Today’s main session was 1,609 meters. It was done for the sake of the Indoor Rowers League challenge for the month of October. It was preceded/followed by 10 minute warmup/down. The distance of 1,609 meters is about one mile.
Today’s session is categorized as a race, because it was rowed as fast as I thought I could do it.
Happy miles rowing to you.
The longest session today was 10,000 meters done at a very easy pace. Then it was time for a race. The race was to do a specific set of intervals and then log the total time for those intervals in the c2ctc.com website.
The specific intervals were 500 meters, followed by two minutes rest, then 1,250 meters, followed by 1 minute rest and finally a 250 meter sprint. Each interval distance was to be done from a stopped flywheel. It managed to get me to breathing very hard.
The 10K was done online but alone. The 10K was done first, so as to serve as a long warm-up for the C2CTC race. The rest of today’s rowing was done offline.
Tomorrow, or one of the other days between now and the end of the month, there will be a 1,609 meter (about one mile) race.
Happy rowing and occasional racing to you.
After doing a very leisurely 10K this afternoon, I ran the RowPro 5 for the Mac comparison analysis, to compare performance change to yesterday’s session which was done at a bit faster average pace. “Net Performance Increase,” it said. But what does it mean, really? Your guess is as good or maybe better than mine.
There was neither warmup nor warm down. The session was scheduled about 25 minutes in advance as an online session but nobody else signed up so it was done alone.
Happy performance increasing to you.
Today’s indoor rowing consisted of 10,000 meters rowed online but alone, followed by a warm down. There are only screenshots of the 10K below.
Happy rowing to you.
Today’s indoor rowing was the same distance and feeling-of-effort goal as yesterday’s. But yesterday’s was not posted to this blog yesterday. So today’s blog post will do double duty.
Since yesterday’s and today’s were the same distance, this blog post will include the results of a RowPro 5 for the Mac comparison analysis of today and yesterday.
The order of presentation of screenshots etc will be yesterday’s first, then today’s and finally the RowPro 5 for the Mac analysis comparison of the two sessions.
A video watched during part of today’s rowing session was called “Rowing: A symphony of Motion,” found on youtube. That’s a screenshot of it, just above.
Happy symphonic rowing to you.
I couldn’t immediately find an image to go with today’s title, so the above photo of an indoor rowing meet featured on the British Rowing website will have to do.
Though the above photo show dozens of over 700 people at an indoor rowing meet, my rowing session was done alone at home. As I rowed one of the things I imagined was riding a horse among windmills while holding the reins so as to restrain the horse from breaking into a gallop.
Today was not a day to race or gallop. The goal was to maneuver and keep the heart rate in a range of between 120 and 140.
There are two competitive events to do before this month’s end. One is for c2ctc.com and the other is for the indoor rowers organization, whose website seems to be down at the moment…
Today’s indoor rowing was followed by a 2K warm down, the results of which will be shown first:
Happy rowing to you.
One of the music videos that played today while I was rowing seemed especially apt. The Windmills Of Your Mind, sung by Dusty Springfield.
The mind is always looking for entertainment, escape, meaning and freedom, among other things. And that remains true when a person is doing indoor rowing. In that respect, the lyrics of “The Windmills of Your Mind” seem relevant in their freely interpreted meaning, which will be fluid and different for every person who hears the song.
Some of the words of the song’s lyrics are:
“Round,
Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel,
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever-spinning reel
Like a snowball down a mountain,
Or a carnival balloon
Like a carousel that’s turning
Running rings around the moon
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on its face
And the world is like an apple
Spinning silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind!”
Did any of the words mean anything in particular to you? To me, they evoke countless images and many recollections. For example, the phrase “….wheel within a wheel…” reminds of a famous verse from the first chapter of The Book of Ezekiel: “The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.” (verse 16). And it reminds of the times long ago when I first read that verse, and other contexts within which that verse was spoken of or referenced.
Today’s rowing was 30 minutes online but solo, preceded by a short warmup and followed by a brief warm down.
Happy rowing among the windmills of your mind.
One of the apps I use daily is a nifty sleep tracker called Sleep Watch. One of the things it tracks is “heart rate dip” during sleep, compared to average heart rate during the day. Supposedly, the more the HR dips during sleep, compared to while awake during the rest of the day, the healthier it is for a person.
I’ve noticed that if I don’t do any rowing during the day, I get a sub-optimal HR dip. If I do a moderate amount of rowing, I get a “normal” dip. If I do a LOT of rowing, like either a leisurely half marathon or a shorter distance but at a higher effort level… I will get a greater than 20% HR dip and will be commended by the app for having done a “Good job!’.
Today’s rowing was 10K at an easy pace, with the goals of finishing the entire distance and keeping heart rate at least 100 and below 140. Much of the time today, I rowed with eyes closed.
Happy rowing to you and may you have healthy heart rate dips as a result.
The above photo of a novel method of rowing is for your amusement. Laughter is good for the soul and for anything that may be ailing you. 🙂 The photo was found on a website called Flickriver.
Although I could probably do 10K or more of gentle rowing today, it is going to be skipped again because there are still tinges of pain left from the cinder-block catalyzed back pain of yesterday.
Today’s rowing is classified as “Boring Workout” because there was no rowing. 🙂
Happy and pain-free rowing to you.
Yesterday I lifted some cinder blocks, to use as temporary modification for Diane’s desk. My back started to hurt a little bit yesterday and … when I sat on the rowing machine today, it started hurting a lot, before I even picked up the handle to start any rowing.
So today’s rowing was cancelled. Hopefully, everything will be better tomorrow. 🙂
Happy rowing to you.