Today I kept an appointment with a doctor, before doing any rowing. It was my first visit to him and he’s a cardiologist. I thought he’d do an ECG or even have me do a stress test, but … we just chatted. I showed him the results of the 6K piece done yesterday and he said something to the effect that if his brother was doing like I’m doing, he’d tell him to not waste his time with a treadmill test.
He didn’t do an ECG, probably because I told him that my primary doctor had done one. He did, however, request a copy of that ECG so he could look it over.
We talked about coffee also. I told him I’d stopped drinking it a few days ago and he spoke very enthusiastically about coffee and its benefits and said he thought coffee would be perfectly okay for me.
All in all, it wasn’t a day that matched expectations. I’m not sure that I want to resume drinking coffee in the amounts I had been. I’m curious how I’ll feel, if I continue without coffee for a while longer.
I tried to talk with the doctor about levels of exertion and how hard it would be okay to work at rowing. He recommended moderation without being specific and said he thought it would be okay if I raced once a week.
From my perspective and experience, that is still puzzling. I consider the doctor’s appointment today to be a wash. But since he seemed to think I’m perfectly healthy, heart sounds good etc, I decided to allow myself to work a bit harder and race as much as once a week. How long a race? Another point not discussed. But… he’s not a rower, so he wouldn’t have first hand experience of what it’s like to push yourself as hard as you think you can until the last 500 meters of any distance and then try to row even harder, using anything you have left, for the last 500 meters.
Today’s rowing plan was to do 11K and increase the effort level gradually, to gradually bring HR up into the range of 133 to 145 bpm. Heart zone training. But the heart didn’t cooperate after a little more than halfway through. It started varying disproportionately to the effort and going to zero and making a general mess of the chart during the last half, as you can see in the bottom-most chart below.
Happy and hearty rowing to you.