Our pains and challenge though is nothing compared to the crews attempting the Taliskar Atlantic Challenge, rowing approximately 3000 miles which is just under 5,000,000 metres, through storms, huge swells and desperate sea sickness. The winners....

January ends and we are now a 1/3rd of the way though our challenge of rowing 1,ooo,ooo metres by the end of March. It has been incredibly hard to maintain focus, as the cold dark nights try to sap any remaining enthusiasm. The blisters, bum sores and armpit chaffing have abated which is small comfort, no it is very comforting but the target still seems a very long way away. Nick and I both passed the 340,000m mark by the end of January which took us beyond the 1/3rd way mark in distance. The difficult month will be February though as we only have 29 days to row, we have factored in at least 4 days off but still need to row an incredible 13333 just to stay on target. Nick has created a boredom busting entertainment system to take his mind off the rowing. He is currently rowing in excess of 14,000 each row to ensure he stays on track as he has a few days away from the machine during February due to training away days. The clever use of an Ipad holder, bolted to the rowing machine means he can stream films and shows whilst rowing. I tried this but, cannot where glasses when rowing so can only see the screen during half of the row so, i will stick with the music. Our pains and challenge though is nothing compared to the crews attempting the Taliskar Atlantic Challenge, rowing approximately 3000 miles which is just under 5,000,000 metres, through storms, huge swells and desperate sea sickness. The winners of the race were Ocean Reunion, their 4 man crew completed the challenge in a record 37 days 9 hours and 12 minutes, around 80 miles per day (128 Kilometres). For us that would be at least 10 hours rowing without any of the other challenging factors to compete with. Spare a thought though for solo rower Steve Murphy who has just passed half way in his boat, Atlantic Endurance. Steve has over 1400 NM to go and is currently rowing around 40 NM per day so, he is still on target to finish before the 90 day cut off. With no assistance apart from radio contact and the obligatory safety equipment, we can only imagine the pain he is going through. When you set off you have to have enough food for the entire journey so the intake of food is vital to survive, as it would be very easy to take on too much early on and leave you with nothing for the final push. Fresh drinking water is created by removing the salt crystals through de-salination as one person needs at least 1000 litres of water, which would be impossible to take with you. Finally the 4 man crew of Ocean Reunion would have rowed in 2 hour shifts, non stop. While half the team row, the other half slept, eating and working on inevitable boat maintenance such as , removing the barnacles from the bottom of the boat. On Atlantic Endurance he would do this on his own. To donate to Steve's charity please go to his donation page at Virgin Money Giving. Oh yes, I have not responded to Nick's suggestion we complete 4 million in 12 months, as i do not wish to offend.

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Category_One Million Metre Rowing Challenge Category_Performance of the week Fitness Getting fit for the new season Health Lifestyle performance of the week award Sponsorship sports personality of the year

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