Having once trained 6 days a week and competed at international level in athletics (javelin), I remembered how it felt to be strong, fit and competitive and I wanted some of that back. I went to the gym in August 2008 and made a start, a bit of weights here and a bit of cycling there but really just playing at it until I found the indoor rowing machine...
I had a quick go and found that I was fairly good at short powerful bursts so I challenged one of the fitness instructors to a 100m sprint. My first go was 16.6s, or an average pace of 1:23.0 - the time it would take over 500m. The instructor did 16.5s so I went again and did 16.0 as I don't like to lose!
I then wondered how good we were so did a Google search and found this:
Rob Smith - 100m World Record
I quickly discovered that the Concept2 indoor rowing machine is a popular piece of equipment used all around the world on which performance can be directly measured against other machines. The times it produces come directly from your power output. Therefore, someone in New Zealand can race against someone from Canada and their times be directly compared to each other. Fantastic!
I then found that there is an online ranking tool and online communities where 'rowers' can discuss technique, training, competition and just about anything else making it a very sociable community where people are very supportive of each other whilst remaining competitive (to their varying degrees of competitiveness!).
Concept2 UK
I joined a virtual team - the Forum Flyers. We have members from all round the world - UK, Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Holland, Germany, etc. Each month we compete in a monthly challenge against other virtual teams. The challenge changes every month, sometimes long distance, sometimes a sprint, sometimes interval work which makes it fun and interesting. In the picture, we have Rick, Georgina, Shirley, me, Kris, Debbie and Chris. Rick travelled over from the USA and Shirley came all the way from New Zealand for this competition!Going back to when I started, the first Challenge I took part in was a 500m sprint in August 2008. Although it is a sprint, times range from around 1:14 (world record standard) to 2:00 plus for beginners, children and elderly. My time was 1 min 29.2 secs. This put me 85th out of 447 entries - not bad for a first go!
CTC - Cross-Team Challenge
From then on, I got more and more into it. For the first few months I didn't really know what I was doing, just having a go here and there and having fun.
I entered the Welsh Championships in Cardiff, December 2008 (open to all nationalities) to have a go. How nervous was I???? A middle aged baldy bloke competing at a national level - what are you thinking you madman?! As it turned out, there were people of all standards there, and it became evident very quickly that no matter what your standard, everyone was welcome to compete and try to beat their own best times.
In my race the World Record holder, Rob Smith, was aiming to beat his previous World Record of 1:15.9 and there was a charity sweepstake set up for the crowds to guess his winning time. He raised over £100 and smashed his world record with a time of 1:14.4. I didn't get to watch him as I was racing, but I did see his virtual 'boat' on the projector screen up front. Each machine is hooked up to a central computer which records times and projects the race onto the screen for people to see what's happening. I saw that there were two boats pulling away from the rest in the first 100m - Rob's boat, and MINE! "Hey - this is easy" I thought, and carried on going as fast as I could. It turns out this was not the best strategy as you can see here:
500m Welsh Championships 2008 Video - Graham Lay
I died badly in the last 150m and had absolutely nothing left. So - time to learn. It's all about pacing. Go too fast and you blow up (at whatever distance), go too slow and you are too slow! You have to know your optimum pacing strategy and be disciplined enough to stick to it.
February 2009 - English Championships in Manchester. By now I had done more training (including my first 30 minute piece of 7222m) and learned more about my pacing. I thought I could get under 1:25 so I planned to go at around 1:23 - 1:24 pace for as long as possible and see what happened. My final time was 1:23.5 and I won Silver (yippee!), mainly due to the race strategy and discipline of sticking to it.
500m Silver - English Championships 2009, Manchester - Graham Lay
Since then, I've competed over 5000m (19m 11s) and 1 minute sprint (380m) at Farnborough, the Mile at Evesham (5:18.6 - 1:39.0 pace) and recently my biggest competition the BIRC, British Indoor Rowing Championships at Birmingham over 2000m (6:38.9 - 1:39.7 pace) coming 12th in my category out of 26 entrants.
It was amazing to meet all my friends there, including a couple of World Record Holders and meet Steve Backley (former javelin world record holder and 3 time Olympic medallist) for a chat before my race. The cameradery between everyone was superb.
The biggest challenge I undertook this year was to row a Marathon for my chosen charity, the Blue Cross. That is 42, 195m sitting on the indoor rowing machine. I did it in September in 3 hours 8 mins and 16 seconds. That was very hard, but with determination it was certainly possible. The kind people who donated raised over £500, thank you.
End of Marathon
I think back
to when I started and smile when I remember the first 100m sprint I did, and then the Marathon in September after 1 year of training. I've lost 3 stone in weight and my blood pressure is totally normal again after finding out in March it was very high.What's great for me is that because it is so measurable, you can set yourself very specific targets. I've achieved two of my goals for 2009 (under 45 secs for 300m, under 7 mins for 2000m) and still have two to tick off my list (under 1:20 for 500m, under 3 mins for 1000m) and am close to beating those targets before Christmas. I'm looking forward to setting new targets for next year and working hard to get to where I want to be. I currently train after work 5-6 times per week, whether it's short interval work, longer cardio work or weights to build strength.
My current PBs (Personal Best Times):
100m - 14.1s
300m - 44.6s
500m - 1:19.9
1000m - 3:01.4
1609m - 5:14.9
2000m - 6:32.8
5000m - 17:54.7
6000m - 21:47.4
30 mins - 8158m
10000m - 37:25.4
60 mins - 15806m
Half Marathon - 1:22:25.0
Full Marathon - 2:59:36.8
My favourite Performance so far:
Me racing against the 100m World Record Holder, Rob Smith in Basingstoke 2010. Rob did it in 13.8s, I did it in 14.9s so a full second and a full stroke behind (although I matched his stroke rate I couldn't match his power!)
English Championships 2010 - Manchester
I went back to 'defend' my silver and go for gold last week. I'm in much better shape and was dubbed favourite before the race which put even more pressure on. My closest rival was Sergey Suvorov who had posted a time of 1:21.4 prior to the event, my best being 1:20.6. When we set off, I pushed far too hard for the first 25 seconds in order to get the average speed down where I wanted it. I paid dearly for it after 60s and my legs just gave up! Lots of shouting form friends encouraged me to keep going but my power had well and truly gone. Managed to limp home for another Silver in 1:22.9. Faster than last year, but not my best race!
I'd recommend anyone having a go on the Concept2 indoor rowing machine, not only for the fitness and health gains you will make, but also for the sociable aspects within the online community and at competitions where you will meet people you have been talking to. It's a fantastic way to relieve stress and gives you a feel good factor, so try it - you won't be disappointed!
Here's a great tutorial on technique:
INDOOR ROWING GUIDE
Welsh Championships 2010
500m Open - Bronze with 1:22.9 behind Sergei Suvorov and Eugeni Trofimov
Open Relay - GOLD! Rowing with Jon Goodal, and the two Russian above.
English Championships 2011
500m 30-39 Heavyweight - Bronze with my first ever sub 1:20 clocking! 1:19.9 very happy
Open Relay - Gold - same team as in Cardiff for the Welsh Champs.
Medal Honours at National Competitions:
Gold
Open Relay - Welsh Champs 2010
Open Relay - English Champs 2011
(Senior Boys Javelin - English Schools Champs 1994)
Silver
30-39 Heavyweight 500m - English Champs 2009
30-39 Heavyweight 500m - Welsh Champs 2009
30-39 Heavyweight 500m - English Champs 2010
Bronze
Open 500m - Welsh Champs 2010
30-39 Heavyweight 500m - English Champs 2011
(U17 Javelin - English Schools Champs 1992)
(U17 Javelin - British Schools International 1992)PB Progression
You can follow progress on non-smoking, or recommend friends to join our friendly "Stop-Smoking-Together" community here:
STOP SMOKING TOGETHER
My weight-loss story - including 14.5lbs in 6 days and 47lbs in 9 months is here;
LOSE WEIGHT TOGETHER
My general waffling is here:
Twitter - @Graham_Lay
PLEASE CLICK A POLL BUTTON BELOW IF YOU FOUND THIS FUNNY INTERESTING OR USEFUL, THANK YOU!
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