Our One Million Metre rowing challenge is now well into the 2nd week and we continue to push hard to complete our goal by the end of March (90 days). The original goal saw a daily target of 11111.11 metres required, to complete by the end of March. We have worked incredibly hard over the last week and have revised our minimum metres rowed, to allow us rest days to ensure we do not burn out. This also allows our body a small amount of time to recover from the hard slog this challenge is. Apart from the 1,000,000 metre goal and the mental challenges this brings, we have encountered other problems we did not even think of prior to starting. The amount of time we are spending on the rower stresses the body in areas we didn't allow for, blisters on the hands, numb bum from time on the seat and chaffed armpits. So specialist rowing gloves allowed us to continue to row whilst the blisters recovered, padding to the seat helped with the numb bum (although if you have sat and watched all 5 days of a cricket test match you may have encountered similar sensations with time being the healer) and Sudacrem liberally spread to relieve the armpit chaffing. This is a miracle cream and no wonder it's used to clear nappy rash on babies. After 11 days i have rowed 146,161 metres at an average of 13,287 per day. This leaves a little under 854,000 to go with 79 days to go. Having taken advise from a fitness coach, she stressed the importance of recovery days within any training program, to allow the body a period to recuperate. We have taken this advise on board and have instructed all rowers taking part to have one day off per week, minimum. This does mean we have reduced the amount of days available to row though but, the expert says we will have more energy during the middle stages of the target. This means our enthusiasm and drive will continue and we are more likely to be successful and complete our challenge. Having said that our daily average would have been 12820 if we had planned this in at the start. We have pushed ourselves to do in excess of 13,000 metres per row and as such, we have managed to get the average required down to 12557, for the remainder of the challenge, including 12 rest days. Remember we have also tied in with this row, other lifestyle changes which although assisting our body in the long run, may be adding to the pain on a daily basis. We have cut our alcohol for the remainder of January and as i write i have now gone 8 days without touching a drop. The fact the beer fridge is opposite the rowing machine might not be the best idea but so far the fridge door has remained tightly shut. We have also taken on board the daily calorie guidance and we have tried to apply this to our daily routines, by logging every food and drink that passes our lips. A man is allowed up to 2400 calories per day and a woman is advised to take no more than 2000 per day. With this added exercise, we are consuming around 2400 per day but burning an additional 800 calories per row. The result is 146,000 metres rowed and 12lbs of weight lost. If you want to join us in this challenge you can by registering on the Concept2 Logbook and join our Sportsballshop team. If you are looking for ways to get fit, you may want to consider one of our Speed and Agility Kits which contains a huge amount of equipment to ensure every session us fun and challenging.
