This is a view of today’s rowing session at a fraction of one second after the start signal. According to the numbers on the right of the screen, I was one of 8 rowers who showed an instantaneous pace of 00.0/500m (or blank, as two of them are) and therefore I hadn’t started to move yet. Another clue that I hadn’t yet started to move at this instant is that my heart rate, visible in the lower right corner of the screen, is still in its resting rate range at 54 beats per minute. Seven other rowers had quicker reflexes and they all show a pace of other than 00.0. The one who was furthest ahead of me at this instant by +4 meters is the one whose initials are WH and he is a former Olympic rower.
Today’s title refers to today’s main workout. It was 10,000 meters in the virtual company of 15 other rowers in Europe and North America. The maximum number of virtual boats in one session is 16 and it was full. By the time the session was over only 9 remained because of whatever problems or interruptions were experienced by 7 of the rowers. There were multiple problems getting the session started and one of the 16 was not able to rejoin after an alternate session was set up. So… by the time the 16 person session started there were only 15 who tried to start and row the 10K.
I was one of the fortunate ones who was able to start and complete the entire 10K.
I hadn’t recorded a rowing session in quite a while, so I thought this would be a nice one to put on YouTube. It is uploaded as a screen recording with no sound track and it can be found at this link: Indoor Rowing 10K Online 03152020.
There has been no atrial fibrillation today.
All today’s data and live, granular clickable graphs can be seen via this link to the online logbook. To see any session’s data and its interactive graph, click the corresponding “+” sign in the “Action” column for the relevant session.
Report for today’s online 10K session.
Graphs for today’s online 10K session.
Finish screen for today’s online 10K session. Everyone else was gone by the time I finished because they needed to immediately warm down instead of waiting for me.
What does having a butterfly perched on your hand have in common with rowing?
Today I did something similar to yesterday. For inspiration, I looked to see what my training partners had done today. Two of them had done some rowing. I decided to row three sessions: The first would be 2K at the same average pace as the pre-warmdown pace (4:25.0/500m) of the slowest of those two training partners. During that session my heart rate averaged less than 74 beats per minute.
The second session would be 5K at a steady pace averaging the same (2:42.9/500m) as the faster of those two had done. During that session my heart rate averaged 92 beats per minute.
The third session would be 2K at whatever felt good and didn’t raise heart rate so it felt very high. There was no atrial fibrillation today and the theory was that if heart rate wasn’t raised too high (whatever THAT is) it would continue its good behavior.
There were five sessions in all, if the warm up and warm down are counted.
The first two of those three sessions were done at a much slower pace than seemed natural to what my body was inclined to do and that is probably as good an explanation as any for why I had to concentrate so hard during each of those two sessions. The mental focus I had to maintain during each of the first two of those three sessions was similar to the mental focus of holding one’s hand perfectly still after a butterfly has landed on it, so as not to startle it into flying away.
All today’s data and live, granular clickable graphs can be seen via this link to the online logbook. To see any session’s data & clickable interactive graph, click the corresponding “+” sign in the “Action” column for the relevant session.
Screenshot of logbook data for today’s 2K at 4:25.0/500m.
Screenshot of logbook data for today’s 5K at 2:42.9/500m.
Screenshot of logbook data for today’s 2K at whatever pace felt good.
Inspiration for today’s bit of workout time came from my training partners. Four of them had logged workouts today. I looked at what they had done, released the reins of my thoughts and the next idea that trotted into my head was: do four separate workouts, each at the average pace done in each of 4 workouts done by my training partners.
I started with the one that had been done at the slowest average pace of 4:44.2 per 500 meters. I made that the shortest distance workout of 500 meters. It turned out to be the hardest goal to reach and I came close but failed by ending up with an average pace of 4:45.4 instead of 4:44.2. I couldn’t get the hang of maintaining a steady pace near 4:44.2.
This was the slowest pace target and the hardest to do. The blue line shows instantaneous pace and you can see that it wandered all over the place as I tried to keep the projected target pace at 4:44.2.
The second workout session was easier. In fact, all of the remaining sessions were easier because I found it much easier to stay near the projected target pace when the target pace was a bit faster than 4:44.2. The second one was 2,000 meters with an average pace target of 2:54.2/500m.
This session had as its goal the average pace of 2:54.2/500m
The third workout session was 7,000 meters with an average pace target of 2:34.2/500m.
Graph of the third workout session.
None of the 4 workout sessions were fast but the 4th workout had the fastest target pace of 2:22.7/500 meters. The distance chosen for the 4th session was 4,000 meters. But the session was interrupted before 1,000 meters was completed when the iPhone and ErgData app lost its connection to the PM5 monitor or the WiFi network. So that 4th session was divided up into two sessions that totaled 4,000 meters.
This is the graph of the last part of the interrupted 4K session. Its target was a steady average pace of 2:22.7/500 meters.
There were actually six sessions done today. They were the four above mentioned, a brief test session at the start and another session because the 4th session was interrupted and broken up into two pieces.
The goal for each session was a steady average pace. That goal was mostly achieved. But heart rate was something else because the heart was still in atrial fibrillation for… what? the third day now? So the heart rate graphs wandered and did not resemble the graphs of the pace.
All today’s data and live, granular clickable graphs can be seen via this link to the online logbook. To see any session’s data & clickable interactive graph, click the corresponding “+” sign in the “Action” column for the particular session.
Why was Mary so contrary and how did it affect men’s hearts?
Today’s workout times were late in the afternoon instead of the morning which seems to work better. The heart was in its atrial fibrillation mode and percolating like the unsteady rhythm of one of those old percolator coffee pots. Though heart rate made its appearance most of the time in the graphs, it was quite contrary … like Mary in the garden with her cockle shells. In other words, it spent quite a bit of the workout time responding in a rather opposite manner to what it should have been doing in relation to the effort being expended in rowing.
All today’s data and live, clickable 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.
During today’s low to moderate effort rowing, heart rate ranged too widely and went too high.
There was no atrial fibrillation yesterday or last night until sometime after 1 a.m. I’d been sleeping very soundly until 12:45 a.m. when I was forced awake by a “call of nature.” After returning to bed I began to feel a bit warm and got out of bed again to adjust the thermostat so it would cool the house by a couple degrees toward what is supposed to be the ideal room temperature for sleeping, 65 degrees F.
It seems that my heart is not yet sufficiently “detrained” from all the hard rowing I used to do and if atrial fibrillation is going to start, it will be during times when it has to adapt from its fully resting slowest idling rate while sleeping to a bit faster when walking etc. That’s my theory anyway.
So AF started last night sometime after 12:45 a.m. – probably around 1:30 or 2:00. At any rate, I was wide awake from 12:45 until 04:00 and managed to get about 5 hours sleep before the alarm went off at 08:00.
Today’s workout sessions were all on the rowing machine. Two of them were online in the virtual company of three other people. The other three of the total of 5 sessions were offline.
Screenshot of data and graphs for the last of today’s 5 rowing sessions.
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.
This picture shows food and coffee but it’s just a random photo grabbed off the internet. What I ate wasn’t so picturesque.
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!
Screenshot of graph & data for the 8th of 8 sessions today.
Today’s rowing was done with company of a different sort than what you see in this photo.
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!
Finish screen for today’s 30 minute online rowing session.
Report for today’s 30 minute online rowing session.
Graphs for today’s 30 minute online rowing session.
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?
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)!
Screenshot of data and graphs for the longest of today’s sessions, a 5K.
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.
