Cactus blossoms were glowing with sunlight this morning.
There were two workouts today. They were both interval sessions. One on the rowing machine and the other on the SkiErg. Afterwards, and now while this is being typed, I feel like I’m tingling all over with the afterglow of the intervals.
Today’s EliteHRV heart rate variability analysis gave permission for any level of effort.
Today’s rowing workout was selected from Concept 2’s suggestions for “workout of the day”. It was called “2 x 10 min short intervals” and the instructive description was: “Pre-set the monitor for a work time of 10:00 and a rest time of 4:00. Each interval alternate between 40 seconds fast rowing and 20 seconds easy rowing. During the rest time continue rowing at light pressure.”
The above photo is a display of one result of Einstein’s formulation of the Theory of Relativity… or his contributions to quantum physics… or both. At any rate, it is showing some of the effects of converting the mass of a few ounces of uranium into energy.
After 8 days without working out, today I finally managed to do a workout on both the rowing machine and SkiErg. There was no earth-shaking result, but it seemed like there was a huge amount of some kind of inertia to overcome when I first started pulling the handle on the rowing machine. The result of today’s workout was to convert about 2 1/2 ounces of my body’s mass into a modest 552 calories of kinetic energy. There was additional energy conversion resulting in heat and myriads of other changes in the body, but those were not measured by the ergometers.
The two ergometers, rowing machine and SkiErg, only measured the kinetic energy required to operate them and that totaled to about 552 Calories. *
Today’s heart rate variability analysis by the EliteHRV app gave a green light for doing a workout.
Today’s workout was once again strictly aerobic. I need to start incorporating resistance/anabolic activity into a few days of each week’s workouts. How do I cultivate that as a habit?
The above question will have to remain unanswered for the moment. Screenshots of today’s workout reports are below. They were a series of 4 minute hard/3 minute easy rowing intervals followed by a series of 10 Calories hard/10 Calories easy cross-country SkiErg intervals:
Finish screen for the rowing intervals.
Report for the rowing intervals.
Graphs for the rowing intervals.
Graphs and data for the SkiErg intervals.
Happy rowing to you!
*If you are a physicist and want to get technical, it totaled to 552 kilo calories.
I was skeptical of this morning’s Readiness score by EliteHRV app.
I don’t know for certain why the Readiness score and resulting “advice” from EliteHRV app’s heart rate variability analysis was so poor this morning but I suspected Valerian. The reason I suspected it is because last night I took a dose of Valerian before bed and again in the middle of the night, to aid sleep.
The Valerian made me feel very relaxed or tired. I don’t know if it influenced my heart rate to slow down, but I did notice that heart rate dropped as low as 44 BPM during the morning. (See screen shot below)
I was surprised to see the Apple Watch display heart rate as low as 44 during the day when I was awake and moving around. Was this an aftereffect of the Valerian?
Other than feeling exorbitantly relaxed (I know… “exorbitant’ isn’t an appropriate adjective here, but I’m using sloppy poetic license and will use it anyway)… I felt okay.
So I ignored the recommendation of EliteHRV and rowed the way I normally would. And “skied” the way I normally would, on the SkiErg after rowing.
Speaking of rowing and skiing, those were today’s workouts in that order: 10K of rowing with intervals every 1K, followed by 10 minute rowing warm down, followed by 124 Calories of alternating 10 calorie intervals on the SkiErg.
Finish screen for today’s 10K rowing session. Did I mention that it was done online, in the good company of another rower who was a few thousand miles away on the East Coast of USA?
Report for today’s 10K rowing session.
Graphs for today’s 10K rowing session.
Some data and a chart for today’s 124 Calorie SkiErg session.
The EliteHRV morning readiness score was good but not quite as good as yesterday’s.
Today’s workout started with a 60 minute session online with three other guys. But one of those three didn’t show, so it was just two others besides me who actually rowed. During the 60 minutes I did most of the rowing at a pace of about 2:15 with the exception of once ever 10 minutes after the first 10 minutes doing an interval which lasted 60 seconds.
After the 60 minute session, there was a 10 minute warm down and then I switched from rowing machine to SkiErg and did 118 Calories on that.
Finish screen view of today’s 60 minute session.
RowPro report for today’ 60 minutes.
RowPro graphs for today’s 60 minutes
Some data and a chart for today’s 118 Calorie SkiErg session.
The EliteHRV Morning Readiness analysis of heart rate variability was as good as I could hope for.
Today’s workouts consisted of an online 10K session, a 10 minute warm down online then a 6779 meter online session (all rowing). After those three, I did a SkiErg session that was 117 Calories.
This is a finish view of the graph section of the 10K RowPro session. You can readily tell that I did intervals. They began after the first 2K meters, lasted one minute each and were repeated every 1K after the first interval.
RowPro report for today’s 60 minute online session. I won’t bother to display data or graphs for the other two rowing sessions – a 10 minute warm down and a 6779 meter piece, but if you really want to see them all you have to do is log into your concept2.com logbook account and view them in my logbook, which is viewable by all logged-in users.
This is a view of some of the data for the 117 Calorie SkiErg session. It consisted of 10 Calorie intervals with recovery periods of about 10 calories each.
This morning’s HRV analysis gave a green light for any effort level during the workout.
Although I gave today’s workouts an overall RPE Level 4 rating, which is unremarkable, the observed lowest and highest heart rates seemed very remarkable.
One thing I have a habit of doing every morning is checking to see what my lowest/resting heart rate was during the night, and jotting it down in a notepad. The lowest heart rate during the night had been 53.
But after I changed into rowing clothes, put on the heart strap and sat on the rowing machine before starting to row, heart rate went as low as 51 BPM, which was 2 BPM lower than the lowest it had been during the night while I was laying motionless and in deep sleep!
Perhaps my body was anticipating morning coffee, with its dose of caffeine stimulant and was suppressing its own production of whatever comparable stimulant(s) it makes?
Heart rate was nice and low, before doing any rowing this morning. Just before I reached out to the keyboard to take this screenshot, displayed heart rate had been 51 BPM.
After today’s rowing session, I did a short session on the Concept 2 SkiErg. Heart rate managed to surprise me again by going to the other extreme and reaching as high as 185 during one of the SkiErg intervals.
After the workouts, I made coffee and enjoyed about 5 “cups” (30 liquid ounces) of dark black coffee during the next few hours of the morning.
After the 4th of 5 intervals during the SkiErg workout, HR went as high as 185. Its easy to work hard on the SkiErg…
The main workout today was 10K on the rowing machine. It was done online. This is a view of the finish screen for today’s 10K rowing session.
Report for today’s 10K rowing session.
RowPro graphs for today’s 10K rowing session.
Concept 2 online logbook data for today’s SkiErg session.
Today’s heart rate variability analysis by the EliteHRV app gave a green light to workout at any effort level.
Today’s main workout was one hour of rowing, like yesterday’s session. It was also done online, like yesterday’s session. But nobody else signed up for this session, so I did it alone.
After the 60 minutes of rowing, I did a couple hundred calories on the SkiErg.
Finish screen for today’s 60 minutes of rowing.
Report for today’s 60 minutes of rowing.
RowPro graphs for today’s 60 minutes of rowing.
Concept 2 online logbook chart for today’s SkiErg session.
I wasn’t inclined to believe the analysis and recommendation of EliteHRV this morning…
As you can see from the above screenshot, the heart rate variability analysis from the EliteHRV app this morning recommended that I take it easy. I didn’t believe it and so I warmed up to do an attempt at a season best in rowing a 30 minute piece.
Last night’s sleep was good, at 7 hours 55 minutes logged by SleepWatch, but I felt very much like staying in bed and getting some more sleep,
But there were feelings of heart-skipping during the rowing warm-up, which frequently is a sign of impending Atrial fibrillation. So I decided to do a 30 minute session at 2:07/500m instead of aiming for a bit faster than 2:03.
Even at the slower pace of 2:07, Afib and elevated heart rate happened. So I slowed down significantly. After about one minute of the 30 minute session, heart rate started to rise disproportionately to effort. So I took a break to get an aspirin.
The atrial fibrillation continued after the 30 minute session was over. Above is a screenshot of the Apple Watch’s 2 minute graph of recovery heart rate after I stopped rowing and while I sat motionless for a couple minutes. Normally, heart rate steadily decreases during those two minutes. This time, it increased and behaved erratically.
The Afib continued through the rowing session but cleared up after the rowing was finished, after I started using the SkiErg. Go figure…
So I spent a while on the SkiErg and set two season best times for short sprints (100 meters and 1 minute) on the SkiErg.
I did 10 SkiErg pieces, for a total of 14 rowing + SkiErg. Instead of showing screenshots of each of the 14, I’ll just post screenshots of lists of the rowing and SkiErg sessions. If you really want to see them in more detail, it’s easy to do. You just visit the concept2.com online logbook where my rowing sessions are available to anybody who is logged in. You can find me by looking at the listing of virtual rowing clubs and clicking on RowPro Rowers, where I’m listed among the members.
These 4 rowing sessions were done first today.
These 10 SkiErg sessions were done after the rowing sessions. The ones highlighted in blue turned out to be season best times for those particular pieces.
Today’s HRV reading with the EliteHRV app was a green light for anything.
Today’s aerobic workouts consisted of four piecces on the SkiErg only. The one that was the most fun was also the shortest. It was fun, because it was fast, not because it was short.
Last night’s sleep was enough sleep to allow for anything today, at 8 hours 10 minutes logged by SleepWatch
The first of four pieces today was 4,000 meters at RPE Level 3.
The second piece today was the most fun because it was the fastest. A 100 meter sprint at RPE Level 10.
The third piece was 10 minutes at RPE Level 2.
The fourth piece was originally going to be 4,200 meters, but after 1,356 meters it was interrupted for dinner.
