Today’s main session was to do 10K on SkiErg, for the Concept 2 February challenge. This certificate was the reward.
Today was the the day before the deadline to do 10K on the SkiErg, for the Concept 2 February 2019 challenge. I wasn’t looking forward to it, because I’d not done any SkiErg distance over 5K and didn’t know what pace or drag factor would be best. So I decided to simply be satisfied to do the distance at any pace and then use resulting average pace as a target next time.
A complication was this very poor reading from EliteHRV this morning. But since the HRV session heart rate graph had an artifact and it appeared not to have compensated correctly, I decided to ignore it.
Sleep logged by the SleepWatch app was good, at 7 hours.
Finish screen for today’s 10K on the SkiErg.
At the start of today’s 10K, the pace I had in mind was about 2:21. But after the first 1,000 meters I decided to just do the distance at an easy pace, with some variation in pace and a few intervals of 100 meters or more once in a while. It worked out well. I sweated a LOT, as evidenced by the large wet spot on the towel that covered the SkiErg platform. So I rated it at RPE Level 7 even though I was breathing easy most of the time. The RPE chart (it is in the Terms and Abbreviations area of this blog) is not an exact science gauge.
Report for today’s 10K on the SkiErg.RowPro graphs for today’s 10K on the SkiErg.
Though Atrial Fibrillation wasn’t really wanted, it was definitely given an invitation with today’s rowing session, because I pushed harder in this session than in the session on Feb 24th when it crashed the party. Needless to say, I’m happy it declined the invitation.
Today’s main workout was 30 minutes at a target pace of 2 minutes 6 seconds/500 meters. It was another experiment, like yesterday’s, to see if atrial fibrillation would develop. It didn’t show up and the session went smoothly, with plenty to spare at the end for a little bit of a sprint.
Total calorie burn today, including warmups and warmdowns, was 790 calories. All of it was on the rowing machine except for 51 calories on the SkiErg during a preliminary warm-up. If you are logged in to concept2.com online logbook, you can look at them all in my log, which is open to all logged-in viewers. But I’m only going to post screenshots for the 30 minute session in this blog post.
The 30 minute session was done at RPE Level 7. All the rest were done at RPE Level 1 or 2.
Today’s EliteHRV morning readiness was a green light for no speed-limit rowing.
Last night’s sleep logged by SleepWatch app was more than enough, at 7 hours 45 minutes, even though there was a large interruption in the middle of the night.
Finish screen for today’s 30 minute session.
RowPro report for today’s 30 minute session.
RowPro graphs for today’s 30 minute session.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 30 minute session.
Today’s workouts consisted of first a 10 minute warmup on the rowing machine at RPE Level 1, followed by ten intervals on the SkiErg at RPE Levels 7 to 9. There was a 2 minute RPE Level 1 period of active rest after each interval.
The SkiErg intervals were arranged as 5 minutes at 40 SPM, 4 minutes at 42 SPM, 3 minutes at 44 SPM, 2 minutes at 46 SPM and 1 minute at 48 SPM. Each was followed immediately by the 2 minute active rest. The entire sequence was then repeated one more time.
It was VERY challenging, to achieve the target stroke ratings of 40, 42, 44, 46 and 48 SPM for each of the five intervals. I only managed to achieve the exact average for the target SPM for 3 of the 10 intervals.
For the first 5 minute interval I had the drag factor too high with the damper set at 7. For the next interval I reduced the drag factor by moving the damper to 6. After each subsequent interval, I moved the damper a bit lower until it was at 3 by the time the first 5 intervals were completed.
For the second 5 intervals, I left the damper at 3.
Today’s heart rate variability reading with EliteHRV was a green light for any kind of workout.
Last night’s sleep was good with 7 hours 10 minutes logged.
Finish screen for the 10 intervals done today on the SkiErg.
Report for the 10 intervals done today on the SkiErg.
RowPro graphical overview for the 10 intervals done today on the SkiErg.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for the first of 10 intervals done today on the SkiErg. You can see how heart rate kept rising even though my effort level was fading… that’s why I kept adjusting the damper level lower, looking for a drag factor that was sustainable for the entire interval. If you want to see charts for each of the rest of them, you can do so by logging in to your Concept 2 logbook account, finding me in the RowPro Rowers virtual club and clicking on my profile, then clicking to view my log, which is accessible to anybody who is logged in. Then click on the + sign to the right of today’s log entry for this session. On the next screen, you will see a line for each interval and a line for each rest. If you click on the line for each interval, you will be able to see the chart for each respective interval. There are no charts to see for the rests.
Finish screen for today’s 5000 meter rowing session.
Today’s aerobic workouts consisted of first doing 5K on the rowing machine. The 5K was wrapped around three intervals of 500 meters each, like yesterday’s rowing 5K. It was RPE Level 4.
After the rowing, I did six intervals of 500 meters each, on the SkiErg. The target pace for each of the 500 meter intervals was going to be 2:10 to 2:11, but after the first interval at target pace, I faded during the second interval and went a lot slower during the final 5 of 6 intervals. The SkiErg session was RPE Level 10 for sweating but RPE Level 7 for breathing.
Report for today’s 5000 meter rowing session.
RowPro graphs for today’s 5000 meter rowing session.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 5000 meter rowing session.
Finish screen for SkiErg intervals.
RowPro reportfor SkiErg intervals.
RowPro graphs for SkiErg intervals.
SkiErg Interval 1 of 6.
SkiErg Interval 2 of 6.
SkiErg Interval 3 of 6.
SkiErg Interval 4 of 6.
SkiErg Interval 5 of 6.
SkiErg Interval 6 of 6.
Today’s Morning Readiness reading,Last night’s sleep was fairly good quality, 5 hours 35 minutes.
Today’s workout was a pair of 5k sessions, one on the SkiErg and one on the rowing machine.
For the SkiErg 5K, I reduced the drag factor to what I hoped would allow a rating of about 45 SPM. But the drag factor still seemed a bit high and most of the session was done at a rating of 37 to 42 SPM. That seems to be the “secret” to having a faster pace on the SkiErg – the SPM has to be a lot higher than it would ever be when rowing. Arms aren’t nearly as strong as legs, so the SkiErg stroke rate using mostly the arms has to be higher for any pace than stroke rate would be on the rowing machine which mostly uses leg power.
The SkiErg 5K was done at RPE Level 7 or at least it felt strenuous enough to be that level though I wasn’t breathing as hard as the RPE Level chart seems to indicate for Level 7. (You can see a copy of the RPE chart in the Terms and Abbreviations tab on the home page of this blog)
I sweated a lot during the SkiErg session but barely perspired during the rowing session, if that counts for anything regarding the Rates of Perceived Exertion.
After the SkiErg 5K, I did 5K at a more moderate effort on the rowing machine and included a 500 meter sprint at a moderate sprint pace, every 1000 meters for a total of three 500 meter sprint intervals. The 5K rowing session was done at RPE Level 4 for the slower rowing and RPE Level 8 for the 500 meter intervals.
Report for the SkiErg 5,000 meters.
RowPro graphs for the SkiErg 5,000 meters.
Concept 2 online logbook chartfor the SkiErg 5,000 meters.
Finish screen for the Rowing 5,000 meters.
Report for the Rowing 5,000 meters.
RowPro graphs for the Rowing 5,000 meters.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for the Rowing 5,000 meters.
Today’s EliteHRV Morning Readiness reading.
Last night’s sleep of 6 hours 45 minutes was good quality.
Today’s EliteHRV morning readiness analysis was good again.
Last night’s sleep was a little short at 6 hours 10 minutes, but it was good sleep with no insomnia interruption.
Today’s main session was rowing until arriving at a total of 800 calories, done at RPE level 7. The main session is available as a screen recording for those who’d like to row-along. It’s link on YouTube is: Indoor Rowing 800 Calories 01212019
The Concept 2 rowing machine is an ergometer and it accurately measures work. It registered 800 calories for the main rowing session today, but the Apple Watch, which independently logged the workout as a rowing session, shows quite a few less calories than the Concept 2 ergometer. So don’t rely on the Apple Watch calorie count if you do a rowing workout.
Today’s second of three sessions was another attempt on the SkiErg to do a one minute sprint. The sprint was done at RPE level 9 and it was a better result than yesterday’s because I didn’t start out too fast and was able to maintain the pace for the entire minute. The third and last session today was going to be another attempt at a 500 meter sprint on the SkiErg, but I started out too fast or didn’t have a suitable drag factor setting (or perhaps I was too tired??), so I let that “sprint” fade into a warm down and the resulting RPE for the 500 meters was Level 4.
Finish screen for 800 calorie rowing.
Report for 800 calorie rowing at RPE level 7.
RowPro graphs for 800 calorie rowing.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for 800 calorie rowing.
There is no report or graph for the 100 meter sprint on SkiErg because it wasn’t done with RowPro but above is a screenshot of the summary data.
The final session for the day was 500 meters on the SkiErg which started out as an attempt to improve the previous, ranked result. But I started out too fast to maintain it so let it fade into a warm down. Heart rate fade lagged behind the fade of effort level.
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.
Finish screen for 1 minute sprint.Finish screen for 8224 meter session.
