That was the weekend that was…..

It’s Monday evening and I have just completed two days off. No exercise, and a little bit of naughty food. The reason for a break in the routine is from 7pm Friday until 7pm Saturday I was involved in a 24hr rowing marathon. Small teams (7 in ours) took it in turns to stretch muscles on a concept 2 rowing machine to gain as much distance as possible. For us, the total was 313, 208m, between the four participating teams it was 1, 273, 137m and for me personally, I racked up 41, 799m in 3 hrs and 20 mins, spread out over 8 stints.  

The interesting thing for me was how my body reacted, the first couple of rows I was fiddling with my technique, different to what I had used in training and could not settle into a rhythm. For these I was running at 197m per minute, then at 430 in the morning when I wasn’t thinking about what I was doing, it upped to 212mpm. The most satisfactory thing for me though was the way things finished up, two twenty minute runs, late afternoon on the Saturday produced 217 mpm and 215, then the last and final row of the endurance event was ten minutes at a rate of 237mpm. One of the ways I judge my fitness in training is recovery time and it is quite gratifying to have an increase in output at the end of the session and comfort afterwards. Not too many aches, no overt tiredness and an almost euphoric feeling of energy towards the end.

 However. With Sunday and Monday lazy days behind me, I am now on a fitness plan to prep me for the Marathon training to start on the 1^st January. Weight loss, road time and all round fitness, to prepare my body for the intensity to come.

 Part 2 starts tomorrow.