Engine Work at Midnight

Nearly midnight again.

Tonight wasn’t about pace.

It was about control.

60 minutes on the Model E, on slides, with two simple instructions:

Hold r20.

Keep the heart rate mostly in the aerobic band, around 134–145 bpm, without letting it run away.

The result:

60:00

14,600m

2:03.3/500m

r20

Avg HR 142

DF 130

The pace moved around a little, but that wasn’t the target.

The stroke rate was.

Every 7:30 split came back at r20.

And the heart rate stayed where it was supposed to for almost the whole hour — mostly in the high 130s and low-to-mid 140s, only nudging above the intended ceiling right at the end.

That matters more to me than the distance tonight.

This was one of those sessions where the work is in the discipline.

Don’t chase the monitor.

Don’t turn an aerobic row into a race.

Just sit on the rate, control the effort, and keep doing the work.

That’s the engine-building stuff.

Not dramatic.

Not glamorous.

But necessary.

And finished, as usual, just before midnight.