Blog for July.

For this month I have a different focus in mind...as I am gearing up for my 100km row. To this end I have been concentrating on doing longer rows. This is good in two respects, firstly it gets me used to sitting on the ergo for long periods of time and secondly it gives me more days off. As I am doing 2 or 3 days rowing in one session.

Also this month I have been really focussing on technique and the Concept2 technique videos are really good for making you focus on proper technique, which in turn saves you from injury, but also improves splits etc.

Whilst we are talking technique, then drag factor is a big part of rowing on an ergo, a point made to me this month. I hadn't checked the drag factor on the erg that Concept2 lent me for this challenge, until the end of this month. I am used to doing it at our rowing club but never thought about it at home. I checked it out and found that the drag on my home machine was way higher than the club machines. For normal rowing I set the erg to 125-130 but found my home machine was 168 at the same damper setting, so I have now rectified this, I thought I was just feeling a little weak every morning at 6am - so a lesson learnt there.

Another little motivation tool this month from Concept2 is the "Rowlmpics", one basically has to row for 5-10 or 15 hours and log them in your online logbook to obtain a "bronze, silver or gold medal" from the 27th July to the 12th August, I am on track at the moment for a gold!

One big bit of news for this month is the passing of the 2million metre mark, 1243 miles -which again is a great psychological barrier to pass, only 1,238,000 metres to go now. This is the last month that I will be posting my mileage as the competition to guess the day I will finish is going to go into the international rowing magazine soon, so don't want to give too much away as we come to the end. Have got some good prizes for this competition from my supporters. More details to come later.

So stats for this month - 2,031,566 metres completed / 1262 miles - that's 305,000 metres this month.

It has been easier towards the end of this month to do long rows as the Olympic regatta had started so I just sat on the ergo and watched some fantastic rowing and I was inspired to do my bonus round for the challenge series of 2112 metres between 16,000 and 18,000 metres of a 27,000 metre row on the opening day.

As always a big thank you to all my supporters and sponsors, you can sponsor me at http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/DarrenSimmons

Cheers

Darren