Ok guys, it's competition time... As you know we are now branded as the Oar Raisers and have T-shirts for sale, If you buy a T-shirt from us we want you to take a photo of yourselves wearing it at a location of your choice... So far we have one picture from the lovely British seaside town of Wells-next-the-sea but there are photos to come from Ireland, Scotland, India, Thialand and Afghanistan!... There is a great priz for the best picture (judged by us) and there is also a boobie prize for the most boring or mundane...
So please please please send us your pics which we upload here and to a flikr stream - by doing this you are helping to promote us and our cause and help the charity, it's global social network advertising campaign with you guys driving it!... so as I always say "Get it Done!...
Ok that bit done, I also have to tell you that we survived our first long row on Sunday, We arrived at the gym at 7:30 am and set ourselves up for the day - side by side we waited patiently for the first shift to begin. At 8:00 am I began the first 2 hour slog, the longest either of has rowed continuosly. It was clear to me that I would have to keep a steady but realistic pace, concentrating on technique and making sure I wasn't exerting any unnecessary energy, with this in mind I manged to keep my thoughts active and push through the first few barries of pain, only to look up and realise I had another 1hour 40 minutes ahead!... as I kept my movement smooth and constant Tom and I talked and made sure of how we felt about this next 12 hours... A real help actually is talking to each other, no matter the subject even if at times we both had to talk drivel. Had we not I'm not sure i could have completed the row without dying from an overpowering sense of boredom.
Rowing on water is a gloriously exhilerating feeling and conjures all manner of thought trains but sitting in front of a mirror on an Ergo is quite the antithesis... So much so that we summoned a laptop and DVD's to get us through, delivered by the dutiful Abigail who also sat for sometime boosting our morale and making sure we had enough food. On a row that long we were burning in the region of 5000 calories and we are still supposed to be gaining weight, so as not to be eating at a defecit we literally devoured a whole chicken, one loaf of bread, one pack of cookies, four chicken breats wrapped in bacon, some chicken skeweres and two bowls of pasta with four fish cakes oh and a pack of beef jerky!... I was also lucky enough to come home to a massive roast beef dinner (thank you Abi).
This was a particularly hard training session both physically and mentally, post game I think we both felt quite drained and somewhat subdued. There was no nicer feeling than getting into a bath that evening, except of course the problem with getting into a bath is you adopt a certain mode of entry (I am sure this is standard for much of the bathing world) - using both arms on the sides of the bath you lower yourself feet first then legs fully submerged your rump slowly takes the strain and pressure from the arms as you lie back and drift off into warm comforting serenity. This is not as simple as all that for us, any amount of pressure on the backside, no matter how small, is just not an option. Sitting on the floor is no good, sitting up in bed in the middle of the night and yelping like a smacked puppy is a shameful occurance I think we will both have to learn to live with... walking is also not that easy. Surprisingly though cycling is a good option on the way to work Monday morning as I can stand up and just coast down the path with no real effort...
We have no sent out the invtes for our November black tie do, so if you have one please respond by the 8th of October as per your invitation. This week sees The Oar Raisers back on the river, doing their weight lifting session and ever so slightly sore...
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