Back on the Erg

The last few days have been a bit of a write-off.

Fever, feeling freezing one minute and boiling the next, stomach issues, an ear infection thrown in for good measure — definitely not the ideal backdrop for training.

So rowing stopped.

No trying to make up missed sessions. No pretending I was fine.

Just recover.

The encouraging bit has been what’s happened to my resting heart rate.

For the first time in a long, long, long time, I’ve started seeing numbers in the 40s again.

Yesterday Garmin gave me 47 bpm.

This morning, after travelling up to Athlone last night, it was 49 bpm, with overnight HR around 51 and HRV slightly above my normal range.

More importantly, I woke up feeling almost normal.

Dangerous words.

There are three Concept2s in the gym at the Athlone Springs Hotel, so the obvious question was whether the engine was ready to turn over again.

Nothing clever.

60 minutes.

r20.

Keep it controlled.

The result:

60:00
14,476m
2:04.3/500m
r20
DF 136
182W average

The heart-rate monitor decided to play stupid games again, with obvious dropouts into numbers that simply didn’t match the pace or effort, so the reported 130 average can be ignored.

The believable sections had me building into the 130s and around 140 through the middle, with the final stages into the mid-to-high 140s.

Pretty much where I wanted to be.

The important part was that the rowing itself stayed steady.

Every split at r20.

No chasing pace.

No hard finish.

Just an hour back on the machine after a few days of being ill.

And compared with the last 60r20 before getting sick — 14,600m at 2:03.3 — today was only 124m down, about one second per 500m slower.

Different erg.

Different gym.

First row back after illness.

I’ll take that.

The best result this morning probably isn’t 14,476m anyway.

It’s feeling normal again.

It’s seeing a resting heart rate beginning with a 4.

And it’s getting through a controlled hour without needing to prove anything.

The engine is turning over again.