Apples To Oranges

Finish screen at end of 6,861 meters.

Today’s rowing session was an experiment or perhaps more of an exercise in curiosity.  I noticed that one of my training partners had rowed a fixed distance of a non-standard number of meters.  Instead of rowing a fixed distance of 100, 500, 1000, 2000, 5000, 6000, 10,000 meters or one of the two odd but common distances of 21,097 or 42,195 meters, he had rowed the fixed distance of 6,861 meters.  I’ve done quite a few fixed distance session of non-standard and therefore “odd” distances, but I’ve assumed myself to be in the minority.

Anyway… one thought led to another when I was looking at the summary results of his 6,861 meter rowing session and the result was that I had the idea to row the same distance today, to find out how my ending heart rate compared to his.  Every person’s body is different from everyone else’s in myriad and countless mostly micro-organism, micro-structural ways… so there really isn’t any point to compare two people in that way unless one person happens to be a clone of the other as in the movie Multiplicity (my favorite movie about cloning) … but I thought it would make for an interesting rowing session, regardless.

When I told wifey about my plans for today’s rowing session, she immediately said, “That would be comparing apples and oranges!  How tall is he?”  I readily admitted that what she said was true.  He and I are not the same height, same age, and there are probably a virtually infinite number of differences between us if you want to venture considerations into the microscopic dimensionality (is that a word?  spell checker thinks not…) of comparisons…  But the most important and main point was that it would be different, doable and definitely fun.

It was. Fun.  My heart rate was quite a bit higher than his, for the same average pace, for whatever that is worth.  My heart tried to do something irregular a couple times during the session, which the heart strap transmitter couldn’t translate into a meaningful heart rate, but most of the time it worked okay.

The session was screen-recorded for those who want to row-along with it.  The screen recording link will be active less than an hour from now and is located here: Indoor Rowing Fixed Distance 6861 meters 11242018

The RowPro report is divided into 3 splits because as I’ve explained in earlier posts, RowPro 5 for the Mac does something weird with the last split if it is not equal in its distance (or time, if a fixed time session) to each of the other splits. RowPro for Windows does not have that little bug.
RowPro graph for the session. The Pace and Heart Rate per Stroke chart shows the two times when my heart started to stray from regularity which resulted in the HR transmitter displaying no heart rate for those two times.
Concept 2 online logbook chart of the session.

Happy rowing to you.

Intervals Cut Short

Today’s rowing was 10K online in the virtual company of a few other rowers.

I was going to do 4 intervals of 4 minutes each but had to stop doing intervals after the second one, because heart rate became irregular.  Otherwise everything was okay.

The session was recorded for anyone who wants to row-along.  The recording will be available later today at this link:  Indoor Rowing Thanksgiving 10K 11222018

Happy rowing to you.

Energetic Online Company

Today’s indoor rowing session was another 10K.  It was done online with a rower in Germany who goes by the screen name of Tommy.  Tommy rowed fast and finished faster, which greatly helped to keep me motivated.

A screen recording was made for row-alonging.  It is available at this link: Indoor Rowing 10K Online with Tommy 11202018

Happy rowing to you.

Stepping It Up A Bit

Today’s session was 10K done online in the company of another rower whose steadfast (and faster) pace helped inspire me.

I once again did the thing with 4×4 minute R 3 minute intervals, beginning 15 minutes after the start of the 10K.  during the before and after and recovery intervals, I aimed for a pace of about 2:20.

What was stepped up was the 4 minute portion of the four sets of intervals.  Instead of aiming for a pace of about 2:10 during those, I aimed for a pace closer to 2:05.  During the very last of those 4 minute intervals, when the other rower was doing a sprint to the finish, I increased my pace and extended that interval a little bit beyond 4 minutes, until the other guy crossed the finish line.  His faster pace and sprint to the finish inspired me to do a little more.

The session was screen-recorded for those who’d like to use it for rowing-along-with and its link is here: Indoor Rowing Online 10K 11192018

Happy rowing to you.

Season’s First HM

Actually, I didn’t want to do a half marathon today. How I feel after today’s HM, including how I sleep tonight, will help to decide whether I do any more half marathons this season.

Last night I logged on to Oarbits Live Feed (the online rowing website) with the intention of scheduling a 10K session for 07:00 (7:00 a.m.).  There was already an online session scheduled for that time, but it was a half marathon.  I joined it instead of scheduling a 10K, because there were already two people signed up for it and therefore by joining the HM I was virtually guaranteed to have some virtual company.

That’s what makes rowing online so worthwhile: the virtual company of other REAL PEOPLE who are also rowing the same session. You can watch their pace and other information about each other rower and empathize with them.  And they can do likewise.

I entered today’s half marathon results in the Concept 2 online world ranking for this season, since it is the only HM I’ve done this season and is therefore my best HM so far this season…

The session was screen-recorded for rowing along with and will be available a few hours from now at this link: Indoor Rowing Half Marathon Online 11182018

Happy rowing to you.

In The Company Of Two Others

This 10K was rowed online in the company of a rower in Germany and a rower in Ohio. Each person rowed it differently.  For me, the first 15 minutes was done at a warmup pace of about 2:20 and then I did 4×4 minutes @ 2:10 R3 minutes @ 2:20.

A screen recording for rowing-along-with is being uploaded to this link: Indoor Rowing With Company 11162018

Happy rowing to you.

Moderation In All Intervals

Daily inclusion of intervals makes the 10K a lot more fun. Moderation in intervals seems to be a necessity for me, if I’m going to be doing them daily.

This session was screen-recorded for those who want to row-along.  It is being uploaded to this link, where it will be available later today: Indoor Rowing with 4 moderate intervals 11152018

Happy rowing to you.

Hope Realized

The plan today was to NOT do any HIIT during this 10K because of the suspicion that yesterday’s heart issues may have been caused by doing too much HIIT for several days in a row prior to yesterday. Hope realized and heart behaved normally today.

Of course, the heart problems yesterday could have been triggered by many other things.  Including sleep problems.  At about 4:15 this morning, after becoming wide awake following a trip to the bathroom, I found myself staring at the glowing clock faces as shown in the photo below.

There are actually three clock faces, as you can see in the photo below this paragraph.  But only two of them are visible in the darkness before sunrise.

I managed to go back to sleep and get another hour’s worth of sleep before the alarm woke me at 06:00.  A graph of last night’s sleep is below this paragraph.

A screen recording was made of today’s rowing and will be available later today at this link: Indoor Rowing Hope Realized 11142018

Happy rowing to you.

Paroxysmal Behavior

Today’s session was supposed to be an all-in-one 10K with the first 15 minutes as warm up, then 4×4 minute R3 minute intervals. But the heart acted up and slowed everything down… except for heart rate which was impressively high, at one point reaching 217 BPM.

A screen recording was made and will eventually be available at this link: Indoor Rowing 10K With Paroxysmal Heart 11132018

Happy rowing to you.

10K Again But Different Intervals

Today’s session was 10K that started out for 15 minutes easy as warm up.  After the first 15 minutes, four sets of 4 min R 3 min intervals were done.

I don’t know what is the best effort level for the intervals.  The first 4 minute interval felt a bit too hard, so I did the next ones at a slower pace. The important thing was to work hard enough during the intervals to both elevate heart rate and cause myself to breathe hard, with some anaerobic effort.

The session was recorded and will be available at this link: Indoor Rowing 10K with 4 Intervals 11122018

Happy rowing to you.