Today’s 500 meter push and final sprint was successfully launched after the countdown on the 5,500 meter launchpad was 100% AOK with all heart systems go.
Today’s main workout was another attempt to do the SkiErg 6K which had to be scrubbed the day before yesterday.
Today’s plan was same as previous: Use a Pace Skier @ 2:19.6 and stay even or slightly ahead until distance counted down to the launch.
The “launch” was a faster pace beginning when 500 meters remained. Pace was increased from start to finish of the final 500 meters and was just short of an all-out sprint during the last 100 meters.
There was a 3 minute warmup before the 6K and there were two warm downs after the 6K. Of those warmup/warm downs, I’ll only show screen shots for the last warm down.
The “launch” is the circled area to the right of the 5,500 meter “launchpad”.
Today’s main workout was originally intended to be a respectable 6K time on the SkiErg. The plan was to target a pace of 2:19.6 for the first 5,500 meters and then do a fun sprint for the last 500. But the launch of that sprint was postponed and the countdown halted because of technical difficulties with heart rate.
In the screenshots of today’s SkiErg charts, below, you can see where heart rate first spiked even though there was no change in pace to cause it to spike. That happened with a little over 2,000 meters remaining. So I slowed down and fiddled with the pace to see if I could influence the heart rate to return to normal, but it was to no avail and the launch of the final sprint had to be scrubbed for today.
Chart and data for today’s SkiErg 6K.
Close-up view of where heart rate first spiked though I hadn’t provoked it with any change in pace.
Close up view of the end of the session where heart rate spiked the highest, though the pace was still moderate and a lot slower than original target pace of 2:19.6.
A view of the SkiErg PM5 monitor at about halfway through today’s 5K. I also use the Concept 2 app called ErgData. ErgData is shown on the iPhone which is resting in the $5 cellphone holder perched on top of the PM5. ErgData provides an easy way to save & upload data from each workout, directly to your concept2.com online logbook.
Today’s workout started late again. So it was abbreviated to a main workout on the SkiErg and then a couple of warmdowns.
The SkiErg workout was a 5K done with a tentative target pace of 2:19.6. A “pace skier” was setup on the SkiErg PM5 monitor, for help with staying close to the target pace.
After the SkiErg 5K, there was a 3 minute warmdown on the SkiErg, then a 2,500 meter warmdown on the rowing machine.
Chart and some data for today’s 5K on the SkiErg.
Chart for 3 minute warmdown which was done immediately after the 5K.
The heart strangeness happened before the last work interval. Heart rate increased before I started working again (first green arrow on the left) and then after I started working to increase the pace, heart rate slowed down. After I stopped working hard, heart rate increased again. But it seemed normal by the end of the session.
Today’s main workout was supposed to be 10K on the rowing machine but it had one falst start and finally got started too late in the day to finish it in a timely manner before dinner.
Before rowing, I did 143 calories of alternating work/rest on the SkiErg (see screenshot, above). The SkiErg session went well except there was a wee bit of strange heart behavior near the end, when heart rate started to rise before I started the last in a series of work intervals. But heart rate seemed to return to normal by the end of the SkiErg session, so I put it out of my mind.
Next, I set up a 10K session and was intending to include 8 intervals of 500 meters each, spread throughout the 10K. But heart rate became irregular, so I got annoyed and went to take an aspirin. To buffer the aspirin, I had something to eat. The rowing workout resumed quite a bit later and there wasn’t enough time to finish it and be back to normal before dinner time, so I limited the 10K to about 4K and quit.
The first attempt at a rowing 10K was cut short after only about 500 meters.
There isn’t much of a graph for the first attempt at a rowing 10K today, but you can see that heart rate display was zero for quite a bit of the time during that 500 meters. When heart rate is zero, that usually means heart rate is too irregular for the heart strap to transmit a readable signal to the rowing machine monitor.
Finish screen view of today’s “main workout,” the 10K Cut Short.
Report for today’s “main workout,” the 10K Cut Short.
Graph for today’s “main workout,” the 10K Cut Short.
This morning I managed to muster enough motivation to engage in some erg-motion. After the workouts on the ergs, emotion was positively enhanced.
Recently I asked another guy who also uses the concept2.com online logbook what he does to motivate himself. I hadn’t done a workout in about three days and my better half had remarked about that. Her remark was part of what led to me asking the question of another concept2.com logbook user.
His reply in part was: “Most important to me is keeping healthy, active, keeping my mobility and living a long happy life, as much as is possible. “
What he said wasn’t actually anything I hadn’t heard or thought about before, but it was in my mind this morning and thinking about it was a catalyst to get me on the ergs today.
The first of two workouts today was on the SkiErg.
Today’s workouts consisted of 142 calories on the SkiErg (see above) and 10,000 meters on the rowing machine (see below). Both workouts included intervals of alternating work and rest.
The second workout today was 10K on the rowing machine. This is a view of the RowPro finish screen for that workout.
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.
This caution sign seemed appropriate for the top of today’s post. It was found on a website whose focus is dark matter and related stuff. A link to the website where it was found is in the text of the first paragraph below.
Today was a cautious workout day. Avoidance of atrial entropy was the reason for caution. The above image seemed appropriate as a header for today’s blog post. It was found on a website about dark matter and related stuff. Pardon my lack of precision after merely glancing at a few articles on the website, which is titled: Dark Matters a Lot
The reason for today’s caution was today’s Morning Readiness score with the EliteHRV app.
The cautious approach chosen was: Do one workout each, on SkiErg and rowing machine, but do each of them moderately without getting carried away with exuberant effort no matter how good I felt.
The SkiErg workout was done first, as a 141 Calorie session with alternating work/rest intervals of about 10 calories each. Following the SkiErg, a 30 minute rowing session was done as single combination session consisting of 2 minute warmup, four 4-minute intervals and a warm down.
Atrial entropy didn’t increase, so the two sessions must have been sufficiently moderate.
This SkiErg session was done first.
After the SkiErg session a 30 minute rowing session was done. This is a view of the finish screen for that rowing session.
Report for today’s 30 minute rowing session.
RowPro graphs for today’s 30 minute rowing session.
This curious looking photo was chosen for the top of today’s blog post only because it is a photo of an interrupter. ( For more about it see this Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_circuit_interrupter )
Today’s workout wasn’t much of a circuit: A 140 Calorie SkiErg workout followed by a 30 minute rowing session. The SkiErg session was completed but the rowing session was interrupted and cut short, from the planned 30 minutes, to a little more than 10 minutes.
The SkiErg session was done first, without interruption.
A little more than 1/3 of the planned rowing session was done before interruption.
The damp area on the towel is about a pint of sweat lost during today’s SkiErg 5K session.
Today’s main erg workout was the shortest of two. It was a 5K done as a time trial on the SkiErg. To intercept the sweat, there is an old towel covering the SkiErg platform. In the photo above, you can see the damp area where the towel caught the rain of perspiration.
After the 5K SkiErg, I did 30 minutes on the rowing machine. The rowing session was done as a series of eight 2 minute work/1 minute rest intervals. Though I worked harder on the rowing machine, my legs did most of the work and the rowing wasn’t enough effort on the legs, to cause much sweat at all. Just a few scattered droplets near the end of the 30 minutes rowing, instead of a rainstorm as happened with the shorter SkiErg session.
Chart and some data for today’s 5K time trial on the SkiErg.
The SkiErg session was done first today. This is a screenshot of its chart and some of its datat. The area circled on the heart rate graph is where heart rate was too high for the effort.
Today’s erg workouts in the order in which they were done were: SkiErg workout of 139 Calories and rowing erg workout structured as 12X1minuteR45seconds within a continuous 30 minute session.
There was one software glitch with RowPro during the 3rd split of the 30 minute session. It is circled on the rowing session report. There were two heartware glitches, one during the SkiErg session and the other during the rowing session. They are circled on their respective graphs.
Another interesting thing in regard to the heart today was that in the moments while I was standing on the SkiErg before starting today’s 139 Calorie SkiErg workout, heart rate was unusually low, at about 50 BPM. Its usually in the 60’s or higher when I’m standing like that. (see screenshot immediately below).
Surprisingly low heart rate while I was standing on the SkiErg before starting work on today’s 139 Calorie session.
Finish screen view of the rowing session.
Report for rowing session. The circles in three of the columns are errors by RowPro 5.0 for the Mac. The bottom line summaries are correct, however.
Graphs of today’s rowing session. The circled areas are where heart rate was too high and also irregular.
Today’s workouts consisted of, in chronological order: Two 2K distances at moderate pace, each with 3 moderate “power 10s” every 500 meters. Heart rate acted up by being too highand/or irregular during portions of each 2K. I will only show screenshots for one of the two 2Ks. Next, was a 139 calorie session on the SkiErg. But I felt low-energy/tired and cut that short after 59 calories. Heart rate was a bit too high for the effort, during the shortened SkiErg session. Finally, there was a 5 minute warm down. Heart rate was mostly regular but too high during the warm down – it should have been in the 90s or less but it was over 100. There is no screenshot of the warm down.
The “heart strangeness” was also accompanied by irregular heartbeat. Some evidence of the “strangeness” of the heart behavior can be seen in the graph for the report, below. Also, it can be seen in the report, if you look in the right hand column which displays “End HR”. On the graph, you can see that though I slowed down and greatly reduced my effort from the 15th split to the 20th split at the end, heart rate didn’t slow down like it normally does. Instead, it was sort of fluttery and too high. On the report it shows that it was measured as high as 194, which is higher than I’ve ever seen it when it is acting normally.
When my heart acts normally, it has only climbed as high as 191 with regular heart rate, in all the time I’ve been observing it. When my heart gets irregular, I’ve seen it as high as somewhere a few beats above 200. Today it was irregular and didn’t quite reach 200 BPM.
The strange heart behavior today is also visible on the chart for the SkiErg workout today. I cut that workout short because I felt a bit tired. But looking closely at the shortened SkiErg workout chart (it is the bottom-most screenshot in today’s posted screenshots) you can see that after the 2nd work interval, continued increasing as though I was continuing to work. Heart rate got as high as about 130 during that second work interval but it kept increasing after that second work interval ended, and it peaked at about 161, about the middle of the rest interval, before it started slowing down again like it normally does. That was strange. After the third work interval in that same SkiErg workout which was cut short, heart rate acted strange again and remained high for a lot longer than it should have, while I was gently resting. That was when I decided to cut the session short – I hadn’t really noticed the strange heart behavior, but I felt low-energy tired, as today’s blog post title, A Low Energy Day, says.
Report for one of today’s 2K sessions.
Graphs for one of today’s 2K sessions.
Chart and some data for today’s abbreviated SkiErg session.
