It's been another amazing month for the Fourbirdsaboating team and we are really relishing the challenge of learning to row now that our bottoms and hands are getting used to time spent on the rowing machine. Out of our team of four girls, only one had rowed before, so we knew we had a lot to learn in preparation for our 7000 mile row across the Pacific Ocean from California to Australia which takes place in under 440 days from now! Because we are an international team, we each have different access to rowing opportunities so we are working to a set programme topped up with individual training before coming together with our boat builder Charlie Pitcher (about to arrive in Barbados having broken the record for fastest Atlantic Ocean row!) to train on our boat as a team later this year.

For Brigid who is based in South Africa and living very far from the sea, this has meant rowing on a Concept2 at her local gym, with the occasional visit to row on actual water in real sunshine on a lake. In contrast, Michelle is in snowy Bradford under the careful watch of Bradford University rowing club, out each week in a river rowing boat and indoors on a Concept2 when the river is less inviting. Kate is the only one of our team with some rowing experience. She was the Captain of her club whilst at Chester University and is now working on her technique and fitness with the Royal Navy rowing club in Portsmouth around her other Royal Navy duties. Finally, Sarah is at Urban Fitness gym in her hometown of Henley-On-Thames training on a Concept2 machine and receiving coaching from Olympic Rower and Leander Club Captain Debbie Flood who has put a basic training programme together that all the girls are following (picture above). The four teachers are starting to get quite a bit of media coverage already and were this week interviewed by the Henley Standard and the Henley Herald about their row, so that was quite exciting. It's a strange thing to be getting interviews so early on when we all feel like we don't know anything as yet and haven't actually rowed across an ocean, but the publicity is great for generating interest in children and education and for raising funds for our supported charities and for empowering others to take on endurance challenges and to achieve their dreams.

The team are very pleased with how their training is progressing and now they have mastered the basic rowing technique and posture, are starting to increase their endurance, and building up their time on the Concept2 in preparation for 2 hour sessions of rowing whilst at sea on the actual row. The biggest challenge for now is building up the skin on their hands so they can avoid blisters, and making their rowing as efficient as possible so they don't waste energy if they can help it.

The physical training is a small part of the work involved at this stage in the ocean row as we are also busy raising funds to build our boat, giving presentations to schools, and meeting with potential sponsors. Part of the fundraising will likely involve numerous rowathons on the Concept2 so training will also feed into the fundraising aspect whilst increasing our tolerance for endurance.

The team have set up the challenge to train on the concept2 in their respective countries, rowing the equivalent of 11584800metres before May 2014, and hope that others will join them on their mission. You can follow their progress on their blog or visit Oceans Project Georgia on Facebook, or the fourbirdsaboating team on Facebook