The guys in the above photo are definitely straining, but my rowing today was of the no-strain type.
Last night, I didn’t get much sleep, so today when doing a half marathon, I did it with plenty of breaks and at a very, very slow pace.
Happy strainless rowing to you.
Specifically, indoor rowing “rules,” according to a testimonial on the Concept 2 website from a woman about how it helped improve her health in respect to osteoporosis and blood pressure. To quote the assertion she made in the last sentence of her testimonial, “Rowers rule the exercise world!”
Today’s activity was another half marathon on the Concept 2 Model D. It was originally scheduled online, two days in advance. But nobody else signed up for it. Since I was going to have to do it alone, I removed it from the online schedule and did the half marathon a little later than it had been originally scheduled.
I focused on maintaining a constant, low HR and that element of focus was enough to keep the rowing session from being boring but I wouldn’t call it fun either. There is no category on this blog for “almost fun” but if there were, that’s how I’d categorize it.
May your happiness be enhanced as you rule through rowing.
The above picture was found on an Irish rowing website. If you’re in Ireland and want to check it out, the website is called Rowing Ireland.
Today’s activity for me was some strength-training/pushups sets mixed in with a half marathon total distance on the Concept 2 Model D, which is the same kind as the machines you can see in the photo above.
I used the first few minutes of the half marathon as a warm up for the first sets of pushups, did those sets and then rowed some more before doing the next sets, etc until the strength-training was completed.
The half-marathon dragged out for quite a few hours because of that and also because I did a few other things and had a few conversations with Diane at various times before finally finishing the half-marathon after Diane left the house to do some grocery shopping.
As a result, I didn’t work up much of a sweat but nonetheless managed to burn about 1,200 calories or perhaps a couple hundred calories more (?) if you include whatever calories were burned with the strength-training.
The latest results of strength-training program will be found in the menu area, “Current Plan”.
Happy long, drawn out or otherwise rowing to you.
The above photo was on a page on the Runner’s World website which addressed the subject of having a party after a half-marathon. Doing a half marathon at race-pace is a fine excuse for a party.
The easy way to do a half marathon is to do it sitting down. That’s what I did today, with another half marathon rowing session online. This time, the company who inspired me to keep rowing the whole distance was a guy in France who joined just in the nick of time before I pressed the start button.
I’m sure that I rowed a little faster and managed to do without stopping even once, because guy in France maintained a steady pace and provided some inspiration. But today’s marathon was definitely not at a race pace and therefore it was no cause for a party, like the runners enjoyed after their HM.
Happy rowing the distance to you.
If you look carefully at the photo above, you can see that the person sitting in position to row on the Concept 2 rowing machine is sitting on a seat which is riding on a rail. The photo below this paragraph gives a less obstructed view of that rail, from the viewpoint of a person sitting on the seat, with the seat all the way back to the end of the rail.
So now you know, in case you didn’t already, what is being referenced in the title with the word, “rail”.
Today’s rowing on the rail session was a half marathon done in the company of a rower in Denmark and a Rower in Netherlands or perhaps Spain. (He has rowed from both locations and I didn’t ask him which country he was in today).
Happy rail rolling to you.
Today’s activity was an hour rowed online in the company of a rower who was in Germany.
My target pace was to just row easy but I was inspired by the pace of the other guy and so I picked up the rating and pace in the second half of the hour and then went a little faster in addition to that, during the last 5 – 10 minutes.
Happy flowing with the rowing to you.
The number of calories burned while rowing today wasn’t anything unusual. You can burn a lot more than that in an hour, if you want to work hard while rowing. As for me, I took it easy most of the time today.
In the hopes of rowing with someone else via the connection over the internet, I scheduled today’s main session online. I only scheduled it about 38 minutes in advance, so apparently that wasn’t enough time for anyone to notice it. I went ahead and rowed online anyway, so my online friends could see that I was there today for 10K.
The above screenshot is from a CNN video on youtube about a fitness center that specializes in indoor rowing. It is called Rowbot Fitness. It is located in Georgia.
Since no one else joined the 10K with me, I rowed to the beat of a slow drummer and maintained a pace somewhere between 2:20 and 2:17 until near the end, where I picked up the pace enough to justify a warm down session afterwards.
Before doing the 10K online, I did a 5 minute warmup, then the 10K online and finished with a 1,500 meter warm down.
Happy calorie burning through rowing to you.
Today’s rowing consisted of two pieces. The first was the higher tech session, because it was done online. Doing a rowing session online is actually easy, but I consider it “higher tech,” because it not only involved the Concept 2 rowing machine and its own computer which is called the PM, but also it involves another computer which runs the RowPro software. That computer running RowPro connects to both the PM and to the internet. Via the internet, a connection is made to the Digital Rowing/Oarbits server in Houston. And other people who are rowing with RowPro, all over the world, can also connect to that same server in Houston at the same time as you, so you can row with them via the internet.
The first session was 30 minutes, with one other person who was located in England. It was not a race and we rowed within a few meters of each other’s boats, from start to finish.
The screenshot below shows some people who are all racing each other using higher tech of RowPro while their machines are all connected to one server. You can see that video at THIS LINK. That video is less than two minutes (it was a very short race) and everyone in the room who was not rowing applauds, when the race is finished.
So… it is possible for people to race each other using RowPro while they are all in the same room, but it can also be done with each rower and his/her machine in different rooms anywhere in the world.
The second session today was the Lower Tech of the two, because it only involved using the rowing machine and its PM. For the second session, the PM was set for a custom 3-interval session which consisted of 500 meters with 30 seconds rest, 1,000 meters with 30 seconds rest and 500 meters as the last interval. The second session was done for this month’s challenge on the C2CTC website. The goal was to row the first 500m interval at a rating of 22, the second 1K interval at 26 and the last 500m interval at 30.
There was also a strength training session today. If you want to see the results, they are going to be posted, along with the strength-training plan, in the page of this blog that can be found via the tab named “Current Plan”.
Happy higher or lower tech rowing to you.
The inspiration for today’s workout was a youtube video which I’ve resorted to a few times before but which I’ve not gotten tired of yet. It is called Turin silver skiffs 2012 and the actual rowing in the video is around 10K. The guy who is wearing the GoPro camera and doing the actual rowing is a young British rower.
Before starting the video and rowing along with it, I chose a custom RowPro session of 11K distance. Then I started the video. The actual race doesn’t start until a couple minutes into the video, but I started about 40 seconds ahead of the actual race start, since I would be rowing about 1,000 meters further. The guy who is rowing has to row against the current and much slower than me for the first half of the race course. Then he turns around and rows with the current and has a pace much faster than mine for the second half. I chose paces which resulted in me finishing the 11K at about the same time as he finished 10K.
When people race together online using RowPro and the digitalrowing.com Oarbits server, they usually follow the race with a 9 minute warm down but 4 minutes seemed more than enough to warm down after today’s 11K which was done at less than a race pace.
A minor software glitch showed up when RowPro generated the main session report. It’s visible on the line for the 16th split.
Though today would have normally been a day for strength-training, I skipped it today and will try to make a spreadsheet for the results of the new strength-training program, before doing the next session, so they can be displayed in this blog.
Here are screenshots from today’s indoor rowing:
Happy and refreshing rowing to you.
The grammar of the title of this post leaves something to be desired but it works. Today’s exercise activity was rowing only. And while I was rowing, I went to youtube and found a short video titled The Rowing Life and watched it. When it was over, youtube automatically started another one which its algorithms decided to be similar and so I watched one after the other, all rowing videos. The last one that was playing when the 11K finished was titled Full Day of Eating + Training | Student Rower, by a guy who seems to have posted quite a few videos on the topic of being a student rower.
The 11,000 meters was mostly easy with a little sprinting near the end. It was followed by a 4 minute piece, as additional warm down.
Happy life with rowing to you.