200 Calorie SkiErg session.
Chart, enlarged, of the SkiErg session. The lowest heart rate peak about 1/3 way from the left of the chart was the lowest heart rate measured of 40 BPM and the highest peak near the right of the chart was at 170 BPM. When heart is acting normally that effort level would have resulted in a rate of around 120 BPM from start to finish.
During the 1,000 meter rowing warm down, heart rate was too irregular to be displayed at all.
After yesterday’s heart misbehavior of wacky rhythm and either excessively fast or unbelievably slow rates, I didn’t expect anything close to normal today.
The workouts started with a 5,000 meter rowing session at a mostly constant and completely easy pace from start to finish. Heart rate was virtually regular and completely within its normal range for the effort level. I was surprised but very okay with that.
After the rowing session, I wondered if I should try to do another SkiErg workout to practice for the SkiErg World Sprints or just give up that idea. I decided to give it a try by starting with a SkiErg warmup to test the waters. The SkiErg warmup consisted of 7 minutes of easy effort that included three bursts of ten hard strokes at the beginning of each of three of the last minutes of the warmup. I figured that if the heart was going to get crazy, it would show signs of doing so during those three bursts of hard strokes. But heart behaved like it should with each burst of 10 hard strokes during the warmup.
So I decided to try to do the last remaining training workout prior to the upcoming SkiErg World Sprints, in the hope that the heart will cooperate on one of the days from November 7th to 10th and I can do a 1,000 meter time trial/race session for the SkiErg World Sprints event on one of those days.
The training workout consisted of 5x250m r 15 seconds. To those of you who aren’t familiar with interval workouts, that means 5 intervals of 250 meters each, with 15 seconds of rest after each interval. The target pace for each of the 5 intervals was supposed to be 1:57.5/500 meters or faster.
I did the first three intervals each at the target pace or faster but during the 4th interval I felt too tired to maintain that pace so I slowed way down, to about 2:05/500 meters during the 4th interval. The easy-paced 4th interval made a big difference and I was well able to go faster during the 5th and final interval, with an average pace of 1:52.8/500m.
Heart rate and rhythm behaved well during and recovered normally after each 250 meter interval.
After the SkiErg training session I did 1,000 meters rowing as a warm down and heart rate & rhythm continued to be on good behavior.
Finish screen for 5,000 meter rowing session.
Report for 5,000 meter rowing session.
RowPro graphs for 5,000 meter rowing session.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for 5,000 meter rowing session.
Chart and data for SkiErg warmup.
SkiErg training session data. The chart shows only interval 1 of 5 intervals.
Chart for SkiErg training interval 2 of 5.
Chart for SkiErg training interval 3 of 5.
Chart for SkiErg training interval 4 of 5. You can see that heart rate decreased from start to finish because the pace of about 2:05 was relatively restful compared to the pace of about 1:57 for each of the three previous intervals.
Chart for SkiErg training interval 5 of 5.
Finish screen for the 1,000 meter rowing warm down.
Report for the 1,000 meter rowing warm down.
RowPro graphs for the 1,000 meter rowing warm down.
After I got my wish for heart rate to slow down during the SkiErg session, I regretted making that imprecise wish and decided that I didn’t really want to have any of the systems in my body depend on me for their multitude of adjustments and compensations. The body and all its systems is far more complicated than the above photo of a mess of wiring and way too complex for the conscious part of the human mind to control.
Today’s workout time was divided among five sessions. The most enjoyable was a 30 minute online session scheduled for 0900 local time this morning. It was done in the company of several other guys.
All of today’s workouts were bothered by atrial fibrillation and excessively high heart rate. After the first three rowing sessions, I decided to do an easy-paced 200 Calorie SkiErg session.
I was hoping that heart rate would slow down on the SkiErg and I got my wish and then some.
Heart rate continued to be irregular throughout the SkiErg session but definitely slowed down several times, to BPM rates in the 30s and 40s. I’ve never seen that happen before.
After the SkiErg session there was no warmdown needed but I did one anyway which consisted of 1,000 meters rowing. Heart rate was irregular and too high through that 1K rowing session.
I could write a lot about today’s workout experience but I’m not going to. The pictures in the screenshots below will tell enough of the story with their “1,000 words” per picture.
Summary list of today’s workout sessions. Screenshots of the sessions are below.
Finish screen view for the first of today’s sessions. Though it was done at an easy average and almost constant pace of 2:17, heart rate was way too high and finished at 194 BPM.
Report for the first of today’s five workout sessions.
RowPro graph for the first of today’s five workout sessions.
During today’s first workout session, heart rate ranged as high as 209 BPM.
Report for the second session, 30 minutes online.
RowPro graph for today’s 30 minute online session. I did four intervals of from 30 seconds to one minute each.
During the online 30 minute session, heart rate ranged higher than I’ve ever seen it go, reaching as high as 225 beats per minute.
Chart and data for today’s 200 Calorie SkiErg session.
The heart “cooperated” with my pre-session wish for lower heart rate by going ultro-low several times during the SkiErg session. When it did that, I wondered if I should stop the workout. But I was extremely annoyed with the heart’s misbehavior and decided to finish the entire 200 Calories.
The last of today’s five sessions was this 1,000 meter warm down.
RowPro graphs for the final 1,000 meter warm down.
Most of the 11 days away from rowing was spent in beautiful surroundings as pictured above but the most vigorous activity was walking, which wasn’t recognized by the heart as any sort of a workout.
Eleven days without a workout was too long but at least most of that time was spent in a beautiful place with good company.
Today’s workouts were low-intensity effort level but were plagued from start to finish with atrial fibrillation and excessively high heart rate. Hopefully those symptoms will go away day by day, as I return to doing daily rowing and SkiErg workouts.
Finish screen for the first of today’s 3 sessions, which was 5,000 meters rowing.
Report for today’s first of three workout sessions.
RowPro graphs today’s first of three workout sessions.
Heart rate was a bit too high, reaching 208 BPM during today’s first of 3 workout sessions.
Finish screen for the second of today’s three workout sessions, another 5K rowing.
Report for the second of today’s 3 workout sessions.
RowPro graphs for the second of today’s 3 workout sessions.
Heart rate remained irregular and a bit higher during the second of today’s three workout sessions.
The third workout today was going to be a training session for a 1K SkiErg race but heart rate was too high during this SkiErg warmup so I skipped the training session for the day.
Decidedly similar is today’s to yesterday’s metaphor. But today’s metaphorical temperature of 178 is probably accurate because it is within normal range and was appropriate to the effort at the moment. (See screenshot at bottom of today’s entry)
Similar to yesterday’s photo, the lovely photograph above was found by searching for the terms “scattered clouds desert”. It was classified as “free to share and use” but I might as well give credit to its source anyway. It was found on the blog of a girl who lives somewhere in a desert. (You can see her blog site by clicking the link in the previous sentence)
Today’s workout burned 780 Calories all totaled. It was done in two parts and consisted of a 10,000 meter rowing session at moderate pace followed by a 200 Calorie SkiErg session also at a moderate pace. The moderate pace of the SkiErg session was spiced up near the end with a couple intervals of 10 Calories each. The second of those intervals is what stimulated today’s high of 178. (As mentioned in the first paragraph, see screenshot at bottom of today’s entry)
Recovery was normal and there was no episode of Afib blemishing today’s workout time.
However, Afib did join me for breakfast and it is still keeping me company at the moment (See above screenshot). Unwelcome company, but I don’t know how to politely or otherwise persuade it to depart. 🙂
Finish screen for today’s 10K rowing session.
RowPro report for today’s 10K rowing session.
RowPro graphs for today’s 10K rowing session.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 10K rowing session.
Chart and data for today’s SkiErg session.
Enlargement of the area of today’s SkiErg session showing the point at which heart rate reached its high of 178.
