10 July 2008

Puff, puff, pant

Dang.

Couple weeks ago I decided I needed to start doing something physical again because I was feeling out of shape. Haven't been going to the gym (we let our memberships lapse) lately, and I spent most of my days sitting down. Cleaning and cooking and walking the dog would be my main physical activities. Not good.
So I've been rowing again. I bought that rowing machine a couple years ago, and it's a great machine and I like it, but I haven't been using it lately. So Friday I decided I'd start rowing every day. And Friday I almost died.
Then I left my shoes in Naples over the weekend so I didn't row early in the week. Today I sat down and made up a workout I figured I could actually handle to start doing every day: 150m at a stretch followed by a minute rest. 150 meters is like the distance to the mailbox or something, it's pathetic. I used to row 5000m at a time. Of course that was... damn, that was over a decade ago. Still.
So today I did 8 150m intervals (with a minute rest in between). That's only 1200m total. And along about interval number 6 I think I died. I swear! In fact I think I might still be dead. I managed to keep my pace down in the 1:40 range for a few of those intervals but by the last few I was struggling.
I can't believe that. That's awful. I'm going to have to be diligent about this for the next several weeks just so I don't embarrass myself.

2 comments:

Lucky Bob said...

Oh man i remember when you got BigMan and I to do that. He pulled like a diesel inboard and I pulled like a 2 cycle outboard. And you. You were like a friggin machine. Good luck on taking it up again. I'm still sticking to my gym schedule. I'll probably post something about it.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I'm down to once or twice a week at a 25 minute interval to see how far I can go. Still the diesel though. Average about 24-26 strokes per minute and something in the 5700 meter range for my overall distance.

It has definately been a struggle to get back into form where I was able to break the 6000's with regularity. but keeping the 500 meter average below 2:15 has been the main goal. Might have to look into a machine of my own at some point.

The current ass kicking has been at the hands of the elliptical machine. 33 minute "Weight Loss" workout that takes 500+ calories off isn't too shabby. That and I probably leave 3-4 pounds of sweat in my shirt.

Just glad to be somewhat active again. Good to hear you are too.