Ephemeral, ethereal light of a sunset on the Catalina mountains.
Though it has nothing to do with indoor rowing, today’s main workout was done as the sun was setting on the Catalina Mountains. The session was 10K rowing done at steady pace averaging 2:33.7/500 meters. There were also 7 shorter sessions done before today’s 10K. Their graphs and data can all be viewed at this online logbook link by looking for the entries with today’s date.
I had been having atrial fibrillation continuously for the past five days but it cleared up and heart rate returned to normal today after about 40 minutes of warmup on both SkiErg and rowing machine. There has been no atrial fibrillation since the 10,000 meter rowing session was done today.
Today was warm and brightly sunny. Before doing any of the workouts, I spent 17 minutes outdoors, shirtless, with maximum exposure to direct sunlight on front and back. A limited amount of sunlight is supposed to be beneficial to the heart. Perhaps that’s what made the difference and helped the AF to go away?
Finish screen view for today’s 10K rowing.
Report for today’s 10K.
Graphs for today’s 10K. Although there was no ECG reading of atrial fibrillation just before the 10K started, it took a few minutes for the signal from the Garmin heart strap to look normal.
Graph of heart rate recovery after finish of 10K rowing session. Looks good.
Finish screen view of today’s 10K indoor rowing session.
I don’t know the answer to the question in today’s title. But today was another of those sometimes when the heart was haywire. Aside from that, everything was okay.
Today’s workouts consisted of two: First there was a SkiErg session of 6,003 meters to serve as a warmup. The distance of 6,003 meters was chosen because it was the exact same distance, in miles, that one of my sons ran during one of his workouts today: 3.73 miles. Graphs and data will not be shown here for the SkiErg session but they can be viewed via this: link to my online logbook if you look for the SkiErg session that was done on today’s date.
The main workout today was 10,000 meters indoor rowing at a steady average pace of 2:34.0/500m. The rowing session was uploaded to YouTube as a screen recording for those of you who would like to row-along or race with it. It can be found on YouTube at this link: “Indoor Rowing 10K at 2min 34sec/500 meters 01292020”
Today, like yesterday, I wore two heart straps and there is a heart rate graph for data from each of those heart straps. The two graphs look very different from each other, so I don’t know if either of them has accurate heart rate data. I was having atrial fibrillation during the rowing session, so that’s probably the general cause for the disagreement between the two heart straps.
Report for today’s 10K rowing.
RowPro graphs for today’s 10K rowing session. The heart rate data for this graph came from a Garmin chest strap.
A Scosche heart rate arm strap supplied the data for this graph of heart rate during today’s 10K rowing session.
Finish screen view at the moment after completing the first 10,000 meter rowing session.
Today’s workout time consisted of an online 10,000 meter rowing session in the morning and an offline 10,000 meter rowing session in the afternoon.
The morning 10K was done at a steady average pace of 2:34.2/500 meters and the afternoon 10K was done at a steady average pace of 2:34.1/500 meters. There was also a 1K rowing warmup and a 1K rowing warmdown in the morning and a 56 Calorie SkiErg warmup in the afternoon. They and their interactive charts and data can all be viewed in at this link: in my online logbook. The only data and screenshots shown here will be for the two 10K rowing sessions.
The heart behaved in a rather haywire fashion in both of the 10,000 meter rowing sessions.
There were two heart straps used, simultaneously, during each of the two 10,000 meter rowing sessions. A Garmin heart strap was worn on the chest and supplied data for the RowPro graphs. The other graphs used data from a Scosche heart strap worn on the arm. The heartbeat signal appeared to be doing one thing in the chest and something a bit different in the arm.
I was having atrial fibrillation before, during and after each of the 10K rowing sessions.
Report for the first of two 10,000 meter rowing sessions.
RowPro graphs for the first of two 10,000 meter rowing sessions.
Scosche heart strap data heart graph for the first of two 10K rowing sessions. Notice that this graph, though it is of the same session as the RowPro graphs above, does not look like it was the same heart in the same session.
Finish screen view at the moment after completing the second of two 10,000 meter rowing sessions.
Report for the second 10,000 meter rowing session.
Graphs using Garmin heart strap data, for the second of two 10,000 meter rowing sessions.
Graphs using Scosche heart strap data, for the second of two 10,000 meter rowing sessions.
Though I haven’t posted about it for a couple of days, I’ve been continuing with doing workouts daily. The workouts done (and their graphs) during the days when nothing was posted to this blog can be viewed in my online logbook via this link.
Heart rate was busy with atrial fibrillation during those days which had no blog entries. But TODAY the heart was and still is acting NORMAL! Hooray!
I’m starting to wonder, though, if acting normal is “just a phase?”
Today’s workout activity was more “detraining,” which is to say that it was done at a very low level of effort. If you have read the relevant earlier posts in which I mentioned the book titled “The Haywire Heart” then you know that one of the possible solutions to rid oneself of atrial fibrillation is to “detrain,” which theoretically might reverse or allow to heal whatever damage was done to the heart with excessive training which caused the atrial fibrillation.
Today’s workouts consisted of five sessions of 50 calories each on the SkiErg and those served as a warmup for the rowing session. The rowing session was 10,000 meters at a steady pace with the goal being to average a pace of 2:34.5/500 meters.
Finish screen view of today’s main workout, 10,000 meters rowing.
There was (and still is as this is being written) some atrial fibrillation which started early this morning and persisted throughout the workout session.
So the workout wasn’t super good. But the AF wasn’t as extremely annoying as some episodes have been, so it didn’t interfere with the workout plan, which was to row at a steady pace which would average 2:34.8/500 meters.
Because of the Afib, heart rate aranged from 20 to 30 BPM higher than it would have been if the heart had been behaving normally.
The workout was 10,000 meters rowing. It was preceded by a slow 100 Calorie warmup session done on the SkiErg.
Finish screen view for today’s 10,000 meter session.
Last night everything was normal about heart rhythm and I slept wonderfully well.
Today’s 10,000 meter rowing session was done at a steady pace which averaged 2:35.0 and heart rate was steady within a few beats per minute of 100 for the entire session.
I didn’t realize how much stress there was with atrial fibrillation happening. But after 8 days of continuous Afib, it feels extremely peaceful without it. It’s a very peaceful, easy feeling.
Today’s main workout was the 10,000 meters indoor rowing. There were also four 50 Calorie pieces on the SkiErg, each done at a pace of about 3:00 or slower and one supplemental rowing piece of a little more than 2,000 meters. But the only screenshots featured in this blog post are of the 10,000 meter session.
Finish screen for today’s 10,000 meter rowing session.
Today was the eighth day in a row of continuous atrial fibrillation all day and all night. Last night I was awake all night. I did a lot of praying and thinking about God. It was just before sunrise when I finally got to sleep and then I slept until after noon.
For today’s workout: After a week of keeping the daily 10K rowing pace at 2:35.3, yesterday I decided to tweak it a little bit faster, to 2:35.2/500 meters. Atrial fibrillation continued.
Today, though atrial fibrillation was continuing, I decided to try tweaking the 10K rowing pace by another 1/10th second, to 2:35.1/500 meters. Heart rate seemed to get a bit more stable as the 10,000 meter session continued and by the time the 10K was completed, heart rate definitely seemed better though still not normal. An ECG reading was taken and it reported “INCONCLUSIVE” which means heart rate wasn’t normal but it wasn’t atrial fibrillation either.
After the 10K, I did a couple of supplementary 2,000 meter sessions. After the first of those two 2K sessions, heart rate returned to feeling normal and the ECG reading reported “SINUS RHYTHM” for the first time in 8 days.
Answered prayers? I’m thankful to God.
Report for today’s 10K.
Graphs for today’s 10K rowing session.
Report for one of the two supplementary 2,000 meter rowing sessions.
Finish screen view for today’s main piece of indoor rowing.
Yesterday a reader and fellow indoor rowing enthusiast commented and said he hopes I’ll continue blogging. So perhaps I will. But because it takes a lot of time, perhaps I’ll only post to this blog once in a while.
For days when I don’t post to this blog and if I do any rowing workouts, their data and graphs may be viewed at this link: my logbook at Concept 2.
For what seems like quite a while, I’ve been bothered by atrial fibrillation. A month ago (Christmas 2019) my wife gave me the gift of a book titled The Haywire Heart. When I opened the gift wrapping to discover that book inside, she remarked “You probably won’t like it.”
The focus of the book is about “How too much exercise can kill you and what you can do to protect your heart.” I looked through the book, read a few chapters and then told her that I liked it very much and that it is the best or one of the best Christmas presents she has ever given to me.
You would have to read the book yourself to appreciate it. It seems that if people indulge in too much high-intensity activity, a result can be that those people will develop atrial fibrillation or injure their hearts in other ways.
I have read somewhere that the most common cause of death for competitive rowers is heart failure.
If anyone has read the non-fiction book, “Born To Run,” by Christopher McDougall, the name “Caballo Blanco” is probably familiar as the name of one of the runners. Caballo Blanco’s name at birth was Micah True. He engaged in a lot of high-intensity, long duration running. And he died of heart failure.
So a simplistic way of summing up the message of the book, “The Haywire Heart” is that there can be too much of the good thing we call exercise. The challenge is to find out how much we can do before it is too much. 🙂
Some of the remedies or treatments for atrial fibrillation involve drugs, surgery and implanted devices which are connected to the heart. Some other possible solutions for atrial fibrillation involve “detraining” (reducing the duration and intensity of regular workouts) and discovering if the person is deficient in anything important such as iodide, magnesium or other things the body needs.
Enough of that for now. On to today’s workout: It consisted of a “detraining” session of 10,000 meters indoor rowing at 2:35.3/500 meters.
I started the “detraining” approach on December 31, 2019 by rowing 10,000 meters and ignoring pace while focusing only on heart rate and trying to keep heart rate at about 100 BPM. The average pace for that session turned out to be about 2:38/500 meters.
Since then, I’ve been rowing a 10,000 meter session daily and have increased the pace a bit. For the past few sessions I’ve been having atrial fibrillation before, during and after each session and so I have left the pace at 2:35.3/500 for each of those sessions and will only increase the pace by 1/10th of a second if and when the atrial fibrillation stops again.
A view of the finish screen for today’s main workout.
It’s been a long while since anything has been posted to this blog because though I’ve continued doing daily rowing and cross-country ski workouts, enthusiasm for blogging has greatly waned.
There have been many, many episodes of atrial fibrillation which have interfered with sleep and hampered working out at any sort of vigorous speed.
After a few too many days spoiled by atrial fibrillation, on the last day of 2019 I adopted the current approach to daily workouts:
On December 31st I was experiencing no atrial fibrillation before doing any workout. From past experience, it seemed that Afib would frequently be triggered by indulging in rowing hard or sprinting. So on Dec 31st I decided to try exploring how fast and hard I could row without triggering atrial fibrillation. My approach was to focus on heart rate that day and try to maintain heart rate at the very low rate of 100 BPM for 10,000 meters.
After that 10K was completed I noted what the average pace had been and rowed at a slightly faster average pace target for the next day’s 10,000 meters on the first day of 2020.
On January 2nd and each day from then until now, I’ve increased the pace by 1/10 second/500 meters faster than the day before, while carefully watching heart rate during each day’s 10,000 meter rowing session. If atrial fibrillation develops during any of those sessions or is happening when it is time for the next day’s 10K, then the target pace for the next day is not increased. But if there is no Afib connected with or following each day’s 10K, then the pace the next day will be increased by that 1/10th second per 500 meters.
Hopefully, this will have a positive effect on whatever has been messing up the heart rhythm.
Atrial fibrillation started during the last part of yesterday’s workouts and continued all night and was still doing its flutter-flutter dance in the chest at the start of today’s workouts, so pace for today’s 10,000 meter session was not increased. After about 17 minutes of today’s 10K, the atrial fibrillation disappeared, heart rate settled down to normal and remained normal for the rest of the 10K rowing session and for the approximately 20 minutes of workout on the SkiErg which immediately followed the rowing.
If I don’t post every day or even every month, don’t be surprised because with no evidence of or interaction with an audience of even one, I have almost no motivation to continue spending time with this blog.
Here are screenshots for today’s workouts:
Report for today’s 10K rowing.RowPro graphs for today’s 10K.
Concept 2 online logbook chart and data display for today’s 10K.
Concept 2 online logbook chart and data for today’s workout on the SkiErg.
Happy rowing to you, whether you have an audience or are all alone in your endeavors on the erg!
Most definitions of defibrillation only refer to applying an electric shock to the heart. But it seems there are other ways, less shocking, to coax heart rhythm back to normal. Today’s workout sessions on the ergs seemed to work as an effective defibrillator.
Defibrillation has a few definitions but what they all have in common is that they relate to restoring normal heart behavior by stopping the fibrillation of the heart. If you’ve ever seen a fish flopping around out of water, that’s a good analogy for heart fibrillation.
Every time my heart goes into its floppy-fish mode it is annoying. It’s worse than annoying if it happens after bedtime at night. That’s what happened yesterday evening. It continued all night and caused sleep loss. It was still happening this morning after I gave up trying to get any more sleep and got up for the day.
For the sake of possibly benefiting the heart and its mitochondria, I decided to start today’s workouts early in the morning, before having any breakfast or coffee.
I decided to divide the day’s workouts into smaller than usual increments, to arrive at the same desired goal of time on SkiErg and rowing machine.
Because the SkiErg session of 200 Calories is the shortest of my usual workouts, I did that one first. One nice thing about the SkiErg is that I don’t have to bother with shoes or socks. It can be done barefoot as easily as with shoes on. Somehow, using the SkiErg barefoot seems to make the experience seem more like play than work.
Doing the SkiErg session felt like swimming in molasses. I was very low-energy, though heart rate was high.
The first workout was 200 Calories on the SkiErg. Heart rate was too high and felt irregular throughout that session. I felt low-energy and went very slow, averaging about 2:48 for the session.
First of ten 1,000 meter rowing sessions. Heart rate was irregular and too high.
The next workout was on the rowing machine. The goal was 10,000 meters total, by doing ten sessions of 1,000 meters each. For the first 1,000 meter rowing session (see image above) I didn’t pay any attention to pace and just focused on continuing to row. Heart rhythm was very irregular and disappeared from the RowPro quite a bit of the time. Heart rate was abnormally high – much too high for duration and effort level. It was done at an average pace of 2:12.5/500 meters.
Second of ten 1,000 meter rowing sessions. Heart rhythm was still irregular and a bit too high.
After the first 1,000 meter session I took a break and got the Mr. Coffee busy making a pot of coffee. While coffee was brewing, I rowed the 2nd 1,000 meter session (see image above). Heart rhythm continued to be very irregular, but heart rate was in the normal range for the duration and effort level. I only focused on continuing to row and it was done more slowly than the first at an average pace of 2:17.7/500 meters.
Third of ten 1,000 meter rowing sessions. Heart rate was irregular at beginning but smoothed out during the first 100 meters or so.
When I sat to row the third 1,000 meters (see image above) I decided to not only focus on simply rowing the distance, but also to do the session at a pace equal to or faster than the first 1K. It was done at an average pace of 2:12.5, like the first 1K of the day. Heart rhythm was irregular at the beginning, but smoothed out during the first 100 meters and had normal rhythm for the rest of the piece. Heart rate was a little bit too high but almost normal for the duration and effort level.
For the 4th through 10th 1,000 meter sessions, each was fractionally faster than the previous, except for the 10th. Heart rhythm and rate was normal during all of those rowing sessions from the 4th through the 10th of 10.
The 10th 1,000 meter session was done at a bit faster pace of 2:07.9, to see if it would trigger irregular heart activity but it didn’t seem to trigger anything out of the ordinary. It also had normal rhythm and rate.
Therefore I conclude that the workout sessions on the ergs were somehow helpful in defibrillation of the irregularities of heart rhythm.
Screenshots of reports & data for the 4th through 10th of ten 1,000 meter rowing sessions are below this paragraph.
Fourth of ten 1,000 meter rowing sessions.
Fifth of ten 1,000 meter rowing sessions.
Sixth of ten 1,000 meter rowing sessions.
Seventh of ten 1,000 meter rowing sessions.
Eighth of ten 1,000 meter rowing sessions.
Ninth of ten 1,000 meter rowing sessions.
Tenth and last of ten 1,000 meter rowing sessions.
