Another restless night so I awoke feeling rather jaded.
I had planned to ride the, fairly regular, Sunday Brunch with the Wobble Cycle club 1t 11:15 and having some time before hand, decided to fire up the rower.
I’d been reading something about alternative apps. to EXR and came across Swelldone which was advertised as free, so thought that I’d give it a go.
After downloading the app. to one of the gym iPads, I fired it up only for it to crash. Trying the other iPad resulted in the same. Not a good start.
Finally, I downloaded it to my phone from where it did run and casting that onto the big TV was looking good.
Selecting the Arcade Mode, the app. went straight into action without even asking to pair with the erg (rowing machine).
Apparently, this mode is mode for learning about the waves and does not track what’s happening on the rower.
Next mode was Training. This presented a screen to connect with rower and Heart Rate Monitor (HRM) – which I did.
I was then asked to select a boat and course before launching into the game proper.
The main difference between this and EXR is that Swelldone is set in open water complete with waves. The waves go up and down – the boat goes up and down. I got the feeling that too much of this and you could get sea sick !
As I was rowing on the open sea, I noticed that I was on a 15km free TRIAL – Umm? Not free after all?
I completed a short 2K row then saved the workout to Strava (which recorded it as a workout – not virtual row).
Checking th Swelldone website revealed that the Arcade mode is, in fact free, but the ‘proper’ mode was from £99 per year – on par with EXR.
I suppose Swelldone could grow on you but, for now at least, I’ll stick with EXR.
In fact after my seaborne adventure, I fired up EXR for a further 1.6k.
I’m not a great fan of rowing – the Concept II was bought for the other half but I should do, at least, a bit every week.
Eleven Fifteen came around and I was sat in the saddle with fan, drinks bottle and tower at the ready.
It wasn’t one of the usual ride leaders and there was no quiz and very little banter.
The ride was advertised as 1.3 to 1.5 Wkg (I think) which should be well within my capabilities but I did struggle. A was dropped a couple of times and had to ride hard to get back.
However, I finished with the pack then continued on for another couple of kilometres as a cool down.
I’ll put my less than optimal performance down to being tired.
A fairly busy week, exercise wise …
- 5 Walks
- 2 bike rides
- 3 rows (one was only 200m)
The knees are behaving and since the recent healthy spell started (about a fortnight ago) I’ve lost 4kg.
kevbaldry