Discussion: I thought you might

I also got off on the right foot, hitting the 5K on the first of the month. Not sure how long it will hold up. I haven't done the whole thing since 2013. Or really any of it, most years.

Congratulations for getting started so well. Don't think we've ever both attempted the March challenge during the same year. So another inducement to get up in the morning...knowing you too are going through the same routine! With no running races last season, trying to make 25 this month is my first physical challenge for a year! Good luck!

And BTW, pretty sweet your generator clicked on automatically at 2am. Do you have power outages often? After Texas' experience this winter, I'm pricing back-up batteries to run my heat and hot water in the event of widespread power loss. Hope your power comes on before your gas runs out!

This is a pretty substantial whole house generator and it does click on automatically. It’s a nice amenity, particularly as one gets older. It runs on propane, and we probably have enough for 3 or 4 more days if the power stays off. Rhonda was out this morning and saw some substantial trees across the lines, so nothing will happen until the tree guys get out to deal with them.

I guess you can check, but I would have thought we both did the March challenge in 2011. I had thought it was 2013, but I checked and that was wrong. Then I went through a period when I was gadding off to Europe every March for some orienteering, so no point in trying for it. Then last year, when I stayed home, I didn’t realize I was staying home until around March 8th or 10th. So I’ve had it in mind since then to do it again this year. Of course, I could set my own challenge parameters, but somehow that is not as interesting.

The other goal I can have, is that if I make it through the challenge I will surpass my highest yearly total since I have been logging meters. I had 343,211 in the 2013-14 season.

Well you must be a natural born rower....to put up the numbers you have, on such limited annual training!

And everytime I wonder about doing 25 days of this....I read articles about other guys, much older than us, who row 20-30 minutes every day!

https://www.concept2.com/news/100-years-old-and-st...

Congrats on your daily pieces so far.

Thanks. Can't get faster every day, and can't push too hard or I'll burn out long before 25 of these. I'm waiting for when 5,000 no longer feels endless. I know it's mostly psychological, but I remember feeling like once I got to 2500 the rest was "downhill". Now that doesn't happen until maybe the last minute.

I know what you mean. I find it helps me if I don't fixate on the distance. As a matter of fact, I close my eyes when I begin and focus on the BBC feed in my headphones. And when I finally open my eyes....I've rowed more than 2000m! Of course that doesn't result in particularly respectable times. But right now, I'm happy just doing the distance.

Just doing the distance is a very good goal. I consciously backed off this morning a bit. There is an accumulated fatigue to doing this every day and no point in pushing it. Still a long way to go. I remember in past years you doing this in 25 days straight, and there is a lot to like about that strategy, assuming one can keep it up. I think the last time I did it I was stuck having to do it every day for the last 6 days or so because of days off in between. A bit of a psychological burden. Anyway, then we can take a week off to recover, and then put a dent in some of our seasonal PRs in April. The extra distance should be helpful.

Yes, I did it in a straight 25 days last year. It was out of fear. Pandemic fear. We didn't know much about it at that point, didn't know how fast it would spread to us. I was living in a big city, was in the 'high-risk' group, no one was wearing a mask in stores or on transit...couldn't even BUY a mask! So I felt I could come down with the virus any day, and figured I wanted to get done as fast as possible!

Clicking right along, 10 days down so far. Around Monday I was feeling like this was going to be impossibly hard, but I'm starting to feel a little better with it. I see your times are coming down a bit, too. I too am an early riser, but you certainly have me beat. I come downstairs around 4-4:30 and drink some coffee, waste some time reading the NYT, and I see by at least 5 my time you have already done your day's nordic track and rowing. Sometimes I can get it in before 6, but mostly I have to spend a bit of time psyching myself up for it. Needing 5K each day, though, much better not to leave it until later in the day when other things might get in the way.