Indoor rowing can be an enjoyable, pleasant way to build up your fitness level. That being said, quite a lot of people like putting themselves through the wringer. One oddly popular test is the one minute thrash, where people have a crack at seeing how many metres they can clock up in sixty seconds [see the Ward Evans Challenge article for how this skill can win you a new 'puter]. Whenever the Indoor Rowing News has a crack at this, we normally get to about the 100 metre mark before deciding to have a cup of tea instead. Which is why we were somewhat impressed when we heard about Apollo Perelini. Apollo (full name Apollo 11 Perelini. Seriously.) plays rugby for Sale Sharks alongside the likes of Jason Robinson and, as you might guess, is a big old boy. Giving it some almighty welly, he managed to cover 397 metres, which is some pretty good going. Not quite the best ever, although, because as far as we know, the highly unofficial world record is held by three times world indoor rowing champion Rob Waddell, who prior to last year's Olympics boshed out 435 metres. Crikey. If you do try this at full pelt, be warned, as you'll probably feel a bit doggo afterwards. A slightly milder variant was recently unearthed on the Concept 2 Message Board (http://www.therowingcompany.com/messageboard.htm) in a post by Aussie Steve Lydell: Here is something different for anyone out there who is looking for a new ergo challenge. We have a competition that has been on going for the last couple of years. It involves any competitor at the surf club (swimmers, runners, ski paddlers as well as boat rowers) and it usually occurs about two or three hours into a bar session. Whoever happens to be there at the specific time will head out to the gymnasium and commence the 'World 10 second ergo championship'. We'll set the damper to 10 and the countdown clock to 10 seconds, and with someone standing at the front of the ergo we will try to break the world record. The current record stands at 69 metres, and has been achieved twice. Once by a boat rower and once by a ski paddler. We have yet to break that elusive 70 metre barrier, but with a core group of regulars consistently scoring 68 metres I can almost smell a new record.