One Million Metre Rowing Challenge - Half Way

As we approach the half way mark, in both time gone and distance rowed, we have encountered 2 different problems this week. One a technical issue and the other a body change that could have potentially broken the challenge. Sunday 14th February, sees us reach the 1/2 way point in our quest to row 1,000,000 metres in 90 days. Thankfully we are on target and should pass 500,000 metres on Sunday. If all goes to plan we shall have less than 490,000 to go for the 2nd half of the challenge. Now the problems we have encountered. I have always had good flexibility and was always proud that at 50 years of age i could still place the palms of my hands flat on the ground, with legs straight and feet should width apart. Try it, how flexible are you? Something that used to amaze me as a football, rugby and then cricket coach, was how poor the flexibility of young players was. Many couldn't touch their knees let alone their toes but, we were able to improve this with most players, after introducing core stability and stretch exercises. My issue now though was how i was struggling to put my socks on in the morning. Either my feet were getting further away or my flexibility had diminished since Christmas. I was also getting pain in my lower back and shooting pains down my leg somewhat similar to sciatic pain. I consulted a fitness expert from Honest Changes and they pointed out the repetitiveness of rowing was more than likely causing my issues, as my hamstrings were not being stretched and were actually being encouraged to shorten. On the forward stroke my hamstrings were at their shortest and on the full stroke they were at their longest but, they were not being extended or stretched. When trying to touch your toes or attempting to put your socks on, you will need to extend your hamstrings and after 6 weeks of rowing, i have already lost the ability to do this. So, i am now on a strict routine of stretches which includes at least 5 minutes of hamstring work per day, which should give me full flexibility and enable to put my own socks on again. This took me by surprise, to lose the range of movement i had so quickly and i wondered if we focus on this simple ability often enough. Surely children should be encouraged more at a young age to become more flexible and to maintain this through the ages into our twilight years. If you coach any sport try to test your young players to see how flexible they are and work out a simple program to improve their range. Try the sit and reach test to measure the range they have. The issue that affected Nick this was was more technical and the inability to upload his rows tot he Concept2 Logbook website. There does seem to be the occasional glitch when attempting to upload but for Nick this was too much this week. After 6 attempts Monday, 8 on Tuesday and 10 on Thursday, he was close to throwing the computer out of the window. Finally though, he was able to upload on the 2nd attempt on Friday morning and can now concentrate on rowing again. We look forward to Concept2 putting in place a software update to remove these glitches which are becoming more frequent. Finally, this week we saw the 1st of the solo rowers complete their Talisker Atlantic Challenge, as Stuart Connacher in his boat Facing It, arrived in Antigua after rowing for 53 days and 16 minutes. An unbelievable effort as he managed to beat many other boats with 2 or 4 man/lady crews. Still battling away is our friend Steve Murphy, in Atlantic Challenge. He has 993.4 nautical miles to go and is currently rowing around 50 nm per day so, is scheduled to arrive in approximately 20 days time at the beginning of March. If you are looking to improve your range of movement and flexibility, you may find some of our training equipment useful, especially the ladders and hurdles.