Rest Day - The Joe Simpson 6344m Challenge :)

The November Challenge Series piece today - A torturous 6344m one-off piece.

Prior to this challenge Anita's best 6K time ever was 2:16.1 average (Actually faster than her 5k split), mine was 1:51.9.

Anita did a 10 min WU row beforehand, then this was what followed (Sped up to x64 speed)

Absolutely amazing!!! 27:39 (2:10.8 - 5.3s/500m better than her 6K PB!!!!, and 21s better than her targeted 28 minutes!!) The 572km rowing done since 3rd October on the Eddie Fletcher plan has really payed dividends already!!!

Then I stepped up (Or is that sat down :)) with the unenviable task of trying to match what Anita had just done. After a quick 5 min WU I got to it.

22:46.0 (1:47.6), 4.3s better than my 6K PB split (1:51.9) - Ecstatic isn't the word!!!! This is at a current 127kg as well (184cm, just over 6ft).

The rowing is really changing my body - I can for instance comfortably get into a UK Large T-Shirt now, yet I'm 19st 13lb!!! It would be very interesting to do a body-fat test now, as my vital stats are now far smaller than most people of my weight. I've always been a sporty type (Played county/area level at Soccer & cricket in my youth, as well as holding throwing records still) so I think I've always had the potential to do this, just needed a Concept2 and a training plan to do it, plus an amazing fiancee to train with :)

Anita (5"9') has an ideal build for a rower; tall with long, strong limbs, and this training is really bringing out the athlete in her, but she is seeing the same sort of changes I am (Not too much weight loss, but decent inch loss), and is easily a UK size 14 at 84kg!! Think we'll start cross-training after Christmas on the lead up to the 100km, and it will be interesting to see if we maintain weight on what is a very moderate calorie regime (1800 for Anita, about 3k for me)