I count. Sometimes. Today’s session was one of them. By the end of the session, my count had reached 1,204. RowPro (see image below) had counted 1,304 strokes, so I missed incrementing the 100s place one time.
RowPro’s final stroke count for today’s 10K is in the bottom left cell.
Not that it is unusual to row before coffee or breakfast. That’s what I’ve been doing for a while now, and it seems to have a very positive effect on how the heart behaves. No irregular rhythm, if I put off breaking fast for more than 12 hours each day and also do some rowing before eating.
Don’t do what when running? Don’t keep your eyes closed, or you might crash into a tree or a cactus, etc.
But its okay to keep your eyes closed when using a rowing machine.
Which is what I did again today. At the beginning, I set a timer for 40 minutes and opened my eyes when it beeped. Then, I set the timer for another 7 minutes which took me almost to the finish with eyes closed.
Today’s indoor rowing was done at a low rating which worked out to be an average of about 17 strokes per minute for the entire distance. Rowing at a low rating is highly rated in the sense that it is supposed to be a good activity for improving strength.
Last night’s sleep graph. In the Sleep Activity area, white is restless/awake/active and blue is restful=sleep. There was a period of wakefulness=insomnia in the middle of the night, during which I got out of bed. That’s the big white area.
I was probably actually awake during this morning’s 10K session, but it was a trance-like state.
When the alarm went off this morning at 7:40, I had been sleeping very deeply. I went to the rowing machine as soon as possible, to row another 10K for the Concept 2 March challenge.
It felt like I was asleep with my eyes open, when I started rowing. I let the rowing effort be what felt best and the result was a breezy, trance-like rowing experience. It was “breezy”, each time a stroke was finished and the seat reversed its direction of movement on the rail. Each reversal of direction to switch from drive to recovery provided a gentle, caressing breeze. That and the relatively slow movements all added up to a dreamy, caressed-with-sleep experience with each stroke.
In one sense of the word, it could be described as a “romantic” experience. In the same sense, that is, in which some distance and ultra-distance runners have described their individual running experience as “romantic”.