To Train Or Not To Train Is Not Really The Question

 

 Because the first two weeks of May are the period during which all Concept2.com logbook users are encouraged and challenged to do a marathon, the thought has crossed my mind of training for a marathon.  But it crossed quickly.  Today was another day of extreme energy conservation while watching more videos.  The videos I've been watching are episodes of a weird TV sci-fi series that only lasted one season.  I got the entire set of videos on DVD at a local used bookstore.

So my training plan for the marathon challenge is:

... and Do It, whenever I feel like doing so, between tomorrow and May 15th.
Today's session was an extremely gentle, totally no-sweat or perspiration 10K. There's no screen shot of today's rowing session finish but there is a report:

Conservation of Energy

Yesterday was a super easy rowing session and today's was even more so.  In fact, it could be described as rather lackadaisical.

But upon rumination of my current attitude toward energy in rowing, I think my subconscious has already decided to focus on conservation of energy because the end of the current rowing season is only 24 hours away and then... the first rowing challenge of the new season will be to do a marathon.

Not a marathon like the one in Boston or New York, but a marathon nonetheless.

So I might be conserving energy for a few more days... until I manage to flip the switch in my mind, to do a marathon on the Concept 2 rowing machine.

Here's today's energy-conserving data:

Today's finish screen

Today's report

Unfocused Rowing

 

The focus on rowing was blurred today by the distraction of watching a video

Today's session was an online 10K.  It was scheduled more than 30 minutes in advance, but nobody joined. 

I decided to take it very easy and watch a video.  The video demanded focus, therefore the rowing didn't get much focus and was done at an effort level below heart zone 1.

I almost forgot to snap a screenshot of the finish screen, but managed to do so in the moment just after RowPro had saved its data and before it refreshed the graphics to a new start screen.

RowPro finish screen

Session Report

Online Offline

Today's rowing started out enthusiastically online but finished with dampened enthusiasm offline. If you are a first-time visitor to this blog and your mind immediately makes the logical jump inspired by the word, "dampened," to conclude that I fell out of my boat... there was no water involved, except for the H2O component in a little bit of sweat.

The starter had just pressed the start button when this screenshot was taken.

 After about 4K, the internet connected was interrupted, according to RowPro.

Screen shot of one of the trouble messages when online session interrupted.

There was a second trouble message reported, after I clicked to disengage from the session.

Because of one or both of the troubles reported by RowPro in the messages shown in the two above screenshots, the session was not saved to the computer.  So there is no session report for it.  I did enter the distance rowed manually, so it could be uploaded to my Concept2.com logbook.

After the interruption, I set up a 6K session and rowed it offline, unenthusiastically, while watching a video.  Here's a screenshot of that 6K finish:

And here's the session report for the unenthusiastic 6K:

Here's a summary of what was rowed today, highlighted in blue:

10 K Online Part 2 of 2

Today I rowed with several other people but we were each in a different part of the world.

This is part 2 of 2 because this blog site won't let me put all the images in one post.  See the post titled "10 K Online Part 1 of 2 "for the beginning.

After the the Starter activates the countdown, a series of prompts appears. This prompt is instructing to watch the screen of the rowing machne's Personal Monitor.

There are a series of prompts on the screen.  The last prompt is the signal to begin rowing and is in large capital letters, ROW, on the Personal Monitor.  If the sound is turned on on your computer, there will also simultaneously be a voice from the speakers which says "Row!"  Everyone must wait until the signal to row or there will be a "false start" and whoever jumped the gun will have to stop rowing, let his flywheel come to a complete stop and say that he or she is ready for another countdown.

There was a false start.  Julien apologizes.

The Starter announces that the countdown will start over in 1 minute. Sergio Botti of Italy seems to have either dropped out or become disconnected, because there is now an X by  his name.

I'm not sure what Paul and Amadee are referring to but perhaps they noticed that I sprinted for part of the last 500 meters and are trying to be polite to an old man?

goodbyes are said and I leave.  Next, I join one of them in a 2K warmdown

In the warmdown we each tried to do the 2K in exactly 9 minutes but neither of us exactly did that.

Next, are today's two session reports, for the main 10K and also the warm down:

Main 10K report

warm down report

10 K Online Part 1 of 2

I rowed with several other people today but we were each in a different part of the world.

This is part 1 of 2 because this blog site won't let me put all the images in one post.

Today there was an online 10K scheduled at an opportune time so I joined in. There were 7 total participants and I came in 4th place.  Three of the seven had problems or dropped out, so 4th place was also last place among those who finished.

For the sake of anyone who's curious to see a little of what happens before and after an online rowing session, there are a few chronological screenshots below, beginning with a view of the start screen and also a few snapshots of the "chat" before the race.  There usually isn't much more chat than necessary and etiquette only seems to be to say hi and respond appropriately if anyone addresses you.  A lot of people say goodbye also, but some just exit and go to do their shower or warm down.  Either way is okay.

Start screen

Saying hi.  I don't actually know any of these people though most of us have rowed together before.

More hellos

Paul announces he's going to click the Start button in 1 minute.

A Surprise Nine K

If Captain Kirk was looking to row online today, he was too surprised to join my 9K

Today's rowing was 9,000 meters scheduled online just a few minutes before doing it.  So... it was a SURPRISE session to anyone who actually did notice it because none of them managed to join in before start time. But... I have had a few sessions scheduled online with virtually the same surprise short notice, where others just happened to be ready-to-row and looking for a scheduled session at that moment and they joined those sessions.

Today's goal was to row the first 5K in a heart rate range of between 133 and 155 and then slow for warming down during the remaining 4,000 meters.  The goal wasn't decided on in advance; it formed during the first few thousand meters.

Here's the stuff about today's rowing:

Today's finish screen

Today's session report.

A Fair Day and Ten K at 2:10

My favorite thing at the fair was the rodeo and my favorite events at the rodeo were bronco riding and barrel racing. That's bronco riding in the photo above, though that photo wasn't taken today - it is from a county fair in the past.

Because Diane and I wanted to visit the county fair on today, on its last day this year, I made sure to rise early and get the rowing done first thing.

There was an online Ten K scheduled at 1400 GMT so I signed up with that.  While waiting for 1400 GMT (0700 local time) to arrive, I did a 4K warmup.  After the 10K, a 5 minute warm down.

Something else Diane and I both enjoyed watching in the rodeo was the bull-riding. The bulls TOTALLY won the event! Not one single cowboy managed to stay on any of the bulls for the minimum time of 8 seconds.  Most of the cowboys were thrown almost instantly, within 3 seconds, give or take a little.  The longest one lasted about 7 seconds (out of curiosity, I used a stopwatch to time most of them).

This is another photo from some year in the past, of bull riding at the county fair. Nobody stayed on any of the bulls for as long as 8 seconds today.

The rowing goals today were to spend about an hour total, to do the 10K at an average pace of about 2:10 and to keep heart rate for the 10K between 133 and 163.

Below are finish screens and reports from today's rowing.  Forgot to snap a screenshot of the 10K finish screen, but did get the warm up and warm down finish screenshots.

4K warm up finish screen

warm up report

Online 10,000 meter session report.  The target was an average pace of 2:10

Warm down finish screen

warm down session report

Neither Agony Nor Ecstasy Just Aerobictivity

The session today stirred up no agony and therefore there was no ecstasy when it was finished.  But I procrastinated most of the day before doing it, because I was sorting through thoughts of the previous and current heart rate zones and the several different sources of standards for what is a good effort level to exercise at on a daily, non-race basis.

I won't bore with details, but I did agonize over it a bit and turned to yet another book of training advice, one by Dr Phil Maffetone.

Finally I remembered the motto of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - don't overthink it, just do it.  Of course, it is phrased totally differently and in a totally different context in Douglas Adams' book.  The way he wrote it is, "Don't Panic".

What I finally decided to do was to settle on a simple definition of what is aerobic based on a percentage range of maximum heart rate.  Based on what my heart rate used to do during the 26 years of long, slow distance running, that seemed reasonable.  So of course I don't know what my maximum heart rate is, but I do know that it is far higher than the almost totally worthless formula, "220-age=HRmax." The last time I saw my heart max out within the past decade, it was up to 191. God only knows if that is its maximum, but that was high enough for me.

Therefore the parameters for today's strictly aerobic session was simply to keep HR between 133 and 163.

So I set up an  online session of 14,000 meters, hoping for some company.  Scheduled it 8 minutes in advance of current time, with the session description simply, "Just do it," for the sake of those people who always want to know, "what pace do you have in mind?" 

It would have been a miracle if anyone saw it and joined in.  No miracle in that respect happened today and it was done without online company.

Here's the RowPro finish screen:

The motto for today was Just Do It.

Today's Just Do It session report

Mild To Moderate Half Marathon Erg Experience

The guy sitting on this rowing machine was in a lot more pain than I was today. But his lasted less than the last half of less than 7 minutes. Probably.  Assuming he just finished a 2K race.

Okay - so the suspense, as personified by yesterday's picture of Alfred Hitchcock, is over.  Yes, I did try again today, to set a new season best time in the half marathon.  But today I started out a lot slower, aimed to maintain a pace equal to my previous season best for all but the last 2,000 meters, and didn't really suffer.

On the free pain scale which I found on the internet just now, my pain during the last 10 or 12,000 meters would probably be somewhere between mild and moderate.  It was nothing to write home about. But... the penguins were impressed (that is further down in this blog article).

If you can't read the words in red, you don't need new glasses.  They aren't very readable.

Here is the starting screen for today's RowPro moderated half marathon.  Notice that I added something that the session yesterday did not have - a target pace zone.  That was to remind me that I wouldn't feel blue about failing, if I kept the pace in the blue while sailing along the digital river. Or would flailing be a more apt term than sailing? Nah - it felt like I used fairly good form throughout.

Notice the blue pace target for today's session.  It is centered precisely on 2:10, my previous season best.

  Here's the finish screen:

Today's finish screen.

If I was Finnish, the above screen could be a Finnish finish screen.  But I'm not Suomalainen.
Here's the session report:

Today's RowPro session report for today's half marathon on the erg.

In this season's Concept 2 World Rankings for heavyweight men aged 60-69, I moved up from 48th place to 46th place.  Woohoo!

Actually, it wasn't a very impressive half marathon performance.  But these penguins are easily impressed.