10100 in Binary is 20 in Decimal

It could also be said that there are only 2 kinds of people-those who row and those who don't.

Today I rowed 10011101110100 meters in binary which is 10,100 meters in decimal.

Today's rowing was another multitude of sessions, like on May 5th.

Altogether, there were 8 sessions but unlike May 5th, I will only show a summary for most and details for only two. 

The first 5 were attempts to do the shortest distance which is possible to be ranked in the world famous Concept 2 Indoor Rowing World Standings.  That distance is only 100 meters. I tried five times to do it at an average pace of exactly 2:15 but could only get as close as 2:15.1.  Another one was 4 minutes, which is really only for kids but anybody can do it for World Rankings.  That one, I managed to do with an average pace of exactly 2:15.

The report below is for the main piece, a 30 minute session.

30 Minute Session Report

Next is the finish screen and report for the warm-down:

warm down finish screen

warm down session report

 And here is the summary, highlighted in blue, of all 8 pieces.

Happy trails.

The Unforgettable Marathon

This looks like a marathon worth remembering.

If I could do a marathon outdoors, in a place like what is pictured above, it would be well worth remembering.

But the marathon I am debating doing would be on the C2, indoors, in a room that effectively has no window because it's always shuttered closed.  And it smells like a horse barn by the time I'm done doing a marathon.

Actually, a horse barn would smell better, in Diane's opinion.  And it would be more scenic, if it had a horse, like the one pictured above.  But no... I row in a small room that looks like the one below, only different in many ways, including floor, color, etc etc.  Plus... as I said earlier, the window is shuttered in the room I use.

This room actually looks nicer than where I row.  But I have a computer and tv, which this room lacks.

So I haven't FORGOTTEN to do a marathon before May 15th, but I almost wish I could.

In the meantime while procrastinating about doing a marathon, today's goal was to add a 6K piece to the collection of those in Concept 2 Indoor Rowing World Rankings for this brand new season.  Like yesterday's pieces, I did the 6K at 2:15/500m for the sake of ... a few reasons and a few non-sequiturs, all of which amounted to mostly for the fun of it. To have a collection of ranked sessions of all different set distances and times, each done at 2:15.

6K finish screen.

6K report

To bring the total meters for today to 10K+, the warm down was 4500 meters.

4K finish screen

Warm-down report

Happy trails.

A Multitude of Another Sort

The number in the multitude that the shepherds saw was greater than the multitude of which I write in this post.

Today's goal was to do a total distance equal to or greater than 10K and also to do as many ranking pieces as possible, doing each and every one of the ranking pieces at the pace of 2:15/500m

The first piece was the shortest distance that can be ranked, 100 meters.  Because the distance was so short and the natural pace to do such a distance is with a lot more effort than what it takes for a pace of 2:15, the initial average pace after 3 strokes of trying not to go too fast was way too slow.  So I increased the effort for 2 or 3 strokes but that raised the average pace to something way too fast and... you get the idea of what happened, since the total number of strokes was only about 12 total strokes and then it was DONE.  The resulting average pace turned out to be quite a bit faster than the target of 2:15, but that was okay.  This was all just for fun and just to put results in the ranking that would be easy for me and anyone else to beat later.

100 meter finish screen

100 meter report

The next piece was 500 meters and I managed to finish it at the target pace:

Next was 1,000 meters.

2K finish screen

2K report

 After the 2K there was a 5K:

5K finish screen

5K report

And a 5 minute warm down:

warm down finish screen

warm down report

There was a bit more done but it was superfluous to today's goals. Here is a summary of what was done today, highlighted in blue:

Today's summary.

Happy trails.

The Contrary Mind?

Does it ever seem to you that your subconscious mind is in a world of its own, focusing on vistas of which you are unaware?**

And... does your subconscious mind seem a bit contrary?*

Yesterday I decided I'd had enough of the super-slow rowing while watching DVD episodes of that TV series which shall remain unnamed because it is irrelevant to these short thoughts being expressed. So I "binged" on the remaining episodes and finished viewing the remaining four 40 minute installments of the series.  I did that, so that TODAY I'd be free to focus completely on rowing while rowing.

For today's rowing, I decided to do a half marathon and set a new season best time.  That would be easy, since the only other HM I've done in the first 4 days of this new season was done in a super slow time of about 2 hours 48 minutes. To give you an idea of how slow that is, notice (below) that it placed me in absolute last among those men in my age & weight class who've also ranked their HMs this season.

But at least that made everyone, including Mr. Benezra of New Jersey, happy - to know that they and he had all finished their HMs with a better time than someone...

So I decided to do today's half marathon at a strict, constant pace target of 2:15.  It would be an experiment to see how it felt after a distance equal to halfway through a marathon at the pace at which I'd like to do a dreaded marathon before May 15th.

*Frequently, if I determine to do a race or set a new season best time, my subconscious will start to make itself known in a contrary fashion. Quite contrary...

...it won't stop and it will make increasingly louder and more pained demands that I either slack off or quit, both of which are opposite and contrary to my original intentions. 

Today, my subconscious mind started making itself known after about 10K but -contrarily as usual- it didn't want me to slow down.  I was already going slow.  It wanted me to go faster. 

It didn't become loud or pained, but it wouldn't settle down until the compromise to which I agreed, which seemed to satisfy it.  The compromise was to do a sprint of some sort for the very last 500 meters.  When that was decided, it seemed happy enough to know that I'd go faster for a mere 2% of the total distance and it quit bothering me.

**What was my subconscious mind focusing on, or was it merely "feeling its oats?"

Is the subconscious mind the horse or the jockey?

 Anyway... the subconscious mind is happy with that HM, as far as I can tell based on the light from within.

The half marathon went well and felt good. Felt okay... to be specific. And after it was ranked on Concept2.com World Rankings for this season, it moved me up from last place to 7th place.  Poor Mr. B of New Jersey... now he's going to have to work a little harder, to get out of last place... if he cares.  But I looked at his profile on the C2 rankings and he looks like a jaunty, competitive sort who probably does care and will make another go at it, to get out of last place. Here are the new standings after today's piece was ranked:

And here are some screen views and session reports (reports is plural, because there was a separate warm down session today, made necessary by the final sprint I had to do in order to please my contrary subconscious).

The session was scheduled online, over an hour in advance but still there were no others who could join at that time. The following is a screen shot of 5 minutes before the half marathon began, where you can see that I invited the others in the online chat room to join if they wished.

The view below is the half marathon finish screen:

Next is a view of the half marathon session report:

And the warm down finish screen...

...and finally, the warm down session report:

As Dale Evans and Roy Rogers used to sing, "happy rowing to you until we meet again." Or was it "happy trails?"

Rowing and Stopping and Going and Standing

Today's rowing session involved some brief standing and very brief pauses, all while rowing very slowly and watching two more episodes of the 24 episode TV series on DVD.  Only a half dozen episodes remain and then will return to heart rate zone rowing.

Here's today's finish screenshot and session report:

Insider Exclusive

For the Insider Exclusive, refer to the second paragraph.

Today's rowing session was done in what RowPro calls "just row" mode.  It was done in two pieces, for a total of 11,038 meters, while watching more episodes of the TV series I've been watching on DVD.  Four of the six DVDs have been viewed, so this ultra slow rowing should be over soon and then I'll return to doing the sessions in heart zone 1 or higher.

I forgot to snap a screen shot of the finish of the main piece, so here's an insider's viewpoint of this blog, for the sake of doing something different.  The below Insider's Viewpoint is a few of this blog in an earlier stage of composition and editing.:

This is what it looks like "on the inside," when a blog post is being composed.

The session reports for today's rowing are very succinct, because "just row" mode does not record heart rate or split data.

It's Not Winslow Arizona

It's not Winslow, Arizona* but I'm taking it easy anyway.  Like yesterday and the day before.  And I didn't let the sound of my own [erg] wheel drive me crazy today while doing a half marathon.  Watched 3 or 4 more episodes of that TV series, while taking a long, long time to do a half marathon. 

Still conserving energy for a marathon before May 15th.

Today's half marathon finish screen.

Today's half marathon was probably the slowest I've ever done one of them.  Took several breaks for changing discs, etc. But even at the slow pace at which it was done, I still burned over 1,000 calories so .... depending on what's for supper, I might have seconds.

Today's lazy session report

* The reference to Winslow, Arizona is with thought in mind of one of the Eagles' most well known songs.  The photo at the top is someone's snapshot of the street corner in Winslow, Arizona which is designed in memory of that song, "Take It Easy."