An alternative title for today might be Self Torture Is Always Optional. Today’s rowing was a clutter of disappointments. But not really. Let me explain why “not really”:
I started out the day to do another attempt at a better time for the 1K sprint. But after a few hundred meters I realized I didn’t have the desire or incentive or something along those lines and so I put the handle down before the going got tough.
Waited about an hour and then thought I’d try it again, but had the same results. I just didn’t want to push myself. Lack of desire. Or was it remembrance and avoidance of the experience of wheezing and gasping for breath, after yesterday’s 1K? Jesus knows.
Anyway – today’s motley collection of rowing pieces amounted to a little over 10K for the day and so I’m happy about that part, to have once again reached a daily quota of greater than or equal to 10K.
This is the report for the first 1K for which I went handle downGraph for the above HD reportThis is the report for the second 1K for which I went handle downGraph for the above
The training session was supposed to be a 6K Time Trial which is a 6K done at race pace. But after two handle-downs on the 1Ks, I decided to opt out of torturing myself and took it easy on the 6K.
Finish screen for the 6KDetails for the 6K. Which I didn’t comply with.RowPro 5 for the Mac semi-crashed and wouldn’t produce a regular report so this is the best I can do for a report on the 6KThe remainder of the above reportThe only graph available for the above report
Today’s training session was the warmup for the main session today, which was 5,142 meters done for the month’s Bob Spenger Memorial Challenge on c2ctc.com.
The training session was 5K easy, with 500m before & after as its warmup and warm down.
That was followed by the 5,142 meter piece, which was divided into 6 splits so that each split would be the same distance. (If each split is NOT the same distance, RowPro 5 for the Mac makes an error in calculating results for the last split.)
For the 5,142 meter piece, I didn’t want to try to do it as fast as possible because its an odd distance and it wouldn’t be useful as a ranking piece. Also, today was scheduled to be a training REST and RECOVERY day, so that was another reason to show restraint. So I set up a pace boat for a pace of 2:00/500 meters and stayed even with the pace boat until the final split, when I picked up the pace a bit faster.
Bob Spenger Memorial Challenge finish screen.,Bob Spenger Memorial Challenge reportBob Spenger Memorial Challenge graphsTraining session finish screenTraining session detailsTraining session reportTraining session graphs
Today was another recovery day in the current training plan… Week 6, day 2. The entire plan is viewable in the “current plan” tab.
Yesterday was a recovery day also. And tomorrow will be a recovery day. I guess last week’s training must have been classified as harder than normal, to have three recovery days in a row afterwards. I might not restrict myself to totally taking it easy with regard to rowing tomorrow, however… there is a c2ctc.com monthly challenge of 5,142 meters to do, and I just might add that in to tomorrow’s rowing.
In addition to today’s scheduled 6K with its 500m warmup + 500m warmdown, another 3K was done for the sake of the Mud Season Madness challenge.
6K training session finish screen6K training session detail. The graphs you see below the details are graphs of pace & HR for the 500m warmup. After the warmup is over and before the actual training session begins, RowPro 5 for the Mac displays the training details for review.6K training session report6K training session graphssupplemental warmup reportsupplemental warmup graph
Today’s training session was 14,000 meters arranged as three 2K intervals done one after the other, with 750 meters active rest separating each of them and the remaining portion of the 14,000 meters was done at an easy pace after the third of three 2K intervals.
Finish screen for today’s training session. If the blue graph on bottom-left looks strange, you are right. RowPro 5 for the Mac got stuck when graphing after the second 2K interval and didn’t return to normal until the middle of the third interval. But the Session Report is okay. And so is the HR display on the finish screen. It’s only the pace graph on the bottom left that shows some incorrect display for part of the graph.details for today’s session.
Strange behavior was noted yesterday and today with RowPro 5 for the Mac. Yesterday I noticed that after it was closed, it still showed to be running with a black dot under its icon in the dock. When the Activity Monitor was opened, it showed not just one, but TWO instances of RowPro running. I had to force-quit to shut them down yesterday.
Today, after RowPro was started it also showed two instances of itself running. I force-quit the one that showed the least activity and used RowPro with only that instance running. Yesterday, I told RowPro programmers about it but haven’t heard back from them.
Today’s scheduled training session was a 6K recovery piece. I added a preliminary 3K to bring the day’s total meters up to 10K. Drag factor was 120 and foot straps were not used.
I tried listening to music while rowing but the music seemed to be a distraction so it was turned off and most of the session was done with the only sounds in the room from the rowing machine and the fan of a small air cleaner. I guess it might be accurately said that I was in a reflective mood.
RowPro 5 for the Mac still had a problem with not accessing online rowfiles and not uploading the rowing session. So I had to once again log in to the Concept 2 logbook and make manual entries for the meters rowed.
Today’s rowing screenshots and reports:
Finish screen for 3K warmupWarmup reportWarmup chartsFinish screen of training session 6KDetails of training sessionTraining session reportTraining session graphs
Today’s training session amounted to 16,000 meters plus another 1,250 meters for warmup and warm down. Drag factor 120, straps not used.
After the rowing session was over, RowPro 5 for the Mac refused to upload the results to the Concept 2 online logbook. Instead, it gave an error message:
Here’s the stuff regarding today’s training session:
The competition on C2CTC inspired me to do better on the February event of ten 90 second intervals. Today’s training session was only going to be an easy 6K. So I used the easy 6K as a warmup, then followed the 6K with a set of 10 x 1:30 active r :30 easy for c2ctc. But it crashed after the 9th interval. I don’t know if RowPro crashed or the PM crashed but it seemed that the PM was the problem because the PM went blank, then it re-booted and there was no error message or comment from RowPro except that it lost connection with the PM.
I checked the PM’s battery and it was low, so changed that.
There’s still time before the end of the month, to try it again. Here’s the data on what was done today:
finish screen for today’s training session. It was done super-easy, so as to leave plenty of energy for the intervals to follow.training session detailsTraining session reporttraining session graphsView of screen for attempt at C2CTC intervals as it looked after PM crashedThere might be a problem with RowPro 5 for the Mac, since it is showing that I did 19 intervals. I had only done 9 sets – 18 active and rest intervals – when it crashed. The 19th one is “fake news” from RowProGraphs for 9 sets of intervals done before PM crashed.
This picture depicts a favorite scene showing a combination of rowing and walking.
Today’s rowing session was a mixture of rowing and walking. It was mostly rowing. The rowing started out easy and finished kinda hard but not all-out hard.
First, there was a 5 minute preliminary warmup. Next, there was a mix of rowing and walking, for the current monthly event hosted at the website called c2ctc.com which stands for “Concept 2 Cross Team Challenge.” Its a motivational thing that anybody can join. You just sign up and choose a team, then row the current piece and by doing so you help to “float a boat”. The faster you row that piece, the higher in the rankings will be the boat in which you float. It’s all in fun and for the purpose of a little more variety in your inspiration to row.
The c2ctc.com event for this month was to do 10 intervals of 90 seconds each, with 30 seconds of rest following each interval. The first interval was supposed to be done from a standing start. I did all of the intervals from a standing start and spent the 30 seconds of rest time between each 90 second interval walking somewhere between 50 and 100 feet in a short round-trip to and from the erg.
After that set of 10 intervals, I rested a bit and then started a playlist of music which usually serves as inspiration to row hard, before commencing the final rowing piece for the day, which was supposed to be a 6K time trial. My previous best time in the 6K this season was at an average pace of 1:57.1, so I thought I’d aim for that and then pick up the pace a bit during the 500 meters and set a new season best.
But after about 1,800 meters, I lost enthusiasm. I decided, however, to continue at that pace until 3,000 meters remained and then decide if I wanted to continue further. At about 3,000 meters, I started to sweat to a somewhat annoying degree and because I hadn’t donned a sweatband before the time trial began, I reached for a towel to mop up some of the sweat. That’s when I decided to become a slacker and eased off.
The final result for the 6K time trial was merely a nice workout and not an effort to make a 6K season best.
There was a glitch with RowPro 5 for the Mac which prevented it from producing a session report for the 6K. So all you will be able to see, if you scroll down that far in this blog post, is a screenshot of the finish screen for the 6K itself, a screenshot of the finish screen for the 750 meter warm down after the 6K and a screenshot of the error message when I tried to retrieve the session report.
Though I couldn’t retrieve a session report for the 6K… if you scroll down further, below the screenshot of the error report, you will see photo images of the Concept 2 Personal Monitor PM3 displaying the split results for all splits of the 6K time trial. But the PM doesn’t save or display any graphs. Sorry about that.
A view of the finish screen for the preliminary 5 minute warm up which immediately preceded the C2CTC event.Report for preliminary 5 minute warm upGraphs for preliminary 5 minute warm upFinish screen view of the February 2017 C2CTC event, which was 10x90seconds_r30seconds.Session report for the C2CTC event.Graphs for the C2CTC Feb 2017 event
Below, are details of today’s 6K training session but as mentioned earlier, RowPro 5 for the Mac would not give a session report. Instead, it gave the following error message:
Another thing about RowPro 5 for the Mac is that there is no easy way for me to tell them about this error message. If I click OK, it vanishes. If I try to select/copy the text of the message, that doesn’t work either. So the only way to tell them about it is to make a screenshot and attach it to an email.
So In lieu of a session report for today’s training session, you will find 4 photos of the Concept 2 PM displaying all the split results for the 6K. (Each split was 200 meters, so there are 30 split results to display)
6K session finish screenTraining details. I didn’t follow the instructions to “Do your best!” Maybe I would have done my best, if there had been a medal involved or an actual flesh-and-blood coach watching. I would work harder, to please a coach…
Though I don’t usually do this, here is a screenshot of the very last, final screen for the day after the last 750 meter warmdown was completed:
“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” ~the apt quotation paired with this heartwarming snapshot is unverified but attributed to Mark Twain
I don’t know whether or not today’s training session actually did anything to help improve my times in 5 and 6K, as is its stated purpose according to the RowPro training plan generator. But it was literally heartwarming, which was especially appreciated on today’s chilly morning.
“Chilly” is relative, of course… the house was 64° F which would be considered warm in other parts of the country, but definitely chilly to those of us who are accustomed to summer temperatures in the triple digits.
Today’s RowPro 5 for the Mac software-generated training session consisted of a 500m warmup, a main session of 14K and a 750m warm down. The 14K portion was subdivided to include two “slow pressure” 1500m intervals and the remainder of the 14K was to be done at an easy pace. Screenshots below.
Today I had a phone conversation with my oldest daughter who was on her way to watch her daughter play in a soccer game. As we made the segue to disconnect from the call, I said “Have fun at the soccer game,” to which she replied, “have fun rowing.” To which, I replied, “I’ll have as much fun as I possibly can, rowing…” To which, she replied with a laugh.
Her laugh was good seasoning added to the rowing session today, which was another RowPro software-generated training session of 8K at an easy pace with target zones for both HR and rating.
While rowing, I listened to K-LOVE, a local radio station whose music competed with the sound of the erg during the 8K. The thought and memory of laughter about having maximum fun while rowing mixed with the other ambient sounds and led to the observation that rowing at a pace that kept HR inside the painted zone wasn’t as much fun as it should be. I suspect that the algorithm RowPro 5 for the Mac uses for painting the HR zone uses the formula HRmax = 220-age. That formula doesn’t work for me. Never has.
So I picked up the pace to what felt like fun while still rowing in easy, recovery mode.
Maximum fun was a little ways outside and above the HR box.
