Grey College Boat Club - 24 Hour Rowing Challenge

Upping the Distance

(and discovering the challenges it brings)

After coming back from holiday; the last week has been spent cranking up the training on the erg which has ultimately cumulated to completing two half-marathons this weekend. These, so far, are the longest single distances I have rowed at an hour and a half a piece. I was really pleased to be able to finish the 21.1 km with a split much better than I anticipated for my first attempt. This gives me a lot more confidence in my endurance ability to complete a full marathon piece in the coming week. On the actual day I am aiming to do an initial marathon piece to get a large chunk of the 200 km target done and this will allow me to reduce my split later in the evening.

White t-shirt social truth. Gutted.

Whilst I was pleased with the pieces I have done, I discovered a number of challenges that I face. Firstly, blisters. My hands, unfortunately, lack this ability to toughen up and once again I have found myself with the usual blisters on my palm. If this wasn't bad enough, I have ended up with blisters on both the end of my index finger and thumb from gripping the erg handle. Ah! The second problem is being able to easily take on board water without having to stop rowing - something that I have found is just not possible with a conventional water bottle.

There has been some exciting progress on the promotion side of the challenge too. A GCBC alumnus, Michael Cannon, is providing excellent advice and is aiding myself in reaching out to the GCBC and Grey College alumni community. (I must also thank him for donating generously to the campaign). Not only do I hope this will increase the awareness of the challenge but also establish a more long term partnership between current and former members of the club. Exciting stuff in progress!

I am very happy that £220 has been pledged so far and hopefully this will continue to rise. Every penny counts.

Now that things are once again back to normal I shall make sure to update a bit more regularly. Until the next update!

Training w/c 03/08/2015

Mon: 1:00:00 / 13935m / 2:09.1 / 17m/s

Tues: 2000m / 7:08.7 / 1.47.1 / 25m/s

Thurs: 50:00 / 11330m / 2:12.3 / 15m/s

Sat: 20000m / 1:29:11.3 / 2:13.7 / 16m/s

Sun: 21100m / 1:31:57.1 / 2:10.7 / 18m/s