What I Learned Rowing 200,000 Meters

Back in November, I came across a holiday rowing challenge hosted by Concept2. Row 200,000 meters from Thanksgiving day to Christmas Eve. This is what I learned rowing 200,000 meters.

What I Learned Rowing 200,000 Meters

I’ve had my Concept2 Rower since Mother’s Day of 2019 and I have enjoyed rowing on it from time to time, or when it called for it in a CrossFit workout. Occasionally, and rarely, rowing 10,000 meters just to say I did it.

But a typical row might consist of something like 400 meters x 3 – it would be included in a CrossFit workout. Something like this:

3 Rounds for Time of - 
10 Power cleans, 90#
20 Sit-ups
30 Air squats
400 meter row

That’s a total of 1200 meters. And the workouts may or may not include rowing. I didn’t row every single day.

So when this Concept2 Holiday Rowing Challenge presented itself, I thought why not. I’ll give it a try. They listed two options to choose from – 100,000 meters or 200,000 meters from November 26 – December 24 2020.

I selected the 200,000 meters. And it terrified me because of the reasons I listed above; lack of rowing long distances on a consistent basis.

But then I picked the charity, one of about five charities for this particular challenge. A Most Beautiful Thing. I blogged about it HERE.

Now that the challenge is over and I actually completed it, surpassed it, with 215, 921 meters in 25 of the 29 days allotted, I thought I would share what I learned by rowing 200,000 meters.

You can also find it on my More ReMarks podcast.

The body can do more than the mind thinks it can.
I CAN finish something.
Improved rowing form and techniques.
Gave me something positive to focus on.
A good form of prayer and meditation.
It is peaceful and healing.
I learned about the first black high school rowing team.
…”when children are repeatedly hit by environmental stress, their brains don’t have a chance to recover, meaning that permanent damage to their brain structure and function can take place.” ~ from A Most Beautiful Thing website.
….”one of the most effective ways not only to heal the brain, but also to aid in its development, is through patterned, repetitive, and rhythmic-based activities such as dance, yoga, and rowing. ” ~ also from A Most Beautiful Thing resource page.

That last bullet point kind of woke me up a little bit. It makes sense why I have taken to rowing and why I like it, finding it peaceful and fulfilling.

I learned how to row correctly. Man, I was totally wrecking my rowing before.

Two YouTube channels helped me tremendously.

Dark Horse Rowing and Training Tall showed me how to row properly to improve time and stamina not to mention healing my physical ailments.

Now that the Holiday Challenge is over I am on a new one for the New Year. It is also from Concept2 (they have a challenge every month) and January’s challenge is appropriately called January’s Revolution.

Again, they gave choices but no charity attached to this one. And of course, I had to pick the toughest one – to row 20,000 CALORIES in the month of January. It is called The Big Burn.

Rowing calories is totally different from rowing meters. I mean you still row the same but the time and distance is totally different. I’ll get into that in a future post.

Go watch A Most Beautiful Thing documentary. It is jaw-dropping and amazing. I loved it. I am glad I picked them as my inspiration to row 200,000 meters.

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And thanks for reading.