Accelerate, Decelerate, Gently, Gradually

So today I finally managed to do some rowing again, after 4 days off. 

The result was well worthwhile and left me feeling very relaxed and one or more quantum levels happier.

The session was preset to 12,021 meters and it took about an hour.  I started out slow and very gradually increased the effort until reaching peak desired heart rate after about 33 minutes.  Then gradually decreased the effort until the distance had counted down to about 2000 meters remaining.  At that point, decreased the effort with the aim of lowering heart rate to just above 100 for the remaining distance.

For aerobic exercise according to one methodology I like, there are 5 heart rate zones, with zone 1 being the lowest and 5 the highest.  I was aiming to gradually raise heart rate to the upper edge of heart zone 2, hold it there for only one minute, then gradually lower heart rate to the bottom edge of heart zone one.

It felt good.  Ethereal, even ... but it was done solo, offline because there was nobody online with whom to row at that particular late afternoon time. Company while rowing is nice, but not an absolute necessity. Music was not needed, because the mental focus and attention on effort and feeling was sufficient escapism and distraction from the world.

Blue graph on left is watts/effort level and red graph is heart rate.