Row-Along Video Recorded – Page 5

Spoilsport Heart

My heart’s behavior during today’s rowing fit the definition of this word.

I was looking forward to the rowing session today. It was a 6,000 meter piece and the plan was to row at about 2:06 until the last 500 meters and then row faster to the finish. If all had gone according to plan, the 6K would have been done in about 25 minutes or less. But the plan assumed regular heart rhythm.

And today, for whatever reason it has not shared with me, my heart was a spoilsport and began acting erratically after 4 or 5 minutes of rowing. Everything felt fine and I might not have known anything was irregular, if it had not been for the heart strap. When heart rate spiked from around 130 to 180, I decided to slow down and let the heart computer* sort things out in its programming pathways and circuits. After 20 something minutes, the rhythm settled down to what seemed like normal. But by then there was no chance of finishing the piece in 25 minutes or less, according to the original hopeful plan. So I picked up the pace a little bit but kept it very easy from there until the finish.

After finishing the 6K, I did another 1K, to bring the grand total up to the day’s minimum distance goal of 10K.

For any of you who’d like to row along with a very easy 6K, a screen recording was made and its link is here: Indoor Rowing 6K with spoilsport heart 12052018

Finish screen for 6K portion of today’s rowing.

Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 6K.

Happy rowing to you.

*”Heart computer” is a figure of speech in this instance. There is no pacemaker, bionics, etc in my body.

Anticipating The HRV Coach

This helpful diagram relating to things that influence Heart Rate Variability was found on the blog/website called Minding The Borderlands

Today’s rowing session was the third day in a row in which I boldly included a small degree of relatively intensive (for me) rowing. The reason I have been so bold is because I recently ordered a device which will enable me to get a daily reading of Heart Rate Variability, to use as a “coach”, “guide” or whatever analogy you’d like to use for the biomarker or medical “signpost” provided by the day to day trend of HRV.

Before learning about HRV, I had backed off from and mostly avoided rowing very hard, lest I overdo it and cause injury of some sort. But after reading about and watching video talks about HRV, it looks like the answer to that problem. If properly used, the cumulative analysis of daily HRV readings can tell if a person is stressed to the point where rest is needed.

The image at the top of today’s entry is from a website named Minding the Borderlands, in an informative article focusing on HRV titled “Heart Rate Variability: The Amazing Biomarker for Understanding Our Body, Health and Fitness“.

Today’s session was 30 minutes online in the company of several others who were located in the US and Europe. Though I finished a distant last place compared to all the others, I rowed at what was for me a relatively intensive pace compared to what has been typical for quite a while. It felt good.

For those of you who would like to row-along with today’s session, a screen recording has been uploaded and is available at this link: Indoor Rowing 30 mins online and WD 12042018

Finish screen for 30 minute portion of today’s total meters.

Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 30 minutes.

Happy rowing to you.

Four Easy Pieces

Today’s indoor rowing consisted of four pieces, in this chronological order: 30 minutes online with a training partner, 1K online warm down, 2K offline with a RowPro paceboat (a RowPro 5 for the Mac bug was uncovered during this session) and a 500 meter warm down.

The only screen recording made was of the 2K. For those who’d like to row along with that 2K, the link is here: Indoor Rowing 2K with pace boat 12032018

The 30 minute piece was done at a pace that was determined by the other rower, who was aiming for a constant heart rate of between 80% and 85% of his maximum heart rate, to make it an AT session for him. So his rowing pace slowed gradually through the 30 minutes, to keep his heart rate fairly constant. I paced him and my heart rate remained fairly constant. The 1K warm down was done at a pace of about 2:28. The 2K was done at a pace of 2:06 for the first 1,500 meters and then faster for the final 500. The 500 meter warm down was done super slow.

Concept 2 online logbook graph for the 2K.

The last piece was this 500 meter warm down.

Happy rowing to you.

Late Start Little Time To Spare

Finish screen for the 2nd of 3 pieces today, the 2K.

Today’s indoor rowing consisted of 3 pieces. But I have little time to spare to blog about them so I will just share a little but not “all” like usual. If you want to see more, say so in comments and I will return another day to edit and add more screenshots.

The first and main piece was 10K done online with company, at an overdistance pace. The 2nd piece was 2K done at 2:07 until the last 400 meters when I indulged in what was for me a little bit of intensive rowing. The 3rd piece was an extremely leisurely 1,700 meters, to reach a goal in the current Concept 2 challenge.

A screen recording was made of the 10K but it hasn’t been uploaded to YouTube and won’t be unless one of you readers asks for it. A screen recording was made of the 2K and is available here: Indoor rowing 2K 12022018

Report for the first of three pieces done today, the overdistance 10K.

Of the three pieces rowed today, the 2K took the least time but was the most fun. This is the RowPro chart for that 2,000 meter session.

Happy rowing to you.

Herding The Heart Rate Cat

Today’s main rowing session was 10K with a target heart rate of 123 BPM. That target was chosen because it is the top end of what is assumed to be my “UT2 training band”.

If a target heart rate is specified with RowPro, it paints a target zone on the screen. To make that target zone a bit wider than what would have been a horizontal line for 123 BPM, I specified a lower value of 120 and upper value of 126, then tried to keep the HR line in the middle of that area while rowing. It sounds easy, but sometimes the heart behaves a bit illogically and takes a dive though the effort level is unchanged. Or should I say, though I didn’t perceive the effort level to have changed? The heart did that a few times, so I had to spike the effort when it acted that way, to bring it right back up into the painted zone. Each time I spiked the effort, heart rate would sort of reluctantly climb back up into the zone, then I would slow down but it would usually overshoot the zone anyway, so I’d have to slow down even more.

It reminded me of the idiom, “herding cats,” which also inspired today’s title.

The above photo of a dog who seems intent on herding a cat who appears intent on ignoring the dog was found on the website/blog called To Breathe Is To Write.

A screen recording was made and is available for any of you who would like to row along with it, at this link: Indoor Rowing 10K w Target HR 123 12012018

Happy rowing to you.

Steady Overdistance 10K And Supplemental 2K

Finish screen for the 10K. It was done online, with a rower who was in Canada.

Today’s indoor rowing consisted of two pieces. The first was 10K done with steady-state effort at an average pace of 2:23. The second was a 2K done the same way but at an average pace of 2:15.

A screen recording was made of the 10K and it will be available for those of you who want to row-along. It’s link will be active in a few hours from now at this location: Indoor Rowing 10K Online with Canada 11302018

Happy rowing to you.

Some Overdistance Then A Warm Down Mixing-Up

Today’s indoor rowing consisted of two pieces. The first and main one was 10K done online in the company of America, Canada and England-located rowers. That 10K was done by me at a pace which some describe as a combination of pace and % heart rate maximum which classifies it as “overdistance”. At any rate, it felt easy and good.

The second piece was 2K done offline as a warm down, at variable paces.

There is no screen recording of the 10K because it didn’t occur to me until after we started rowing and I didn’t want to interrupt the flow of things. There is, however, a screen recording of the 2K warm down. It was done at widely varying paces but none of the paces was held constant for more than a second or two. The link for that recording, if you’d like to row-along with it, is here: Indoor Rowing Warm Up or Warm Down Mixup 11292018

RowPro graphs for today’s 10K overdistance.

Concept2 online logbook chart for today’s 10K

Happy rowing to you.

Steady-State Online

Finish screen for the 10K portion. There was a 1K warm down following it.

Today’s rowing session was 10K online in the company of another rower who is in the same “ballpark” of rowing capability as me. He rowed a steady state pace, after rowing a bit faster at the start to raise his heart rate to where he wanted it. I paced him. By very subjective “perceived effort,” I categorized today’s session as a little bit more than “easy” and therefore it is categorized as “medium”. That’s only relative to me, of course. Your perceived effort will vary, depending on your age, conditioning etc.

A screen recording was made for those of you who’d like to row-along with the session. It will be available a few hours from the time this is posted, at this link: Indoor Rowing 10K and WD online 11282018

Happy rowing to you.

Slow With Scattered Scampering

Today’s session was 10K. It was scheduled yesterday but no other RowPro-enabled rowers were available to join so it was done solo.

After 15 minutes, I varied the pace a little faster, for 4 minutes, then 3 minutes slower and repeated that for a total of 4 cycles.

The thing I found the most interesting about today’s rowing session was the resulting graph of heart rate per split, the way the two lines stayed so very close to each other throughout their session graph.

That particular chart usually looks more like it did yesterday. I’m inserting yesterday’s HR/Split chart above today’s, so you can see the difference.

A screen recording was made for those of you who’d like to row-along with it. The screen recording is available at this link: Indoor Rowing 10K Easy Online Solo 11272018

Compared to today’s chart, the graph lines of heart rate and pace almost look un-correlated.in this chart of yesterday.

Today’s graphs of pace and heart rate per split immediately caught my eye, as appearing different than usual.

Concept 2 online logbook chart of today’s session.

Happy rowing to you.

Better Late Than Skip Another Day

Sleep schedule discombobulation resulted in a very late sleep-in today. Though I prefer to row in the a.m., p.m. is better than skipping yet another day, so I scheduled an online session for this afternoon at 4 p.m. local time. Happily, there was one other rower for whom that was a workable time to row and he joined the session.

The other rower inspired me to go a little bit faster. I watched as his lead increased and wondered if I could row at a pace fast enough to keep his lead to less than 1,000 meters by the time he finished. When it became certain that wouldn’t happen, I decided to change my goal for the session to keeping his lead to less than 1,100 meters by the time he finished. It resulted in a season best 10K time for me, but no change in my placement in the Concept 2 online logbook rankings.

A screen recording was made for those of you who’d like to row-along. The screen recording will be available later this evening, at this link: Indoor Rowing 10K with Online Inspiration 11262018

Happy rowing to you.