One Million Metre Rowing Challenge Week 3 Ends

The One Million Metre Rowing Challenge continues, as we come to the end of week 3. This week has been tough with only 2 rowers remaining. We have had injuries to 3 rowers, and they have had to pull out - 2 with long term knee problems and 1 has pulled a hamstring, none of the injuries occurred whilst rowing. The pace we had to set to ensure the challenge could be completed in 90 days may have been a contributing factor. So, 2 remain, Nick and Stu and we are trying to motivate each other to the ultimate goal of completing 1,000,000 metres rowed in 90 days. We have now both passed 200,000 metres. It is a tough challenge, if you have used a Concept2 machine before and rowed for an hour, I'm sure your mind drifted off many times during that hour. Now imagine doing that almost every day. We needed to do an average of 12820 metres to complete within 90 days whilst rowing 6 days a week. We have managed to get this down to 12484 with 61 rowing days remaining. Apart form staying focused during the row, we have mentioned other problems we encounter on a daily basis, numb bum, lower back ache, chaffed armpits, sore hands and sore toes. The toes is a new one this week as temperatures dropped to zero and we are now based at home in our garage's. This resulted in placing an electric heater close to the rower to take the chill off, whilst rowing. Now i have painful toes which are probably the result of chilblains on the left foot. The heater has been put away and thankfully the temperature has risen a little for the onslaught this weekend. My personal challenges this weekend are to

• Pass 250,000 metres rowed
• To row 1 hour at a pace of 2:08:5 for a minimum distance of 14000 metres (14065 would get me in the Concept2 top 200 rows for the season for my age group)
• To row a 1/2 marathon (21097 metres) in 94 minutes.

If i can do the 2nd and 3rd, the 1st will be passed easily. Setting smaller goals is one way of reaching the bigger goal. As it stands neither of us can focus on day 90 as 1,000,000 still seems so long away. By setting little targets within the challenge, we will get there. As for weight loss, Nick has lost 2lbs and Stu has lost 11lbs since the start of the year. Check out our update next week as we reach the end of January and 1/3rd of the way through. Minimum target for the end of January is 350,000 as we have a number of late finishes in February which will make the challenge more testing.