Today’s main rowing session was 6,344 meters out of a total of 21,126 meters. The 6,344 meters was for the Indoor Rowers League’s November 2017 competition. The distance of 6,344 meters was chosen in honor of the experience, book and website of mountaineer and author Joe Simpson, who had the experience which led to the book whose cover is pictured immediately above this paragraph.
I did five rowing pieces today: A warmup, 30 minutes online with 4 other guys, 10 minutes easy, 6,344 meters at semi-race pace, a warm down and finally a 4,000 meter supplemental distance just for the sake of adding more meters to today’s total.
Today’s first rowing session was this 998 meter piece to warm up and limber up.Today’s second rowing was this slow-row 30 minute online session with three guys who were a lot faster and one who was a lot slower than me.Today’s 3rd session was a 10 minute warmup, not shown, followed by this 6,344 meter piece. I didn’t know how fast I could row it, so I chose 2:00 as a target pace and rowed about 1:59 until I felt tired after 5,000 meters. Then I slowed down for 20 or 30 seconds. Then I picked up the pace again, to finish with an average pace of around 2:01.The concept 2 online logbook graph for today’s 6,344 meter piece.The last piece was done super slow, without a heart strap. The only purpose was to add more meters to help make up for the several days of little to no rowing recently.
Some of the tools used today in the ongoing water heater project.
Today was similar to yesterday in that most of the time was used working to remove the old water heater, cleaning out the pack rat debris that had been under the old heater, and placing the new water heater in the space. Then it was discovered that though the side-to-side dimensions of the new heater allowed it to fit comfortably, the front-to-back dimensions were about 6 inches too much.
Originally there was a metal shed surrounding this area and the old water heater. Now that it has all been removed and exposed, I’m thinking that something should be done about the weird two-levels of concrete slab, to make it all on the same plane. Perhaps something can also be done, to prevent pack rats from getting into the area. Notice how some of the pipe insulation was chewed away by pack rats. Also – the bottom edge of the wooden siding was chewed away by the same furry desert denizens.
So both the heater and its protective metal shed had to be removed. Then I had to make a trip to Home Depot to get a larger metal shed, which will require assembly.
The new water heater has feet, to keep its bottom up, off the ground which sometimes gets wet with rain.
The new water heater has feet, so its bottom doesn’t touch the ground and it does not matter if the ground gets wet.
While we are deciding what to do about the weird-looking two-level slab, the new water heater is hooked up and working so that we have hot water in the meantime.
There was no time for an ordinary rowing session today, after all the time spent with the water heater. So I rowed for ten minutes.
Finish screen for today’s token 10 minutes of rowing.Report for today’s token 10 minutes of rowing.RowPro charts for today’s token 10 minutes of rowing.Concept 2 online logbook graphs for today’s token 10 minutes of rowing.
The old water heater would be feeling disconnected and rejected, if it had any feelings.
The time that would have included normal rowing today was swallowed up by busy-ness with the water heater.
The flat and footless bottom of the new water heater which had to be returned.
The 15 year-old leaky one was removed, the new one was unboxed, the new one and its manual were examined and it was discovered that it is flat-bottomed without feet and the manual specifically says that it should only be used indoors and on a floor which is always dry.
The nifty nook for the water heater will have to wait until tomorrow for its new occupant.
Ours is installed outdoors and its floor gets wet … whenever we have rain. I’d told the Home Depot salesman it was going to be used outdoors …. long story, but bottom line is that it was returned and I did not get a different hot water heater from Home Depot because they said that all their water heaters are footless, flat-bottomed the same as the one we returned.
These tools seldom get used. If they had any feelings, it would have been a somewhat exciting day for them today. More excitement for them tomorrow, when they can help to finish the job of installing the new water heater.
So I checked Ace Hardware, which had one and only one to choose from. But that particular brand had extremely low ratings and many bad reviews. So I checked Lowe’s and Sears and got one from Lowe’s. By the time that was all done, it was too late to do my daily rowing and too dark outside to install the new water heater.
So, since there was no time today for rowing, I rowed for five minutes.
Finish screen for today’s 5 minutes of virtually no rowing.Report for today’s 5 minutes of virtually no rowing.Concept 2 online logbook graphs for today’s 5 minutes of virtually no rowing.RowPro charts for today’s 5 minutes of virtually no rowing.
The above photo shows the dusty top of our current hot water heater. It looks easier to work with than some of the water heaters I saw in some of the youtube videos watched yesterday. Tomorrow’s pre-rowing warmup might consist of disconnecting and removing the current water heater which has developed a leak, and replacing it with a new one of the same capacity. I say it might be tomorrow’s warmup, because some of the guys who made youtube videos of their work to remove and replace hot water heaters…. made the remark that they worked up a sweat in the process.
Today’s rowing consisted of 10,000 meters which was done about the same as yesterday with the exception that I used a lower stroke rate for the early few thousand meters and when I reached 7,000 meters I went from 185 Watts to a moderate sprint of around 230-250 Watts briefly, so as to quickly get the heart rate up to the goal of 158 BPM. Once HR topped 158, I immediately slowed to a tapering warm down for the remaining approximately 3,700 meters.
Finish screen for today’s 10KReport for today’s 10KRowPro graphs for today’s 10KConcept 2 online logbook graphs for today’s 10K
If the concrete under the hot water heater looks wet, you’re right. The water heater’s tank is leaking.
Today I didn’t take any fish oil supplement, on the suspicion that it was related to the occasional arrhythmia and that correlation was reinforced when there was no arrhythmia today. So I decided to stop taking fish oil and switch to a plant-based substitute instead. Walnuts and chia seeds are a couple sources of the necessary Omega-3 oils.
The almost two year supply of fish oil that I’d bought (it had been on sale) was returned after this photo was taken, because there had been too many instances of correlation with heart palpitations when I’d taken it and no heart palpitations on days when it had not been taken.
But as today’s title indicates, the water heater didn’t work as well as my heart because it (water heater) started leaking.
So I got a replacement water heater from Home Depot. I saved the $79 I was told that its delivery would cost if the Home Depot contracted installer delivered it, by taking it home and delivering it myself. I asked the Home Depot employee if I could also save some money on the installation by disposing of the old water heater myself instead of having the installer haul it away. He said that when I talked with the Home Depot contractor about the installation, the amount it would cost to haul away the old one would be mentioned and could be negotiated.
While I was talking with the Home Depot employee about the water heater installation, another customer overheard me asking about the Home Depot installation contractors and he decided to chime in to the conversation by saying “I’m 80 years old and I’ve NEVER had a good experience with contractors! All I’ve ever gotten from contractors is s**t, s**t, s**t! I’ve never met a contractor who was any good or gave me anything but s**t!”
I didn’t know if he was talking about contractors in general or Home Depot contractors in particular, so I just replied by telling him that I was an optimist and I hoped to meet a good one. He just looked at me without saying anything further.
After getting home, I talked with a representative of the Home Depot contractor (Delta Mechanical) that does installation and I was told that it would cost $787.91 to install the water heater, including delivery of new one and disposal of old one.
I told him I’d already delivered the new one myself, so I could save the $79 delivery fee and said that I could also haul away the old one myself. Then I asked how much both of those done-it-myself tasks would reduce the installation cost.
He replied that delivery and disposal were “free” and the cost to install it would be the same price of $787.91!! There was no negotiation. They were going to charge me for all the work, even if they didn’t have to do it all!
That contractor-quoted price to remove and replace a water heater was far too expensive for something that would take from 30 minutes to an hour, so I decided against having the Home Depot contractors do the work.
If I’d known the phone number of that 80 year-old man in Home Depot who used the rather profane language about contractors, I would have called him next and told him I was now inclined to agree with his opinion and his choice of adjectives.
But I didn’t know his phone number, so I thought about calling other plumbers. Before I could call anyone else, I had an idea to look on YouTube. So I navigated the internet to YouTube and made a pleasant discovery. It was well worth looking.
There happen to be a multitude of videos on the subject of removal & replacement of water heaters. After watching a few of those videos, the decision was made to DIY. The videos were made by many different guys, ranging from experienced professional plumbers, to professional handymen and ordinary Do-It-Yourselfers, to even people who were doing it for the first time ever.
This is a screenshot from one of the encouraging, inspiring youtube videos I watched today, each of which show various people removing and replacing their water heaters. This particular video featured a water heater with the same visible symptom as ours – evidence on the floor below it of a water leak from the tank.
Today’s rowing was 10K. I started out the same as yesterday but starting with the third 2,000 meters of the session, I took a slightly less rapid approach to increasing power than yesterday’s plan.
I started at 105 Watts for the first 2,000 meters, just like yesterday. Then, 145 Watts for the next 2,000 meters, which was also the same as yesterday. But at the start of the 3rd 2K, (during which yesterday’s arrhythmia had happened, I only increased the power by an additional 20 Watts instead of 40 Watts, raising the effort to 165 Watts and stayed there for 1,000 meters until increasing another 20 Watts, to 185 Watts. Everything worked smoothly without even a hiccup from the heart up to that point, so after finishing the third 2K at 185 Watts, I increased the power by another 20 Watts, to 205 Watts.
Heart rate finally eased up to the target of 158 BPM after I’d rowed a total of about 7,000 meters. For the remaining distance, I rowed easy to warm down.
Finish screen for today’s 10K.RowPro 5 for the Mac had a glitch today. You can see it in some of the columns of split 7 in its report for today’s 10K. The columns for Time, Avg Pace and Avg DPS are incorrect for Split line 7.RowPro shows no glitch in its drawing of today’s graphs. Graphs for today’s 10K.Concept 2 online logbook’s graphs for today’s 10K.
The above image was found on a blog website called The Sieve of Truth. The title of the particular article where the image was found is Does Your Head Rule Your Heart or Your Heart Rule Your Head? It’s a good question. It might depend upon the individual, but I think it is a daily contest for most if not all of us.
Supposedly, the heart has its own brain or perhaps “brain”. If the heart has a brain, I don’t know how to talk with it. It’s probably just as well, because we might get into an argument and make things worse.
Today’s indoor rowing plan was originally to do 10,000 meters. That part was done. But the plan was also to raise the overall effort level a bit, without exceeding zone 2 of the 5 heart rate zones mentioned yesterday. Specifically, I was going to row the first 2K at about 105 Watts, the second 2K at about 145 Watts, the third 2K at about 185 Watts and the fourth 2K at 225 Watts or until heart rate reached the magic number of 158 BPM which is the top end of my personal heart rate zone 2 of 5. After reaching 158, I was going to do a gradually tapering warm down for the remaining distance of the 10K.
But I just barely got into the third 2K, at somewhere between 145 Watts and 185 Watts, when the allegedly brainy heart started beating to a different drummer, getting irregular and going too fast too soon. I tried adjusting the effort level to bring it back to where it should be based on recent sessions, but it just went faster and reached 158 when I was rowing easy.
So, when there were about 3,000 meters remaining, I got off the rowing machine, got a drink of water, walked around a bit and basically didn’t do any rowing for about 15 minutes. It seemed to return to normal, so I finished the last 3,000 meters at a very easy pace, so as to not stir it up any more.
Will try another 10K tomorrow.
Finish screen view for today’s 10K.Reportfor today’s 10K.Graphsfor today’s 10K.
Today’s indoor rowing was a modification of yesterday’s. The distance was still 10,000 meters. The approach was to start at about 85 watts for the first 1,000 meters and increase the power by about 20 watts each subsequent 1,000 meters until heart rate reached 158, then shift to warming down for the remaining distance. The same, but different.
This lady is pointing to the plot of a heart rhythm which has an irregularity. In today’s rowing session, I was trying to make changes of effort level gradual enough to avoid stirring up any such irregularities.
Heart rate has been steady and without any arrhythmia since yesterday’s rowing session “cured” that problem. With today’s rowing, I wanted to keep it that way, but still get a good workout.
Today’s rowing goals were to (1) keep the distance to no more than 10,000 meters, (2) use the first part of the session to gradually warm up, (3) gradually reach for and arrive at the effort level that would raise heart rate to 158 BPM, (4) continue at whatever effort level was needed to maintain about 158 BPM until the remaining distance counted down to 2,000 meters remaining and then (5) gradually reduce the effort level using the last 2,000 meters as a tapered warm down.
The term “sweet spot” is used in baseball to refer to the optimal place on the bat with which to make contact with the baseball. In today’s rowing session, the optimal heart rate or “sweet spot” goal was 158 BPM because that is the highest rate that is still within the two lowest aerobic heart rate zones calculated for me, relative to my presumed “lactate threshold heart rate”. I won’t try to explain it in any detail but you can do what I did and look it up if you want to learn about it. I used information supplied in the book, “80/20 Running,” by Matt Fitzgerald, to calculate the heart rate zones shown in the image below.
It’s been a while since I’ve calculated my “lactate threshold heart rate” zones, so the above chart might not be exactly right, but those are the results from the most recent time they were calculated.
Zones 1 and 2 are the optimal ranges to sustain when doing aerobic exercise, so as to sufficiently work the body and heart without overdoing it. Zones 3 and above are to be avoided most of the time except when racing.
Those zones will be different and unique for each individual and will change, depending on a person’s activity levels and time spent working out. So… one of these days I should re-calculate those zones but in order to do that I have to race for 30 minutes and use the average heart rate for the last 10 minutes as the Lactate Threshold Heart Rate, which is the reference point for calculating all 5 ranges.
Below are the screen shots relating to today’s indoor rowing:
Finish screen view for today’s 10K.Report for today’s 10K.RowPro graphs for today’s 10K. The two vertical spikes in heart rate were the two times when the heart strap lost count of heart rate and its readout went blank. Those might have been two times when the heart was sputtering and wobbling a bit, but if so it quickly steadied itself and resumed a measurable beat each time.The Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 10K.
Immediately after yesterday’s rowing, I got irregular heartbeat. It has happened occasionally and usually goes away. When it doesn’t go away soon, it is a real bother. Yesterday it was a bother. And last night, during which I slept less than 3 hours. And this morning, when it was still persisting with that annoying lack of steady rhythm.
It probably wouldn’t have happened yesterday, if I’d done a better warm down.
So today, I made up for not doing a warm down yesterday. For today’s rowing session, I did 30 minutes and started out at a pace of about 2:40 for the first 1K, 2:35 for the next, 2:30 for the third and so on, with the 6th and final 1,000 meters being done at a pace of 2:15.
Notice also that my heart rate was higher, at 72, before today’s rowing session, than it normally is. Normally it is in the 60s or lower when I’m sitting.
The irregular heartbeat persisted until the last half of the 30 minutes, when it started to settle down and finally went away completely during the last 5 minutes. The photo immediately above shows the irregular heart rate indication on the screen of the blood pressure tester I used just before today’s rowing. And the photo immediately below shows NO irregular heart rate indication on the screen of the blood pressure tester I used just after today’s rowing.
Notice that heart rate is lower, right after rowing, than it was before rowing. When I have irregular heartbeat, it tends to be also an elevated higher than normal rate.
Below, are screenshots relating to today’s indoor rowing session:
Finish screen for today’s 30 minute session.Report for today’s 30 minute session. The “End HR” column shows zeros for the first 23 splits because heartbeat was so irregular that the heart strap couldn’t calculate a heart rate.RowPro graphs for today’s 30 minute session.Concept 2 online logbook graphs for today’s 30 minute session.
In the photo on the left, you see the remains of somebody’s stripped-down car. The photo on the right shows a Hyundai on the moon. I’m not sure, but I think that particular model of Hyundai is named “Tucson”. There must not be very many cars on the moon yet, because there is no visible smog.
The above photos have nothing to do with the title of today’s post nor do they have anything to do with today’s rowing. But I thought it was interesting that a lot of people have put cars and other things on the surface of the moon…. so why not a Concept 2 rowing machine? Diane volunteered to help put a rowing machine on the moon, so maybe soon … because she is a space cadet with the skills to do it.
The rower that I tried to get to race with me is the one who is going by the moniker of Meerkat.
Today’s blog post title was inspired by today’s rowing, which was a 30 minute online session with 12 other people. The above screen shot shows the Oarbits’ listing of the session results. The rower who is shown in 10th place is the one who called himself (or herself) Meerkat.
In case you happen to be a person who doesn’t know what a meerkat is, the above photo shows five of them hanging out together. They are a close-knit society of creatures who have a lot of fans in the society of people who like cute furry creatures. Diane is among the meerkat fans, but not exclusively. Diane is also a fan of squirrels, prairie dogs, beavers, otters, etc.
I paced Meerkat to stay within less than 1 meter of him (or her) throughout the first 23 minutes or so and then I increased my pace, to try to get Meerkat to row faster so we could perhaps have a fun race to the finish.
But Meerkat wouldn’t take the bait, so I raced my own shadow and the result was a tie.
Finish screenshot for today’s 30 minute online session. On this screenshot, Meerkat shows to be in 9th place. I don’t know why the Oarbits results show the same rower in 10th place.Report for today’s 30 minute online session.RowPro graphs for today’s 30 minute online session. I don’t know why the heart rate graph is so messy. Quite a few factors can affect it, including battery charge level, lack of sufficient moisture on skin and also whether the heart strap band is sufficiently snug around the chest.Concept 2 online logbook’s version of graphs for today’s 30 minute online session.
Happy rowing to you and your shadow and anyone who will race with the two of you.
