Ethereal Rowing

Though I may not have mentioned it before, I try to make a practice of putting off eating for the first time each day until after doing daily workouts. That way, the time between the last meal the previous day and the first meal on the current day is pretty much guaranteed to be 12 hours or more.

From what I’ve read, fasting helps the body to do the best job of rebuilding, boosting its immune system and also of calibrating all of its myriad of clocks which all relate to circadian rhythm and stable sleep cycle. And I’ve also read that doing a little exercise before breaking fast each day helps to enhance the benefit of that limited fast of 12 hours+.

I have no references for what is mentioned in the above paragraph, so you can do your own research & verification if you have any smidgen of doubt.

So today after doing some little first-thing-in-the-morning chores, I started with the workout sessions. There were eight of them. Punny though it may seem, after the eighth one, I ate.

A screenshot is shown here for only one of them. All data and graphs can be seen via this link to the online logbook. To see any session’s data & graph, click the corresponding “+” sign in the “Action” column for the particular session.

There was no atrial fibrillation last night or during the workouts today. Nor is there any now. Hurray!

Happy rowing to you!

Today’s most funnest* workout was an easy-paced 30 minutes online in the company of three other rowers who were all in the US. The session was another “handicap 5K chase” within a timed 30 minute session.

The slowest rower, whom I’ll refer to as Tucson-1, started rowing immediately at the start signal. Tucson-1 rowed at a pace of about 2:42/500m. I started almost immediately after the start signal, but rowed at around 5:00/500m for the first minute and about 4:00/500m for the second minute. After two minutes, I increased the pace to somewhere around 2:29/500 meters until I was within 25 meters of Tucson-1.

The third rower to start was a woman in Ohio, whom I’ll refer to as Ohio-1. She waited two minutes after the start signal before she began rowing at a pace faster than 2:29/500. The last rower to start, whom I’ll refer to as Tucson-3, waited about 5 1/2 minutes and then rowed at about 2:03 or thereabouts in his effort to catch up to Tucson-1 and everyone else.

After I became as near as 25 meters behind Tucson-1, I slowed and made small adjustments in my pace in order to maintain a constant separation of 25 meters between me and Tucson-1.

Ohio-1 caught up to and passed both me and Tucson-1 before either of us reached the 5,000 meter mark.

When Tucson-3 caught up to me I sprinted from that point until I caught up to Tucson-1 and then I slowed and paced evenly with Tucson-1 until the finish. Tucson-3 passed me and Tucson-1 before we reached the 5,000 meter mark.

When there were about 3 minutes remaining of the 30 minute session Ohio-1 and Tucson-3 slowed and dropped back to be even with me and Tucson-1 and from that point on the 4 of us kept each other company until the end of the session.

All-in-all it was a very nice session that everyone enjoyed.

There was a total of ten workout sessions done today but screenshots for only one of them, the online session, are displayed here. All workout sessions were done without company with the exception of the 30 minute online session and a 2,500 meter online warm down which immediately followed the 30 minute session.

All data and graphs can be seen via this link to my online logbook. To see a session click the corresponding “+” sign in the “Action” column for the particular session.

There was atrial fibrillation all last night and it still persisted at the beginning of today’s 30 minute online session -boo! By the end of the 30 minute online session the atrial fibrillation had vanished, heart behavior returned to normal and it is still acting normally, more than 8 hours after today’s workouts were finished – hurray!

Happy rowing to you!

* Note regarding the word “funnest”: “Grammar Girl” Mignon Fogarty did a lot of research to determine whether or not it is a legitimate word and in the process of doing that research, which she said was not fun to do, she forgot to call her mother on her mother’s birthday. You can read her article about the word “funnest” at this link: Is “Funnest” a Word?

Today there were a half dozen workout sessions. Total time for all of them was about 1 hour 34 minutes.

Their data and graphs can be seen via this link to my online logbook. To see a session click the corresponding “+” sign in the “Action” column for the particular session in which you are interested.

For enhancement of time spent working out in a tiny room, I played a video found on YouTube called Rowing Video for Indoor Rowing, by Captain Steve. It is almost two hours long, which was more than enough time for today’s workouts.

Unlike yesterday, there WAS atrial fibrillation today. Instead of saying “hurray” today, what should be said? Boo? But if boo, then boo who?

Happy rowing to you!

Today I searched for music while rowing. The singing of the chain on the rowing machine was better than the first music selections that played during a workout. So after rejecting one song after another I silenced the music player and listened to the sound of the chain.

After enjoying the relative silence and the perfect rhythm of the “singing” chain, a name came to mind. Julie London. We had seen a video of her appearance on a 1950’s TV panel show and she seemed to be harboring deep waters beneath her chosen facade of a humorous exterior.

Though I’d heard the name I couldn’t have told you before seeing that old video of her why she had been famous. Her fame came from being an actress and popular singer.

Wondering what her songs were like, I told Siri (the music player) to play songs by Julie London. I listened to them through the remainder of the time spent rowing today. None had a fast beat like I normally prefer when rowing but the words were clear and they actually said things that amounted to expression of thoughts, so all-in-all the old Julie London songs helped me stay focused while rowing. A screenshot of one of the songs on YouTube, The End of the World, is displayed at the top of this post.

That song’s title apart from the actual lyrics of the song seems especially appropriate to this era of the world. Some of its lyrics could even be taken as analogies to the main problem of the world. So it was an especially thoughtful experience to listen to that particular song.

A screenshot of data & graph for only one of the rowing sessions is shown here. But data and “live” graphs for all of them can be seen via this link to my online logbook. To see a session’s data & graphs click the corresponding “+” sign in the “Action” column for the particular session in which you are interested.

Like yesterday, there was no atrial fibrillation again today so again hurray (like yesterday)!

Happy rowing to you!

The above screenshot is of one of the first few moments of a video I watched during some of the time spent rowing today. I muted the sound, enlarged it to full-screen and sort of pretended I was in a boat viewing that scene behind me. That video is on YouTube and is called Row on the Grand, training video 34 min HD.

There were several sessions done at scattered times today. All but one of them was on the rowing machine.

A screenshot of data & graph for only the very last one is shown here. Data and graphs for all of them can be seen via this link to my online logbook. To see a session’s data & graphs click the corresponding “+” sign in the “Action” column for the particular session in which you are interested.

There was no atrial fibrillation today, hurray!

Happy rowing to you!

Today’s title is relating to the fact that recently I gained another “training partner.” The Training Partner feature is something optional that anybody who has an online logbook on concept2.com can do.

All it means is that people who are training partners have readily accessible shortcuts to view each other’s logbook entries. That shortcut is the Training Partner tab within their logbook.

It can be a source of encouragement to see that others are rowing and logging workouts. It can also sometimes be a source of inspiration for something to do or to try with regard to using the Concept2 machines.

Currently I have nine training partners. I click on the Training Partner tab every day to at least get a glance at the list of most recent workouts done by those training partners. Sometimes I will look at that list before I do a workout and then click on one or more sessions logged by a training partner because I’m looking for inspiration as to what to do that day.

Today’s main inspiration was from a couple of training partners who had scheduled a 30 minute online rowing session for 09:00 local time this morning. Another guy, who is located in Italy, also turned up at the last minute. So there were 4 of us who rowed together in the same session and motivated each other to keep going to the finish line.

The online rowing session was named “30 minute handicap 5K chase.” The idea was that the slowest person would announce his intended pace and the time it would take him to row 5K at that pace. In today’s case the slowest rower intended to row at 2:42/500 meters which would amount to 27 minutes for 5K. The others would decide how fast they wanted to row and figure the time it would take them at their paces to row 5K. Then they would each subtract that time from 27 minutes and the difference would be how long they would wait after the start before they started rowing to catch up to the first rower. Today, the other two guys were going to row at a pace of about 2:09/500 meters which would amount to 21 minutes and 30 seconds to row 5K, so they each waited at the start line for 5 minutes and 30 seconds after the session started. They caught up to the first guy at about 5,000 meters and had a few minutes to spare before the 30 minute total time was up.

As for me, I started out immediately, but super-slow for the first minute. Then a little bit faster for the second minute. After two minutes, the first guy was over 100 meters ahead of me so I picked up my pace a little bit until I drew to within about 25 meters of the first guy. I matched his pace and remained 25 meters behind him until the other two guys caught up to me, then I sprinted for less than a minute to catch up to the first guy and remained even with him until the finish line.

It was simultaneously invigorating, relaxing and fun.

Only screenshots of the report and graphs for the 30 minute online session are shown here. There were a few other offline workouts today. Data and graphs for all of them can be seen via this link to my online logbook. To see a session’s data & graphs click the corresponding “+” sign in the “Action” column for the particular session.

Happy rowing to you!

Today’s workouts were mainly focused on getting the daily Calorie quota for an activity app which is used to motivate me to move.

There were four sessions: two short warmups, a 33 minute online session and a 10,000 meter offline piece. All were on the rowing machine.

All sessions, data and graphs can be seen via this link to my online logbook. To see a session’s data & graphs click the corresponding “+” sign in the “Action” column for the particular session.

Happy rowing to you!

If you look closely at any sunset, it changes from moment to moment while the overall pleasure of viewing its beauty remains relatively unchanged.

Similar it was with today’s main workout which changed from moment to moment while the pleasure of the effort remained essentially the same. That workout was a 10,000 meter rowing session. It was done at a mostly steady pace and included eight intervals of about one minute each. Those intervals began after the first 1,000 meters and then seven more times at the beginning of each subsequent 1,000 meters.

The last couple thousand meters were done at an effort level that was lower than the average effort level of the first 8,000 meters.

There were six other sessions which served as warmups and warm down.

All sessions, data and graphs can be seen via this link to my online logbook. To see a session’s data & graphs click the corresponding “+” sign in the “Action” column for the particular session.

Happy rowing to you!

There were several rowing sessions today and two of them were online in the virtual company of other rowers. The session that was the most fun, relatively speaking, was the second of two online sessions. That session was a bit more fun because it included three 1-minute intervals near the end of the session. Those three intervals were moderate and not all-out sprints. They were so moderate that they weren’t sprints at all because I didn’t come close to breathing hard at all. But they felt like a bit of fun each time I did one of them. Fun, fun, fun.

As for the other sessions, data and graphs can be seen for all of today’s sessions via this link to my online logbook. To see a session’s data & graphs click the corresponding “+” sign in the “Action” column for the particular session.

Happy rowing to you!