7,000m Row

Well, on Saturday I decided that my poor performance in my last work out needed to be put to rest- so I cranked out 7,000m on the rowing machine. As 5,000 was the most I’ve done until now I set the resistance down from my usual 10 to 6, figuring that the longer distance would make up for the ‘easier’ setting. Big mistake. I was rowing more strokes per minute at level 6 but going slower than I normally do on 10- and to make matters worse, it felt harder. By the time I was 2,000m into the workout I’d had enough and flicked it back up to level 10. Straight away it felt better- I guess I’m just used to working at that level, slower pace but harder strokes. My speed went up immediately.

Between 5,000-6,000m I was really suffering, going purely on autopilot but I plodded on and picked up the pace a little in the last thousand metres. I felt totally drained by the end of it and my thighs were throbbing from the effort but it felt fantastic to have accomplished a new distance. My time wasn’t great- 32 minutes 04 seconds- but I was just happy to finish this time round. I’m going to try to do about three more rows at 7,000m before I attempt a 10,000m. My new plan (I seem to have a new plan every week!) is to have my week broken down into a 5,000m, a 2,000 and a 7,000m row. I had hoped to use my 2,000m rows to build up a little speed but for the next few weeks it’ll be a recovery workout in between the two longer distances- give my body some time to adapt to the increased workload. Although I’m pleased with the progress I’m making I’m very aware of the fact that my recovery is nowhere near what it was a few years ago. Time was, I could have trained five days a week with the weekend off to recover- not anymore. Jeeze, is this what it’s like to get older?