An Update on Training

Giving my house a gym makeover

It was during the Easter break I decided to head down to my newly refurbished local gym. I got given the tour and it all looked pristine with swanky new gym equipment, including rowing machines of course! Sadly at the end when I heard the price I knew that, unless I wanted to be living off beans and toast for the entirety of living out next year, I couldn't afford the subscription fee. So I started looking on my favourite website eBay for an ergo.

A couple of weeks later I had picked up a Concept 2 rowing machine for a very reasonable price. Much to my mother's 'delight' it is now sitting smack bang in the middle of our dining room. My training camp for the summer is set up. 

After 3 weeks of nothing in Durham (mainly drinking) I knew that my fitness will have taken a knock. So the past 2 weeks have been spent getting back up to speed. I have aimed to do 30:00 minutes a day with a few longer pieces here and there. Getting back into a routine with the training and also working a full-time job has really helped me get back to a good fitness level. However, I know I have a mountain to climb in training for the full 24 hours! 

It is fantastic to see some sponsors already starting to roll in and hopefully I can announce some exciting plans that are in the pipeline.

I am looking forward to a family holiday in the South of France for the next 2 weeks where I shall be carrying out much more running...

Cumulative total: 94,012m 2:10/500m (avg)

Watch this space for more updates!

An Introduction

A little bit about myself and the project.

I'll quickly introduce myself - my name is Tom Fox and I have just completed my first undergraduate year reading Chemistry at Durham University. 

Before Durham, without fail, I would watch the Oxbridge boat race in admiration. Being 6ft 3, I knew that as soon as I joined university I would 'give it a go' and sign up for rowing. As a collegiate university I discovered that I would be able to balance the demands of both rowing and my course by joining my college team, Grey College Boat Club (GCBC). Looking back on my first year I can say that it was one of the best decisions I have made. 

I have always had a determined and ambitious nature and rowing fuelled these attributes further. For the first two terms our training consisted of two water sessions (rowing in a boat on the River Wear), an ergo session (rowing lingo for a rowing machine), and circuits (performing various muscle fitness exercises, e.g. squats). On top of this I would carry out additional personal training on an ergo as I found myself almost subconsciously striving to achieve improve.

We competed in regional regattas during our final term. When competing at York, one of the seats in the boat broke, resulting in a loss by only a canvas (the length between the end of the boat and the first man). At Hexham regatta, our crew borrowed a boat that was in a far greater condition, and as a result, reached the semi-finals - including a three-length victory against the same crew we raced at York. The training had paid off but the condition of our own boat had withheld our potential (despite the fact our training sessions are often slowed down or cancelled due to boats having to be repaired – the club often jokes our boats are made of duct tape!).

It was from this result - and a couple of pints in the college bar - that got me thinking. How could I raise money for the club to purchase a new boat?

A new boat for a crew of eight does not come cheap, costing north of £15,000. With this in mind, I set out to raise a target of £10,000. Such an ambitious goal required an equally ambitious challenge, and therefore I decided to undertake the 24 hour rowing challenge. The challenge requirement is to row on an ergo every hour for 24 hours (with breaks for meals and toilet trips of course!). This is why I set a minimum distance of 200,000m. To a casual observer, a rowing machine may look deceptively easy. However, rowing is a demanding exercise, it has been shown to use up to 85% of the body’s musculature. Rowing the equivalent distance of Durham to Glasgow will be incredibly challenging both physically and mentally.

This year as part of GCBC I have found myself a part of not just a sports club but a wide, loving family. Joining the club allowed me to get to know people who shared the same passion and interests both in and out of rowing. My hope is that, if this project is successful, I can help bring the same fantastic experience to current and future members as I had.

Tom