Perhaps, but not definitively. Yesterday the question arose as to whether the cause for heart strangeness (atrial fibrillation rearing its head) during the last two of yesterday’s five 2K pieces was having eaten a large breakfast and then resumed rowing while the stomach was feeling full.
Early this morning, before having so much as a crumb of food or a sip of coffee, I began the day’s workouts.
Remembering yesterday’s words, “Perhaps I will try duplicating today’s workout again tomorrow…” but on an empty stomach from start to finish, that thought was put into action and fulfilled this morning.
Happily, there was no heart strangeness from start to finish.
Actually, I did feel a tiny bit of cardio flitter-flutter in the chest. It happened one time and was during the third 2K. But it was so ephemeral that it bordered on being imaginary, though vividly so. Heart rate did not vanish from the display like it does when Afib is more persistent, so I will attribute it to being an imagination of the heart.
Perhaps rowing on a full stomach isn’t a good idea. But on the other hand, perhaps it is merely a coincidence.
Scientific experiment, this was not. Scientific experiments are more thorough. Experiment, it was. And I will keep it in mind for future reference.
Following are screenshots and data for today’s workouts.
Chart and data for the first workout session today.
Finish screen for the fifth of five 2K sessions this morning. The ending heart rate of 119 was a normal heart rate for the effort and was within a very few beats per second of the finish heart rate for each of the previous four 2K sessions.
Report and graph for first of five 2K rowing sessions.
Report and graph for second of five 2K rowing sessions.
Report and graph for third of five 2K rowing sessions.
Report and graph for 4th of five 2K rowing sessions.
Report and graph for last of five 2K rowing sessions.
Today’s heart behavior was virtually perfect, until after my stomach went from Empty to Full, with breakfast.
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.
Chart and data for today’s SkiErg session.
Finish screen for first of five 2K rowing sessions.
Report and graph for first of five 2K rowing sessions.
Finish screen for second of five 2K rowing sessions.
Report and graph for second of five 2K rowing sessions.
Finish screen for third of five 2K rowing sessions.
Report and graph for third of five 2K rowing sessions.
Finish screen for fourth of five 2K rowing sessions. Notice that heart rate display went blank before the finish.
Report and graph for fourth of five 2K rowing sessions.
Finish screen for second of five 2K rowing sessions.
Report and graph for last of five 2K rowing sessions.
Most definitions of defibrillation only refer to applying an electric shock to the heart. But it seems there are other ways, less shocking, to coax heart rhythm back to normal. Today’s workout sessions on the ergs seemed to work as an effective defibrillator.
Defibrillation has a few definitions but what they all have in common is that they relate to restoring normal heart behavior by stopping the fibrillation of the heart. If you’ve ever seen a fish flopping around out of water, that’s a good analogy for heart fibrillation.
Every time my heart goes into its floppy-fish mode it is annoying. It’s worse than annoying if it happens after bedtime at night. That’s what happened yesterday evening. It continued all night and caused sleep loss. It was still happening this morning after I gave up trying to get any more sleep and got up for the day.
For the sake of possibly benefiting the heart and its mitochondria, I decided to start today’s workouts early in the morning, before having any breakfast or coffee.
I decided to divide the day’s workouts into smaller than usual increments, to arrive at the same desired goal of time on SkiErg and rowing machine.
Because the SkiErg session of 200 Calories is the shortest of my usual workouts, I did that one first. One nice thing about the SkiErg is that I don’t have to bother with shoes or socks. It can be done barefoot as easily as with shoes on. Somehow, using the SkiErg barefoot seems to make the experience seem more like play than work.
Doing the SkiErg session felt like swimming in molasses. I was very low-energy, though heart rate was high.
The first workout was 200 Calories on the SkiErg. Heart rate was too high and felt irregular throughout that session. I felt low-energy and went very slow, averaging about 2:48 for the session.
First of ten 1,000 meter rowing sessions. Heart rate was irregular and too high.
The next workout was on the rowing machine. The goal was 10,000 meters total, by doing ten sessions of 1,000 meters each. For the first 1,000 meter rowing session (see image above) I didn’t pay any attention to pace and just focused on continuing to row. Heart rhythm was very irregular and disappeared from the RowPro quite a bit of the time. Heart rate was abnormally high – much too high for duration and effort level. It was done at an average pace of 2:12.5/500 meters.
Second of ten 1,000 meter rowing sessions. Heart rhythm was still irregular and a bit too high.
After the first 1,000 meter session I took a break and got the Mr. Coffee busy making a pot of coffee. While coffee was brewing, I rowed the 2nd 1,000 meter session (see image above). Heart rhythm continued to be very irregular, but heart rate was in the normal range for the duration and effort level. I only focused on continuing to row and it was done more slowly than the first at an average pace of 2:17.7/500 meters.
Third of ten 1,000 meter rowing sessions. Heart rate was irregular at beginning but smoothed out during the first 100 meters or so.
When I sat to row the third 1,000 meters (see image above) I decided to not only focus on simply rowing the distance, but also to do the session at a pace equal to or faster than the first 1K. It was done at an average pace of 2:12.5, like the first 1K of the day. Heart rhythm was irregular at the beginning, but smoothed out during the first 100 meters and had normal rhythm for the rest of the piece. Heart rate was a little bit too high but almost normal for the duration and effort level.
For the 4th through 10th 1,000 meter sessions, each was fractionally faster than the previous, except for the 10th. Heart rhythm and rate was normal during all of those rowing sessions from the 4th through the 10th of 10.
The 10th 1,000 meter session was done at a bit faster pace of 2:07.9, to see if it would trigger irregular heart activity but it didn’t seem to trigger anything out of the ordinary. It also had normal rhythm and rate.
Therefore I conclude that the workout sessions on the ergs were somehow helpful in defibrillation of the irregularities of heart rhythm.
Screenshots of reports & data for the 4th through 10th of ten 1,000 meter rowing sessions are below this paragraph.
Fourth of ten 1,000 meter rowing sessions.
Fifth of ten 1,000 meter rowing sessions.
Sixth of ten 1,000 meter rowing sessions.
Seventh of ten 1,000 meter rowing sessions.
Eighth of ten 1,000 meter rowing sessions.
Ninth of ten 1,000 meter rowing sessions.
Tenth and last of ten 1,000 meter rowing sessions.
Finish screen for today’s 10K rowing session. The circled area of the heart rate plot shows where heart rate shifted too high though effort remained the same or slower.
At the start of today’s sessions everything seemed normal. I decided to row 10K first and then burn some calories on the SkiErg.
For the first half of the 10K rowing session everything continued to seem normal, though heart rate disappeared from the RowPro display a few times.
I decided to take an aspirin break after about 4,000 meters of rowing. The break lasted between two and three minutes. Sometimes a little aspirin seems to help heart rate become regular again.
But this time it didn’t help and after I returned from the rowing break it became more irregular. Also, heart rate shifted to become too high.
I didn’t let a little Afib (atrial fibrillation) put too much of a damper on things though, because I wanted to earn another exercise-induced “sleeping pill” for tonight’s sleep.
The 10K was finished. It was followed by two SkiErg sessions of about 100 Calories each. After the SkiErg sessions, a very slow 500 meter rowing session was done.
Heart rate remained irregular and too high through all of the remaining workout. But it’s okay now. The exercise-induced “sleeping pill” was earned and it’s effect can already be felt, early in the evening. No need for Sleepytime tea.
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.
First of 2 SkiErg sessions.
Second of 2 SkiErg sessions.
Report for the very slow 500 meter rowing session. Heart rate (circled) was about 40 BPM too high for the low effort level.
This is a No-Trazadone Zone after yesterday’s experience.
Really I have no proof that the one single dose of Trazadone had any effect on my dreams. I don’t remember any specifics about them. But I do remember that they were very strange.
On the chance that Trazadone was the cause, I’m guessing that the strange dreams I had last night were also Trazadone-related and were a lingering aftereffect of the single dose taken the day before.
With the trial of Trazadone behind me I’m now turning back to rowing daily. I missed workouts for two days in a row. One of the most important factors in good sleep for me is to use the rowing machine or SkiErg daily and burn a few hundred Calories in the process. The quality of sleep seems to improve in direct proportion to the number of Calories burned each day on the ergs. The benefit of working harder while on the rowing machine or SkiErg is mainly that it takes less time to burn the Calories. A longer, slower workout of 700 Calories seems as good for sleep as a shorter, faster workout that also burns 700 Calories.
Hopefully, the remainder of Trazedone will be gone before bedtime tonight and the strange dreams will be gone with it.
Today’s workouts were a 10,000 meter session on the Rowing erg and 100 Calories on the SkiErg for a total of 689 Calories in about 54 minutes. AFTERNOON UPDATE: Did three more brief sessions on SkiErg and rowing machine to bring day’s Calorie burn total from 689 to 842.
Finish screen for today’s 10,000 meter rowing session. After about 8,000 meters, heart rate became irregular and too high.
RowPro report for today’s 10,000 meter rowing session.
RowPro graphs for today’s 10,000 meter rowing session.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 10,000 meter rowing session.
Chart and data for today’s morning SkiErg session.
Finish screen view for today’s moderate 500 meter sprint. Heart rate was 196 at finish but it got a bit higher earlier in the 500 meters (see one of the screenshots below).
Are you familiar with the formula for determining your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220? The formula may be written: 220 – AGE = HRmax.
If you know a person’s maximum heart rate, you can thereby deduce the person’s age by rearranging the formula as: 220 – HRmax = AGE.
Today in one of the workout sessions my heart rate maxed out at 204, therefore today it was acting very juvenile. To be precise, it was acting 220-204= sixteen years old. I was so focused on the effort during that 2,000 meter SkiErg piece, that I didn’t notice how high my teeny-bopper heart rate reached until afterwards. After uploading the results, I looked at the graphs closely, the way the Concept 2 online logbook lets you do if you use their app (ErgData) and it if it was wirelessly connected to the SkiErg monitor during the session.
Heart was in the range of a 16-year-old’s and it also seemed interested in hip-hop dance moves of some sort.
In total there were five sessions today, which were in this chronological order, one right after the other. A summary list of the workouts is below, (but I will only include data/graph screenshots for three of them):
A brief warmup on SkiErg
An attempt at a 2,000 meter sprint on SkiErg
A brief SkiErg warm down
A 500 meter moderate rowing sprint and
A 2000 meter supplemental warm down.
Summary list of today’s 5 workouts, with chronological order from first to fifth displayed on left.
Report for today’s 500 meter rowing at a moderate sprint effort.
Chart of the moderate-effort 500 meter rowing sprint.
Close up of area on 500 meter rowing chart where heart rate reached 204.
Chart and data for 2,000 meter SkiErg sprint. The place where my effort/pace suddenly drops was after about 1,500 meters when I started feeling a bit too tired. I had been trying to do it in a time that would have placed me second in the current world rankings for my age bracket. After I gave up and was breathing easier, I
Close up of area on SkiErg 2000 meter chart where heart rate reached 200.
I was aiming for second-place in the 70-79 year-old current SkiErg world rankings, but had to settle for 3rd.
Report for final session today, a very easy 2,000 meter warm down.
Graphs for today’s 2000 meter rowing warm down. Heart rate was mostly absent from the display because it was doing some kind of a hip-hop dance and the heart strap transmitter had a hard time counting the beat.
A little chaos is part of the spice of life and is probably so by divine design. But today’s measure of chaos seemed a bit too much. Today’s workout was bothered by excessive chaos of the heart, which has been assigned the medical label “paroxysmal atrial fibrillation.”
If I hadn’t been wearing a heart strap while using the Concept 2 ergs, I might not have noticed it, because it felt a little fluttery but nothing I would notice if my mind was focused elsewhere such as on some physical activity, reading a book, playing a game etc.
But I was wearing a heart strap and its display showed that the little fluttery feeling was correlated with heart rate being too high. When it was regular enough to be displayed. The rest of the time, heart rate was not displayed and unknown.
Today’s plan was for there to be 3 workout sessions. The first was going to be 181 Calories on the SkiErg at a pace of 2:21. But because heart rate was climbing much too high for the effort level, I cut the first session short after 80 calories and took a break, so heart rate could settle. Heart rate didn’t settle, so I did the remainder of the SkiErg workout as a 100 Calorie session, at 2:21 pace. Those two sessions added up to the day’s goal of 181 Calories on the SkiErg.
The rowing workout was a pair of sessions: The first one was the moderately fun session: 1,000 meters at 2:06. The second rowing session was 10,000 meters at an extremely slow pace while I watched a documentary I wanted to see about purifying water.
During both rowing sessions heart rate was very irregular. Other than that, everything was normal. By “everything was normal,” I mean that if I’d talked with a cardiologist about it, as I have about previous episodes of “heart strangeness,” there would have been questions such as “did you feel any chest pains, tightness or shortness of breath?” My answer would have been “No, I was breathing very easy, virtually the same as if I’d not been working out.” None of the workouts done today were hard enough and/or long enough to even make me sweat.
The only session recorded for my YouTube channel today was the 1K. That 1,000 meter session was recorded for those of my 19 subscribers (at last count) and others who would like to row along with it. It is available as a screen recording on YouTube at: Indoor Rowing 1000 meters at 2min 6sec pace 07202019
Chart and data for first of today’s 2-part SkiErg session.
Chart and data for second of today’s 2-part SkiErg session.
Finish screen for today’s moderate 1,000 meter rowing session.
Report for today’s moderate 1,000 meter rowing session. The rowing effort was moderate and breathing was easy but heart rate was excessively high.
Chart showing erratic and excessively high heart rate during today’s 1,000 meter rowing session.
Chart for the extremely slow 10K rowing session done today while I watched and listened to a documentary. Heart rate was so erratic that most of the time it wasn’t displayed.
Finish screen view for today’s 10K rowing session. Gertrude is in the yellow boat.
Today the decision was made to discontinue the 7-day series of 10Ks and increase the pace of today’s 10K from the 2:14 pace which was only done in one session (yesterday’s session) to a bit faster 2:13 / 500 meters.
A pace boat was used to help me maintain a constant pace from start to finish. I gave the name Gertrude to the avatar of the female rower in the pace boat.
The most notable thing about today’s rowing session wasn’t the pace boat or it’s lovely female rower, however. The most notable thing was the lack of any heart strangeness. The reason I was so impressed with the good behavior of my heart today was because of what I was watching on another monitor while rowing today’s 10K.
The other monitor was playing a YouTube recording of an online 10K I rowed on September 30th, 2018. That particular 10K was done at an overall average pace of 2:14.2/500 meters which was slower than today’s average pace of 2:13.0/500 meters. But my heart rate was a LOT higher on Sept 30 of last year than it was in today’s 10K. So it appears that the heart is functioning better now than it was a year ago in September. I wonder if it is related to my significantly improving A1C score?? When the A1 C score improves, the red blood cells become smaller, closer to the size they should be. Could it be that larger red blood cells are more difficult for the heart to pump?
There were differences in the approach to the 10K on Sept 30, 2018: I started out faster and tried to maintain a pace of about 2:08 on that day. But by the time the distance counted down to less than 3,000 meters I could hear myself, on the recording audio track, breathing very hard. At 2,800 meters, I was struggling for breath and finally threw in the figurative towel. I finished that Sept 30, 2018 10K, but at an extremely slow pace.
Today’s workout also included a session on the SkiErg which was 178 Calories at a pace of 2:24/500 meters.
The past 25 days since I’ve been refraining from doing any intervals or speed work have been relatively boring. There was one, isolated 30 second sprint on the SkiErg a few days ago. But other than that for the last 25 days it’s been mostly constant pace on the rowing machine and likewise on the SkiErg.
The current constant pace regimen is an experiment. I’m wondering if the frequent intervals had been a factor in episodes of “heart strangeness” (atrial fibrillation etc). Since refraining from doing any intervals, heart behavior has been 99.9% normal. Heart behavior was normal today too, but the “Heart Strangeness” category is added to this post, because the subject is being mentioned.
Rowing is fun but and maintaining a constant pace isn’t as easy as it sounds. It takes mental focus. But rowing intervals is a lot more fun. However, I will continue being patient and allow more time before including some intervals again.
Today’s workouts featured the last 10K in a series of 7 at a constant pace of 2:15. Also there was a SkiErg workout targeting 176 Calories at a constant pace of 2:26.
The next 10K will be a constant pace but at 2:14 pace. I haven’t decided yet whether to do a series of seven 10Ks at that 2:14 pace. Currently, I’m leaning toward something else instead of a series of seven 2:14 rowing sessions at constant pace.
Stay tuned…
Finish screen for today’s 10K rowing session.
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 176 Calorie SkiErg session.
Happy rowing to you!
*To give credit where credit is due, the shirt pictured above was found on a website called TeeShirt21. The website has quite a few other interesting shirts relating to rowing.
Chart and data for today’s 96 Watt SkiErg workout. Heart rate (red graph line circled in green) was much too high for the low effort level.
There was a long break between today’s two main workouts. The first of the two workouts was 168 Calories on the SkiErg, at a constant pace averaging 2:34/500 meters, which was a mere 96 Watts average power. But though it was low power, heart rate immediately catapulted too high for the effort by quite a bit. So I took a break afterwards, waiting for the heart strangeness to subside before doing today’s rowing. A few hours passed and it persisted, so I took an aspirin (325 grams), drank a lot of water with it, then ran a couple of errands to nearby stores.
Within a short time of perhaps about 30 minutes after taking aspirin, HR returned to normal. I finished the errands and then did the rowing. The break time between the two workouts was about five hours.
The 10K rowing workout was sixth in a series of seven, each with the goal of constant pace averaging 2:16/500 meters, which pace is an effort of about 139 Watts. Though the 139 Watt rowing work was about 45% harder and lasted about three times longer than the 96 Watt session on the SkiErg, heart rate was a whole lot lower and normal through the rowing session, compared to how it had acted during the easier SkiErg session.
