I’ve been playing around with HRV4Training.  It’s a fun app that uses the camera on your phone to optically measure your HR first thing in  the morning.  I had previously tried using another app (ithlete) which worked with the Polar H7, but I really hated putting on a strap first thing in the morning and the results never seemed to correlate with how I actually felt.

With HRV4Training, taking the measurement is easy, but it took some practice.  You need to rest the phone on your finger, but not press too hard.  You need to maintain consistent pressure and not move around.  It also helps to breath nice and steady.  What I do when I wake up now is this.

• Grab my phone
• Sit at the kitchen table
• Wait a minute to let my HR come down to resting rates
• start up HRV4Training and rest the phone on my finger with my forearm flat on the table
• push the start measurement button and watch the heart beats march across the screen.  Concentrate on taking even deep breaths.  The measurement lasts a minute.

So, I’ve been doing this for the past couple weeks and today, HRV4Training told me that I should probably take it easy.  My Heart Rate Variability was lower than it should have been.  Of course I ignored it and went ahead with my planned session

• 45′
• Cat VI: Pace – 2:06-2:11, Rate – 18
• Every 5 minutes power20 at r32
  (I actually do 40 seconds, which is about 21 or 22 strokes)

I’m not sure what the intended training effect of this session is, but if I really hammer the power20s, it makes rowing at a 2:06 pace a much more taxing experience than normal.  The first 20 always feels good.  The second one hurts.  By the third you are watching the time tick down to 40 seconds before the 5′ mark, hoping the seconds would last longer.  By the time I am in the last few, I am really feeling the lactate burst after the power20.  I think I’ve done this workout 4 times now.  Once on the Dynamic, once in taiwan and two other times.  This one seemed to to hurt more than others.  My HR took longer to drop and I was working hard to try to get the rate up.

On the plus side, it’s mercifully short.  I also had some interruptions.  In the first 5 minutes I discovered that I had forgotten to strap in, which is kinda important to get up to a r32.  Then I got a work text that I wanted to check.  Then in the 5th, I got a phone call which I answered, found out it was a robocall and hung up.  The stop in the eighth was pure lack of will.  It just seemed so hard to hold a 2:10 pace at that moment.

          Workout Summary - media/20171215-1535300o.csv
--|Total|-Total-|--Avg--|-Avg-|Avg-|-Avg-|-Max-|-Avg
--|Dist-|-Time--|-Pace--|-Pwr-|SPM-|-HR--|-HR--|-DPS
--|10878|44:59.0|02:04.1|214.3|20.9|156.9|175.0|11.6
W-|10888|44:59.0|02:04.0|198.2|19.8|156.9|175.0|12.5
R-|00000|00:00.0|00:00.0|000.0|00.0|000.0|175.0|00.0
Workout Details
#-|SDist|-Split-|-SPace-|-Pwr-|SPM-|AvgHR|MaxHR|DPS-
00|00984|04:20.0|02:12.1|174.2|17.3|125.8|140.0|13.1 - straps!
01|00207|00:40.0|01:36.6|382.3|31.6|143.9|154.0|09.8
02|01035|04:20.0|02:05.6|179.0|18.2|151.7|159.0|13.1
03|00206|00:40.0|01:37.1|374.9|31.6|154.2|162.0|09.8
04|01036|04:20.0|02:05.4|178.4|17.9|157.0|165.0|13.4
05|00207|00:40.0|01:36.7|380.6|32.0|155.5|164.0|09.7
06|01036|04:20.0|02:05.5|178.0|18.1|160.9|168.0|13.2
07|00208|00:40.0|01:36.3|379.3|31.8|160.8|167.0|09.8
08|00938|04:20.0|02:18.5|178.2|17.8|163.3|172.0|12.2 - phone call
09|00204|00:40.0|01:38.2|372.5|32.2|153.4|163.0|09.5
10|01028|04:20.0|02:06.4|174.1|17.7|155.2|170.0|13.4
11|00203|00:40.0|01:38.5|360.6|31.0|130.8|168.0|09.8
12|01013|04:20.0|02:08.4|166.8|18.1|167.3|173.0|12.9
13|00202|00:40.0|01:39.1|355.5|31.1|167.0|172.0|09.7
14|00980|04:20.0|02:12.7|154.4|18.4|165.5|175.0|12.3 - wimped out
15|00205|00:40.0|01:37.5|374.3|31.9|164.3|169.0|09.7
16|00993|04:20.0|02:10.9|160.1|18.5|167.5|174.0|12.4
17|00203|00:40.0|01:38.5|365.8|31.8|167.2|172.0|09.6

After that, I went to the dentist.  I have a cracked tooth and they were prepping it to be fitted with a crown.  I’m not sure, but I think I cracked my tooth when I tried to loosen a wing nut with my mouth since I didn’t have a wrench handy.  Gotta say, despite all the drilling and poking it was a lot more relaxing than the bumps session.

Tomorrow:  Well, I messed up.  I knew that I needed to redo my 75′ test tomorrow, but I missed the little note in the training plan that I was supposed to take Friday as a rest day before it.  So, I guess I will take a rest day tomorrow and do the 75′ test on Sunday.