Ethereal Rowing – Page 29

Endorphin Rush Runs Down But Not Out

Some people get an endorphin rush from doing things like this. I prefer a tamer approach via the Concept 2 ergs. (For photo credits, see the note at the end of this post)

Hints of the early light of dawn were glowing through the window blinds when I woke this morning. The hint of a glimmer of pre-sunrise glow didn’t cause me to wake.

A finger of a more mundane reason flicked the wake-up switch in my brain. Let’s name it a call of nature. Definitely mundane.

Precisely a few minutes later, I returned to bed with hope of getting another 90 minutes of sleep.

Precisely less than ten minutes after returning to bed, I was wide awake after thinking about the day and realizing that I had some chauffeuring to do in a few hours. The chauffeuring appointment would limit or eliminate the possibility of a morning workout was another realization.

Yen for sleep vanished as I checked the mental dashboard and realized everything would remain in balance if I got out of bed immediately and began the day’s workout right away.

So that’s what I did. Almost. I went directly to the SkiErg right away. But I was thirsty and my water bottle was empty. So I detoured to the water cooler. Filling the water bottle emptied the water cooler. So I went to the garage to get five jugs of purified water. Then I noticed a spider. So I went to get the vacuum cleaner and dispose of the spider. Before turning on the vacuum cleaner, I realized I could save the spider’s life by capturing it in a jar. So I did that. Then turned back to refilling the water cooler. After refilling the cooler I finally went to the SkiErg and set it for 250 Calories. 250 Calories was okay yesterday, so I thought I’d try it again today.

The SkiErg session started slowly and sleepily in spite of the fact that I was wide awake. For the first 150 Calories on the SkiErg, it seemed luxuriously enjoyable to keep the stroke exaggeratedly slow, with each stroke’s drive time lasting about a second or even longer than a second.

The SkiErg pace very gradually quickened during those first 150 Calories. Once the remaining Calories counted down to 100, it felt like the most natural and logical thing to do to indulge in some moderate intervals of 10 calories per interval. So that’s what I did and there was a satisfying harvest of endorphins.

The SkiErg session whetted my appetite for labor-derived endorphins, so I set the rowing machine up for a 10,000 meter piece. On the other monitor, I played a screen recording of the 10,000 meter session I’d rowed and uploaded to YouTube on December 27, 2017. It is one of the more popular of the screen recordings I’ve uploaded to YouTube for people to row along with and has been viewed 254 times so far. I’m guessing it is popular because it includes 8 intervals and intervals make most rowing sessions a lot more interesting.

So I got a natural emotional lift and boost to the spirits so to speak from this morning’s workout. I’ve been enjoying it all day, until late in the day/early evening when I heard some extremely weird news from a close relative who shall not be named here. It was borderline insanity type of news and it had the opposite effect of this morning’s workout. It put a heavy damper on my spirits. A black cloud. But I’m in the process of dealing with it and shooing the black cloud away because black clouds are pollution of the worst sort and I prefer joy and light.

Screenshots of today’s workouts follow. If you look at them closely, the spikes in the heart rate graphs during the rowing session can be disregarded because HR seemed to be normal and that kind of thing – if it happens on the rowing machine but not on the SkiErg and the heart is otherwise behaving normally with regard to rate range – I attribute to the more analog heart rate signal on the rowing machine. (The SkiErg uses a more digital blue tooth signal instead of an analog signal for transmitting heart rate and on any given day, the SkiErg has far fewer, if any heart rate spikes.)

SkiErg chart and data. Notice there are NO spikes in the heart rate graph for the SkiErg session which used a blue tooth heart strap transmitter.

Finish screen for today’s 10K rowing session.

RowPro graphs for today’s 10K rowing session.

Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 10K rowing session.

Happy rowing to you!

Photo credit: by Masa Sakano and found on his site on Flikr.

Laziness Creeping Up

Cats and laziness have something in common. Perhaps they have more than one thing in common, but the particular thing I have in mind at the moment is they are both highly skilled at creeping.

Right away this morning following getting out of bed after sleeping in late, I changed into workout clothes and began a 250 Calorie session on the SkiErg

Each of you in the multitude of those who have been following this blog closely know that my recent usual SkiErg session is 200 Calories, not 250.

Enjoying a bit of a mental boost from doing an “extra” 50 Calories on the SkiErg today, I simultaneously thought of moving from SkiErg session done to starting a 10,000 meter rowing session and coffee. But not in that order. I wanted coffee more than I wanted to sit on the rowing machine for 10,000 meters.

Perhaps laziness had been stalking me, because almost immediately after the thoughts of rowing 10,000 meters and having coffee afterwards began doing a dance in my mind, there came the question of who was leading the dance. Rowing or coffee? Coffee or rowing?

Yelping with joy, laziness crept in to offer a solution to the non-problem. Its suggestion was that instead of rowing 10,000 meters today, I shorten the rowing session by whatever distance would be the equivalent of the extra 50 Calories that had been burned on the SkiErg! Brilliant! I thought it was my own idea and so I immediately calculated that if about 700 meters were subtracted from 10,000, the result would be enough for the two sessions to add up to yesterday’s total of 805 Calories on both machines.

I should have known better. The clue that I was being influenced by creeping laziness instead of my own rational thought was that when the 9,300 meter rowing session started, the thoughts also occurred that since it was a shorter distance than yesterday’s 10K, I could row at a slower pace.

The result was that I came up more than 30 Calories short of the goal of 805 Calories total. So I rowed another 700 meters, to bring the total calories up to yesterday’s. Yesterday’s, plus four more calories. And a lot more total time than yesterday’s 10K. Laziness snickered at its joke on me.

Moral of the story: the feline cat of laziness leads away from felicity of results.

Finish screen for today’s slow 9,300 meter rowing session.

Report for today’s slow 9,300 meter rowing session.

RowPro graphs for today’s slow 9,300 meter rowing session.

Report for the 700 meter rowing piece which had to be added to bring today’s Calorie total up to as much as yesterday’s.

Happy rowing to you!

Coffee On A Stick

It has been said that a horse might be enticed to trot by holding a carrot on a stick in front of him

Just as a carrot on a stick might encourage a horse to trot, the thought of coffee after this morning’s workout seemed to give the workout a bit of a boost.

Although I wasn’t consciously thinking of coffee during the workout, the thought of a pot of black coffee came to the forefront of my mind while I was commenting on today’s results in the online logbook.

Virtually the same as yesterday’s workout, today’s consisted of a 200 Calorie SkiErg session followed by 10,000 meters rowing.

And today’s rowing was a bit faster pace than yesterday’s 10K pace, so perhaps the subconscious yearn to hurry up and get the coffee pot going was influential.

Today’s SkiErg session was one calorie less than yesterday’s but it has a very different graph pattern.

Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 10K rowing. Coffee was mentioned in the comment.

Happy rowing to you!

A Win For The Mind?

The heart and mind frequently have differences to settle.

Happily, today’s workout turned out to be longer than what was “agreed on” in yesterday’s imaginary conversation with my heart/subconscious.

Up on the mountain it was. Out of reach and trying to dictate that today’s workout should be a brief 200 Calories on the SkiErg and a couple 1,000 meter rowing pieces.

Rather than follow yesterday’s suggestion, I spontaneously opted for not 200 but 201 Calories on the SkiErg. Not much difference on the SkiErg. But then that was followed with not merely a couple 1K rowing pieces, but a full 10,000 meters on the rowing erg.

Right after the 201 Calories was done on the SkiErg, I decided to row 10K before something changed my mind and got right to it.

Along with deciding to do 10K, I decided that the pace goal would be 2:15 or a little faster.

Yackey-yacking with the heart and/or subconscious was avoided today and neither of them seemed to make a fuss. Perhaps they were sleeping in?

The resulting pace for the 10K rowing was 2:14.7 and it felt good.

Chart and data for today’s SkiErg session.

Report for the 10,000 meter rowing session.

RowPro graphs for the 10,000 meter rowing session.

Happy rowing to you!

Chauffeur’s Day Off

Lately I’ve been doing a little bit of chauffeuring. Not that much, really, but today is a “day off.” The actual average daily time I’ve spent chauffeuring during the past few days of not working out has been only a very scant few hours, therefore any chauffeuring I’ve been doing is a flimsy excuse and not really valid at all for not having worked out. A better excuse would be laziness. But does being lazy justify not doing something?

As of today I’m back at it and wondering what the workout plan will be for the immediate future. I managed to get myself to do a 200 Cal workout using the rationale that it wouldn’t take very long and would be over with quickly and that would be all that I’d do this morning. But then after doing that I felt guilty for not doing any rowing whatsoever, so I sat on the rowing machine and rowed a 1000 meter piece.

Zaniness is welcome with regard to working out but I tend to be conventional on the ergs. So as I said earlier, I’m wondering what to do for the next few days. The picture I get in my mind is of John (that’s me) standing at the base of a mountain whose top is hidden in the clouds. John is looking up in the direction of a voice that is coming from somewhere out of sight. The mountain is rocky, like a desert mountain with no trees, just rocks, stones and boulders. John can hear a noise coming from somewhere up in the clouds. A few rocks are tumbling and bouncing down the slope because there’s movement up there. The distant voice John hears from somewhere up in the clouds says that he could do another 200 Calories tomorrow on the SkiErg and afterwards he could follow that with two sessions of 1000 meters each on the rowing machine.

Yelping to persuade me, my imagination indicates that the distant voice and movement somewhere higher on the mountain above the clouds is my subconscious and/or perhaps my not-to-be-trusted heart. But of course I suspect that my imagination is making it all up so as to persuade me to let it have its way.

The mental image of placing my subconscious higher up and out of sight on an imaginary mountain may have been partly influenced by a passage I read recently in a book by Gabor Maté, MD, in which he states that the higher (physically) the part of the human brain, the more complex and less automatic are the functions of that part of the brain.

Finish screen for today’s token rowing session of 1,000 meters.

Report for today’s token rowing session of 1,000 meters.

RowPro graphs for today’s token rowing session of 1,000 meters.

Happy rowing to you!

Take The Reins

Like yesterday, today had an early start. Also like yesterday, the subconscious ignored last night’s intentions of doing the workout first thing in the morning as it found one thing after another to do.

Eventually, after about two hours of puttering, I realized time was flying by and scattering its feathers through my brain in the process.

Allow the heart to lead and there’s a rain of confusion. Take the reins of the skittish heart and confusion will not reign. I took the lead, held the reins and changed into workout clothes.

Did the SkiErg session first. Everything went okay except there was a computer problem and the session wouldn’t upload with the ErgData app. Manually entered the SkiErg data into the Concept 2 logbook. I’d done the SkiErg session barefoot (so it would be more fun), so next I donned some shoes to protect my feet while they’d be in the footrests of the rowing machine.

While donning shoes, heart and subconscious started snickering and dickering about doing less than 10,000 meters rowing, but I just set up RowPro for 10K and started. The chosen goal was an average pace of 2:15 or better.

The heart seemed to grumble now and then as its rate readout would disappear from the display. But it remained steady overall. It also remained in the appropriate beats/minute range for the the effort – whenever its readout was being displayed.

So everything was okay in today’s workout fray.

No chart and less data than usual for today’s SkiErg session, because a firmware problem was reported when I tried to upload it.

Happy rowing to you!

Merely Four Missing Beats

Heart behavior seemed normal except that the heart rate display vanished 4 times during the rowing session

Virtuously early this morning, I rose from bed.

Argument might be made by some that rising early has nothing to do with virtue.

Nonetheless, it somehow feels virtuous.

I will accept virtuous feelings where they can be found.

Surprisingly, that virtue was sort of swallowed by about three hours of doing nothing in particular before finally taking the reins and spurring myself to change into workout clothes and start that sort of work.

Happily, once the workout strokes were started, they flowed unabated until the sessions were adorned with sweat and completed.

In keeping with recent practice the first workout session was 200 Calories on the SkiErg.

Next after the SkiErg a bit of rebellious protest made itself heard from the subconscious realm. It expressed desire to do only 3K rowing today, like yesterday’s had been, instead of the more usual 10K.

Getting right down to business bargaining with my subconscious, we arrived at a prompt agreement to compromise with 5K rowing instead of the full 10K or a more paltry 3K.

So the workout sessions were quickly done and without irregularity on the part of the heart except for what is alluded to in today’s title: four brief vanishings of heart rate from the display.

Finish screen for today’s 5K rowing session.

Happy rowing to you.

I Did Not Do This

Not that I’ve ever done any yoga. I haven’t. But my better half has sort of suggested it a few times.

One and only one workout session was the original intention this morning. That workout was to be 200 Calories on the SkiErg. It was done.

Yenning for just a little bit more workout, I set up the rowing machine for 3,000 meters after finishing with the SkiErg.

One session of 3K on the rowing erg seemed enough to have earned some coffee and breakfast.

Generally I like to do a minimum of 10K rowing in addition to whatever is done on the SkiErg, but today seemed like a day to take a vacation from the usual workout.

A grand total of 379 Calories was burned and a few ounces of sweat were generated. The coffee tasted good afterwards.

The first workout session today was 200 Calories on the SkiErg.

Finish screen for the 3,000 meter rowing session.

Report for the 3,000 meter rowing session.

Graphs for the 3,000 meter rowing session. The graph isn’t very smooth because I slowed a few times, to operate a remote control for choosing music.

Happy rowing to you!

Perhaps Better On Empty

Perhaps, but not definitively. Yesterday the question arose as to whether the cause for heart strangeness (atrial fibrillation rearing its head) during the last two of yesterday’s five 2K pieces was having eaten a large breakfast and then resumed rowing while the stomach was feeling full.

Early this morning, before having so much as a crumb of food or a sip of coffee, I began the day’s workouts.

Remembering yesterday’s words, “Perhaps I will try duplicating today’s workout again tomorrow…” but on an empty stomach from start to finish, that thought was put into action and fulfilled this morning.

Happily, there was no heart strangeness from start to finish.

Actually, I did feel a tiny bit of cardio flitter-flutter in the chest. It happened one time and was during the third 2K. But it was so ephemeral that it bordered on being imaginary, though vividly so. Heart rate did not vanish from the display like it does when Afib is more persistent, so I will attribute it to being an imagination of the heart.

Perhaps rowing on a full stomach isn’t a good idea. But on the other hand, perhaps it is merely a coincidence.

Scientific experiment, this was not. Scientific experiments are more thorough. Experiment, it was. And I will keep it in mind for future reference.

Following are screenshots and data for today’s workouts.

Chart and data for the first workout session today.

Finish screen for the fifth of five 2K sessions this morning. The ending heart rate of 119 was a normal heart rate for the effort and was within a very few beats per second of the finish heart rate for each of the previous four 2K sessions.

Report and graph for first of five 2K rowing sessions.

Report and graph for second of five 2K rowing sessions.

Report and graph for third of five 2K rowing sessions.

Report and graph for 4th of five 2K rowing sessions.

Report and graph for last of five 2K rowing sessions.

Happy rowing to you!

Better On Empty?

Today’s heart behavior was virtually perfect, until after my stomach went from Empty to Full, with breakfast.

Perhaps I will try duplicating today’s workout again tomorrow. But if I do, there will be one difference. That difference will be to postpone eating until after all parts of the workout are finished.

Usually, eating before a workout seems to make no difference.

Zero heart strangeness happened during the first session, which was 200 Calories at RPE Level 2 on the SkiErg.

Zero heart strangeness, likewise, during the first of five lively though moderate 2K rowing pieces which followed the SkiErg session. Well, I should say almost zero during that session.

Lively though moderate rowing continued in the second and third of five 2K rowing pieces and heart behavior was perfect during each of those. My stomach had been completely EMPTY during each of those sessions.

In between the third and fourth of five 2Ks, I ate breakfast. Stomach went from Empty to Full. It was a big breakfast, volume-wise, because it included a couple quarts of water in the form of protein drink, Chia drink and 12 ounces of coffee. Plus, there were 3 pita sandwich things.

Needless to say, but I’ll say it anyway in case it is not obvious, I felt very “full” in the stomach area after breakfast. But I didn’t want to wait for the sandwiches and liquids to percolate through the digestive tract, so I didn’t wait to go the rowing machine.

Going at a moderate pace of about 2:17/500 meters, heart rhythm disruption made itself felt after about 1,500 meters of the 4th 2K. It wasn’t drastically irregular, but I could feel it now and then and the heart rate display went blank a few times during both the 4th and 5th of the five 2K rowing sessions. If you look at the screenshots (below) of the finish screen views for the 4th and 5th 2K sessions, you can see that in each of them the heart rate display (bottom right corner of the RowPro screen) is blank. That’s because heart rhythm was too erratic at the finish, for the heart strap to transmit a heart rate signal.

It is PUZZLING and I’m wondering if rowing on a rather full stomach was a significant factor to have caused the fibrillation.

Everything became normal again, after all the rowing was done.