Today’s workout consisted of 5,027 meters on the SkiErg followed by 5,027 meters on the rowing machine. All done indoors, of course.
Today’s EliteHRV Morning Readiness reading was okay for any workout, though the HRV score wasn’t as high as yesterday’s.
The day began with a green light from EliteHRV (see above) and a good night’s rest of 7 hours 40 minutes (see below)
The first of the two workout sessions was set up to be 10K on the SkiErg. That’s what yesterday’s SkiErg session was supposed to be also, but I quit that one yesterday after about 2 miles. Today I got further with it and quit today’s 10K on the SkiErg after a little over 3 miles, logging 5,027 meters.
So for today’s rowing session, I set the rowing machine for the exact same distance, 5,027 meters to compare results. You can see from the session reports that I went a lot faster, with a lower heart rate, rowing than SkiErg-ing.
SkiErg session finish screen.SkiErg session report.SkiErg RowPro graphConcept 2 Online logbook chart for SkiErg. The chart is messy with black lines because there were many false readings for strokes, with the SkiErg connected to RowPro.Finish screen for rowing the 5,027 meter distance.Today’s rowing reportToday’s rowing session RowPro graphsThe Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s rowing session is a lot cleaner looking than the SkiErg chart because it is displaying correct data for strokes and stroke rate.
This morning’s EliteHRV readiness reading was good, but the most remarkable thing was the HRV score of 54. This was the first time HRV score has ever been higher than mid 40s.
Last night’s sleep was interrupted by a long stretch of insomnia from about 2:30 to about 5:00 AM. One thing I did during that insomnia was to resort to an emWave2 device and breathe following its breath pacer, which resulted in a longest-ever “meditation” of 36 minutes in a state of “coherence”. I wonder if that was a factor in getting the higher-than-ever HRV reading with EliteHRV today?
Today’s main indoor rowing session was indoor skiing on a Concept 2 SkiErg. I connected it to RowPro for the sake of logging it and getting a bigger screen display of data. Since RowPro is only designed with rowing machines = boat avatars in mind, it looked like I was rowing a boat on the digital river. Something was going on with the stroke rate not translating well to the display and instead of displaying what should have been a stroke rate in the 20s or 30s, it was all over the place and very frequently displaying a false stroke rate of over 100 SPM. But the other data looked okay.
I preset the distance to 10,000 meters on the SkiErg, but by the time I reached between 2K and 3K I was breathing hard and sweating profusely, though my average pace was a mere 3:00 minutes/500m. So I guess it will take a lot of getting used to as an unfamiliar workout for my underused upper body.
Instead of going the full distance of 10K, I stopped skiing after about 2 miles, which was 3,250 meters. Since I’m brand new to the SkiErg, I started out with the lowest possible damper setting at 0 (zero) and that was a Drag Factor of about 51 according to the PM5.
I rated both the SkiErg 3250 meters and the rowing machine 1,000 meters as each RPE 5.
After the shortened session on the SkiErg I switched to the familiar Concept 2 Model D and rowed 1,000 meters plus a 750 meter warm down.
Do you check your email frequently or have notifications turned on so that your phone alerts you every time you receive a new email? I don’t. Too many emails. So the only time I know there’s new email is when I log in to the email account.
A problem with that, it turned out, was that once recently when one of my training partners wanted to do a rowing session online, I didn’t see his email until too late. So I told him that it would be okay if he wanted to send a text message for any scheduled online rowing sessions, to make sure I knew about them enough in advance to say yea or nay.
Today, he took me up on that and sent a text message. (Screenshot of that text message is at the top of this post.) About 40 minutes after his text, we were online and rowing an hour session together even though we are each located somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 miles away from each other. One of the nicer “wonders” of the internet. Even though it is “virtual” company when you row online with one or more other people, it makes the session a lot more enjoyable than rowing alone.
Today’s EliteHRV Morning Readiness analysis was that any kind of workout would be okay.
Plenty of sleep last night, at 7 hours 15 minutes.
So the main rowing done today was a 60 minute piece, online at a breezy pace which felt like RPE 2. A screen recording was made for those of you who’d like to have it to row-along with. It is available at this link: Indoor Rowing 60 mins online 01142019
After the 60 minute piece, I rowed a 4 minute session. Did that because I hadn’t yet rowed a 4 minute session this season and I thought it would be nice to put it in the rankings. It was done with a pace boat and a target pace of about 2:05. It felt like about RPE 4. A screen recording for rowing-along with it is available at this link: Indoor Rowing 4 minutes 01142019
Finish screen view of today’s 60 minutes online.
Finish screen view of today’s 4 minute piece.There was only one brief moment of heart strangeness (Afib) today and it happened during the last half of the 4 minute session, where you can see a downward spike to zero in heart rate. That’s where heartbeat fluttered briefly, becoming irregular and the heart strap transmitter couldn’t provide a coherent signal to display.Concept 2 online logbook chart of today’s 4 minute session.
This morning’s EliteHRV Readiness reading was optimal for any kind of rowing…
Today began with a good HRV reading, so there were no restrictions regarding rowing. Also, it followed a good night’s sleep, which was another plus.
Seven hours and forty minutes of good quality sleep last night.
Today’s indoor rowing consisted of two sessions. First, a one minute session which was done just for the sake of putting anything in the rankings for the 1 minute sprint category. Second, was a longer session of 8,224 meters, which was done just for the sake of logging more calories for a current Concept 2 challenge.
The one minute session was preceded by a 750 meter warmup and followed by a 750 meter warm down. The one minute sprint was done with a target pace that would rank me at about the lower 25% of those who had ranked 1 minute sessions to date. That was a pace target of about 1:49/500 meters. I didn’t want to row any faster than that, because the warm up was too short and I wouldn’t really be warmed up enough for an all-out 60 second sprint.
After the one minute sprint was finished, I did an easy 750 meter warm down and that is when the “heart strangeness” happened. It felt like a bit of fluttering and heart rate spiked and remained higher than it should have been for the easy warm down pace. Another strange thing about that strange heart rate behavior during the warm down was that when it spiked, it spiked up to 150 BPM, which is exactly as high as heart rate managed to climb, before the ultra-short 1 minute sprint was finished. Was that a coincidence? Or was that the heart’s way of saying it wanted to sprint for longer than one minute? One minute wasn’t enough indulgence in sprinting? The heart is eager, and “rarin’ to go” racing?
That “strangeness” happened in uncharted territory, because the warm down was tacked on to the 1 minute RowPro session and RowPro does not include tacked-on warmups or warm downs in its charts for the main session report. Below is a screenshot of what heart rate looked like when it spiked during the warm down.
Heart rate had been in the mid- to low-120s during the warmdown, until abour 426 meters remaining, when it spiked up to 150 even though rowing effort remained at a constant, easy level.
A screen recording was made of the entire 1 minute session including its warmup and warm down, so if you view the screen recording, you can see how it acted in real-time on the RowPro screen. The one minute session screen recording is here: Indoor Rowing 1 minute sprint 01122019
For those of you who’d like to row-along with it, a screen recording was also made of the 8,224 meter session and it is available at this link: Indoor rowing 8224 meters 01122019
After the warm down following the 1 minute sprint, I thought I’d have to stop rowing for the rest of the day, but within a few minutes the Afib went away and heart behavior returned to normal, so I did the 8224 meter session in order to bring the day’s total to 10,000 meters and burn a few more calories.
Finish screen for 1 minute sprint.Finish screen for 8224 meter session.
An unexpectedly unbalanced HRV analysis today. There were no artifacts to potentially “skew” the results, so I have to take it at face value.
Today’s EliteHRV morning readiness reading was expected to be good but it was not. Plenty of sleep last night at 7 hours 45 minutes. No rowing done today.
A good night’s sleep (7 hours 45 minutes) with little in the way of interruptions. Does that mean I was especially tired and there is something lurking beneath the “face value” of today’s poor EliteHRV morning readiness reading??
On the brink of death or what? This morning was the worst reading I’ve ever had.
Yes, this morning’s EliteHRV reading was the WORST EVER reading since I’ve been taking the daily Morning Readiness reading. But I ended up discarding it, because though my actual HRV reading might have been poor, it also might have been good… the results were skewed and basically worthless because there were too many data glitches. See additional screenshot below, for what EliteHRV said about today’s reading.
The “artifacts” were due to the fact that I was having a little bout of heart flutter AKA atrial fibrillation.
I got plenty of sleep last night, at 8 hours and 20 minutes. But you can see that heart rate was elevated from about 5:30 AM through the entire remaining time of last night’s sleep – that’s when the heart fluttering happened.
Other than the fluttering heart, I felt okay. It stopped fluttering around midday and I decided to row late in the afternoon, at a moderate pace.
Today’s rowing session was 17,000 meters done for the sake of burning calories. The hope was to burn at least 1,000 calories and that goal was almost reached, with a total of 988 or 989 calories. (The finish screen reported 988 calories and the report says 989 calories).
A screen recording was made for those of you who like to have it to row along with. It is available at this link: Indoor Rowing 17000 meters 01092019
Though today was a rest day from rowing, I didn’t recline or take a nap like this guy appears to be doing.
Today’s EliteHRV score was very sympathetic which in the case of heart rate variability isn’t good. So I took the day off from rowing. I was slightly active, moving furniture, assembling a piece of exercise equipment and other miscellaneous chores/tasks. But none of it compared to any kind of rowing.
Today’e EliteHRV Morning readiness score.
Heart rate graph of last nights sleep. It was a good night’s sleep, but the sleep logging app says I’m still low on sleep. The way the sleep app puts it, I’m at 75% of what it calculates to be my “3-Day Sleep Target”
Though last night’s sleep was quite a bit more than the night before, last night’s RHR was higher at 53 (vs 51 for night before) and last night’s average sleeping HR was higher at 59 (vs 54 for night before).
Even though I took it easy yesterday, today’s HRV score was lower/worse than yesterday’s. Puzzling.
Though the HRV score yesterday was excellent and I took it easy, today’s HRV score was worse than yesterday’s! I’m missing something here… unless this morning’s lower HRV score was due to last night’s sleep? (See caption of image below)
Perhaps the poor HRV score this morning was due to only getting 5 hours 45 minutes sleep last night, instead of closer to 8 hours?
Because of the poor HRV reading this morning, I only did easy rowing. The goal for today’s rowing was to total at least 1,000 calories, for the Big Burn Challenge (see image below)
Today’s goal of burning at least 1,000 calories while rowing easy was achieved with two pieces: A 10K followed by a 7,700 meter piece. There was a screen recording made of the 7,700 meter piece, for those of you who’d like to row along with it. It is located at this link: Indoor Rowing 7700 meters 01072019
It is now almost 6 hours since today’s easy rowing was finished. When I do “easy rowing,” it is only done by feel. It seemed that 2:20 felt easy, so I aimed for 2:20 and did each of today’s pieces near that pace. But I’m surprised that now, 6 hours later, I’m feeling slight soreness from the rowing! This isn’t “normal”. Is it because I’m “getting old”? or is it because I’m fighting off some kind of bug?
Perhaps the HRV reading tomorrow morning will shed some light on the answer to that question?
10K finish screen
10K report
10K graphs7700 meter finish screen7700 meter report7700 meters graphs
