Category: Rate of Perceived Exertion 2

Today started a bit later than usual so I had coffee and breakfast first, instead of working out first. Then there was a father’s day phone call that lasted about 90 minutes. By the time I got around to doing today’s workout, it was early afternoon.

So I was a bit surprised after changing into rowing clothes, strapping on the heart transmitter and sitting on the erg, to see heart rate at only 44 BPM.

44 beats per minute was the lowest it dipped during the night while I was deeply, soundly asleep. (I wear a watch while sleeping and it monitors heart rate all through the night.) I was now wide awake. Breakfast, 4 cups of coffee and moving around to change clothes should have raised it a bit. But… as I sat there and watched, it even dropped as low as 43 BPM while I looked at the bottom right corner of the RowPro display.

It seemed remarkable enough that I decided to do something I haven’t done for a while and make a screen-recording of today’s rowing session, in case I wanted to replay it and watch how heart rate had behaved. So there is a screen recording of today’s 10K, for those of you who’d like to row along with it or use it as background noise while you fall asleep. It is on YouTube at this link: Indoor Rowing 10K at 2m17sec:500m avg pace 06162019

Though heart rate started out surprisingly low, in the mid 40’s instead of in the 60’s where I would have expected it, it behaved very well during the entire 10K piece. So… I won’t be watching the screen recording.

After the 10K rowing, there was a SkiErg session of alternating work/rest intervals and did the work intervals a lot harder than yesterday’s restrained effort level due to yesterday’s heart strangeness.

No heart strangeness today, unless the surprisingly low heart rate while sitting at the start line counts… and it might… so this blog post is therefore tagged with a “heart strangeness” category label for that reason.

Happy rowing to you!

Today’s workout resembled yesterday’s, with a few small differences. Today’s pace boat was set to a bit faster pace of 2:17 instead of 2:18. The difference amounted to an increase of 4,000 calories work. (4,000 calories = 4 “food Calories” / kilocalories.)

Heart behaved mostly okay during today’s rowing session but occasionally became irregular, causing heart strap receiver to lose count of BPM and display a blank reading for heart rate.

Because of the scattered irregularity during the rowing session, I decided to take it easy on the SkiErg session which immediately followed. Like yesterday’s SkiErg workout, today’s was alternating work/rest intervals of 10 Calories each, to a total of 156 Calories. The total amounted to 1 “food Calorie”) more than yesterday’s 155 Calorie SkiErg session. (See the Terms and Abbreviations page for a bit more about the term calorie or Calorie).

Happy rowing to you!

With strange heart behavior still in mind, today’s workout was a followup of yesterday’s. I may not have mentioned it lately, but I’m also making sure to do these daily workouts before breaking fast for the day, with the hope in mind that it will help the mitochondria better sort out any problems they might be having in relation to the strange heart behavior.

Today’s first session was rowing 10,000 meters at a constant, average pace of 2:20. Heart rate behaved normally again today as it had during yesterday’s similar 10K.

The second session was a SkiErg session similar to yesterday’s, but with one more calorie added to the goal. Heart rate acted up and got strange again during today’s SkiErg session: At 2 minutes 42 seconds into the session, heart rate spiked even though I was in a rest interval. It remained way too high for remainder of the session.

Happy rowing to you!

Today’s erg workouts were like yesterday’s only they were different in minor respects. Today’s 10K was a constant pace. It did not include sprinting or interval(s) like yesterday’s. I’m unscientifically experimenting to see if there is any correlation between higher effort levels and heart strangeness.

Today’s SkiErg session was similar to yesterday’s, with a total goal of one calorie more, 150 Calories. The SkiErg session was not constant paced and consisted of alternating work/rest intervals of 10 calories each.

Heart behavior was normal during today’s rowing session of constant-rate 2:20/500 meter paced 10K. Heart strangeness happened on the SkiErg, in that it took longer than normal for heart rate to recover after each work interval.

After the rowing and SkiErg sessions, a 2 minute rowing warm down was done. The w/d was done at a very easy pace but heart rate remained high during those 2 minutes.

Happy rowing to you!