Qualified!

The gym had posted new meter totals on the whiteboard, and when I got to my class tonight, I was just over 7000 away from my goal of 50,000 meters--to qualify for the regatta. I had just finished a box aerobics class, so I was pooped, but with the encouragement of my rowing class members tonight, I pushed my intensity and got to my goal. WooHoo! (I actually rowed 7995 meters in a thirty-eight minute class.)

Sure, I've met the goal of qualifying. But what this has really done for me is to help me focus on the intensity with which I row (while maintaining proper form). See, each rower has a computer attached that calculates your intensity (someone said it was measured as "meters per second.") When I began rowing, I was proud if I could get the number up to 3.25 or 3.30 during a hard push (an intensity drill). Now, though, I can maintain an intensity of 3.48 to 3.60 for quite some time, getting up above 4.00 in my intensity drills. And of that, I am proud. (My average tonight, for example, after doing the math, looks to be 3.51—including warm-up and cool down rowing.) Not only have I qualified for the regatta, as set out to do, but I have bettered my skill at this workout in a quantifiable way. Again, I say: WooHoo!