Jeepers. How on earth do you manage it?
I did my longest ever row today at 30 minutes 5716m.
It's so dull!
I'm taking the training very seriously and tbh, it's appalling how little fitness/strength I have for anything but mashing big gears on a bike.
O well. Onwards and upwards.
On the dullness thing, I listen to music to make it less tedious. A 5000m distance is a bit more manageable and the reward is the time taken reduces as you improve.
You’re probably over-using your arms and rowing at too high a stroke rate, just like everyone else who has posted similar messages over the past couple of years.
I’ve not been on a rowing machine for ages, just too many other things going on. I’ve only had time for five days at work in the past month…
5000m is just under 25 minutes for me.
I listen to music, but there's nothing to look at but the four walls. I get the same on the turbo- I just find it very dull.
My technique isn't that bad at all, (someone else has looked at it critically) I just have absolutely no upper body strength, what with being a very sedentary
gurl. I can only lift Chris's 7.5kg kettle thingies about half a dozen times.
When I first started I had fairly crippling DOMS in my shoulders, back and abdomen. I just have no muscle tone/ strength there at all. Rowing still gives me blisters/callouses on my hands and NO I'M NOT GRIPPING THE BAR TOO HARD (I don't 'grip' it at all, it just sits there) but there's an assumption of a basic level of fitness because I'm a cyclist. I'm a big fat soft bundle of lard- I don't have any other fitness, at all, just whopping great leg muscles.
Back when I did a proper job milking cows, I was a different shape, and would probably have made a better rower.
I'm working on the principle that yes, I am an embarrassingly shit rower, but it's burning calories, building muscle, and using somewhat different muscles from cycling, and that's kind of the point of cross training. It's not like I'm ever likely to join a rowing club, race anyone, or need to row my way out of trouble, is it?
I only want it to be less dull so I can keep motivated to keep doing it.