Rate of Perceived Exertion 2 – Page 6

Racing Father Time

Today’s EliteHRV Morning Readiness analysis was very low. But I had problems going to sleep and staying that way last night which resulted in staying in bed until a little past NOON(!) today. Therefore, the EliteHRV reading was several hours late. The readings are supposed to be taken about the same time every day. I decided to disregard today’s reading, since it was taken much later than it should have been.

Last night’s sleep was more than enough at 9hours 10minutes but it was poor quality due to an interruption of wide-awakeness and some Atrial fibrillation.

Today’s main rowing session was 30 minutes online. It wasn’t a race, because there was an agreement between the other guy and me that we’d aim for a pace of 2:10 and I would pace him. I enjoy pacing another rower. I also enjoy racing, which might be why thoughts, cognition and imaginations of racing came to mind during the session. In the midst of that cloud of race-themed neuron activity, entered the thought that both the other guy and me are each in a race against the fictional figure, “Father Time”. We row daily and do other workouts, to avoid being ravaged by some of the effects of passing time which can be mitigated or avoided through aerobic activity.

The 30 minute online session was done at RPE Level 5 and it’s available as a screen recording for those who’d like to row-along. It’s link is: Indoor Rowing Online 30 mins 01252018

Like last night’s sleep was bothered by atrial fibrillation, today’s 30 minute session was also visited by Afib. However it wasn’t the kind of Afib that changes into tachycardia – it just manifested itself with occasional feelings of fluttering and causing the heart strap to lose track of its count which caused the heart rate display to go blank. After about 15 minutes it settled down and went steady again.

The Afib did not reappear after that first 30 minute session. I did 8 more sessions after the 30 minute piece, some on the rowing machine and the rest of them on the SkiErg and there was no more Afib with any of those.

The RPE Levels for the sessions after the 30 minute session were: RPE Level 2 for the 2K warm down, RPE Level 3 for the 3,000 meter piece, RPE Level 10 for the 100 meter sprint and all the rest of them were done at RPE Level 4.

Finish screen for the main 30 minute session.

The atrial fibrillation was during the first part of the 30 minutes, where heart rate kept disappearing.

Concept 2 online logbook chart for the main 30 minute session.

Chart of the session following the 30 minutes – a 2K warm down with no Atrial fibrillation.

Chart of the 3rd of nine sessions today. This was a 3K and there was no atrial fibrillation.

This is a listing of all nine of today’s sessions on rowing machine and SkiErg. The one that was the most fun was also the shortest – the 100 meter sprint on SkiErg.

Happy rowing to you!

A Text Message Invitation To Row

Do you check your email frequently or have notifications turned on so that your phone alerts you every time you receive a new email? I don’t. Too many emails. So the only time I know there’s new email is when I log in to the email account.

A problem with that, it turned out, was that once recently when one of my training partners wanted to do a rowing session online, I didn’t see his email until too late. So I told him that it would be okay if he wanted to send a text message for any scheduled online rowing sessions, to make sure I knew about them enough in advance to say yea or nay.

Today, he took me up on that and sent a text message. (Screenshot of that text message is at the top of this post.) About 40 minutes after his text, we were online and rowing an hour session together even though we are each located somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 miles away from each other. One of the nicer “wonders” of the internet. Even though it is “virtual” company when you row online with one or more other people, it makes the session a lot more enjoyable than rowing alone.

Today’s EliteHRV Morning Readiness analysis was that any kind of workout would be okay.

Plenty of sleep last night, at 7 hours 15 minutes.

So the main rowing done today was a 60 minute piece, online at a breezy pace which felt like RPE 2. A screen recording was made for those of you who’d like to have it to row-along with. It is available at this link: Indoor Rowing 60 mins online 01142019

After the 60 minute piece, I rowed a 4 minute session. Did that because I hadn’t yet rowed a 4 minute session this season and I thought it would be nice to put it in the rankings. It was done with a pace boat and a target pace of about 2:05. It felt like about RPE 4. A screen recording for rowing-along with it is available at this link: Indoor Rowing 4 minutes 01142019

Finish screen view of today’s 60 minutes online.

Finish screen view of today’s 4 minute piece.

There was only one brief moment of heart strangeness (Afib) today and it happened during the last half of the 4 minute session, where you can see a downward spike to zero in heart rate. That’s where heartbeat fluttered briefly, becoming irregular and the heart strap transmitter couldn’t provide a coherent signal to display.

Concept 2 online logbook chart of today’s 4 minute session.

Happy rowing to you!

Heart Strangeness In Uncharted Territory

This morning’s EliteHRV Readiness reading was optimal for any kind of rowing…

Today began with a good HRV reading, so there were no restrictions regarding rowing. Also, it followed a good night’s sleep, which was another plus.

Seven hours and forty minutes of good quality sleep last night.

Today’s indoor rowing consisted of two sessions. First, a one minute session which was done just for the sake of putting anything in the rankings for the 1 minute sprint category. Second, was a longer session of 8,224 meters, which was done just for the sake of logging more calories for a current Concept 2 challenge.

The one minute session was preceded by a 750 meter warmup and followed by a 750 meter warm down. The one minute sprint was done with a target pace that would rank me at about the lower 25% of those who had ranked 1 minute sessions to date. That was a pace target of about 1:49/500 meters. I didn’t want to row any faster than that, because the warm up was too short and I wouldn’t really be warmed up enough for an all-out 60 second sprint.

After the one minute sprint was finished, I did an easy 750 meter warm down and that is when the “heart strangeness” happened. It felt like a bit of fluttering and heart rate spiked and remained higher than it should have been for the easy warm down pace. Another strange thing about that strange heart rate behavior during the warm down was that when it spiked, it spiked up to 150 BPM, which is exactly as high as heart rate managed to climb, before the ultra-short 1 minute sprint was finished. Was that a coincidence? Or was that the heart’s way of saying it wanted to sprint for longer than one minute? One minute wasn’t enough indulgence in sprinting? The heart is eager, and “rarin’ to go” racing?

That “strangeness” happened in uncharted territory, because the warm down was tacked on to the 1 minute RowPro session and RowPro does not include tacked-on warmups or warm downs in its charts for the main session report. Below is a screenshot of what heart rate looked like when it spiked during the warm down.

Heart rate had been in the mid- to low-120s during the warmdown, until abour 426 meters remaining, when it spiked up to 150 even though rowing effort remained at a constant, easy level.

A screen recording was made of the entire 1 minute session including its warmup and warm down, so if you view the screen recording, you can see how it acted in real-time on the RowPro screen. The one minute session screen recording is here: Indoor Rowing 1 minute sprint 01122019

For those of you who’d like to row-along with it, a screen recording was also made of the 8,224 meter session and it is available at this link: Indoor rowing 8224 meters 01122019

After the warm down following the 1 minute sprint, I thought I’d have to stop rowing for the rest of the day, but within a few minutes the Afib went away and heart behavior returned to normal, so I did the 8224 meter session in order to bring the day’s total to 10,000 meters and burn a few more calories.

Happy rowing to you!

Worst Ever HRV!

On the brink of death or what? This morning was the worst reading I’ve ever had.

Yes, this morning’s EliteHRV reading was the WORST EVER reading since I’ve been taking the daily Morning Readiness reading. But I ended up discarding it, because though my actual HRV reading might have been poor, it also might have been good… the results were skewed and basically worthless because there were too many data glitches. See additional screenshot below, for what EliteHRV said about today’s reading.

The “artifacts” were due to the fact that I was having a little bout of heart flutter AKA atrial fibrillation.

I got plenty of sleep last night, at 8 hours and 20 minutes. But you can see that heart rate was elevated from about 5:30 AM through the entire remaining time of last night’s sleep – that’s when the heart fluttering happened.

Other than the fluttering heart, I felt okay. It stopped fluttering around midday and I decided to row late in the afternoon, at a moderate pace.

Today’s rowing session was 17,000 meters done for the sake of burning calories. The hope was to burn at least 1,000 calories and that goal was almost reached, with a total of 988 or 989 calories. (The finish screen reported 988 calories and the report says 989 calories).

A screen recording was made for those of you who like to have it to row along with. It is available at this link: Indoor Rowing 17000 meters 01092019

Happy rowing to you!

Rowing For The Calories

Even though I took it easy yesterday, today’s HRV score was lower/worse than yesterday’s. Puzzling.

Though the HRV score yesterday was excellent and I took it easy, today’s HRV score was worse than yesterday’s! I’m missing something here… unless this morning’s lower HRV score was due to last night’s sleep? (See caption of image below)

Perhaps the poor HRV score this morning was due to only getting 5 hours 45 minutes sleep last night, instead of closer to 8 hours?

Because of the poor HRV reading this morning, I only did easy rowing. The goal for today’s rowing was to total at least 1,000 calories, for the Big Burn Challenge (see image below)

Today’s goal of burning at least 1,000 calories while rowing easy was achieved with two pieces: A 10K followed by a 7,700 meter piece. There was a screen recording made of the 7,700 meter piece, for those of you who’d like to row along with it. It is located at this link: Indoor Rowing 7700 meters 01072019

It is now almost 6 hours since today’s easy rowing was finished. When I do “easy rowing,” it is only done by feel. It seemed that 2:20 felt easy, so I aimed for 2:20 and did each of today’s pieces near that pace. But I’m surprised that now, 6 hours later, I’m feeling slight soreness from the rowing! This isn’t “normal”. Is it because I’m “getting old”? or is it because I’m fighting off some kind of bug?

Perhaps the HRV reading tomorrow morning will shed some light on the answer to that question?

Happy rowing to you!

More Catching Up

Today’s EliteHRV Morning Readiness reading allowed for any distance or effort level.

Today’s rowing was mainly for the purpose of catching up on more of the “lost meters” this season. Last season my daily average meters was more than 10K. So far this season the daily average is a little over 5K, so I have a lot of catching up to do between now and the end of the season (April 30th).

More than enough sleep (8 hours 40 minutes) last night contributed to today’s favorable EliteHRV reading.

We got a late start this morning, so there wasn’t as much time for rowing as hoped. The two main indicators I use to tell me if its okay to row hard and/or long distance were both favorable. Those indicators are the EliteHRV Morning Readiness reading and whether I got sufficient sleep. The one that I currently give the most weight to is the EliteHRV Morning Readiness reading.

Since both indicators were “GO FOR IT!” I rowed 24,000 meters. None of it was hard rowing but the distance was sufficient that I feel relaxed for sleep this evening.

The four sessions rowed today were, in chronological order: (1st) 2K distance for warmup, (2nd) 10K online with two other guys, at an easy “overdistance” pace (which in this case meant a pace that would raise HR to no more than 55% to 70% of maximum). After the online 10K, there was a (3rd) 10 minute warm down which was 2,000 meters. Later in the afternoon, I decided to do (4th) another 10K and the plan was to do 2 or 3 intervals of 500 meters each and a final interval of 1,000 meters, with the pace of each interval at about 2:00/500m.

A view of the Concept2 online logbook showing the listing of today’s 4 rowing sessions.

But the heart acted up in its strange fashion and became too irregular to register a heart rate for a lot of the time. When it was registering a heart rate, HR was way too high and once got as high as 230 on the RowPro readout from the Polar heart strap. The Apple watch activity tracker, a separate heart rate logging device, showed high heart rate also. So, after a couple of 500 meter intervals at about the target pace of 2:00/500m, I slowed down for the remainder of the 10K. The main goal of completing the distance was achieved. Immediately below this paragraph is a screenshot of data for stroke number 888 through 918 of the strange-hearted 10K.

Strokes 903 through 913 are the highest heart rate I’ve ever seen displayed when my heart acts strangely.

For those of you who like to row-along with some of the rowing session screen recordings, the only session that was recorded and uploaded to YouTube of today’s four sessions was the warm up. It can be found here: Indoor Rowing Just A Warmup 01032019

Below are images of: The finish screen for today’s first 10K, the report and graphs for that first, easiest 10K and then the report and graph for the second 10K, during which heart was being strange.

Happy rowing to you.

10K Recovery With An Easter Egg

Today’s heart rate variability reading was the surprise you see in the above screenshot. Last night’s sleep was interrupted with insomnia but the total time sleeping was adequate. (see screenshot below)

A bout of insomnia interrupted last night’s sleep between 2 and 4 a.m.

Assuming the analysis and advice of EliteHRV was correct, I chose to do a recovery 10K. “Recovery” is relative and subjective, but a pace of 2:20 seemed like a good compromise, pending what the HRV result will be tomorrow.

So the 10K was done at a target average pace of 2:20 and an “Easter egg,” as a computer programmer might call it, was inserted when the distance counted down to 1,150 meters remaining.

A screen recording was made for those of you who’d like to row along with today’s 10K. It’s link is on YouTube here: Indoor Rowing 10K with Easter egg 12162018

Happy rowing to you.