Holiday Challenge - How Do You Do It?

[[old] Tom_Pinckney]

For those of us that are new to rowing, I feel this is a great idea, especially considering the (possible) weight gains many people have during the holidays. For a newby like me, it is not that difficult, but does make rowing a part of my life & gives me an immediate goal. <br><br>The main reason many of us purchase an indoor rower is to lose weight with a min. amount of stress on our bodies. With numerous injuries (I have back, neck & knee injuries sustained on the job as a police officer) I find the challenges a great way to "push" me a little further than I'm used to without much stress on my injured body parts. Of course my butt hurts after sitting on the seat (yes, I have a pad added) after sitting on it for an hour or so!!! <br><br>Recently, I went on a 10 day cruise. Luckily, the gym on the ship had two C2 ergometers. I rowed everyday on the cruise. As a newby (I am 59 yrs. old) longer rows are much easier for me to keep up the pace to burn calories to counteract the "all you can eat meals" that were available 24 hours a day. In 10 days, I gained no weight. <br><br>Yep, the intervals are probably better for getting in shape. However, sometimes one must get in shape to do them first!! The challenges are a great way to do that.

[[old] alandarkdale]

As a newbie rower this Holiday Challenge has motivated me to step workouts up a bit. Last school year was spent with a total of 20 weeks of casts/crutches and walking boots due to two foot surgeries. That brought physical fitness to a new low for me. In August I was able to start to run but the pounding isn't good. Erging is so smooth that I can do 45 minutes instead of 20 or so on the road. <br><br>The 45 minutes/day 4 or 5 days a week schedule seems a good challenge for right now. Maybe next year I will consider this to be "junk mileage", right now it seems to be plenty hard enough. I'm averaging around 2:13/500m for 45 minutes. Monday's half marathon was 2:20/500. It was my first ever so I was more concerned with pacing than overall time.

[[old] MKC]

I'm doing a 10k each day for 5-6 days a week, using my training plan as a base and finishing out with additional " Challange" meters to get to the 200K. Since I'm out of town for 5 days this and next week and was sick the first 4 days of the challange, I had to schedule out my rows to insure I would make it....almost there!<br>Happy Holidays everyone!<br>MKC