Amanda Miracle from Baltimore in the United States, has established the world endurance record for women for the longest continual row on a rowing machine: an impressive 25 hours in the saddle, covering a total distance of 170,425 meters. Afterwards Amanda, who sounds like she's spent time in an English public school, said, It was a long time! I was bully tired.The rules for solo endurance rowing allow for 10 minutes an hour to go to the bathroom or whatever. I had people hand me things like food. I had this pretty thorough schedule of things to eat and drink, she says. I alternated between water and sports drinks and Pedialyte and bananas, she says, trying to get a balance in the electrolytes in the water, and potassium. Pedialyte, an electrolyte maintenance solution, prevents dehydration in infants when they have diarrhoea. Athletes use it to retain fluids and the minerals they contain. And I ate a lot of white rice, she says. Because it's pretty easy on your stomach. While not as bad as, say, minestrone soup, rice is still a bit tricky to eat when rowing. Her helpers would hold a spoonful in front of her mouth. I was getting it all over the place. I would sort of attack it like a shark. The bananas were held out, and I would eat that in the same way. In December, she did a 100-kilometre row on the erg to train for her record attempt. That was my treat to myself after I finished my exams. That took, like, 12 hours. That's what taught me to [use] bubble wrap. I learnt that he who cannot sit down, cannot row for very long. I sat on bubble wrap, like the princess and the pea. A great load of it, with quilt batting on top of that. I wrapped the handles with quilt batting as well. As well as the primacy of bubble wrap, Amanda's picked up a couple of other workout tips along the way to her rowing record. 1. Join a club. There's a great deal of accountability in a team sport. If you say, 'I'm going to get up and I'm going to run three miles every day' and there's nobody there with you and nobody dependent on you, you're probably not going to do it. When I row and I don't show up, then a seat is empty. It's not so good to be in an eight with seven people. So people are depending on you to be there. 2. Find something you like that works well with your schedule. For me, I go early enough so that I can't argue myself out of it. And when I get it done, I have the whole rest of the day. So, it's not stuck in the middle of the day and I have to stop what I'm doing to work out. For more on Amanda's row (i.e. the original article we've cobbled this together from) go to http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/health/bal-hf.fitness25jul23,1,1417814.story