A sign of the times and of declining revenue for the US Post Office: This year, we only received a half-dozen Christmas cards. In years gone by, there used to be dozens, but as internet usage has grown and people have moved around from one universe to another, the numbers of old-fashioned actual physical cards have dwindled.
Today was the first day of rowing after two days of abstention from rowing. To make up for some of those lost-in-the-past meters, today’s session was longer than usual at 24,000 meters. I rowed at a mostly very easy pace and it was fun and not the least boring. Until around 17,000 meters with about 7,000 meters remaining. Then it started to get a little boring, so I turned on the monitor connected to an original model Apple TV, went to YouTube and started the Head Of The Charles Rowing Power Workout video.
With that video running and nine intervals to do in the remaining distance, it became fun again. The intervals were done with restrained effort, not very hard, because I didn’t know if any of the body’s systems would make a fuss if I just jumped back at the usual pace after two lazy days off.
All systems were AOK, as an astronaut might say.
Finish screen for today’s 24K.RowPro graphs for today’s 24K.Report for today’s 24K. Note that RowPro 5 For The Mac had a glitch again, and reported blatantly incorrect data in the columns Time, Meters and Avg DPS for split number 5. Everything else looks okay and the bottom line results correctly match the results in the rowing machine’s PM.Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 24K.
If you are wondering what this photo has to do with rowing, it has nothing to do with rowing that comes to my mind at the moment. But the photo does feature a Great Pyrenees sheep dog in the foreground, and that is what we were talking about just before the end of the three hour+ phone call. It is a very protective and cuddly breed of dog. But also very large. So… when it cuddles, all it can fit into the lap of the person with whom it is cuddling, is its gigantic head.
Today, I was on the phone in one of those rare and precious phone calls again. And… like yesterday, had the deja vu experience of once again doing no rowing.
The phone calls are “precious” because they are so infrequent. They would be “precious” even if they were very frequent, but … I won’t say the rest because you can figure out where I’m going with that train of thought, if you board that train.
The phone call started quite a bit before the time I would have done my rowing and lasted until after I would have finished. As a result, there was no rowing again today. At this rate, it will take a marathon to make up the difference for the days of abstention from rowing. But … only if I abstain for one more day. As it is now, if I row anywhere between 24,000 and 30,000 meters tomorrow, that will make up the difference and bring me back up to the fuzzy-math zone of where I should be in average daily meters rowed.
In case you don’t know what “fuzzy math” is, this picture is worth a thousand somewhat irrelevant words on the topic.
Even though I didn’t do any rowing today, this blog post is categorized as “ethereal rowing” because every day, including today, has an ethereal element to it. Also: whether I do any rowing or not, there’s not a day that passes when I don’t think about rowing. Today’s blog post is also categorized as “Mentally absorbing workout,” because the phone conversation was quite a workout, from the mental perspective, and also very absorbing.
There was no rowing today, ethereal or otherwise, due to a longer than anticipated phone call this afternoon. Maybe I’ll make up for the lost meters by rowing more tomorrow?
Today there was a phone call scheduled for four pm. It was about 3 pm when I started rowing, so I once again limited the distance to 8K, so as to be certain to be done in time to change from rowing clothes to regular garb and be ready for the phone call.
The 8K was done similar to yesterday, with no warmup and while doing the intervals in HOCR Rowing Power Workout, then using the remaining time to warm down.
Report for today’s 8K.RowPro graphs for today’s 8K.Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 8K.
Today’s indoor rowing could have been much longer than 8,000 meters. But it was 8,000 meters and no more. Ethereal, but brief. I was inclined to keep it short, on a sort of whim, while considering that I’m committed to rowing enough to burn 20,000 calories during January.
I haven’t become tired of the HOCR Rowing Power Workout yet, so I rowed along with it and did the nine intervals it includes.
Finish screen for today’s 8KReport for today’s 8KRowPro graphs for today’s 8KConcept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 8K
This was the best part of the muddy road through the metal recycling yard. The part of the road behind the truck was deeper and sloppier with oodles of mud.
Today there was only enough time for 8,000 meters, instead of 10K or more. It was because of the previously mentioned water heater removal and replacement, which I decided to do myself. It was all complete except for the hauling away of the old water heater.
So… today I hauled the old water heater, plus its former housing, which was made of galvanized metal, to a local metal recycling location. By “local,” I mean it was only a 25 mile drive each way, for a round trip of 50 miles.
The amount I was paid for the scrap metal was $9.05, which was more than enough to cover the round trip cost of gasoline.
The thing that looks like a green traffic light above and to the left of the exit from the scale is the signal that the truck has been weighed and it may exit the scale.
But, even if they had paid nothing for the old water heater, it would still have been a bargain, compared to the $700 which would have been charged by the Home Depot contractor, for delivery of the new one, removal and replacement and then hauling away of the old one. The contractor would not reduce the cost of installing the new water heater if I delivered the new one myself and hauled away the old one myself, because he said that those services were “free”. So, since he wouldn’t negotiate at all, he lost the entire job.
The round trip to take the old water heater to the metal recycling facility took about two hours. I had to drive on to a scale, have the truck weighed before it was unloaded, then have it weighed again afterwards. The place was very muddy, so after I returned home I had to spend another hour hosing and brushing the mud off the truck.
Today’s 8K was done with the first 2K as warm up, then I watched the HOCR Rowing Power Workout video again and did some of its intervals. I skipped the last interval, so that the last 800 meters or so could serve as a warm down.
Finish screen for today’s 8K.Report for today’s 8K.RowPro graphs for today’s 8K.Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 8K.
Today’s indoor rowing was 10,000 meters similar to yesterday’s but different in these respects: The warmup portion was shorter and lasted only about 2,000 meters. The video I watched, which provided timing for the intervals was the same as yesterday, HOCR Rowing Power Workout, but when I did the intervals, I used less effort than yesterday. For the active rest portion following each interval, I rowed easier than when resting between intervals yesterday. Finally, the warm down portion at the end was longer and easier than it has been for similar sessions the previous five days.
I made those changes, so as to try to avoid the heart contrariness experienced yesterday and it seems to have worked. Searching for the “sweet spot” of not too hard but not too easy. It was probably on the too easy side today but that’s okay.
A screen shot from one of the videos I watched while warming up today. If the two taller guys look familiar, they are the Winklevoss twins, from whom Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea for Facebook. The video shows a guy from the Wall Street Journal (white T-shirt) being introduced to rowing in general. The name of the video is Rowing: How Hard Can It Be?
One of the videos I watched while warming up has nothing to do with today’s rowing except that it was humorous and I enjoyed it. It relates mostly to OTW (on the water) rowing, though it did show the guy who was being introduced to rowing when he tried using a Concept 2 rowing machine and fell off the seat. I suspect that he might have done that on purpose, because there is no special skill needed to sit on a rowing machine.
The answer to the question, how hard can rowing be? is: as hard as you want. There is no limit except the limit your own mind imposes upon you.
Today’s rowing was 10,000 meters. The first part was a warm up, then I watched the youtube video HOCR Rowing Power Workout and did nine intervals for the remainder.
After the ninth interval, I didn’t slow down completely and my heart decided to protest. The word “decided” in the previous sentence is a bit more than a figure of speech, it seems, because according to some articles I’ve read about the human heart, it has its own “brain”?!?! By “protest”, I mean my heart didn’t slow down like it normally does after the 10,000 meters was finished and -in addition to that- it even went higher during the last hundred meters or so. It was acting very contrary, to say the least.
After the 10K was over, it remained up in the 140+ BPM area, so I tried doing a 10 minute “warm down” even though I wasn’t hot. It still refused to slow down to normal. So I thought something to the effect of, “the heck with it!” and changed clothes.
It seems to be close to normal now, at around 70 BPM while I’m sitting here typing. So maybe the heart repented of its protest. Though 70+ does seem a bit high, for only moving one finger at a time on the keyboard.
Finish screen for today’s 10KReport for today’s 10KRowPro graphs for today’s 10KConcept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 10KFinish screen for today’s 10 minute warm down that wouldn’t wind down.Report for today’s 10 minute warm down that wouldn’t wind down.RowPro graphs for today’s 10 minute warm down that wouldn’t wind down.Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 10 minute warm down that wouldn’t wind down.
This video can be found by either searching youtube for Coxswain Surfing or clicking THIS LINK.
Today’s indoor rowing was a total of 12,000 meters, split into a 10K session and a 2K ultra-slow warm down. During the first half of the 10K, I rowed slowly as a warmup. During the warmup, I watched miscellaneous videos related to rowing on the water. The highlight of those videos was the one for which you see a screenshot, above, of a coxswain “surfing” while her crew of 8 rowers propels the boat at a moderate effort. The crew cheers her, when she manages to stand up and “surf” while maintaining her balance, which is no easy task with the alternating applications of sudden accelerating power when the crew pulls the oars and the sudden deceleration and “glide” as the crew recovers and re-positions for the next stroke.
The second half of today’s 10K was a series of intervals, while watching the same video as yesterday’s session (HOCR Power Workout).
The final 2,000 meters was an ultra-slow-and-easy warm down.
Finish screen for today’s 10K.Report for today’s 10K.RowPro graphs for today’s 10K.Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 10K.Report for today’s warm down.
