Control the controllable - HM r22 HRR 75% ish....

Well life has thrown another swerve ball at me last week - unable to say what exactly for a week or so but lets just say it's another life changing event - so two things I can do - curl up and cry or stand up and try and take that one step at a time - as this month is Movember and as I have signed up to ROWvember  set up by Cameron Nichol

Globally, the rate of suicide is alarmingly high, particularly in men. Too many men are ‘toughing it out’, keeping their feelings to themselves and struggling in silence. The Movember Foundation is aiming to reduce the rate of male suicide by 25% by 2030, and I want to help them get there. Help me stop men dying too young.

 so with that in mind and the upcoming "Crazy Bear" challenge of rowing a HM which is

As usual the challenge is to row or ski 30 Half Marathons in 44 days on either a Concept2 rowing machine or ski-erg. Starting 10th November at 00:05 running through till Finishing 24th December at 23:55 Start & finish times will run in accordance with your own Time Zone

I decided to have a try at a HM to see where I am - the back got the OK to go last Thursday and on Friday I did two 20 minute pieces with no ill effects so at least that's one thing going the right way....

Also I took in my PM5 to the gym which meant I could hook up my HR to the screen as well as the Fenix watch :o)

Rowvember - can you taste blood....

Yesterday’s meters - 30r20 75% 40r20 70%

Today rowvember had a message this morning asking me if I'd seen it and would be rowing it - I had seen it but wasn't planning in doing it - I had a free t-shirt dangled in my face and that was it - 5k race warm up and set myself a target of sub 1:25 – I’d rowed 707m (1:24.8) on the 7th May (2min controlled pop ctc) which I spotted so that seemed a reasonable target … don’t say it …. (I just discovered in May on the 29th I pulled 716m 1:23.7 c2ctc 2min glad I hadn’t seen that earlier)

Set off hard and the usual story after about 30 seconds of feeling on top of the world the “ache” in the thighs started still I told myself and actually believed it – that the pain/ache wouldn’t increase at the same level. Also reminded myself of the pain I was in pre operation and this was a tickle in comparison. So dug in and managed to stick to the plan ending with 706m – and a very strong taste of blood in my mouth with the feeling of wanting to be sick lol – hope the t-shirt is worth it! Might go again though – that was fun … not!