The Regatta is On!

Motivation, for me, is often key in accomplishing fitness goals. Sure, there's the incredible health benefits of begin fit: you move more easily (from less weight and better oxygen use in your lungs); you hurt less (from less weight on your joints and stronger muscles); you're simply stronger; you sleep more soundly; you're motivated to eat in a more healthy manner; and, of course, you usually extend your life to do all of those things for even longer. After all, I want to be a "Great Aunt" one day! Shoot, maybe I can even make it to be a Great Grand Aunt. Now that's a good aunt! ;-)

And so, when my gym announced a new motivation for working out, of course I signed up! It's the 2008 Winter Rowing Regatta. To participate, we pay a small fee, and to qualify, you must row 50,000 meters over the course of four weeks. People, that's a lot of meters! But I'm going to aim for it.

Sure, there will be winners in this race. And sure, the prizes are nice (three-month membership, I-Pod, massages), but my focus is multifaceted--challenge myself in this regatta to just qualify for it while also maintaining my personal fitness goals. And thus, although I could row every day, I will continue to spin three days per week. Spinning, you see, gives you a lot more bang for your buck in the calorie-burning department.


You might ask, if spinning is so great, why row at all? Well, the better approach, from all I can tell, is to mix it up. Consider also that spinning is a fantastic lower-body workout. But rowing targets your back too and is a fabulous core-strengthening work-out. (no, it's not about the arms, actually.) You do work your legs in rowing too, but not nearly as much as in spinning. I've managed to find this picture of a water rower so you can see this contraption I'll be spending more time with over the next four weeks.

On top of these things, though, it's important to get in some weight-bearing things. Thus, I've joined Marda's box-aerobics classes on Monday nights, and for the last two Saturdays, I've been learning to Zumba! It's sorta Latin-dance-styled aerobics. And it's fun!

But as for rowing, I also may very well be getting certified to teach rowing classes. The owner of my gym and I have talked about it, and she really wants me to be certified. I've told her that I don't even know how long I'll be living here---could be only until July, could be until July '09. That's still up in the air. (Ah---another benefit of fitness: you tend to handle stress a lot better. :-) ) Pushing myself to row in this regatta will help me better my form and endurance so I can be a better teacher for future classes. (could I use this certification elsewhere? Sure, but unfortunately, water rowers are still relatively new, so the market for instructors is relatively small.)

One other exciting thing with rowing more and with becoming an instructor, the folks at the gym are trying to find out more information on how we could row on the river. Now that's be fabulous!


Anyway, I've figured that if I can row three times per week, I can hit the 50,000 meter mark. Sunday is now my day off from the gym, though, so I'll be getting started on that tomorrow. I"ll let you know when I hit the half-way mark!