PraxisFitness

MizFit wrote on Friday about the Concept2 rower and  trying it again after many years of not using it.  I work in a gym with tons of cardio equipment: treadmills, ellipticals, stair climbers, stepmills, stationary bikes, recumbent bikes, striders… at least two dozen each for the treadmills and ellipticals.  Along with all this equipment, we have two older Concept2 rowers.  If you go to the Concept2 site, you’ll see they currently sell two models, with two different computers: PM3 and PM4.  I don’t know which model my gym’s rowers are, but the computer is PM2.  I’m sure the folks walking around the track seeing me flip the little computer all over were wondering what I was doing - but the label is not on the front!

So anyway, I agreed with MizFit about the difficulty of the rower, especially if you haven’t used it in a while; even the Concept2 site recommends starting out with only 3 to 5 minutes of rowing!  I’d been doing 5 minutes here and there, mixing it in with other cardio, and still feeling the ankle burn (there’s a lot of ankle flexion involved) and the grip fatigue… well, after Miz’s post, I went to the Concept2 website and noticed they are hosting a challenge: “5000 meters a day keeps March madness at bay!”

Basically, the goal is to row 5000 meters a day for at least 25 days during the month of March. I couldn’t get to the gym Sunday, but I did create myself and online logbook at Concept2, and comitted to doing the challenge.  Five minutes after I decided I started thinking about 5000 meters… and wondering just how long that would take me.  I had just been doing the 5 minutes, and not bothering to turn on the computer on the rower. Those here-and-there 5 minutes are the most I’ve ever gone.

Today I challenged myself to do my entire half hour of cardio on the rower.  I’m sure I’ll be feeling it tomorrow because wow, it was tough!  On the other hand, it wasn’t as tough as I expected, and the meters added up fairly quickly.  Within 33 minutes I was able to get my first 5000 meters, and I’ve put the requisite sticker on my calendar (anyone else do that?  I know it’s so second grade… but it really helps me).

24 more days to go.  MizFit, if I complain it’s your fault… beat it out of me, LOL!