Today’s 500 meter push and final sprint was successfully launched after the countdown on the 5,500 meter launchpad was 100% AOK with all heart systems go.
Today’s main workout was another attempt to do the SkiErg 6K which had to be scrubbed the day before yesterday.
Today’s plan was same as previous: Use a Pace Skier @ 2:19.6 and stay even or slightly ahead until distance counted down to the launch.
The “launch” was a faster pace beginning when 500 meters remained. Pace was increased from start to finish of the final 500 meters and was just short of an all-out sprint during the last 100 meters.
There was a 3 minute warmup before the 6K and there were two warm downs after the 6K. Of those warmup/warm downs, I’ll only show screen shots for the last warm down.
The “launch” is the circled area to the right of the 5,500 meter “launchpad”.
A view of the SkiErg PM5 monitor at about halfway through today’s 5K. I also use the Concept 2 app called ErgData. ErgData is shown on the iPhone which is resting in the $5 cellphone holder perched on top of the PM5. ErgData provides an easy way to save & upload data from each workout, directly to your concept2.com online logbook.
Today’s workout started late again. So it was abbreviated to a main workout on the SkiErg and then a couple of warmdowns.
The SkiErg workout was a 5K done with a tentative target pace of 2:19.6. A “pace skier” was setup on the SkiErg PM5 monitor, for help with staying close to the target pace.
After the SkiErg 5K, there was a 3 minute warmdown on the SkiErg, then a 2,500 meter warmdown on the rowing machine.
Chart and some data for today’s 5K on the SkiErg.
Chart for 3 minute warmdown which was done immediately after the 5K.
Though my heart rate took off like a rocket during today’s SkiErg session, I didn’t notice it until the session was over and I examined the data.
Today’s main workout session was a 2K time trial on the SkiErg. There was also a 30 minute rowing session today which was quite a bit longer, but the rowing session didn’t achieve the spectacular heart rate of the short 2K on the SkiErg.
I was too busy during the SkiErg 2K exercising “mindfulness” by focusing on the pace and the details of the level of pain, to notice heart rate. Also…. one big difference in personal perspective when using the SkiErg, compared to the rowing machine, is on the rowing machine, the person’s head is constantly in the same horizontal plane with respect to the monitor. But when a person is working hard on the SkiErg, the body is doing a series of alternating squatting and standing with each stroke in order to get maximum effort with each stroke. So its not as easy/natural to keep the monitor display in view because it is seeming to move up and down, in relation to the person’s head and its harder to focus on the monitor.
Afterwards when looking at the results, I noticed that heart rate had spiked surprisingly high during the last 500 meters of the SkiErg 2K and topped out at a whopping 201 BPM. It stayed at 201 for several consecutive strokes. I double-checked, by downloading all the data in CSV format for examination in a spreadsheet.
Perhaps a better title for today’s blog post would be, “Heart frolics when not watched closely!” If heart rate had acted that way when I was using the rowing machine, I would have slowed the pace immediately and drastically. But I didn’t notice it, didn’t feel any different and kept on aiming for a target pace in the SkiErg 2K time trial of something faster than the “pace boat” skier. (The pace skier is something you can set up on the SkiErg monitor). I set the pace skier to a pace of 2:12.9 and did glance at it now and then, to make sure I was staying ahead of it.
But I was paying virtually no attention to heart rate, since I felt normal and the result was that the heart got to rev itself up and frolic a bit at 201 beats per minute.
A close-up view of details of heart rate at 7 minutes 22 seconds into the SkiErg 2K. Notice HR = 201.
Finish screen view after today’s rowing session.
RowPro report for today’s rowing session.
RowPro graphs for today’s rowing session.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s rowing session.
Charts and some data for today’s 2K time trial on the SkiErg.
Finish screen for today’s intervals pyramid session.
Today the heart and everything else in the propulsion system cooperated and the workouts happened as planned. The main workout was a set of pyramid intervals of 2-3-4-3-2 minutes within a single 30 minute session.
A screen recording was made of that session, for those of you who’d like to row-along with it. That screen recording is available on YouTube at this link: Indoor Rowing 30 minute pyramid 05082019
After the 30 minutes of rowing, there was a 135 calorie SkiErg session.
Report for today’s intervals pyramid session.
Graphs for today’s intervals pyramid session.
Chart and some data for today’s 135 calorie SkiErg session.
A honeybee hovering in an interval of clarity over a bird of paradise flower.
Today’s workout time was blessed with clarity. That is, there was no confusion of the heart as happened yesterday.
The main session was on the rowing machine. It was a combination of 2,000 meter warmup, three intervals of 750 meters each with 3 minutes active rest after each interval and a 1,000 meter warm down.
After the rowing workout, 132 Calories was burned on the SkiErg.
The rowing intervals session was uploaded to YouTube as a screen recording and is available for those of you who’d like to row-along with it. The video is located at this link: Indoor Rowing 3X750 meters Rest 3 minutes 05052019
The heart rate variability analysis by EliteHRV this morning was a green light. Of course, yesterday’s was also a green light… so I took today’s Morning Readiness reading with a proverbial grain of salt.
Finish screen view immediately after finishing the three 750 meter intervals.
RowPro report for the three 750 meter intervals.
RowPro graph for the three 750 meter intervals.
Chart and data for today’s 132 Calorie SkiErg session.
Need a polynomial function solution? Get cranking!
A computer like the one in the photo above might give you a good workout, if you had a lot of polynomial functions to solve. (The above image was found in a Wikipedia article titled: Computing). But I think I will keep my Mac as main computer and use the Concept 2 ergs for my main calorie burning, heart-rate elevating workouts.
Today’s heart rate variability analysis by the EliteHRV app is as green as a green light can get.
Today I decided to get an early start on making a blog entry, so the paragraph, title and two above images are being posted before I’ve done any workout. There will be an update later today, after the workout(s) are completed.
At the moment, the plan is to do a 30 minute series of intervals on the rowing machine and about 130 calories on the SkiErg.
It is now later in the day and some time was spent on both rowing machine and SkiErg. The main session was the rowing, which was six sets of 2 minute work/1 minute rest intervals. After that, I did a 30 second sprint on the SkiErg and then a 130 Calorie set of work/rest intervals on the SkiErg.
Gazing at daydreams and passing thoughts while sitting and thinking. No matter how old or how young you are, this is something everybody spends some time doing.
While I was changing from rowing clothes back into jeans and t-shirt, my better half walked into the room and remarked, “You worked out for a long time! Are you making up for some missed workouts?” I gazed at her and gathered my thoughts for a moment before responding, “No. It wasn’t a long workout, but I spent a lot of time sitting and thinking.”
Today’s EliteHRV heart rate variability analysis wasn’t quite low enough to give me a reason for a day off.
Today’s rowing workout was 5,000 meters rowing at specific target stroke rates for each of the five 1K splits. The rating targets were 26-24-22- 24-26 Strokes Per Minute. It took a lot of mental focus. I had a dreamy attitude but the wandering thoughts and daydreaming were done before and after the 5K with its targeted strokes-per-minute for each 1K split.
After the rowing, I did a 129 Calorie session on the SkiErg, arranged in alternating splits of 10 calories work/10 calories rest.
Finish screen for today’s 5K piece.
Report for today’s 5K piece. Notice the circled column headed “Avg SPM”. The targets were met for each split except for the 4th split, which was too high at 25 instead of the target of 24 SPM.
RowPro graphsfor today’s 5K piece.
Concept 2 logbook chart for today’s 5K piece.
Chart and data for today’s 129 calories on the SkiErg.
Cactus blossoms were glowing with sunlight this morning.
There were two workouts today. They were both interval sessions. One on the rowing machine and the other on the SkiErg. Afterwards, and now while this is being typed, I feel like I’m tingling all over with the afterglow of the intervals.
Today’s EliteHRV heart rate variability analysis gave permission for any level of effort.
Today’s rowing workout was selected from Concept 2’s suggestions for “workout of the day”. It was called “2 x 10 min short intervals” and the instructive description was: “Pre-set the monitor for a work time of 10:00 and a rest time of 4:00. Each interval alternate between 40 seconds fast rowing and 20 seconds easy rowing. During the rest time continue rowing at light pressure.”
The above photo is a display of one result of Einstein’s formulation of the Theory of Relativity… or his contributions to quantum physics… or both. At any rate, it is showing some of the effects of converting the mass of a few ounces of uranium into energy.
After 8 days without working out, today I finally managed to do a workout on both the rowing machine and SkiErg. There was no earth-shaking result, but it seemed like there was a huge amount of some kind of inertia to overcome when I first started pulling the handle on the rowing machine. The result of today’s workout was to convert about 2 1/2 ounces of my body’s mass into a modest 552 calories of kinetic energy. There was additional energy conversion resulting in heat and myriads of other changes in the body, but those were not measured by the ergometers.
The two ergometers, rowing machine and SkiErg, only measured the kinetic energy required to operate them and that totaled to about 552 Calories. *
Today’s heart rate variability analysis by the EliteHRV app gave a green light for doing a workout.
Today’s workout was once again strictly aerobic. I need to start incorporating resistance/anabolic activity into a few days of each week’s workouts. How do I cultivate that as a habit?
The above question will have to remain unanswered for the moment. Screenshots of today’s workout reports are below. They were a series of 4 minute hard/3 minute easy rowing intervals followed by a series of 10 Calories hard/10 Calories easy cross-country SkiErg intervals:
Finish screen for the rowing intervals.
Report for the rowing intervals.
Graphs for the rowing intervals.
Graphs and data for the SkiErg intervals.
Happy rowing to you!
*If you are a physicist and want to get technical, it totaled to 552 kilo calories.
Today’s EliteHRV morning reading was a vast improvement over yesterday’s and was a “green light” for any sort of workout level.
Today’s main session was another 30 minute time trial. This one was a bit faster than previous, targeting a pace of 2 minutes 4 seconds per 500 meters. It went okay and – surprisingly – heart rate didn’t get as high as the previous, slower 30 minute session of two days ago.
