Whils paddling away the other day listening to UB40 I was musing on the effects of wine on the system. Now I'm no Puritan by any stretch of the imagination, far from it. I am a fanatical believer in ",a little of what you fancy does you good" and also in "the Mediterranean diet" which, as I choose to interpret it, includes red wine. I have, at home, a number of devices which are designed to be inserted into the mouth of an open bottle of wine to keep it in good condition until one is ready to finish it. I have never yet used it, believing that the contents will deteriorate once opened and that one bottle is just enough between two people on a week night! Well, it is a bit of a fight to keep my wife down to half a bottle during the week anyway - so I have to go at it good style to get my fair share.
Anyway, the point (believe me there is one!) is that I fell into the habit of my share (let's call it half a bottle) of red wine most nights which led to disrupted sleep patterns. I went to bed and fell asleep as usual but awake at two or three in the morning and slept poorly until time to get up. Also I was finding myself short of breath in the night - really wierd. Feeling groggy through the working week is not an option I wanted to follow so have stopped my weekday nightly slurping, and lo and behold......... fantastic nights sleep, feeling rested and my rowing is sooooooo much easier. Well two out of three anyway. Weekends are something else and I am happy to have a glass or six with friends and family and I don't plan to change that materially.
Has anyone else shared these symptoms or feelings? Was I developing a dependancy? I hadn't stooped to the cooking sherry when there was no wine in the house so I assume not!
Happy weekend to anyone who reads this and happy rowing to all FS members.
SimonG

Well Thursday evening turned out to be a leisurely affair with pipe and slippers accompanied by my smelly old Labrador at my feet! And jolly good it was too! I did feel very decadant but what the heck:-) So He did win for those who are interested.
Friday morning was payback, one in the eye for "Old Nick", 10k at steady pace then off to work in a good mood. Which wa sshort lived as I struggled with Manchester bound traffic, two tedious meetings and some horrible traffic exiting Manchester. On getting home my first inclination was to climb into my wife-beater vest neck a couple of Mr & Mrs Artois' daughters and kick the cat - but being the good natured family man I am, I banged out another 10k slightly faster than this mornings! Smile on face and large pizza followed by a happy family night round the tv.
Big day on Saturday with my row watching Leicester vs Llanelli Scarlets which the Tigers won!!!! Martin Corry played his socks off and I banged out 24k which was far more than I wanted as Sunday is planned as marathon day. Oh well, stupid is my middle name!
Cooler day to row for a long time as we had some rain in the night. Sad old me - I watched yesterdays match again as I started my 42195 - it was a GOOD match! Then my dear wife topped up my water bottles and left me with Parky on the radio as she went shopping - I got the better end of the stick! Just under 3 hours and job done but sore shoulders and lower back. Missed a pb by about four minutes but that was not my objective.
Next week will see me rowing fewer hours that is for sure!

I don't know what has gone wrong but this has turned ito an erging blog! Must try harder!
Well done to everyone who completed the maraton either running or erging - it is a long way!

Well the road to hell is paved with good intentions - and in turn I drove to work after a steady 3 x 5k morning row intending to try a new workout at lunchtime - 500 metres flat out with 1 minute active rest for 30 minutes with each 500 metres faster that the last! The plan was to finish 10 reps possibly get into an 11th........... BUT an unannounced visitor expecting lunch intervened and an 8 ounce ribeye steak with spinach but no potatoes seemed a better option - actually I had no choice in the matter! Soooooo big question- do I go after work and have a go or do I drive home, have dinner and put my feet up?
I will watch this space and look for answers or inspiration. Usually I get neither! Feel free to comment or just wait until my next blog to see what I did.
Happy rowing to anyone who takes the time to read this.
SimonG

February 28th was the last date we had and you didn't send flowers or anything. Have I upset you or was it something I said? If so, I'm sorry - I'm back and may we never be parted for so long again.
Actually, I've been really busy and blogging went onto the back of the very back burner for a while. Actually it was a comment in an email I received today which prompted me to sharpen my laptop and start to write again. Why bother, it's rubbish anyway many will cry. So what, it's my rubbish and my blog, so read on if you are so inclined or trawl th'interweb for something more interesting if that takes your fancy,I will not be in the least offended.
Once again, lots of rowing and I have been taking notice of the meter board and found to my horror how addictive it is just to stay "up there". Why, oh why, do all these other maniacs put in sooooooo many meters which I have then to match or beat just to see a +1 by my name? More to the point I don't want the dreaded -1 (or worse) beside my name. I am sure it is becoming more than an obsession, but I MUST be fitter than before, though I don't always feel it.
24 x 7 has started with a bang - or in my case with a big bang but fewer meters than originally hoped to shout about. "What is all this?" I hear you ponder. I started my seven sessions with a marathon early on Easter Monday, the first 14,289 of which kicked off my initial contribution to "the cause". I ended up with a time just over three hours (3.04:21.7 as if you were interested!) and my best FM in 2007 (to date)! Tuesday left me bewildered as I thought I'd signed up for one session a day BUT to my absolute delight found an early morning followed by a lateish night session but they are behind me now and today (Wednesday) is a day of rest. It's back to earlies tomorrow until Sunday. I am not looking forward to the last one as I am at the Grand National on Saturday and it WILL be a BIG party so no records will be in danger the morning after. (Rowing records that is!).
I hope everyone else taking part is having as much fun as me!
As for other things - I've just got a new toy! My new Suunto T6 "wristtop computer". I prefer to think of it as a watch! It has so many buttons and functions and it is going to make me so much better that all you meter board loonies had better watch out. I'm still wrestling with the manual looking for the chapter which will tell me how to strap it to my C2 so that it can do the hard work as well. I bought it "brand new and unused" from the US of A on Ebay at a far cheaper price than the high street here at home. How do they do that? All joking aside it has given me a very interesting couple of sessions feedback and I can see that "overtraining" will be a thing of the past. (As if it was a thing of the present - I'm more used to "undertraining" but that's for another day's blog!).
To anyone out there still following this ........... and there will be one somewhere....... thank you for reading and happy rowing until next time.
All the best.
SimonG