Active Rest Day 5

barrel-flowers4Sept-6

For today’s active rest day from rowing, I did a 30 minute session online in the virtual company of two rowers who were in Denmark.

For the first 15 minutes I rowed at a normal rating in the 20+ spm area.  For the last 15 minutes I rowed at a low rating in the mid teens spm.

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Happy trails to you.

Rest Day 4

omac2-barrel-flowers-Sept-1

Today was another row-easy rest day.  The rowing session was 30 minutes, scheduled online.  One other rower joined and he was in Denmark.

Originally I had intended to row at a pace of between 2:30-2:40/500m but the other rower was rowing a much faster pace and it was slightly contagious.  So I watched his pace and adjusted mine so that the difference between his and mine was less than 30 seconds/500m. His average pace at the finish was about 1:51 and mine was about 2:22.

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Happy trails.

Rest Day Three

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Today’s rest from rowing consisted of 30 minutes online at a pace of about 2:33.  Two other rowers in England joined and they each did the session at a pace of about 1:55.  Energetic fellows.

ac-Sep-4th-slow-30min-finish ac-Sep-4th-slow-30min

Happy trails to you.

Rest Day Too

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Ethereal sunrise.

Today was the 2nd day of leisure, taking a break from intervals and vigorous rowing.  The restful session today was 30 minutes scheduled online.  There were three other rowers who joined the session:  Two in Denmark and one in Germany.

The first half of the 30 minutes was done at a normal rating in the 25 spm range, +/- a couple spm.  The second half was done at a lower rating, of about 15 spm.

During the second half, I indulged in two “power 10s”.  The first power 10 was at a low rating and the second one was at a normal rating.

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screenshot of today’s finish

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Happy trails to you.

RowPro Slow Row

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Today was the first day of rest before trying to do another 2K.  The session was 30 minutes, scheduled online.

Two others joined the session.  One was in Denmark using a skierg and the other was in England.

I rowed at a pace that felt effortless and which generated very little perspiration.

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finish screenshot

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Happy trails to you.

Tired Horse

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Today’s rowing was an online 30 minute session that included 8×90 seconds R1 minute intervals.  One other rower joined the session.

If it hadn’t been for that other rower, I probably would have skipped the intervals, found a video to watch and rowed very slowly through all 30 minutes, because I felt like a tired horse.

But because there was someone else in the session, I did what the session description called for, applied spurs to the tired horse, and rowed at a pace of about 1:50/500m for each of the 8 intervals of 90 seconds each.  For the minute of rest between each interval, I slowed almost to a crawl at a pace of something a bit slower than 3:00/500m.

So the “training plan” is going to be modified and tomorrow begins a few days or a week or more of rest, before rowing fast or trying to do another 2K at any kind of speed.

Here’s the results for today’s rowing:

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finish screen for pre-session warmup of 5 minutes
a Sep 1st warm up
session report for pre-session warmup
a-Sep-1st-8x90secs-R1min-in-30min-finish
finish screen for today’s main session
a Sep 1st 8x90secs R1min in 30min
session report for main session

Happy trails to you.

Where Are The Vikings?

rowing-in-the-desert
The desert in which my rowing machine is located is quite a contrast the the pitching, foaming environment in which Vikings did their rowing.

No particular significance for today’s title, except that one of the random thoughts while rowing this morning was of Vikings and all the rowing they did.

Today’s rowing session was 4×90 seconds R 2 minutes, within a 30 minute session.  The first 5 minutes of the session were used for warming up. The last 15 minutes of the session were used for warming down.

There were two other rowers in the session, located in England and the US. After the intervals were done and about 15 minutes remained, I rowed “alongside” the other two and we all three finished together.

I plan to do more intervals through the remainder of this week and then might take a week off from rowing (by rowing very very easy) and then maybe will make another try at a 2K and find out if these intervals helped improve 2K performance.

 

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Today’s RowPro finish screen
bc-Aug-31st-4x90secs-R2min-in-30min
today’s session report

Happy trails to you.

 

 

Waves of Intervals

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Waiting for promised sunshine on what was supposed to be a warm August day at the beach but turned out to be a rather cold day.

Intervals of toil
Intervals of rest
Row to a boil
In waves of sweat blessed…

…those words relate to today’s rowing.  Intervals. Total of 30 minutes scheduled online.

The intervals were 3×5 min R2 min.  The first 5 minutes of the session was warmup.  The first two of the three 5 minute intervals were done at about 1:55/500m and the third was done at 1:55/500m for the first 4 minutes and then the last minute of that last interval was done a bit faster, at around 1:45/500m.

After finishing the intervals I was supposed to use the remaining 6 minutes as warm down but I almost gave in to the temptation to race Ian M. and then remembered the plan to warm down, not race the remaining time.  The finish screen shot is incorrect, because Ian M. actually finished first but for some reason either RowPro or the digitalrowing.com Oarbits server didn’t keep him connected at the very last and instead shows him as a DNF instead of first place, as was the case.

The other 3 rowers were in Denmark, England and the US.  A rower in Germany couldn’t check in because he had problems with RowPro on his computer.

Intervals done at a brisk enough pace can result in a very relaxed feeling afterwards.  Yesterday, the day that one of the others remarked that she “almost puked” during those 12 intervals, I was sooo… relaxed that I started to get drowsy in mid-afternoon and resorted to coffee.  Which resulted in being wide awake until several hours past bedtime that night.

I must either drink this last bit of coffee before 2 pm or pour it out. It won't be wasted..
I must either drink this last bit of coffee before 2 pm or pour it out. It won’t be wasted..

But the coffee tasted very good.

…. and the rower who said she “almost puked” yesterday was in the session today and she was feeling okay.

Today, coffee is limited to only what can be consumed before 2pm. It is 1:10 pm and there is just a swallow or two remaining of the quart of coffee brewed at sunrise today.

Screenshot of today’s finish and the session report follow:

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Today’s finish screen. Ian M. actually finished in first place but something happened at the last moment that disconnected him from the server. You might notice that it looks like FOUR intervals, instead of three on the graphs of pace and HR above.  What looks like the 4th one is when I rowed more briskly to “race” or stay ahead of Ian M. and then remembered that I was supposed to warm down and slowed the pace to a warmdown effort.
bb-Aug-30th-3x5-R2-in-30min
Session report

Happy trails to you.

Poetry and Inspiring, Actually…

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More poetry…

Today’s main rowing session was my first time trying 12 intervals with one minute rest.  The intervals were each one minute in duration and the rest in between each interval was one minute of active rest at any pace. The last 7 minutes of the total 30 minute session were used as a warm down.

I was joined by several other rowers who were located in Denmark, England and the US.

Because I’d never done the 12×1 R1 before, I started out slow with the first two intervals at a pace of about 2:00, then did intervals 3 through 6 at a pace of about 1:55.  Intervals 7,8,9 and 10 were done at about 1:50 and the last two intervals were done at around 1:40, which was pretty much “flat out,” as Mike expressed it in his question of a couple days ago.

The rhythm of the 12 intervals and 12 rests reminded me somehow of poetry and was pleasing in a similar way to listening to a good poem.

Afterwards, one of the rowers said something to the effect, “I feel like I could puke!” … so I think she pushed herself harder than anyone else in the group today.  Inspiring, actually…

Because today’s main rowing session started right out with the intervals and did not include any warmup time, I did an easy 15 minutes in advance of the online session, to warm up.

All-in-all, I didn’t feel like I pushed hard enough to get the full benefit of today’s twelve intervals, but that is better than pushing too hard and regretting it later.

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15 minute warmup finish screen
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warmup session report
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Finish screenshot of main session which included 12 intervals of one minute each
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Session report for main session

Happy trails to you.

Resting on the Last Dog Day of Summer

Dog-days-Aug-28-

Today was the last day of the Concept 2 Dog Days of Summer Challenge.  The original plan for today’s rowing was a scheduled online 30 minutes which would consist of 12×1 min R1 min intervals.  But nobody else signed up for it and so I rescheduled it for tomorrow and made today a rest day.

So today’s rowing consisted of a very easy 30 minutes, while watching a documentary.

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Today’s restful finish screen
bwdogs-Aug-28th-30-min-of-rest
Today’s restful session report

Happy trails to you.