concept 2 rower – Page 2 – Ethereal Rowing

Things Got Irregular

Finish screen for today’s 10K rowing session. The circled area of the heart rate plot shows where heart rate shifted too high though effort remained the same or slower.

At the start of today’s sessions everything seemed normal. I decided to row 10K first and then burn some calories on the SkiErg.

For the first half of the 10K rowing session everything continued to seem normal, though heart rate disappeared from the RowPro display a few times.

I decided to take an aspirin break after about 4,000 meters of rowing. The break lasted between two and three minutes. Sometimes a little aspirin seems to help heart rate become regular again.

But this time it didn’t help and after I returned from the rowing break it became more irregular. Also, heart rate shifted to become too high.

I didn’t let a little Afib (atrial fibrillation) put too much of a damper on things though, because I wanted to earn another exercise-induced “sleeping pill” for tonight’s sleep.

The 10K was finished. It was followed by two SkiErg sessions of about 100 Calories each. After the SkiErg sessions, a very slow 500 meter rowing session was done.

Heart rate remained irregular and too high through all of the remaining workout. But it’s okay now. The exercise-induced “sleeping pill” was earned and it’s effect can already be felt, early in the evening. No need for Sleepytime tea.

RowPro report for today’s 10K rowing session.

RowPro graphs for today’s 10K rowing session.

Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 10K rowing session.

Report for the very slow 500 meter rowing session. Heart rate (circled) was about 40 BPM too high for the low effort level.

Happy rowing to you!

The Fire Was Out

Effort was made to do workouts today but they were done slowly.

Main reason for pushing myself to do work on SkiErg and rowing machine: If I don’t exercise I won’t sleep well.

Because of the desire for the “sleeping pill” effect of aerobic exercise, I burned 200 Calories on the SkiErg at RPE Level 1.

Energy for SkiErg was low, but energy for rowing was lower. After the 200 Calorie SkiErg session my subconscious suggested I take a break before doing any rowing. The break stretched out and extended in the dimension of time….

Realizing that my subconscious was trying to con me out of doing any rowing at all, I dragged myself to the rowing machine and set it up for a 10,000 meter session.

Some incentive to keep rowing was provided by watching a screen recording of a slow 10,000 meters session done February 24, 2018. I allowed myself a 1,200 meter head start before that screen recording began and prodded myself to stay ahead of it. By the finish of my 10K, I was still ahead of the screen recording but my lead had diminished to about 200 meters.

Finish screen for the 10,000 meter rowing session.

Report for the 10,000 meter rowing session.

Happy rowing to you!

The $16.40 Sleeping Pill

The sleeping pill I labored for today was none of the above.

So as to get a good night’s sleep tonight I spent 65.58 minutes laboring on the ergs.

Labor doesn’t have to be extremely hard to act as a sleep aid, but it has to last a while. Thirty minutes or more seems to be the minimum for exercising aerobically to serve as an effective sleep aid.

Ergs have a magical effect on sleep if they are used for a sufficient time at a moderate aerobic pace.

Each of the two workouts today was done at RPE Level 2.

Perhaps you wonder why today’s blog post title mentions a $16.40 sleeping pill. Do you? The answer is this: if you were to assign a value of $15.00 per hour to the 65 minutes and 35 seconds work on the ergs today then the wages for that time would amount to $16.40.

You might favor different value for an hourly wage of physical labor, but the value of a good night’s sleep is priceless.

Chart and data for the first of today’s two workouts, 200 Calories on the SkiErg.

Finish screen for today’s 10K rowing session.

Happy rowing to you!

For The Dog Days

Dependably, every August Concept 2 features the “Dog Days of Summer” challenge. That challenge was one motivation for today’s low-energy workouts.

Other than a minimal number of specified meters each week of August, there are no other requirements for this easy challenge.

Going slowly was today’s workout approach. The workouts consisted of 200 Calories burned slowly on the SkiErg and 10,000 meters even more slowly on the rowing erg.

Chart and data for 200 Calorie SkiErg session.

Report for today’s ultra-slow 10K rowing.

Happy rowing to you!

Done With Trazadone, Strange Dreams Lingered

This is a No-Trazadone Zone after yesterday’s experience.

Really I have no proof that the one single dose of Trazadone had any effect on my dreams. I don’t remember any specifics about them. But I do remember that they were very strange.

On the chance that Trazadone was the cause, I’m guessing that the strange dreams I had last night were also Trazadone-related and were a lingering aftereffect of the single dose taken the day before.

With the trial of Trazadone behind me I’m now turning back to rowing daily. I missed workouts for two days in a row. One of the most important factors in good sleep for me is to use the rowing machine or SkiErg daily and burn a few hundred Calories in the process. The quality of sleep seems to improve in direct proportion to the number of Calories burned each day on the ergs. The benefit of working harder while on the rowing machine or SkiErg is mainly that it takes less time to burn the Calories. A longer, slower workout of 700 Calories seems as good for sleep as a shorter, faster workout that also burns 700 Calories.

Hopefully, the remainder of Trazedone will be gone before bedtime tonight and the strange dreams will be gone with it.

Today’s workouts were a 10,000 meter session on the Rowing erg and 100 Calories on the SkiErg for a total of 689 Calories in about 54 minutes. AFTERNOON UPDATE: Did three more brief sessions on SkiErg and rowing machine to bring day’s Calorie burn total from 689 to 842.

Finish screen for today’s 10,000 meter rowing session. After about 8,000 meters, heart rate became irregular and too high.

RowPro report for today’s 10,000 meter rowing session.

RowPro graphs for today’s 10,000 meter rowing session.

Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s 10,000 meter rowing session.

Chart and data for today’s morning SkiErg session.

Happy rowing to you!

High and Low Energy

Care to guess which is high and which is low energy?

Erg workouts today were a single session on each machine again.

Repeating yesterday’s SkiErg session of 200 Calories, the SkiErg session today was done slightly faster than yesterday’s. Today’s pace was 2:18. Yesterday’s was a slower 2:19. Today’s SkiErg RPE was level 3.

Getting lazy after sitting on the rowing machine, I watched videos and rowed very slowly. The rowing distance today was 7,000 meters at a pace of about 2:41. Though it was a tiny bit faster than yesterday’s rowing session, it was 3,000 meters shorter. Today’s rowing RPE was level 1.

Chart and data for today’s SkiErg session.

Finish screen for today’s 7,000 meters rowing.

RowPro graphs for today’s 7,000 meters rowing.

Happy rowing to you !

One Of Each

Today’s workout was one session each, on SkiErg and rowing erg.

While the SkiErg session was set to count down from 200 Calories, it also had another goal which was a target pace of 2:19/500 meters. I bounced around within about 0.1 second above and below the pace target throughout the session and managed to finish within 0.1 second of target pace. It was done at RPE Level 2.

On the rowing erg, the work was easier. It was set to count down from 10,000 meters but its only objective was to burn some Calories by going the entire distance at any pace. The result was a pace that varied, averaged 2:21.5 and burned 570 Calories. It was done at RPE Level 1.

This post has the tag “heart strangeness” only because it might be concluded that there was some paroxysmal atrial fibrillation due to the look of its graph. The multitude of vertical lines in the heart rate plot happen when heart rate stops displaying a reading. Though that’s what it looks like when heart rate is irregular, I didn’t feel anything unusual. There was no fluttering etc., so I suspect that the transmitter battery may be low. I can’t be certain unless I check it, but the particular model is the Polar H7, which consumes energy about twice the rate of most other heart straps. It does so because it has not just one, but two transmitters which simultaneously transmit in two different formats. The Polar H7 is on its first battery and I’ve never logged hours-of-use vs battery life for this (or any) heart strap, so it’s merely conjecture at this point.

Finish screen for today’s 10,000 meter rowing session.

Report for today’s 10,000 meter rowing session.

Happy rowing to you.

For The Mitochondria

For the first time in many weeks, I managed to do the day’s workouts in the morning before breakfast. That’s supposed to be very good for the mitochondria, if breakfast happens at least 12 hours after most recent previous eating and exercise is included in that 12 hours or more of fasting time.

So, the most satisfying thing about today’s erg sessions was that they were done in the morning, before breakfast and they benefited the body’s vital little buddies, the mitochondria.

The second most satisfying thing was: a SkiErg 5K in improved time.

Also, I was rewarded with a move up in the SkiErg 5K world rankings. The move up was only one place, from 6th to 5th out of 10 total entries. But it’s progress in the right direction, so I’m happy and sort of have a little smile about it, like the little smile on the face of the mitochondrion.

The SkiErg 5K was done at RPE Level 5 and was mentally absorbing because I had to focus on a pace target of 2:16 for the first 4K then tentatively explored faster paces during the final 1,000 meter split.

There was some rowing done also – a very slow 10K session at RPE Level 1. It was not “mentally absorbing,” because it was so slow that my mind wandered all over the place.

Today’s most satisfying session, a 5K on the SkiErg.

Finish screen for today’s very slow and somewhat fartleky 10K.

Reportfor today’s very slow and somewhat fartleky 10K.

RowPro graphsfor today’s very slow and somewhat fartleky 10K.

Happy rowing to you!

Fartlek Is What You Make It

Most people who are familiar with the term “fartlek” think of it in connection with running, but a varying pace can apply to any activity that involves pacing. In today’s case it was rowing. It is no coincidence that these runners look happy – happiness is one of the purposes of changing the pace.

The above photo was found among many photos relevant to fartlek, on a website called Running In India, in an article on that site, titled “Fartleking Around,” by Christine Pemberton.

Today’s workout was limited to rowing only and it was an accomplishment to simply get it done, because there was an inner wrestling match with inertia until the last minute. At the last minute, when I was comfortable and chatting like a bluejay on the sofa, the household muse provided the necessary inspiration to overcome the inertia when she inquired, “Are you ever going to row?” And … off I went, to row.

The piece of rowing was 10,000 meters done as a fartlek. Fartlek is a somewhat strange word (unless you speak Swedish) which means a variable pace. But depending on which source you consult for a definition of fartlek, the definite meaning will vary. However, no matter which particular definition you prefer, all definitions have one thing in common which is a varying pace.

I chose to understand the word to mean a deliberate and somewhat chaotic varying of pace, without further specification.

Sometimes, a constant pace is what my inner rower desires. But not today. Today my inner rower wanted a measure of chaos and variety.

Concept 2 chart, and more, for today’s 10,000 meter rowing session.

Happy rowing to you!

Settling For Brisk

The only workout today was a 10,000 meter rowing session. Instead of choosing a pace in advance, I decided to row at whatever I settled into that felt good, which turned out to be a pace of around 2:10 at RPE Level 4.

Finish screen for today’s brisk 10K rowing session.

Report for today’s brisk 10K rowing session.

RowPro graphs for today’s brisk 10K rowing session.

Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s brisk 10K rowing session.

Happy rowing to you!