Ethereal Rowing

Intervals of toil
Intervals of rest
Row to a boil
In waves of sweat blessed…

…those words relate to today’s rowing.  Intervals. Total of 30 minutes scheduled online.

The intervals were 3×5 min R2 min.  The first 5 minutes of the session was warmup.  The first two of the three 5 minute intervals were done at about 1:55/500m and the third was done at 1:55/500m for the first 4 minutes and then the last minute of that last interval was done a bit faster, at around 1:45/500m.

After finishing the intervals I was supposed to use the remaining 6 minutes as warm down but I almost gave in to the temptation to race Ian M. and then remembered the plan to warm down, not race the remaining time.  The finish screen shot is incorrect, because Ian M. actually finished first but for some reason either RowPro or the digitalrowing.com Oarbits server didn’t keep him connected at the very last and instead shows him as a DNF instead of first place, as was the case.

The other 3 rowers were in Denmark, England and the US.  A rower in Germany couldn’t check in because he had problems with RowPro on his computer.

Intervals done at a brisk enough pace can result in a very relaxed feeling afterwards.  Yesterday, the day that one of the others remarked that she “almost puked” during those 12 intervals, I was sooo… relaxed that I started to get drowsy in mid-afternoon and resorted to coffee.  Which resulted in being wide awake until several hours past bedtime that night.

But the coffee tasted very good.

…. and the rower who said she “almost puked” yesterday was in the session today and she was feeling okay.

Today, coffee is limited to only what can be consumed before 2pm. It is 1:10 pm and there is just a swallow or two remaining of the quart of coffee brewed at sunrise today.

Screenshot of today’s finish and the session report follow:

Happy trails to you.

Today’s main rowing session was my first time trying 12 intervals with one minute rest.  The intervals were each one minute in duration and the rest in between each interval was one minute of active rest at any pace. The last 7 minutes of the total 30 minute session were used as a warm down.

I was joined by several other rowers who were located in Denmark, England and the US.

Because I’d never done the 12×1 R1 before, I started out slow with the first two intervals at a pace of about 2:00, then did intervals 3 through 6 at a pace of about 1:55.  Intervals 7,8,9 and 10 were done at about 1:50 and the last two intervals were done at around 1:40, which was pretty much “flat out,” as Mike expressed it in his question of a couple days ago.

The rhythm of the 12 intervals and 12 rests reminded me somehow of poetry and was pleasing in a similar way to listening to a good poem.

Afterwards, one of the rowers said something to the effect, “I feel like I could puke!” … so I think she pushed herself harder than anyone else in the group today.  Inspiring, actually…

Because today’s main rowing session started right out with the intervals and did not include any warmup time, I did an easy 15 minutes in advance of the online session, to warm up.

All-in-all, I didn’t feel like I pushed hard enough to get the full benefit of today’s twelve intervals, but that is better than pushing too hard and regretting it later.

Happy trails to you.

Today was the last day of the Concept 2 Dog Days of Summer Challenge.  The original plan for today’s rowing was a scheduled online 30 minutes which would consist of 12×1 min R1 min intervals.  But nobody else signed up for it and so I rescheduled it for tomorrow and made today a rest day.

So today’s rowing consisted of a very easy 30 minutes, while watching a documentary.

Happy trails to you.

Today is the second to last day of the Concept 2 Dog Days of Summer Challenge and I fulfilled the challenge within a few minutes of the start of rowing today.

The session today was scheduled online and up until the last 20 minutes or so before start time I thought I’d be rowing alone but then the session was joined by Mike F.H., of Great Britain.

The session was 30 minutes and it was to be warm up for the first 5 minutes, then five sets of 90 second intervals with each separated from the next by 1 minute of active rest and all the remaining time of the 30 minutes was to be a warm down pace.

Before we began rowing, Mike indicated that he wanted to row along with me while I did the intervals, by  asking “What’s your flat-out pace?”

I had originally been thinking that I’d row alone and my original plan had been to Row the first 4 ninety second intervals at a pace of 1:55 and then do the last one as fast as I could (“flat out” as Mike would say) at a pace of 1:45 or better.

But when Mike asked that question, I figured he was probably a lot younger than me and would think 1:55 was way to slow, so I responded, “About 1:45 or perhaps a little better,” without seriously considering that I probably couldn’t hold that pace for 5 intervals in a row with only 1 minute rest after each one.  But I was determined to try…

Mike responded that he thought he would prefer 1:50 for the intervals and I quickly replied that 1:50 was okay with me.  He then said, “You don’t need to slow down on my account,” but I assured him that I thought I’d actually prefer 1:50/500m because I’d been “doing a lot of intervals this week.”

When I told Diane of that conversation with Mike about what pace to row the intervals and how I changed my mind and decided to try to row a bit faster than originally planned, she responded with a laugh and said something to the effect, “Why are men that way!?”

So we did the first 5 minutes at a 2:15/500m warm up pace and then did each 90 second sprint at 1:50 and did each one minute active rest at 2:15.  By the time we’d done all 5, I’d managed to hold the sprint pace to about 1:50 in each of them but felt it was close to my limit.  There were almost 15 minutes left of the session by  then and I did the remaining warmdown at a pace of 2:15 which is a faster pace than I would have warmed down if I’d been alone.  So that’s more evidence that not only is company online enjoyable, but it is an extra incentive to push a little harder than one might do alone.

Mike rowed the remaining warmdown at 2:05, which was more indication to me that he is probably quite a bit younger.

It was fun and I felt good afterwards.  Tomorrow it will be 30 minutes with 12×1 min sprints and 1 min rest between each.  And then I think I might rest on Monday by  rowing 30 minutes or longer at a very slow pace. Of course… it depends a little bit on what any others who join the session on Monday might want to do…

If you wonder what the dogs are doing in the images below…. these are the Dog Days of Summer…

Happy trails to you.

After today, there are only two more days left in the Concept 2 Dog Days of Summer Challenge.

For today’s dose of variety in 30 minutes of indoor rowing, the plan for the session was to do seven “bursts” or sets of “power tens” in a session of otherwise constant-paced rowing effort.  Those are simply ten strokes as hard as you can pull them.  Ten strokes is short enough that you don’t get wiped out from doing them but long enough that its good conditioning.  And very nice variety.

The constant pace I chose to do was a moderate pace of about 2:10.  I waited until 1 minute into the session, to do the first set of 10 power strokes and then did each of them with 4 minutes of constant pace rowing in between. After the 7th burst was finished, there was about 5 minutes remaining of constant pace rowing until the end of the 30 minutes.

There were three others who joined in the session, one who was in Denmark and two in the US.  One of the guys in the US couldn’t make it to check in and the other guy in the US checked in but had internet or computer/software problems and his connection was interrupted several times and then totally disconnected.

But the gal in Denmark had a good connection and she rowed the entire session, doing a set of power strokes every 4 minutes.  So that helped a lot with the fun factor.  There is something wonderful about having company through the entire rowing session.

Before and after the 30 minutes, I did an easy 7 minute warmup/down.

Happy trails to you.

Today’s rowing was a 30 minute online session.  I was joined by Jesper T of Denmark, who provided energetic inspiration by rowing the 30 minutes at an average pace of about 1:57/500m which means his total work was quite a bit more than mine at my average pace of 2:19/500m.

The half hour for me consisted of six intervals of 2 minutes each with 1 minute active rest between each interval. The first two intervals were a pace of about 2:00, the next three were about 1:55 and the last was a pace of about 1:45. The first 5 minutes of the half hour was warmup and the remaining time after the half dozen intervals was warmdown.

I’m doing the interval work in hopes of improving my 2K performance.

Happy trails to you.

Today’s rowing session was 30 minutes and was made more enjoyable by rowing online in the company of rowers in Denmark and England.  Each of those two rowers rowed at their own pace.  One of them rowed a bit faster during the one minute intervals and the other one didn’t do intervals and rowed at a fairly constant pace.

Before the 30 minute session, I did a very easy 10 minute warmup.  During the 30 minute piece, I did six 1 minute intervals with 2 minutes active rest separating each interval.  The first 5 minutes was a second warm up, then the six intervals and the remaining time was a warm down.

Happy trails to you.

For today’s erging an online 30 minute session was scheduled.  The way I did it was to warm up with a slow pace for the first 5 minutes of the session and then did 4 sprints of 500 meters each, separated by 3 minutes of active rest between each 500 meters.  After the 4th interval of 500 meters, the remainder of time was a slow pace for warm down.

The pace of each subsequent sprint was a little faster than the previous interval and the last interval was the fastest.  By taking that approach to the 4×500 I am hoping to get my body to anticipate and do better in the next 2K trial which will be done with “negative splits” … the first split will be the slowest and then each following split will, hopefully, be a little faster.

During the active rests and the final minutes of warm down, I rowed at a very slow pace to allow heart rate to slow and then picked up the pace to try to keep heart rate from dropping below 108 bpm.

Happy trails to you.

Rowlympics is over but the Concept 2 Dog Days of Summer Challenge is ongoing for about 1 more week.

To make today’s rowing more interesting, intervals were added to a 30 minute session.  The first 5 minutes of the session were slow-rowed as a warmup and then there were 3 intervals of 1,000 meters each, with 3 minutes rest separating each 1,000 meters from the next 1,000.  The last remaining minutes of the session were used as a warm down.

Two other rowers in Denmark joined in.  One of them, Annette, was using a ski erg and she did the intervals while the other one, Jesper, was using a regular Concept 2 rowing erg.   Jesper wanted to work hard without taking any warm up, rest intervals or warm down so he rowed the entire 30 minutes at the impressive pace of about 1:53/500m.

Happy trails to you.

Today was the last day of the Concept 2 Rowlympic Challenge and it came and went seemingly unnoticed.

For this last day, I scheduled 3 sessions of 2K each followed by a 15 minute warm down. I intended to race one of the 2K sessions and rank it as my season best time for the 2K.

Nobody joined the first 2K. I used it as initial warm up.

Nobody joined the second 2K. I used it as more warm up.

The third 2K was joined by one other guy, during the last 20 minutes or so before scheduled start time.

By two minutes before start time, I could see him in the main chat room but he hadn’t yet checked in to the session itself so I typed a message in the main chat room asking him if he would need more time but he didn’t respond.  I waited for a little more than one minute after scheduled start time and then started alone.

For that 2K, I thought I’d try to keep a constant pace of 1:50 until the last 500 meters and then try to pick up the pace for the last split.  But … it has been a long time since I’ve tried to row a fast 2K and 1:50 was a bit too fast to maintain so I slowed way down and finished with an average pace of 1:55 instead of something faster than 1:50/500m.

I forgot to click to save the strokes before saving that “fast” 2K and so although it was entered into the Concept 2 online World Rankings, it will show as “unverified”.  RowPro files on this latest Concept2.com website only show as being verified if the strokes are saved before the file is uploaded to your Concept2 log.

Lesson learned and if I try another 2K in the near future I will aim for a constant pace of 1:55 for the first 1,500 meters and then try to go faster during the last 500m.

Happy trails to you.