Today’s workout was about 3K each on Concept2 RowErg and SkiErg, followed by about 11 easy miles bicycle riding on Zwift.
Because I didn’t want to race and possibly stir up atrial fibrillation again, I chose to just ride a route. Today’s route was called Going Coastal and you can view it at the link behind this sentence.
Happy, healthy erging to you!
Today’s workout was the last installment of 5 Zwift sessions that were designed by Zwift programmers as an introduction to the program.
Because I didn’t feel particularly energetic I mostly ignored its prompts to go faster and spent most of the time at around a leisurely 100 Watts with a low SPM in the 50s.
Here’s a link to the: screen recording for today’s Zwifting session.
Because it has been quite a while since making the previous entry, here’s an overdue blog post.
I have a new erg machine, of the Concept 2 brand. It is the BikeErg.
Here’s a screen recording of today’s use of the BikeErg with the app called Zwift: https://youtu.be/xWHkL-iJ1XI?feature=shared
Happy New Year to you.
On December 5th a cardiac ablation procedure for treatment of atrial fibrillation was performed on my heart. Today I went for the first run since that procedure.
It was like running with a new heart. Smooth and steady low heart rate appropriate for a slow run or jogging pace. (What’s the difference between a slow run and jogging? I don’t know.)
The workout session today was to be 2.1 miles on the same route that has been used for many months now. The first half mile was walking only. Everything seemed okay after walking 1/2 mile so I switched to a slow running pace of about 16 minutes/mile.
The plan was to observe heart behavior and switch back to walking if it acted up. It didn’t misbehave so I continued the slow run pace for about 1.7 miles. I felt very good and breathing was effortless as though I was walking.
The first few days after the cardiac ablation were the wackiest. On the day after the ablation and after breakfast and coffee in the morning, I had chest pains in early afternoon. It was sort of like a vise squeezing my heart. It was very uncomfortable/painful.
I had a prescription of nitroglycerin pills which I hadn’t yet resorted to, so I took one of those. It didn’t seem to help at all, so I followed the instructions, which were to take one every 5 minutes until the pain reduced (no more than 3 pills max, spaced 5 minutes apart.)
The second nitro pill seemed to make the pain a lot worse and I broke out in a light sweat and my eyes became sensitive to light, as if the nitro had caused the pupils to dilate.
According to the post-ablation instructions, if I had chest pain for 10 minutes or longer I was supposed to call 911. So I did and they arrived within less than 5 minutes and transported me to the nearest hospital Emergency Department.
They drew blood, performed several tests and did an echocardiogram. The chest pain subsided almost completely. I was there for a total of about 2 hours 40 minutes.
That was the worst thing that happened after the ablation.
That day and the next few days I felt very tired, like sleeping. I assumed it was partly due to the anesthesia wearing off and I did sleep between 10 and 12 hours a day for a couple days and didn’t have any coffee on the 3rd or 4th days.
By the 5th day I was still feeling like sleeping but had slept too much and couldn’t fall asleep. So I had some coffee and that made a huge difference and I felt almost normal again.
Though heart was in sinus rhythm it was still strange, behaving differently every day as though it was a horse getting used to a saddle. It’s rate slowed a bit each of those first few days.
On the 6th day, sometime in the morning between 7:00 – 7:45 AM when I sat to measure blood pressure & heart rate, it switched from sinus rhythm to what seemed like atrial flutter and its rate stayed at about 140 BPM all the rest of that day.
At sometime between midnight that night and 1:00 AM the next day, heart rate went back to a more normal rate of about 59 BPM with sinus rhythm and it has been in sinus rhythm ever since then, feeling better and better every day.
Two days ago I went for a 2 mile walk with no running and it behaved okay.
So today I ran.
Following are screenshots of training summaries and heart rate graphs for todays session and for 10 days of running sessions that were done before the ablation, so you can see the difference in the way it acted before and after ablation.
Happy rowing, jogging, running etc to you!
Because I’m still experiencing atrial fibrillation, I’m continuing to avoid rowing and only doing daily jogging. Lately, I’ve been adding a little low-effort SkiErg time.
During today’s jogging session I used the cellphone to record video of a few minutes of running on the trail. Near the end of the video you can briefly see my left hand come into view when I glance at the watch and notice that HR is 199. That’s when I switched from jogging to walking.
Here’s the video of: a few minutes of jogging.
Happy rowing, jogging, running etc to you!
It’s been about two months since the previous post but who’s counting?
I’ve continued to do running (jogging is more like it) instead of rowing, in the continued effort to reshape my heart and thereby hopefully have a positive effect toward being free of atrial fibrillation.
Wifey has continued doing daily rowing, because she is not bothered with atrial fibrillation like I’ve been having.
In the meantime we are making some improvements at home by remodeling the kitchen. After that is complete, we will move back into the kitchen and then work toward getting the rest of the house ready for similar improvements. The similar improvements will mainly be new flooring.
But one obstacle to that is the piano which is in the way. We decided to sell it. Local buyers only, who are capable of hauling it away themselves. 🙂 SOLD
You can contact me by making a comment with information as to how to contact you or… if you got this link from David, ask him for my phone number. SOLD
You can price used pianos at piano stores and make an offer for less than what you would pay for it at a piano store. Whatever price we get for it, we will give that money to our youngest daughter, to whom we promised the piano… but who ended up living about 1,000 miles away, making it sort of impossible to give it to her without selling it first and then giving the proceeds to her. SOLD
Though not all workout sessions are always or even usually mentioned in the blog, the “live” (interactively viewable) data for each and every erg workout session for any day whatsoever can be seen in detail by clicking this: link to the online logbook. To view a session’s data and interactive graph click the “+” sign in “Action” column for that session.
Happy rowing, jogging, running etc to you!
Everyone who monitors etherealrowing.com for new posts is aware that I’ve switched regular daily activity from rowing to jogging. Haven’t given up on rowing, but am dealing with atrial fibrillation and trying to “reshape the heart” through jogging on the assumption that after enough time running (jogging) the atrial fibrillation might go away. If it goes away, good riddance to it.
I’ve been to three cardiologists looking for guidance on getting rid of A-FIB through diet and physical activity but none of those three even wanted to entertain the possibility.
My current coach and cardiologist for dealing with atrial fibrillation with diet and activity is God. If you are born again and are familiar with the Scriptures, you know what I’m talking about. If you are not born again… stop what you’re doing and pray to accept Jesus Christ as your own personal savior … then go on to study Scriptures (The Bible) and you’ll know what it is that I’m talking about.
If anyone who’s reading this is starting to worry or suspect that I’m going to preach a sermon… relax. I’m just going to write a little more of the relatively boring stuff about daily physical activity. Plus: NEWS for how any of you who are interested can see/read/be automatically notified about any of my jogging sessions.
One member of the immediate family, whom I’ll refer to by the thoughtfully chosen pseudonym of “Desi,” explicitly requested that I keep her and everyone (“keep us posted” or something to that effect were her exact paraphrased words) informed about the A-FIB and running/jogging.
I have only been doing that once in a great while but … because I remember that I said I would… and I should keep my word… but to keep my word would mean I’d have to share in boring detail about each and every session. And I don’t really want to do that, though I thoughtlessly said “I will.”
So I’ve got a problem. But there’s a solution. The solution is, to give Desi and any others of you access to my Strava account. That way, if you really want to know about my jogging and related data, you just click and view.
So here’s how you can see the most recent (or ANY) jogging session data available through Strava: If you have Strava, search for me using my first and last name, then request to “follow” me or whatever it’s called if it’s not “follow”.
Two guys with whom I’ve rowed online have already done that after they learned I share session data with Strava, so I can tell you what happens after you request to “follow” me: I receive the request and I approve it and then you can see any and all of my jogging, walking, and any other sessions logged to Strava.
PLEASE NOTE (for those of you who use Strava and prefer NOT to share your own session data with others): Strava will also give you the option to allow or not permit me to see your Strava data. I don’t care if I see what you do or not, so if you want to maintain privacy with regard to what you do and log on Strava, simply don’t give permission to me. I’m fine with that because I’m not a Strava nut. (I use the term “Strava nut” in friendly humor…because some people spend a lot more time with Strava than I do and they give out “kudos” to all their Strava friends everytime one of them logs something, post photos of where they were doing their session, etc)
Though not all rowing sessions are always or even usually mentioned in the blog, the “live” (interactively viewable) data for each and every erg workout session for any day whatsoever can be seen in detail by clicking this: link to the online logbook. To view a session’s data and interactive graph click the “+” sign in “Action” column for that session.
For other than Concept 2 erg sessions, refer to the Strava information, above.
Happy rowing, jogging, running etc to you!
This morning I woke with atrial fibrillation for the first time in several days. And when I looked at my watch its algorithm said that I may have been “overreaching.”
That’s the main reason I got this watch, to find out if it could help me in determining how much workout is okay.
For the past few days I’ve been setting the distance to 5 miles, walking 1 out of those 5 miles and jogging the other 4.
Just in case the algorithm is correct, I’ll do less jogging today. Perhaps only a mile instead of four. (note: this is being edited after today’s jogging. See further below).
There was another possible contributing factor which may have figured in to the atrial fibrillation happening again, but it was something the watch and its software don’t measure.
Afternoon workout time was about an hour of walking with 1 mile of jogging in the middle. Heart rate started out in atrial fibrillation and finished in normal rhythm. Praise God!
Though not all workout sessions are always or even usually mentioned in the blog, the “live” (interactively viewable) data for each and every erg workout session for any day whatsoever can be seen in detail by clicking this: link to the online logbook. To view a session’s data and interactive graph click the “+” sign in “Action” column for that session.
Happy rowing, jogging, running etc to you!
Since sometime in late January of this year, I’ve switched from mostly erg work to mostly running. More accurately, it should be called jogging, because the pace at which I run is about as slow as I can manage without walking.
Here’s a link to a Strava view of yesterday’s jogging: click here . If you don’t have Strava you won’t be able to view it but you should be able to see it on the Polar version, whether or not you have any of the Polar apps. Polar isn’t trying to force people to use their apps, like Strava is, because Polar is more interested in selling their gear.
To see the Polar version, click here .
Though not all workout sessions are always or even usually mentioned in the blog, “live” (interactively viewable) data for any and every erg workout session for any day whatsoever can be seen in detail by clicking this: link to the online logbook. To view a session’s data and interactive graph click the “+” sign in “Action” column for that session.
For jogging sessions… I’m working on making the data available.
Happy rowing, jogging, running etc to you!
Today’s main workout was 10K rowing. Heart rate monitor wasn’t working correctly so that’s the reason this turned out to be a season best 10K… I never saw HR go too fast and therefore didn’t have to slow down for it…ha ha. Maybe I should just not wear a heart-strap?
If you look at the red line for heart rate on the graph, you’ll notice that for most of the session heart rate was around 54. I suspect it had something to do with wher the strap was mounted on my arm and the stroke rate. I was rowing at a stroke rate of about 27 most of the time. Each stroke is two arm movements, one on the drive and the other on the recovery. 2 X 27 = 54 and I think the heart strap was measuring that with its detector lights instead of heart rate most of the time.
This 10K was slower than any other year’s season best but it was the fastest this season so it is the slowest fastest 10K season best.
Though not all workout sessions for the day are always or even usually mentioned in the blog, “live” (interactively viewable) data for any and every workout session for any day whatsoever can be seen in detail by clicking this: link to the online logbook. To view a session’s data and interactive graph click the “+” sign in “Action” column for that session.
Happy rowing to you!