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Tel's Tales #2

Posted by Concept2 News on the 7th of December 2000

Last newsletter we featured a letter asking about overcoming boredom on the Indoor Rower. This provoked our biggest news bag since the time a misprint made it seem like Terry O'Neill suggested he did a cow every day before breakfast.The first response was from Neil Rhodes who points out that the letter misquoted him and that he never said that rowing was boring, which we should have made clear. After that, however, the suggestions came flooding in thick and fast. Eric Murray's suggestion was that if you get bored rowing, a simple tip is to cover over the time section on the display with some masking tape. It is amazing how much you will do and not realise it. I even find it gives me a boost when I realise that I have done an hour and I feel like I could go on even more.Many people suggested listening to music, including Migs Ferguson who also chipped in with the idea that you should try and recite things from memory such as Kings and Queens of England and Scotland, USA Presidents, USA States and their capitals, chemical tables and such like. She also suggested reciting poems learned in childhood such as If, The Charge of the Light Brigade and her favourite, Campbell's Lord Ullin's Daughter. The longest answer came from Phil Ansley-Watson:You don't have time to be bored if you're doing it properly. There's the rhythm to maintain, the pace to control, wondering where, when you're doing 2:02s, that 1:58 came from or why you've suddenly turned in a 2:05.Sure, the first two minutes of the warm up, 5 minutes starting at about 2:15 and accelerating towards 2:10 or lower, is hell and you wonder how you're going to do 5,000 metres or 60 minutes but after that it gets better.Anyone who gets bored is either not working hard enough or is doing one of these stupid short sessions typical of fitness clubs which seem to involve rates between 40 and 50 and splits in excess of 3:00. It's great fun in a health centre to switch from average splits to calories and demolish the person next to you who thinks they're going great guns at about 450/hr.Yes, I'm very competitive. No, I'm not as good as I'd like to be. Yes, I do want my 2,000 metre time consistently below 7:00! Bored!! No way!If you've got any further suggestions, get 'em sent into [email protected] and we'll run them in a future newsletter.


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