I bought a Concept 2 rowing machine last year and although I didn’t use it as much as I would have liked I did finally start using it regularly at the start of this summer. The initial goal was to use it as part of an exercise routine to lose the ‘lockdown weight’ that I had gathered (thanks mostly to take out and junk food).
My routine on the rowing machine started at 30 minutes and to cover 6000m. As the weeks went by the distance increased to 6400m then 6600m and in my mind I started about whether 7000m would be possible. That is 1167 metres every five minutes. Initially it seemed like an impossible task, especially as the last five minutes was getting incredibly difficult to keep up a good pace.
As time went on through the summer I achieved a couple of personal best of 6945m and 6974m. Getting to within 36 metres was particularly disappointing, it was literally 6 seconds or a few strokes away from getting to the 7000m. Still undeterred I kept rowing and finally yesterday I managed 7009m in 30 minutes. To say I wa happy and totally exhausted was an understatement.
I have been trying to figure out what I have changed hat finally allowed me to get to this point, I noticed that on days that I didn’t have Huel for breakfast and some Icelandic Skyr for lunch coincided with days where my energy was lower and my times slower, I usually row around 5 - 7pm. Since the nights are now dark early I have stopped going out and power walking along the canal as well which I have made up by doing a second row for 10 minutes at as fast a pace as I can go. It would appear that the second row is helping out.
It does bring me to a new question though, what should I set as a new target..
As an other note, Isey Skyr is real icelandic skyr, no fat and lots of protein, it is not the same as the Skyr that you might by see in your normal grocery stores, the difference is amzing.
A summer and part of Autumn worth rowing
