Today I thought I’d be sociable and do some online rowing. So I logged in to Oarbits via RowPro 5 For The Mac to see if anyone was online and available in the general chat room. There were two rowers logged in, so I asked them if they were going to be rowing soon. Depending on what followed, maybe I could row with one or both of them. My question to them is visible in the above screenshot. But I guess neither of them was present at the keyboard of their respective computers, even though they were logged in to Oarbits with their RowPro programs. There was no reaction to my question.
So I found rowing satisfaction by rowing 8K offline and doing intervals in synch with the intervals in the youtube video HOCR Rowing Power Workout.
Finish screen for today’s 8,000 meter piece.Report for today’s 8,000 meter piece.RowPro software graphs for today’s 8,000 meter piece.Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 8,000 meter piece.
A sign of the times and of declining revenue for the US Post Office: This year, we only received a half-dozen Christmas cards. In years gone by, there used to be dozens, but as internet usage has grown and people have moved around from one universe to another, the numbers of old-fashioned actual physical cards have dwindled.
Today was the first day of rowing after two days of abstention from rowing. To make up for some of those lost-in-the-past meters, today’s session was longer than usual at 24,000 meters. I rowed at a mostly very easy pace and it was fun and not the least boring. Until around 17,000 meters with about 7,000 meters remaining. Then it started to get a little boring, so I turned on the monitor connected to an original model Apple TV, went to YouTube and started the Head Of The Charles Rowing Power Workout video.
With that video running and nine intervals to do in the remaining distance, it became fun again. The intervals were done with restrained effort, not very hard, because I didn’t know if any of the body’s systems would make a fuss if I just jumped back at the usual pace after two lazy days off.
All systems were AOK, as an astronaut might say.
Finish screen for today’s 24K.RowPro graphs for today’s 24K.Report for today’s 24K. Note that RowPro 5 For The Mac had a glitch again, and reported blatantly incorrect data in the columns Time, Meters and Avg DPS for split number 5. Everything else looks okay and the bottom line results correctly match the results in the rowing machine’s PM.Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 24K.
A rower in Canada wanted to join the session, at the last moment before it started. Actually, it was two minutes after the scheduled start time when he asked if he could join. I was very happy to wait for him. Company is good.
Today’s rowing session was a half-marathon scheduled online about 24 hours in advance. The most popular online rowing sessions seem to be those that are 30 minutes or up to 10,000 meters. A half marathon seems to be much less popular.
This is a screenshot of today’s rowing session before it started. I didn’t start precisely on time, and it turned out to be a good thing because two minutes after starting time, another rower logged in to the Oarbits site and asked if he could join.
I titled today’s online rowing session as “I will finish if you will”. By the time it was scheduled to begin, nobody else had joined it. Like I said, the half marathon isn’t one of the more popular distance for online rowing. Just check the Oarbits site for yourself, on a daily basis, to confirm that assertion. (After you go to the Oarbits web page, click the Schedule tab or the Results tab, to look at the collection of times and distance rowed online.) One of the most popular online rowing sessions seems to be 30 minutes.
If you look closely at the first two screenshots above, you might notice that RowPro 5 for the Mac is doing something very weird with the characters of the Canada rower’s name. Apparently it can’t handle some of the letter accents used by those who spell their names in other than standard American/English/British spelling. Hopefully, this WordPress blog thing can handle them. The other rower spelled his name André Doré, according to the way it is displayed in Oarbits results as you can see in the screenshot immediately below this paragraph:
I’ve never rowed with him before, to my best recollection but it would be nice to row with him again because he not only rowed 18,000 meters with me, but we kept apace with each other the entire time and he finished the entire half-marathon. So today’s rowing session, in contrast to yesterday’s, was a finished symphony. Good company.
Finish screen for today’s half marathon.Report for today’s half marathon.RowPro charts for today’s half marathon.Concept 2 online logbook graphs for today’s half marathon.
If the concrete under the hot water heater looks wet, you’re right. The water heater’s tank is leaking.
Today I didn’t take any fish oil supplement, on the suspicion that it was related to the occasional arrhythmia and that correlation was reinforced when there was no arrhythmia today. So I decided to stop taking fish oil and switch to a plant-based substitute instead. Walnuts and chia seeds are a couple sources of the necessary Omega-3 oils.
The almost two year supply of fish oil that I’d bought (it had been on sale) was returned after this photo was taken, because there had been too many instances of correlation with heart palpitations when I’d taken it and no heart palpitations on days when it had not been taken.
But as today’s title indicates, the water heater didn’t work as well as my heart because it (water heater) started leaking.
So I got a replacement water heater from Home Depot. I saved the $79 I was told that its delivery would cost if the Home Depot contracted installer delivered it, by taking it home and delivering it myself. I asked the Home Depot employee if I could also save some money on the installation by disposing of the old water heater myself instead of having the installer haul it away. He said that when I talked with the Home Depot contractor about the installation, the amount it would cost to haul away the old one would be mentioned and could be negotiated.
While I was talking with the Home Depot employee about the water heater installation, another customer overheard me asking about the Home Depot installation contractors and he decided to chime in to the conversation by saying “I’m 80 years old and I’ve NEVER had a good experience with contractors! All I’ve ever gotten from contractors is s**t, s**t, s**t! I’ve never met a contractor who was any good or gave me anything but s**t!”
I didn’t know if he was talking about contractors in general or Home Depot contractors in particular, so I just replied by telling him that I was an optimist and I hoped to meet a good one. He just looked at me without saying anything further.
After getting home, I talked with a representative of the Home Depot contractor (Delta Mechanical) that does installation and I was told that it would cost $787.91 to install the water heater, including delivery of new one and disposal of old one.
I told him I’d already delivered the new one myself, so I could save the $79 delivery fee and said that I could also haul away the old one myself. Then I asked how much both of those done-it-myself tasks would reduce the installation cost.
He replied that delivery and disposal were “free” and the cost to install it would be the same price of $787.91!! There was no negotiation. They were going to charge me for all the work, even if they didn’t have to do it all!
That contractor-quoted price to remove and replace a water heater was far too expensive for something that would take from 30 minutes to an hour, so I decided against having the Home Depot contractors do the work.
If I’d known the phone number of that 80 year-old man in Home Depot who used the rather profane language about contractors, I would have called him next and told him I was now inclined to agree with his opinion and his choice of adjectives.
But I didn’t know his phone number, so I thought about calling other plumbers. Before I could call anyone else, I had an idea to look on YouTube. So I navigated the internet to YouTube and made a pleasant discovery. It was well worth looking.
There happen to be a multitude of videos on the subject of removal & replacement of water heaters. After watching a few of those videos, the decision was made to DIY. The videos were made by many different guys, ranging from experienced professional plumbers, to professional handymen and ordinary Do-It-Yourselfers, to even people who were doing it for the first time ever.
This is a screenshot from one of the encouraging, inspiring youtube videos I watched today, each of which show various people removing and replacing their water heaters. This particular video featured a water heater with the same visible symptom as ours – evidence on the floor below it of a water leak from the tank.
Today’s rowing was 10K. I started out the same as yesterday but starting with the third 2,000 meters of the session, I took a slightly less rapid approach to increasing power than yesterday’s plan.
I started at 105 Watts for the first 2,000 meters, just like yesterday. Then, 145 Watts for the next 2,000 meters, which was also the same as yesterday. But at the start of the 3rd 2K, (during which yesterday’s arrhythmia had happened, I only increased the power by an additional 20 Watts instead of 40 Watts, raising the effort to 165 Watts and stayed there for 1,000 meters until increasing another 20 Watts, to 185 Watts. Everything worked smoothly without even a hiccup from the heart up to that point, so after finishing the third 2K at 185 Watts, I increased the power by another 20 Watts, to 205 Watts.
Heart rate finally eased up to the target of 158 BPM after I’d rowed a total of about 7,000 meters. For the remaining distance, I rowed easy to warm down.
Finish screen for today’s 10K.RowPro 5 for the Mac had a glitch today. You can see it in some of the columns of split 7 in its report for today’s 10K. The columns for Time, Avg Pace and Avg DPS are incorrect for Split line 7.RowPro shows no glitch in its drawing of today’s graphs. Graphs for today’s 10K.Concept 2 online logbook’s graphs for today’s 10K.
After doing a very leisurely 10K this afternoon, I ran the RowPro 5 for the Mac comparison analysis, to compare performance change to yesterday’s session which was done at a bit faster average pace. “Net Performance Increase,” it said. But what does it mean, really? Your guess is as good or maybe better than mine.
There was neither warmup nor warm down. The session was scheduled about 25 minutes in advance as an online session but nobody else signed up so it was done alone.
Finish screen for today’s 10K session.RpwPro 5 for the Mac report for today’s 10K session.RowPro 5 for the Mac graphs for today’s 10K session.RowPro 5 for the Mac’s comparison analysis stats comparing today’s to yesterday’s 10K session.
When some people think of a symphony of motion, they think of rowing. Into what genre would the above rowing symphony be classified? Avant garde? Romantic? Classical crossover? (Actually… the two rowers above were doing a crossover of sorts, to switch seating positions.)
Today’s indoor rowing was the same distance and feeling-of-effort goal as yesterday’s. But yesterday’s was not posted to this blog yesterday. So today’s blog post will do double duty.
When some people think of “symphony of motion,” instead of thinking of rowing they think of something else, such as trains.
Since yesterday’s and today’s were the same distance, this blog post will include the results of a RowPro 5 for the Mac comparison analysis of today and yesterday.
Part of today’s blog post title was inspired by some of the inspiring words of George Pocock, who is famous in the world of rowing. He said: “It’s a great art, is rowing. It’s the finest art there is. It’s a symphony of motion. And when you’re doing well, why it’s nearing perfection. And when you reach perfection, you’re touching the divine. It touches the you of you, which is your soul.”
The order of presentation of screenshots etc will be yesterday’s first, then today’s and finally the RowPro 5 for the Mac analysis comparison of the two sessions.
A video watched during part of today’s rowing session was called “Rowing: A symphony of Motion,” found on youtube. That’s a screenshot of it, just above.
Finish screen for yesterday’s 8K.Report for yesterday’s 8K.RowPro charts for yesterday’s 8K.Concept 2 online logbook graphs for yesterday’s 8K.Finish screen for today’s 8K session.Report for today’s 8K session.RowPro graphs for today’s 8K session.Concept 2 online logbook graphs for today’s 8K session.RowPro 5 for the Mac analysis comparison graphs of today and yesterday.RowPro 5 for the Mac analysis comparison STATS of today and yesterday.
I didn’t make a screenshot of the aftermath of RowPro 5 for the Mac’s crash today. There wasn’t much to see. The above photo of broken glass looks far more dramatic than RowPro, which totally vanished / disappeared from the Mac computer desktop. After I re-opened RowPro, there was a little window with a message in it informing me that RowPro had quit unexpectedly (In case I didn’t know) and offering to share the data aftermath with Apple. I shared it and went on with rowing.
Today’s indoor rowing was supposed to be an online 30 minutes with 7 other people who were at locations around the world including the US, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and New Zealand, as you can see in the screenshot below. But after the session start was initiated, RowPro 5 for the Mac crashed. The system message was a bit more euphemistic and it said that RowPro 5 for the Mac “quit unexpectedly.”
This is what RowPro 5 for the Mac looked like about 1 minute before Pam initiated the starting process and RowPro crashed.
So, I set up another online 30 minute session and rowed it alone. Not quite alone… Pam, the New Zealand rower, joined the session but she didn’t row because she was located in the RowPro office and had other sessions to watch and other things to do. But she was available to assist, in case RowPro 5 for the Mac decided to make a habit of crashing … which it didn’t. 🙂
The only goal for today’s 30 minutes was to aim for a target heart rate of 130.
Finish screen for the 30 minutes online.Report for the 30 minutes online.Graphs for the 30 minutes online.There was a 5 minute warmup which is not included among the screenshots. This is a screenshot of the 10 minute warm down finishReport for the 10 minute warm downGraphs for the 10 minute warm down. Notice that the slope of the effort level, from left to right, is down for the 30 minute session which had a target heart rate of 130 and the slope is up for the warm down.
Happy and as crash-free as possible rowing to you.
This is what it might look like, if a person were able to row at the speed of light.
Yesterday, the consideration of the increase in rowing speed at the same heart rate as compared to the session of the prior day, led to the happy extrapolated conclusion that I would be rowing at a supersonic speed in 7 or 8 years, as long as there was the same speed improvement every day.
But today there was no improvement and in fact there was a decrease in performance compared to yesterday! The speed decreased by a larger amount today than it had increased yesterday!
So it seems that the dream of rowing at a supersonic speed is now quashed, because in order to reach that rowing speed there needs to be an increase in pace of about 1/4 mph every day, for 7 or 8 years.
That disappointment can be taken in stride. But the much bigger disappointment is that if I can’t even hope to improve to the point where I can row at the speed of sound, then there is even less hope that I’ll ever be able to cause time to stand still by rowing at the speed of light. Unless someone invents an affordable warp drive for the Concept 2 rowing machine.
The screenshots for today’s session follow this paragraph. The disappointing RowPro 5 for the Mac comparison analysis of today’s session to yesterday’s session are the last two screenshots at the bottom of today’s collection.
Finish screen for today’s 30 minute session.Report for today’s 30 minute session.RowPro graphs for today’s 30 minute session.C2 online logbook graphs for today’s 30 minute session.RowPro analysis graphs comparing today’s and yesterday’s sessions.RowPro analysis stats comparing today’s and yesterday’s sessions.
Due the lack of images of people rowing at supersonic speed, this image of a Navy plane approaching supersonic will have to suffice. It was found somewhere in Wikipedia.
Today’s indoor rowing session was another 30 minutes done while trying to maintain a target heart rate of 130 BPM. According to the analysis done by RowPro 5 for the Mac, comparing today’s session to yesterday’s, the pace increased by .3% at the same heart rate of about 130 BPM. In miles per hour, pace increased by about .258333 mph.
If I can keep increasing at that rate every day, my rowing pace should reach the supersonic speed of about 720 mph in only 7 to 8 years from now.
That’s something to look forward to.
Other than that, there was nothing special about today’s rowing. It was done offline with no warmup or warm down.
Finish screen for today’s 30 minute sessionReport for today’s 30 minute sessionRowPro graphs for today’s 30 minute sessionConcept 2 online logbook graphs for today’s 30 minute sessionRowPro 5 for the Mac graphical comparison of today’s 30 minutes to yesterday’s.RowPro 5 for the Mac’s statistical comparison of today’s 30 minutes to yesterday’s.
The ticker (my heart) seemed to want to beat at a snail’s pace during today’s time of rowing online.
Yesterday evening, I took Zyrtec with dinner. Not because I’ve been having any allergies, but because it seems to enhance staying asleep. I’d had several days in a row of waking up too early and had been accumulating excess sleep debt.
The Zyrtec worked and instead of sleeping from 4 to 6 hours, I slept almost 10 hours. All caught up on sleep, with some to spare. But I felt sluggish and slow, as an after-effect of Zyrtec, which I rarely take and therefore am not used to.
Today’s indoor rowing session was 30 minutes done online with a few other guys. My goal was the same as for the past few days: to adjust the effort throughout the session, so as to keep heart rate near the target heart rate of 130. If you read the recent blog post about choosing that HR target, you know that I used a modification of Dr. Philip Maffetone’s “The 180 Formula,” to arrive at the aerobic target of 130. Upper boundary is 140 and lower boundary is probably around 114 to 120.
When it came time to row, it seemed that I had to row with greater effort at a significantly faster pace, to raise heart rate to the 130 BPM target zone. Afterwards, I used the RowPro 5 for the Mac analysis feature, to compare today’s 30 minutes to yesterday’s. The results of the analysis are the last two screenshots below.
Finish screenshot of today’s 30 minute session.Session report of today’s 30 minute sessionRowPro graphs of today’s 30 minute sessionConcept 2 online logbook graphs of today’s 30 minute sessionRowPro analysis of today’s and yesterday’s 30 minute sessions showing their graphs superimposed. I don’t know how this is edifying, but it looks cool.Stats and what RowPro’s analysis algorithm had to say about comparison between today’s and yesterday’s 30 minute sessions.
