Today the decision was made to discontinue the 7-day series of 10Ks and increase the pace of today’s 10K from the 2:14 pace which was only done in one session (yesterday’s session) to a bit faster 2:13 / 500 meters.
A pace boat was used to help me maintain a constant pace from start to finish. I gave the name Gertrude to the avatar of the female rower in the pace boat.
The most notable thing about today’s rowing session wasn’t the pace boat or it’s lovely female rower, however. The most notable thing was the lack of any heart strangeness. The reason I was so impressed with the good behavior of my heart today was because of what I was watching on another monitor while rowing today’s 10K.
The other monitor was playing a YouTube recording of an online 10K I rowed on September 30th, 2018. That particular 10K was done at an overall average pace of 2:14.2/500 meters which was slower than today’s average pace of 2:13.0/500 meters. But my heart rate was a LOT higher on Sept 30 of last year than it was in today’s 10K. So it appears that the heart is functioning better now than it was a year ago in September. I wonder if it is related to my significantly improving A1C score?? When the A1 C score improves, the red blood cells become smaller, closer to the size they should be. Could it be that larger red blood cells are more difficult for the heart to pump?
There were differences in the approach to the 10K on Sept 30, 2018: I started out faster and tried to maintain a pace of about 2:08 on that day. But by the time the distance counted down to less than 3,000 meters I could hear myself, on the recording audio track, breathing very hard. At 2,800 meters, I was struggling for breath and finally threw in the figurative towel. I finished that Sept 30, 2018 10K, but at an extremely slow pace.
Today’s workout also included a session on the SkiErg which was 178 Calories at a pace of 2:24/500 meters.
Today’s rowing session was recorded, for those who want to row-along with it. It is on YouTube at this link: Indoor Rowing 10K 2min 13sec per 500 meters pace 07152019
Happy rowing to you!