IT consultant Nick Gittings is an indoor rowing success story. Burdened by too much extra weight and a lifestyle that was far from healthy, Nick decided to do something about it, and fortunately for him, discovered indoor rowing on the way.Nick lost a stunning nine stone on his weight loss programme � going from 27 stone 11 lbs to just over 18 stone in 18 months - and got so enthusiastic about his indoor rowing and new found fitness, he decided to have a crack at the 2,000 metre race distance at the 2005 British Indoor Rowing Championship, a challenge widely acknowledged as one of sport's toughest. Here is his story�Absolutely amazing, that's the only way to describe the feeling I had, as I rolled off the Model D at the British IRC this year. Having achieved the weight losses that I had, my love of the Indoor Rower had increased and I now had one at home. This was so that I could work out even more to increase my fitness, stamina and hunt those faster times! For the three months working up to the championship, my aim was to try and improve on my 2,000 metre personal best of 6:46.3. Reality struck home when two weeks before the competition I realised that my normal three times a week on the Indoor Rower had diminished considerably and I started to panic about the competition. I then proceeded to work on my 2,000 metre sprints that culminated in a rather disappointing seven minute time two days before the competition. I did a light session of 20 minutes on the machine the day before and got to bed early so that I would be refreshed for the race the following day. I turned up, registered and went to get changed. As I walked into the arena I realised the enormity of the event, and thought to myself 'this seemed like a good idea at the time'. I did some light stretching and then proceeded to the holding area for my race. Once we were marshalled into the race area and onto our machines it all seemed 'very real'. I got myself settled and then we were off! That's about the last thing I remember about the race! The next thing I remember is seeing my time appear on the display showing a time of 6:41.9. Needless to say I was extremely happy with breaking my personal best.My intention now is to take more of a scientific approach to the training and I am going to establish a tailored training programme from Eddie Fletcher, who is the coach for the World IRC team. I am looking forward to improving my times and losing more weight in the process. I am extremely excited about the future and I am looking forward to competing in the British IRC next year and have also decided to compete at the World Indoor Rowing Championship in February in the USA. Who would have thought it?