Sportsbackgrounds

[[old] hjs]

John Rup:<br /><br />Age 31.<br /><br />I played baseball to age 14 but have disliked it since then.<br /><br />Then I went out for track and ran the 880 and mile. There was nothing longer at that time. I ran my first marathon around a dirt track by myself at age 19 in 3:28:56. Then I got out of shape for a few years and ran a 440 in 51.7. In my mid 20's I did Olympic Weightlifting for 2 years and didn't run for 5 years. Then I went to a track one day and ran an 880 time trial. Expecting to run around 2 minutes, I was disappointed so stopped lifting weights and started running again. It took me a few years to keep getting back my speed and endurance.<br /><br />Mostly since then I have been just doing running for athletics, and more recently on the rowing machine.<br /><br />How about you? <br /><br /><br />Hoi John,<br /><br />In my early teens I did horseriding for a few years. Including competitions. I stopped around 15.<br /><br />After that I started track and field for a few years, not 1 specific event, mostly sprint, jump and trow events. I stopped this during my military service for 2 years (18/20). Those years I was is the worst shape of my life. I didn't do much at all. <br />After that it took me a wile before I started again with t & f.<br />When I did I began with the trowing events. Discus/shotput. Later on I did more and more and started to do decatlon for a few years. On the age of 26 I injured a knee during a basketballplay. I needed surgery and didn,t recover completely. After that I specialised in shotput. I reaced around 15 m at best. At that point my back gave in, the heavy strengttraining was to much. As a boy at the age of 12 I broke my back and that old injuree played up again. I had to stop track and field completely at the age of 28. <br /><br />In the years following I tried to fitness and keep fit a bit. In the gym they had a little erg competion. One day I tried a 2 k and pulled 6.39, not bad compared to the others who coulded do that. I began to train 3/4 times a week and improved that year to 6.14 and 8700 m on the 30 min and also 2.56 on 1 k. But my back was still not ok and bottering me and so I stopped again after 2 seasons. <br /><br />After a few years I decided to trie an operation to fix my back. This was not a great succes , i shoulded have don that.<br /><br />Now this is 4 years ago, I still fitnessed trying to stay fit, doing not much else, only a bit of cycling. 3 months ago my back was feeling quit ok so I tried a 2 k again for fun. I pulled a 6.55, I decided to try erging again with no real goal but just for a bit of fun. It went ok so I said to myself try to row 6.30/35 this season and If your back holds out maybe you could compete next year.<br /><br />At the moment it is going alright, even better than expected , but I don't make plans I just try to improve and don't mess up my back. I row 5/6 times a week. around 50k a week.

[[old] John Rupp]

Hjs,<br /><br />Thanks for sharing.<br /><br />Keep up your great rowing, and no injuries. <br />