10,000m Row

Yesterday I got mad at myself for missing a session this week and for doing too little work- so I decided to do a 10,000m row. So far 7,000m is the most I’ve done and I was a bit apprehensive about the Ten- especially considering how wiped out I was after the Seven. But I’ve spent the past couple of weeks watching athletes at the peak of fitness in the Olympics and it inspired me to make more of an effort. Knowing how taxing long rows are I took a single precaution- and bought some Viper drink mix from Maximuscle. It’s basically an energy drink designed to keep you hydrated but it also contains branched chain amino acids designed to keep you mentally focused. That sounds great but I haven’t the faintest idea how it might work!

Anyway, I mixed up the drink, climbed on the rower and started to work. Seeing as I had a fair distance to go I did my level best not to keep staring at the monitor tracking how far I still had to go. I put on the Chemical Brothers, turned it up loud and began to row, taking a deep drink roughly once per track. Viper is the most amazing supplement I have ever used. IT IS AMAZING. Coming up on 2,000m (my first look at the monitor) I was starting to sweat a lot and that’s when the Viper first came into its own. Normally I tend not to drink much when I row but the Viper really did make me feel more hydrated, no dry mouth at all. That’s one plus.

As the row went on and I continued to drink the Viper I felt a lot better than I usually do- better than when I started rowing! This stuff really kept me mentally focused, I felt a lot sharper and better able to concentrate than ever before when rowing. The next time I glanced down at the monitor I had 3,700m to go- and I felt really good. In fact I was able to track my progress on the monitor for the last 1,500m and to keep working at a fair clip the whole time- even managing to get my time/500m down to 1minute 59seconds for the last couple hundred metres. My overall time was 45 minutes and 52 seconds. Not fast but great compared to my 7,000m row. What’s even more spectacular was that I felt great when I was done, I still had some energy and was in excellent mood. It’s all down to the Viper. On my 7,000m row I was totally spent towards the end, unable to keep my speed constant or to even try to surge towards the end. After that I was exhausted, really done in. Not so with the Viper- this stuff rocks. What’s even more amazing is that it’s IOC legal so if you perform in a drug tested event, you can still fill up on this stuff. For any kind of endurance event, or even a long session in the gym, I’d definitely recommend this drink. Any readers of this blog will know that I’m a big fan of Maximuscle, but they’ve really outdone themselves this time. An absolutely outstanding product, far better than any energy drink I’ve yet tried. 10 out of 10 for this. Try it and see if it helps.