Poop Shute

Olympics The Sequel

I have been working in gyms in one way or another for about four years now. In all that time I have never used a rowing machine, because I just never worked at a gym that had one. And I don't mean the cable row weight lifting machine, I mean the cardio machine that simulates rowing a boat.

I love it.

Yesterday morning I was watching the coverage of the Men's Skulls rowing event, and for the first time I was actually interested. I felt like I had a stake in it. I have only been rowing for one week, so my endurance for it is still fairly low. I get to about eight minutes and I have to stop and take a breather.

Rather than trying to up my time, I've been upping my pace and making eight minutes my absolute ceiling, but trying to cover more and more ground in that time. So far my personal best is 1630 meters.

Yesterday I noticed the men were clocked at the 1500 meter mark, and the leader was at five minutes, fifteen seconds. Today I watched my time for that same distance marker, and it was six minutes, fifty one seconds.

My new goal in the gym is to cut one minute, thirty-five seconds off my 1500 meter rowing time. A lofty goal, I know. Considering that was the time of the leader of the final round of the olympics this year, I am aiming about as high as I can. Oh, and by the way, he was a half a boat-length ahead at the 1500 meter mark, but dropped all the way to bronze by the last 100 meters or so. I think we can do better than that.