Blog for March 2012 miles in 2012

March...started to concentrate the 10km a day into training for the Boston Rowing Marathon which is happening on April 1st this year; it was re-scheduled from last September when it had to be cancelled due to too much weed. It is a distance of 50km (32 miles). The race starts from Lincoln Rowing Club and finishes at Boston Rowing Club. I have done it once before in a 4+, but this year we are going to do it in a coastal pair...which should be fun. We should go straight into the records as there is no record in that category yet. We have managed to borrow a boat for the race and are very grateful to Herne Bay Rowing Club for the coastal pair.

So instead of my usual interval training for the 10k's I have been concentrating on long distance power. This seems to have paid off as the marathon I did on the erg half way through the month was much easier and 20 mins quicker than the last one at just under 3 hrs.

Half way through the month and I was still on target to achieve my goal of rowing 1 million metres this season...but disaster struck as I was really ill for 4/5 days (all thanks to my lovely wife for passing on her bugs...!!!) so this was a major setback to this goal and to my challenge, as I had been 70 miles up on my target for the year.

Also this month I have done some proper rowing and have done two races at Maidstone Head in a mixed 4+ and men's masters C 4+. Didn't do too badly considering the amount of time we have been out in both crews.

Have been participating in the Concept2 March Madness Challenge this month which is to row 10km on the erg for 25 days or more even with being ill this month I should just squeak this.

Took part rather un-expectantly in the Sport Relief Mile one Friday evening as we went with some friends from our rowing club to go bowling and after a couple of games and a few beers we noticed that the YMCA were raising money by getting people to row a mile on an erg. So the 3 girls did a mile between 3, Leo and I split it between us and ex Captain Neil did it all on his own. We did rather surprise them with our times as they hadn't had any rowers there that evening.

Went as a guest of a friend to a proper gym a few days ago instead of our rather poor rowing club gym. Have now found muscles that I never knew existed and I couldn't move my arms or stomach for 2 days after...cheers Neil.

Had one last outing in our coastal before our race on Sunday with a fairly leisurely 5 km up river then with a flying race piece back. Did about 18.30 minutes not too bad for a coastal pair we thought.

But the biggest news this month is that I have broken the 500 miles barrier for the year so a quarter of the way there. Have stopped rowing for a few days in the run up to our race this Sunday. So that is it for this month...but will be back on the case next Tuesday 3rd April. To date I have rowed 826,487 metres (513 miles) and that is still 40 miles ahead of schedule.

Don't forget that this is all for the Meningitis Trust and you can sponsor me at...

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/DarrenSimmons

Cheers

Darren