Today’s heart rate variability analysis with EliteHRV app was a green light for any effort level.
Last night’s sleep was interrupted with a period of insomnia wakefulness but total sleep was sufficient at 7 hours 50 minutes.
Today’s main workout was a 30 minute rowing session with a target pace of 2 minutes 3 seconds/500m. It was interrupted by an urgent call. After returning to the erg, used most of the remaining minutes as a warm down.
The 30 minute session was uploaded to YouTube as a screen-recording. If you row-along with it and don’t take any breaks during the 30 minutes, you should have an easy time finishing ahead of me. It’s link is at this location: Indoor Rowing 30 minutes interrupted 03032019
Finish screen for today’s 30 minute rowing session.
Report for today’s 30 minute rowing session.
RowPro graphs for today’s 30 minute rowing session.
I wasn’t inclined to believe the analysis and recommendation of EliteHRV this morning…
As you can see from the above screenshot, the heart rate variability analysis from the EliteHRV app this morning recommended that I take it easy. I didn’t believe it and so I warmed up to do an attempt at a season best in rowing a 30 minute piece.
Last night’s sleep was good, at 7 hours 55 minutes logged by SleepWatch, but I felt very much like staying in bed and getting some more sleep,
But there were feelings of heart-skipping during the rowing warm-up, which frequently is a sign of impending Atrial fibrillation. So I decided to do a 30 minute session at 2:07/500m instead of aiming for a bit faster than 2:03.
Even at the slower pace of 2:07, Afib and elevated heart rate happened. So I slowed down significantly. After about one minute of the 30 minute session, heart rate started to rise disproportionately to effort. So I took a break to get an aspirin.
The atrial fibrillation continued after the 30 minute session was over. Above is a screenshot of the Apple Watch’s 2 minute graph of recovery heart rate after I stopped rowing and while I sat motionless for a couple minutes. Normally, heart rate steadily decreases during those two minutes. This time, it increased and behaved erratically.
The Afib continued through the rowing session but cleared up after the rowing was finished, after I started using the SkiErg. Go figure…
So I spent a while on the SkiErg and set two season best times for short sprints (100 meters and 1 minute) on the SkiErg.
I did 10 SkiErg pieces, for a total of 14 rowing + SkiErg. Instead of showing screenshots of each of the 14, I’ll just post screenshots of lists of the rowing and SkiErg sessions. If you really want to see them in more detail, it’s easy to do. You just visit the concept2.com online logbook where my rowing sessions are available to anybody who is logged in. You can find me by looking at the listing of virtual rowing clubs and clicking on RowPro Rowers, where I’m listed among the members.
These 4 rowing sessions were done first today.
These 10 SkiErg sessions were done after the rowing sessions. The ones highlighted in blue turned out to be season best times for those particular pieces.
Today’s EliteHRV morning reading was a vast improvement over yesterday’s and was a “green light” for any sort of workout level.
Today’s main session was another 30 minute time trial. This one was a bit faster than previous, targeting a pace of 2 minutes 4 seconds per 500 meters. It went okay and – surprisingly – heart rate didn’t get as high as the previous, slower 30 minute session of two days ago.
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.
Though Atrial Fibrillation wasn’t really wanted, it was definitely given an invitation with today’s rowing session, because I pushed harder in this session than in the session on Feb 24th when it crashed the party. Needless to say, I’m happy it declined the invitation.
Today’s main workout was 30 minutes at a target pace of 2 minutes 6 seconds/500 meters. It was another experiment, like yesterday’s, to see if atrial fibrillation would develop. It didn’t show up and the session went smoothly, with plenty to spare at the end for a little bit of a sprint.
Total calorie burn today, including warmups and warmdowns, was 790 calories. All of it was on the rowing machine except for 51 calories on the SkiErg during a preliminary warm-up. If you are logged in to concept2.com online logbook, you can look at them all in my log, which is open to all logged-in viewers. But I’m only going to post screenshots for the 30 minute session in this blog post.
The 30 minute session was done at RPE Level 7. All the rest were done at RPE Level 1 or 2.
Today’s EliteHRV morning readiness was a green light for no speed-limit rowing.
Last night’s sleep logged by SleepWatch app was more than enough, at 7 hours 45 minutes, even though there was a large interruption in the middle of the night.
Finish screen for today’s 30 minute session.
RowPro report for today’s 30 minute session.
RowPro graphs for today’s 30 minute session.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 30 minute session.
Today’s EliteHRV analysis said that any level of effort would be okay.
Last night’s SleepWatch-logged sleep was adequate, at 6 hours 55 minutes.
Today’s workout was 30 minutes online with 5 other guys who were in Europe and North America. Unlike those with whom I rowed yesterday, today’s rowers were all rowing at a faster pace than my target pace.
My target pace was exactly the same as yesterday, 2:07. I wanted to see if any Afib would develop again today like it did yesterday at that same pace. Everything behaved well. Perhaps it helped, that I warmed up for 10 minutes before today’s session?
Finish screen for today’s 30 minutes online.
Report for today’s 30 minutes online.
RowPro graphs for today’s 30 minutes online.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 30 minutes online.
This guy was knocked out of a race in the 2016 Olympics by an obstacle. At least he didn’t have Afib…
Today’s rowing session was a 30 minute online race. There was a total of 14 people in the race. After the race began and I watched everyone’s paces for a few minutes I decided that I could finish in 9th or 10th place, if I aimed for a pace of about 2:07.
That was working out well until about halfway through the half hour, when heart rhythm went into its Afib nutso-mode and I had to slow down. So I slowed, picked up the pace, slowed again and repeated that several times, but couldn’t shake the Afib. The result was that I finished last place. At least I finished. 🙂
Perhaps I should have warmed up a bit first?
A screen recording was made of the online race and is available for those who’d like to row-along with it. It’s YouTube link is: Indoor Rowing 30 Minutes with Afib 02242019
Today started out with a good reading from EliteHRV.
SleepWatch app recorded a good night’s sleep at 8 hours 10 minutes.
Finish screen for today’s 30 minute online session.
Report for today’s 30 minute online session.
RowPro graphs for today’s 30 minute online session.Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 30 minute online session.
Yesterday was a day of global cooling and it snowed in the desert.
Today’s main workout was one hour rowing. It was done at an overall RPE Level 4, with variations.
Finish screen for today’s 1 hour rowing session.
The 60 minute rowing session was done online with the company and inspiration of another rower. I finished in second place, as you can see in the above screenshot of the session results.
Today’s 2K on the SkiErg was done at RPE Level 9. If you play the session screen recording, you will be able to hear me quite out-of-breath when talking after the end of the 2K.
Today’s HRV reading gave a green light to race or workout as hard as I wanted.
Though last night’s sleep had a huge interruption, I managed to get enough sleep at 7 hours 35 minutes to still have a good HRV reading.
The main workout today was the shortest, a 2,000 meter session on the SkiErg. It might correctly be called a “time trial,” because though it was solo, I was trying to go as fast as possible for that distance. It felt like RPE level 9 but I’m new to the SkiErg, so there is lots of room for improvement.
A screen recording was made of the SkiErg 2k and it can be found at this link: SkiErg 2K 02162019
The longest workout session today was 8,000 meters on the rowing machine. It was done as a warmup for the SkiErg 2K and was done with a target heart rate zone of 133 to 158 and it felt like RPE Level 5. Heart rate was allowed to rise above 158 near the end because it felt good, I was barely perspiring and was breathing easy.
Finish screen for SkiErg 2K.
Report for SkiErg 2K.
RowPro graphs for SkiErg 2K.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for SkiErg 2K.
Finish screen for today’s 8K warmup.
RowPro report for today’s 8K warmup.
RowPro graphs for today’s 8K warmup.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 8K warmup.
Today’s workouts consisted of first a 10 minute warmup on the rowing machine at RPE Level 1, followed by ten intervals on the SkiErg at RPE Levels 7 to 9. There was a 2 minute RPE Level 1 period of active rest after each interval.
The SkiErg intervals were arranged as 5 minutes at 40 SPM, 4 minutes at 42 SPM, 3 minutes at 44 SPM, 2 minutes at 46 SPM and 1 minute at 48 SPM. Each was followed immediately by the 2 minute active rest. The entire sequence was then repeated one more time.
It was VERY challenging, to achieve the target stroke ratings of 40, 42, 44, 46 and 48 SPM for each of the five intervals. I only managed to achieve the exact average for the target SPM for 3 of the 10 intervals.
For the first 5 minute interval I had the drag factor too high with the damper set at 7. For the next interval I reduced the drag factor by moving the damper to 6. After each subsequent interval, I moved the damper a bit lower until it was at 3 by the time the first 5 intervals were completed.
For the second 5 intervals, I left the damper at 3.
Today’s heart rate variability reading with EliteHRV was a green light for any kind of workout.
Last night’s sleep was good with 7 hours 10 minutes logged.
Finish screen for the 10 intervals done today on the SkiErg.
Report for the 10 intervals done today on the SkiErg.
RowPro graphical overview for the 10 intervals done today on the SkiErg.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for the first of 10 intervals done today on the SkiErg. You can see how heart rate kept rising even though my effort level was fading… that’s why I kept adjusting the damper level lower, looking for a drag factor that was sustainable for the entire interval. If you want to see charts for each of the rest of them, you can do so by logging in to your Concept 2 logbook account, finding me in the RowPro Rowers virtual club and clicking on my profile, then clicking to view my log, which is accessible to anybody who is logged in. Then click on the + sign to the right of today’s log entry for this session. On the next screen, you will see a line for each interval and a line for each rest. If you click on the line for each interval, you will be able to see the chart for each respective interval. There are no charts to see for the rests.
