Though Atrial Fibrillation wasn’t really wanted, it was definitely given an invitation with today’s rowing session, because I pushed harder in this session than in the session on Feb 24th when it crashed the party. Needless to say, I’m happy it declined the invitation.
Today’s main workout was 30 minutes at a target pace of 2 minutes 6 seconds/500 meters. It was another experiment, like yesterday’s, to see if atrial fibrillation would develop. It didn’t show up and the session went smoothly, with plenty to spare at the end for a little bit of a sprint.
Total calorie burn today, including warmups and warmdowns, was 790 calories. All of it was on the rowing machine except for 51 calories on the SkiErg during a preliminary warm-up. If you are logged in to concept2.com online logbook, you can look at them all in my log, which is open to all logged-in viewers. But I’m only going to post screenshots for the 30 minute session in this blog post.
The 30 minute session was done at RPE Level 7. All the rest were done at RPE Level 1 or 2.
Today’s EliteHRV morning readiness was a green light for no speed-limit rowing.
Last night’s sleep logged by SleepWatch app was more than enough, at 7 hours 45 minutes, even though there was a large interruption in the middle of the night.
Finish screen for today’s 30 minute session.
RowPro report for today’s 30 minute session.
RowPro graphs for today’s 30 minute session.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 30 minute session.
This guy was knocked out of a race in the 2016 Olympics by an obstacle. At least he didn’t have Afib…
Today’s rowing session was a 30 minute online race. There was a total of 14 people in the race. After the race began and I watched everyone’s paces for a few minutes I decided that I could finish in 9th or 10th place, if I aimed for a pace of about 2:07.
That was working out well until about halfway through the half hour, when heart rhythm went into its Afib nutso-mode and I had to slow down. So I slowed, picked up the pace, slowed again and repeated that several times, but couldn’t shake the Afib. The result was that I finished last place. At least I finished. 🙂
Perhaps I should have warmed up a bit first?
A screen recording was made of the online race and is available for those who’d like to row-along with it. It’s YouTube link is: Indoor Rowing 30 Minutes with Afib 02242019
Today started out with a good reading from EliteHRV.
SleepWatch app recorded a good night’s sleep at 8 hours 10 minutes.
Finish screen for today’s 30 minute online session.
Report for today’s 30 minute online session.
RowPro graphs for today’s 30 minute online session.Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 30 minute online session.
Today’s Morning Readiness was good and HRV seems to be continuing to climb.
Today’s HRV reading seemed to become elevated a little more than halfway through the EliteHRV morning readiness reading session, when my heart sort of skipped a beat and then sort of went “thump” one time. You can see a little spike in the HR graph for the session at about that time, and you can see that the HRV graph raised a bit at that point, and stayed higher to the end.
Very good sleep last night. I may have been a bit dehydrated, because I didn’t wake one single time during the night. Total sleep 5 hours 55 minutes.
Today’s rowing wasn’t interrupted by heart strangeness – it was a constant thing throughout. The unusual behavior was a combination of irregular heart rate and heart rate way too high for the effort. Normally at that effort level my heart rate would be around 100 BPM, plus or minus a little bit. Hopefully, it will clear up later today and be gone tomorrow.
Today’s main session was 6K on the rowing machine. It was preceded by a 50 calorie warmup on the SkiErg.
Finish screen for today’s 6K which was done very slowly while heart rate raced too fast. The HR graph looks good in this view, but you can see the heart rate mess caused by irregular heartbeat in the RowPro graph and the Concept 2 online logbook chart, further below.RowPro report for today’s 6K.RowPro graphs for today’s 6K.Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 6K.
Today’s Morning Readiness reading with the EliteHRV app shows me to be “readier” than yesterday or the day before. I think what’s happening is that the app is forming a new baseline in reaction to my HRV score becoming slightly higher. I hope so. That would be very nice.
Atrial fibrillation started and interfered with my sleep last night. It began at about 2 AM. I couldn’t sleep with it happening, so I got out of bed and sat on the living room sofa for about 3 hours. Heart rhythm returned to normal at about 5 AM. So I went back to bed and slept until an alarm clock woke me at about 10 AM, for a total of 6 hours 20 minutes sleep.
Today’s main session was 5K done at an easy pace on the SkiErg, but slightly faster than yesterday’s 5K SkiErg pace. It was done mostly at RPE Level 2, except for slight pickup in pace during part of the last 500 meters. I’m trying to get a feel for the “alien” body involvement with the SkiErg. It is alien, compared to what I’ve become so used to on the rowing machine. I’m liking the SkiErg more and more, as a supplement to rowing – it’s nice to be using some upper body muscles that aren’t used when rowing.
A screen recording was made of the SkiErg 5K, for those of you who’d like to row-along or ski-along with it. It is at this link on YouTube: Indoor Workout 5K SkiErg Easy 01272019
Finish screen for the 5,000 meter SkiErg session.
Report for the 5,000 meter SkiErg session.
RowPro graphs for the 5,000 meter SkiErg session.
Concept 2 online logbook chartfor the 5,000 meter SkiErg session.
After the 5K SkiErg piece, this rowing session was done. It was done at RPE Level 2. Its distance was 8995 meters.
RowPro graphs for the rowing session of 8995 meters.
Today’s EliteHRV Morning Readiness analysis was very low. But I had problems going to sleep and staying that way last night which resulted in staying in bed until a little past NOON(!) today. Therefore, the EliteHRV reading was several hours late. The readings are supposed to be taken about the same time every day. I decided to disregard today’s reading, since it was taken much later than it should have been.Last night’s sleep was more than enough at 9hours 10minutes but it was poor quality due to an interruption of wide-awakeness and some Atrial fibrillation.
Today’s main rowing session was 30 minutes online. It wasn’t a race, because there was an agreement between the other guy and me that we’d aim for a pace of 2:10 and I would pace him. I enjoy pacing another rower. I also enjoy racing, which might be why thoughts, cognition and imaginations of racing came to mind during the session. In the midst of that cloud of race-themed neuron activity, entered the thought that both the other guy and me are each in a race against the fictional figure, “Father Time”. We row daily and do other workouts, to avoid being ravaged by some of the effects of passing time which can be mitigated or avoided through aerobic activity.
The 30 minute online session was done at RPE Level 5 and it’s available as a screen recording for those who’d like to row-along. It’s link is: Indoor Rowing Online 30 mins 01252018
Like last night’s sleep was bothered by atrial fibrillation, today’s 30 minute session was also visited by Afib. However it wasn’t the kind of Afib that changes into tachycardia – it just manifested itself with occasional feelings of fluttering and causing the heart strap to lose track of its count which caused the heart rate display to go blank. After about 15 minutes it settled down and went steady again.
The Afib did not reappear after that first 30 minute session. I did 8 more sessions after the 30 minute piece, some on the rowing machine and the rest of them on the SkiErg and there was no more Afib with any of those.
The RPE Levels for the sessions after the 30 minute session were: RPE Level 2 for the 2K warm down, RPE Level 3 for the 3,000 meter piece, RPE Level 10 for the 100 meter sprint and all the rest of them were done at RPE Level 4.
Finish screen for the main 30 minute session.
Report for the main 30 minute session.
The atrial fibrillation was during the first part of the 30 minutes, where heart rate kept disappearing.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for the main 30 minute session.
Chart of the session following the 30 minutes – a 2K warm down with no Atrial fibrillation.
Chart of the 3rd of nine sessions today. This was a 3K and there was no atrial fibrillation.
This is a listing of all nine of today’s sessions on rowing machine and SkiErg. The one that was the most fun was also the shortest – the 100 meter sprint on SkiErg.
This is a graph of this morning’s heart rate samples, taken every few minutes by the Apple Watch. You can see that at about 5 AM heart rate spiked a bit and stayed elevated from 5 AM until this screenshot was taken at about 9 AM. HR returned to normal sometime before noon.
There is no HRV analysis reading for this morning because I was having a bit of Afib at the time the HRV reading should have been taken. Afib during an HRV reading skews the reading and basically makes it worthless. So the EliteHRV app was skipped for today and instead I savored and drank black coffee.
The Afib started early this morning after I woke for a bathroom call at about 0500 and returned to bed. So… rather than lay awake, I got up. Sleep had been good until then but total sleep was a little short, at 5 hours 50 minutes.
Sleep was good and without interruptions from about 11 PM to 5 AM.
I felt okay, so I assumed the HRV reading would have been a “GO” for doing any workout. The goal for today’s aerobic activity was to burn 800 calories. The goal was reached with 3 sessions on the SkiErg and one on the rowing machine.
From first to last they were (1st): A 99 calorie warmup on SkiErg at RPE Level 3, (2nd): 1K on SkiErg at RPE Level 5 (3rd): 2K on SkiErg at RPE Level 6, (4th) 540 calories in 8,995 meters on rowing machine at RPE Level 5.
A screen recording for those who’d like to row-along was made of the rowing session and it is available at this link: Indoor Rowing 540 Calories 01232019
Summary data and chart for the SkiErg warmup.
Summary data and chart for the 1,000 meter session on SkiErg
Summary data and chart for 2,000 meter session on SkiErg
Finish screen for 540 Calorie session on rowing machine.Report for main calorie session on rowing machine.RowPro graphs for main calorie session on rowing machine.Concept 2 online logbook chart for main calorie session on rowing machine.
Do you check your email frequently or have notifications turned on so that your phone alerts you every time you receive a new email? I don’t. Too many emails. So the only time I know there’s new email is when I log in to the email account.
A problem with that, it turned out, was that once recently when one of my training partners wanted to do a rowing session online, I didn’t see his email until too late. So I told him that it would be okay if he wanted to send a text message for any scheduled online rowing sessions, to make sure I knew about them enough in advance to say yea or nay.
Today, he took me up on that and sent a text message. (Screenshot of that text message is at the top of this post.) About 40 minutes after his text, we were online and rowing an hour session together even though we are each located somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 miles away from each other. One of the nicer “wonders” of the internet. Even though it is “virtual” company when you row online with one or more other people, it makes the session a lot more enjoyable than rowing alone.
Today’s EliteHRV Morning Readiness analysis was that any kind of workout would be okay.
Plenty of sleep last night, at 7 hours 15 minutes.
So the main rowing done today was a 60 minute piece, online at a breezy pace which felt like RPE 2. A screen recording was made for those of you who’d like to have it to row-along with. It is available at this link: Indoor Rowing 60 mins online 01142019
After the 60 minute piece, I rowed a 4 minute session. Did that because I hadn’t yet rowed a 4 minute session this season and I thought it would be nice to put it in the rankings. It was done with a pace boat and a target pace of about 2:05. It felt like about RPE 4. A screen recording for rowing-along with it is available at this link: Indoor Rowing 4 minutes 01142019
Finish screen view of today’s 60 minutes online.
Finish screen view of today’s 4 minute piece.There was only one brief moment of heart strangeness (Afib) today and it happened during the last half of the 4 minute session, where you can see a downward spike to zero in heart rate. That’s where heartbeat fluttered briefly, becoming irregular and the heart strap transmitter couldn’t provide a coherent signal to display.Concept 2 online logbook chart of today’s 4 minute session.
This morning’s EliteHRV Readiness reading was optimal for any kind of rowing…
Today began with a good HRV reading, so there were no restrictions regarding rowing. Also, it followed a good night’s sleep, which was another plus.
Seven hours and forty minutes of good quality sleep last night.
Today’s indoor rowing consisted of two sessions. First, a one minute session which was done just for the sake of putting anything in the rankings for the 1 minute sprint category. Second, was a longer session of 8,224 meters, which was done just for the sake of logging more calories for a current Concept 2 challenge.
The one minute session was preceded by a 750 meter warmup and followed by a 750 meter warm down. The one minute sprint was done with a target pace that would rank me at about the lower 25% of those who had ranked 1 minute sessions to date. That was a pace target of about 1:49/500 meters. I didn’t want to row any faster than that, because the warm up was too short and I wouldn’t really be warmed up enough for an all-out 60 second sprint.
After the one minute sprint was finished, I did an easy 750 meter warm down and that is when the “heart strangeness” happened. It felt like a bit of fluttering and heart rate spiked and remained higher than it should have been for the easy warm down pace. Another strange thing about that strange heart rate behavior during the warm down was that when it spiked, it spiked up to 150 BPM, which is exactly as high as heart rate managed to climb, before the ultra-short 1 minute sprint was finished. Was that a coincidence? Or was that the heart’s way of saying it wanted to sprint for longer than one minute? One minute wasn’t enough indulgence in sprinting? The heart is eager, and “rarin’ to go” racing?
That “strangeness” happened in uncharted territory, because the warm down was tacked on to the 1 minute RowPro session and RowPro does not include tacked-on warmups or warm downs in its charts for the main session report. Below is a screenshot of what heart rate looked like when it spiked during the warm down.
Heart rate had been in the mid- to low-120s during the warmdown, until abour 426 meters remaining, when it spiked up to 150 even though rowing effort remained at a constant, easy level.
A screen recording was made of the entire 1 minute session including its warmup and warm down, so if you view the screen recording, you can see how it acted in real-time on the RowPro screen. The one minute session screen recording is here: Indoor Rowing 1 minute sprint 01122019
For those of you who’d like to row-along with it, a screen recording was also made of the 8,224 meter session and it is available at this link: Indoor rowing 8224 meters 01122019
After the warm down following the 1 minute sprint, I thought I’d have to stop rowing for the rest of the day, but within a few minutes the Afib went away and heart behavior returned to normal, so I did the 8224 meter session in order to bring the day’s total to 10,000 meters and burn a few more calories.
Finish screen for 1 minute sprint.Finish screen for 8224 meter session.
On the brink of death or what? This morning was the worst reading I’ve ever had.
Yes, this morning’s EliteHRV reading was the WORST EVER reading since I’ve been taking the daily Morning Readiness reading. But I ended up discarding it, because though my actual HRV reading might have been poor, it also might have been good… the results were skewed and basically worthless because there were too many data glitches. See additional screenshot below, for what EliteHRV said about today’s reading.
The “artifacts” were due to the fact that I was having a little bout of heart flutter AKA atrial fibrillation.
I got plenty of sleep last night, at 8 hours and 20 minutes. But you can see that heart rate was elevated from about 5:30 AM through the entire remaining time of last night’s sleep – that’s when the heart fluttering happened.
Other than the fluttering heart, I felt okay. It stopped fluttering around midday and I decided to row late in the afternoon, at a moderate pace.
Today’s rowing session was 17,000 meters done for the sake of burning calories. The hope was to burn at least 1,000 calories and that goal was almost reached, with a total of 988 or 989 calories. (The finish screen reported 988 calories and the report says 989 calories).
A screen recording was made for those of you who like to have it to row along with. It is available at this link: Indoor Rowing 17000 meters 01092019
