Rate of Perceived Exertion 3

Burning More Than A Snickers

Burning calories is one of the common motivations people have for running on a treadmill.

Before starting today’s workout session there was no plan for what to do.

Usually, I decide what the workouts will be before entering the 10 foot by 10 foot room where SkiErg and rowing machine hang out, but not this morning. This morning, I was detachedly observing my subconscious as it tried to steer me away from that room.

Rather than give in to the subconscious nudges urging me to procrastinate, I just walked into the room and changed into workout clothes.

Normally this is enough to get things going and it worked again today.

The main workout today was a 200 Calorie session on the SkiErg. That session had a goal of keeping pace as close as possible to 2:17/500 meters. It was done at RPE Level 3.

Following the SkiErg session, there was a 1,000 meter rowing warm down which was interrupted for a few minutes after about 500 meters.

All totaled, the two sessions burned a little more energy than a 1.9 ounce, 250 Calorie Snickers candy bar. It has been years since I’ve had a candy bar but I may still be carrying around some calories from a few of the candy bars I ate in the distant past.

Though the figures above are for woman who is 5’7″, 35 years old and weighs 144 lbs, its gives a good ballpark figure of comparison for how hard anyone has to work to burn a Snickers.

The total workout time for today’s two rather brief and easy sessions was about 24 minutes.

Chart and data for today’s SkiErg session.

RowPro report for today’s very short rowing session.

Happy rowing to you!

High and Low Energy

Care to guess which is high and which is low energy?

Erg workouts today were a single session on each machine again.

Repeating yesterday’s SkiErg session of 200 Calories, the SkiErg session today was done slightly faster than yesterday’s. Today’s pace was 2:18. Yesterday’s was a slower 2:19. Today’s SkiErg RPE was level 3.

Getting lazy after sitting on the rowing machine, I watched videos and rowed very slowly. The rowing distance today was 7,000 meters at a pace of about 2:41. Though it was a tiny bit faster than yesterday’s rowing session, it was 3,000 meters shorter. Today’s rowing RPE was level 1.

Finish screen for today’s 7,000 meters rowing.

RowPro graphs for today’s 7,000 meters rowing.

Happy rowing to you !

Fartlek Is What You Make It

Most people who are familiar with the term “fartlek” think of it in connection with running, but a varying pace can apply to any activity that involves pacing. In today’s case it was rowing. It is no coincidence that these runners look happy – happiness is one of the purposes of changing the pace.

The above photo was found among many photos relevant to fartlek, on a website called Running In India, in an article on that site, titled “Fartleking Around,” by Christine Pemberton.

Today’s workout was limited to rowing only and it was an accomplishment to simply get it done, because there was an inner wrestling match with inertia until the last minute. At the last minute, when I was comfortable and chatting like a bluejay on the sofa, the household muse provided the necessary inspiration to overcome the inertia when she inquired, “Are you ever going to row?” And … off I went, to row.

The piece of rowing was 10,000 meters done as a fartlek. Fartlek is a somewhat strange word (unless you speak Swedish) which means a variable pace. But depending on which source you consult for a definition of fartlek, the definite meaning will vary. However, no matter which particular definition you prefer, all definitions have one thing in common which is a varying pace.

I chose to understand the word to mean a deliberate and somewhat chaotic varying of pace, without further specification.

Sometimes, a constant pace is what my inner rower desires. But not today. Today my inner rower wanted a measure of chaos and variety.

Finish screen for today’s 10,000 meter rowing session.

Report for today’s 10,000 meter rowing session.

RowPro graphs for today’s 10,000 meter rowing session.

Concept 2 chart, and more, for today’s 10,000 meter rowing session.

Happy rowing to you!

AM and PM

Finish screen for today’s 10K rowing session.

Today’s workouts were spread out from morning to evening. The first workout was 10K rowing in the morning. There was no time for anything else after the rowing session, but a SkiErg session was done in early evening.

RowPro graphs for today’s 10K rowing session.

Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 10K rowing session.

Chart and some data for today’s SkiErg session.

Happy rowing to you!

Heart-Warming Rate, Rhythm and Recovery

One of the categories associated with today’s blog post is “Heart Strangeness”, which is the category I use when there is abnormal heart behavior during a workout. The abnormal behaviors have been: atrial fibrillation (irregular heart rhythm), excessively high heart rate, a slow or non-recovery of heart rate after hard work, or a combination of two or more of those.

There have been so many workouts recently with “heart strangeness,” that I was surprised to have everything normal today. Therefore, the category of “Heart Strangeness” was tacked on today to take note of and celebrate its ABSENCE.

The three r’s of heart rate, heart rhythm and heart rate recovery after hard intervals were all normal or – as some astronauts used to say – they were AOK.

There were two workouts. First, 10,000 meters at a constant pace of 2:18/500 meters on the rowing machine. The rowing session was a nice warmup for intervals on the SkiErg. The SkiErg session was preset to continue until 155 Calories had been burned. It was done with alternate intervals of hard/easy 10 Calorie work/rest intervals. The graphical picture of normal heart rate recovery after each interval on the SkiErg was heart-warming to behold.

Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 10,000 meter rowing session.

Chart and data for today’s 155 Calorie SkiErg session.

Happy rowing to you!

A Recovery Day 10K

Continuing the past few days’ theme relating to rockets, the above photo is showed parts of someone’s recovered rocket.

Today’s workout was done as a recovery session after yesterday’s harder work on the SkiErg. It was a steady though sloppy pace for all but the last few hundred meters. Picked up the pace a bit near the end. There were a few brief bits of atrial fibrillation but none of them lasted long. In almost every instance of Afib, the heart rate display went to zero when the fluttery bits happened.

After finishing, I noticed that I hadn’t yet ranked a rowing 10K this season, so this one was entered into the online rankings.

Finish screen for today’s recovery day 10K.

RowPro report for today’s recovery day 10K.

RowPro graphs for today’s recovery day 10K.

Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s recovery day 10K.

Happy rowing to you!

A Cautious Day

This caution sign seemed appropriate for the top of today’s post. It was found on a website whose focus is dark matter and related stuff. A link to the website where it was found is in the text of the first paragraph below.

Today was a cautious workout day. Avoidance of atrial entropy was the reason for caution. The above image seemed appropriate as a header for today’s blog post. It was found on a website about dark matter and related stuff. Pardon my lack of precision after merely glancing at a few articles on the website, which is titled: Dark Matters a Lot

The reason for today’s caution was today’s Morning Readiness score with the EliteHRV app.

The cautious approach chosen was: Do one workout each, on SkiErg and rowing machine, but do each of them moderately without getting carried away with exuberant effort no matter how good I felt.

The SkiErg workout was done first, as a 141 Calorie session with alternating work/rest intervals of about 10 calories each. Following the SkiErg, a 30 minute rowing session was done as single combination session consisting of 2 minute warmup, four 4-minute intervals and a warm down.

Atrial entropy didn’t increase, so the two sessions must have been sufficiently moderate.

After the SkiErg session a 30 minute rowing session was done. This is a view of the finish screen for that rowing session.

Report for today’s 30 minute rowing session.

RowPro graphs for today’s 30 minute rowing session.

Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 30 minute rowing session.

Happy rowing to you!

Workout Circuit Interrupted

This curious looking photo was chosen for the top of today’s blog post only because it is a photo of an interrupter. ( For more about it see this Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_circuit_interrupter )

Today’s workout wasn’t much of a circuit: A 140 Calorie SkiErg workout followed by a 30 minute rowing session. The SkiErg session was completed but the rowing session was interrupted and cut short, from the planned 30 minutes, to a little more than 10 minutes.

The SkiErg session was done first, without interruption.

A little more than 1/3 of the planned rowing session was done before interruption.

Graph of what little rowing was done today.

Happy rowing to you!

Software and Heartware Glitches

The SkiErg session was done first today. This is a screenshot of its chart and some of its datat. The area circled on the heart rate graph is where heart rate was too high for the effort.

Today’s erg workouts in the order in which they were done were: SkiErg workout of 139 Calories and rowing erg workout structured as 12X1minuteR45seconds within a continuous 30 minute session.

There was one software glitch with RowPro during the 3rd split of the 30 minute session. It is circled on the rowing session report. There were two heartware glitches, one during the SkiErg session and the other during the rowing session. They are circled on their respective graphs.

Another interesting thing in regard to the heart today was that in the moments while I was standing on the SkiErg before starting today’s 139 Calorie SkiErg workout, heart rate was unusually low, at about 50 BPM. Its usually in the 60’s or higher when I’m standing like that. (see screenshot immediately below).

Surprisingly low heart rate while I was standing on the SkiErg before starting work on today’s 139 Calorie session.

Finish screen view of the rowing session.

Report for rowing session. The circles in three of the columns are errors by RowPro 5.0 for the Mac. The bottom line summaries are correct, however.

Graphs of today’s rowing session. The circled areas are where heart rate was too high and also irregular.

Happy rowing to you!

HR Interference, Ho Hum

Today’s main session was anticipated as being a lot of fun. It was to be a short but lively set of three 750 meter intervals, with each interval followed by one minute of rest. But irregular heart rate bungled its way onto the scene again, after the first interval, so I had to slow down and take it easy for the rest of the session.

A screen recording was made of the rowing session but I decided not to upload it, since it was not done the way intervals should be done.

Afterwards, I did another work/rest SkiErg session, for 134 Calories.