Category: Mentally absorbing workout

Reversing Chronological Order

The top screenshot today is of the SkiErg workout, because it was done before anything else today (that’s the reverse order from how I’ve been doing it in the past, with rowing first).

The thing on my mind before starting today’s workouts was recent bouts of heart strangeness during recent rowing sessions. So as a result, today I decided to experiment by reversing the order in which I do the workouts on rowing machine and SkiErg. Instead of rowing first, I did a SkiErg workout first.

The one and only reason for making that change was because I wondered if my heart rate would become irregular again during the first workout of the day, if I did that workout on SkiErg instead of rowing machine.

For the recent few days, heart rate has had fits of irregularity and other strangeness during the first workout of the day, which was rowing. But it has behaved normally during the second workout on the SkiErg, immediately following the rowing.

Interestingly enough, heart behaved normally during the first workout today on the SkiErg. During the second workout, on the rowing machine, it also behaved normally.

Actually it behaved ever-so-slightly abnormally during the SkiErg workout, and what I’m referring to by that is visible in the heart rate graph after the 2nd of 8 intervals on the SkiErg – in the space of graph between 2nd and third intervals. Heart rate stayed regular, but it went way too high, then recovered and behaved very normally after that.

Was it a coincidence or is there something about using the SkiErg, which is done standing UPRIGHT/100% VERTICAL instead of sitting (with the lower half of the body extended horizontally) and which (SkiErg) mostly uses the arms instead of the legs… which is more agreeable to the heart? Or at least, which is more agreeable if it is done as the first workout before doing any hard rowing?

Finish screen view of today’s rowing session.
Report for today’s rowing session.
RowPro graph for today’s rowing session. Notice the CLEAN heart rate graph! No dropouts to zero, which happens with irregular heartbeat. Heart rate was in normal range for the effort, all through the workout.
Another view of today’s rowing workout, with the Concept 2 online logbook chart.

Happy rowing to you!

Better Than Yesterday

Finish screen view of today’s intervals within a 6K piece.

Today’s rowing session was better than the sloppiness of yesterday’s, because HR was better behaved. It was a little bit confused, as can be readily seen from the rowing session graphs of HR and correlating pace, but overall was definitely better than yesterday.

The rowing session was a continuous 6K which contained a set of 4 moderate intervals of 750 meters each. The first 1,000 meters was warmup, then there were four sets of 750 meter intervals alternated with 2 minutes rest and the remainder of the distance was a warm down.

Today’s SkiErg session, like yesterday’s, had zero HR irregularities. It seems that if there is going to be any heart rate irregularity, it is more likely to show up during a rowing session. Go figure (as I also said yesterday…).

Report for today’s intervals within a 6K piece.
RowPro graph of today’s intervals within a 6K piece.
In this Concept 2 online logbook chart, the odd behavior of heart rate during today’s 6K seems more obvious than in the RowPro graph.
Heart rate was PERFECTLY well-behaved during the SkiErg session.

Happy rowing to you!

Somewhat Sloppy Sprints

Finish screen view of today’s 30 minute session with its 7 sloppy sprints.

Today’s main erg workout was a set of 7 one-minute sprints. They were done within a 30 minute continuous session. The first 10 minutes was warmup, then the intervals (one minute sprints) began. Each interval was followed with 30 seconds of easy/rest rowing.

My preference is to have a uniform, crisp-looking graph but today’s wasn’t. It was sloppy. The reason it was sloppy is because after the first or second interval, heart rate started being too high and also irregular.

After the rowing session I did a session on the SkiErg which also included sprints. It included 8 sprints, each of which were done at a higher power level than the rowing sprints. Interestingly, heart rate remained 100% regular and in a normal range for the entire workout on the SkiErg. Go figure.

Report for today’s 30 minute rowing session.
RowPro graphs for today’s 30 minute rowing session.
Charts and some data for today’s SkiErg workout.

Happy rowing to you!

Rocketing Heart Rate: 201

Though my heart rate took off like a rocket during today’s SkiErg session, I didn’t notice it until the session was over and I examined the data.

Today’s main workout session was a 2K time trial on the SkiErg. There was also a 30 minute rowing session today which was quite a bit longer, but the rowing session didn’t achieve the spectacular heart rate of the short 2K on the SkiErg.

I was too busy during the SkiErg 2K exercising “mindfulness” by focusing on the pace and the details of the level of pain, to notice heart rate. Also…. one big difference in personal perspective when using the SkiErg, compared to the rowing machine, is on the rowing machine, the person’s head is constantly in the same horizontal plane with respect to the monitor. But when a person is working hard on the SkiErg, the body is doing a series of alternating squatting and standing with each stroke in order to get maximum effort with each stroke. So its not as easy/natural to keep the monitor display in view because it is seeming to move up and down, in relation to the person’s head and its harder to focus on the monitor.

Afterwards when looking at the results, I noticed that heart rate had spiked surprisingly high during the last 500 meters of the SkiErg 2K and topped out at a whopping 201 BPM. It stayed at 201 for several consecutive strokes. I double-checked, by downloading all the data in CSV format for examination in a spreadsheet.

Perhaps a better title for today’s blog post would be, “Heart frolics when not watched closely!” If heart rate had acted that way when I was using the rowing machine, I would have slowed the pace immediately and drastically. But I didn’t notice it, didn’t feel any different and kept on aiming for a target pace in the SkiErg 2K time trial of something faster than the “pace boat” skier. (The pace skier is something you can set up on the SkiErg monitor). I set the pace skier to a pace of 2:12.9 and did glance at it now and then, to make sure I was staying ahead of it.

But I was paying virtually no attention to heart rate, since I felt normal and the result was that the heart got to rev itself up and frolic a bit at 201 beats per minute.

A close-up view of details of heart rate at 7 minutes 22 seconds into the SkiErg 2K. Notice HR = 201.
Finish screen view after today’s rowing session.
RowPro report for today’s rowing session.
RowPro graphs for today’s rowing session.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s rowing session.
Charts and some data for today’s 2K time trial on the SkiErg.

Happy rowing to you!

5X750mR250m

Finish screen after today’s five 750 meter intervals.

Today’s title is shorthand for today’s main workout: Five intervals of 750 meters each, with 250 meters of rest after each of those five intervals.

The rowing session was uploaded to YouTube as a screen recording, for those of you who’d like to row-along with it. It is available at this link: Indoor Rowing 5X750metersR250meters 05102019

There was also a SkiErg session of 1,000 meters. Data for the SkiErg session won’t be posted here, but you can see it on the Concept2.com website if you are logged in and view my rowing sessions.

Report for today’s five intervals.
RowPro graphs of today’s five intervals.

Happy rowing to you.

Twenty Minutes With 4 “Bursts”

I didn’t believe today’s HRV analysis should be taken seriously, but it seems to have been correct.

Today’s workout was short but more vigorous than recommended by today’s Morning Readiness score from the EliteHRV app.

Perhaps it was just a coincidence or perhaps EliteHRV was right. In either case, an episode of atrial fibrillation happened, which put a damper on things.

So the only workout done was a 20 minute rowing session which included 4 “bursts” of a dozen or so hard strokes. The “bursts” were spaced about 4 minutes apart. The session was uploaded to YouTube, for those of you who’d like to row along with it and is available at this link: Indoor Rowing 20 minutes with 4 bursts 05092019

Finish screen for today’s 20 minute rowing session.
Report for today’s 20 minute rowing session.
RowPro graph for today’s 20 minute rowing session.

Happy rowing to you!

The Heart Cooperative

Finish screen for today’s intervals pyramid session.

Today the heart and everything else in the propulsion system cooperated and the workouts happened as planned. The main workout was a set of pyramid intervals of 2-3-4-3-2 minutes within a single 30 minute session.

A screen recording was made of that session, for those of you who’d like to row-along with it. That screen recording is available on YouTube at this link: Indoor Rowing 30 minute pyramid 05082019

After the 30 minutes of rowing, there was a 135 calorie SkiErg session.

Report for today’s intervals pyramid session.
Graphs for today’s intervals pyramid session.
Chart and some data for today’s 135 calorie SkiErg session.

Happy rowing to you!

Intervals of Clarity

A honeybee hovering in an interval of clarity over a bird of paradise flower.

Today’s workout time was blessed with clarity. That is, there was no confusion of the heart as happened yesterday.

The main session was on the rowing machine. It was a combination of 2,000 meter warmup, three intervals of 750 meters each with 3 minutes active rest after each interval and a 1,000 meter warm down.

After the rowing workout, 132 Calories was burned on the SkiErg.

The rowing intervals session was uploaded to YouTube as a screen recording and is available for those of you who’d like to row-along with it. The video is located at this link: Indoor Rowing 3X750 meters Rest 3 minutes 05052019

The heart rate variability analysis by EliteHRV this morning was a green light. Of course, yesterday’s was also a green light… so I took today’s Morning Readiness reading with a proverbial grain of salt.
Finish screen view immediately after finishing the three 750 meter intervals.
RowPro report for the three 750 meter intervals.
RowPro graph for the three 750 meter intervals.
Chart and data for today’s 132 Calorie SkiErg session.

Happy rowing to you!

Confusion of the Heart

Today’s main rowing session was a series of twenty intervals of 20 seconds, with 4o seconds of rest after each. After completing 7 or 8 of the intervals, heart rate got a bit confused. At the very end of the session, heart rate got very confused and went up when effort went down. It seemed logical to slow down when heart rate was acting that way, so the intervals weren’t as vigorous as hoped.

The session was uploaded to YouTube as a screen recording and is available for anyone who’d like to row-along with it, at this link: Indoor Rowing 20X20 seconds R 40 seconds 05042019

Finish screen view for today’s intervals series.
You can see the oddest behavior of heart rate right near the end. Heart rate should have decreased when effort decreased, but instead it made a new high for the session.
The report for today’s rowing session is rather long, with a total of 40 splits for the 20 work intervals plus 20 rest intervals.
RowPro graph for today’s interval series.
Chart and data for the 131 Calorie SkiErg session.

Happy rowing to you!