Tennis elbow hampers rowing!

When i came back from holiday in October, i carried in our luggage from the car and afterwards my left elbow was hurting. Thinking little of it i continued to row, but over the last few weeks the pain has increased. So i stopped rowing about 10 days ago, have been pumping in the Neurofen and trying to rest my elbow in the hope that it will improve to enable me to continue rowing. I have continued in the gym on the bicycle to keep up my fitness. I realised how 'addicted' i have become to rowing as i have found it incredibly hard not to get on and row. In fact today i did row for 15 minutes to check out the elbow as the support that i have been using seems to have helped a bit! Hopefully with a week off at Christmas it will calm down and i can get back to some serious rowing in the New Year.

Off for an ECG next week following an increase in palpitations! Hopefully just extreme tiredness following recent flu and many sleepless nights with the kids being and/or stress with recent extra workload with moving mum etc. and/or too much caffeine!

Total metres rowed =845315m.

Happy Christmas to everyone

May God bless you in the year ahead.
Richard

80% of the way and still going!

For a month by month breakdown see the link to my rowing map on the right hand side of this page.

Mum on the move!

My blog may have been quiet for the last few weeks, but life has been as busy as ever! The main development is that mum moved into a Nursing Home last Thursday. Things at home for her became too difficult, especially at nightime and so following many discussions, meetings and looking at various options, mum moved to a lovely home near to where we live. There she can receive the 24 hour help that she needs as her condition progresses.The journey in the taxi was quite emotional, especially driving past mum's gym that she used to go to 3 times a week until just over a year ago.

On the rowing front, things have been quiet. I had flu again, which resulted in a 10 day break from the rowing, but I was back with a steady 5K last Friday and hopefully back with a 'normal' weeks rowing this week.

Total metres stand at 785,889m. Fundraising is still at £1185 plus gift aid.

Back from hols!

Had a great week away in dorset. End of October and on the beach!

Back to rowing. Just rowed 12k today. Timed myself at 2k and rowed 7 min 42.7s, which I was pleased with and then went straight into a steady 10k.

Total metres stand at 745,889m

End of the FRC with a personal best!

Today was the last day of the Fall Rowing Challenge. One month of rowing in teams to see which team can row the furthest. 'Empty the Tanks' finished 12th out of 256 teams. I didn't make the target that I set of rowing 200km in the month, but managed 131Km.

I broke my 10km personal best twice this week. Today, I rowed my fastest 10km time, which now stands at 41m 42.2s. That is nearly 7 minutes faster than when I first started logging my distances in March of this year. My colleague Robin rowed with me today and helped me to push myself to beat my time. We are thinking of having a joint row off somewhere in Walton-on-Thames - Robin rowing for the Firefighters Charity and me rowing for The PSP Association and splitting any monies raised between the two charities. (Possibly a half marathon or even a full marathon in the early part of next year to help complete my 1 million metre challenge!)

659880metres rowed
168 days 'at sea' that's an average of 3928m per day
Averaging 10,152m each time I actually row.

Out of the boat and into the water!

I have just returned from a Swift Water Rescue course in Northampton. Imagine white water rafting and then take the raft away and that gives you an idea of what I was upto. Rescuing from flood situations, self rescue and rescuing others from fast moving water etc! Physically demanding, but i managed a quick 5000m in between the two days at the hotel gym! Bck now and hope to be back on the rower tomorrow. Only one more week of the Fall Rowing Challenge. Our team is still 12th but i haven't managed to put in the distance over this last month that i wanted to (about 91Km so far).

Another very generous £25 in sponsorship from my friend Peter taking the total to £1185 plus gift aid.

More sponsorship!

Another very generous sponsor of £100 was received from Francois, Elisabeth and Raphael in Paris! Thankyou! The total now stands at £1160, which is almost 50% of the target set. Back to rowing tomorrow!

PSP Matters!

Well, my sore throat turned into tonsilitis, so I have been off work since last Thursday. Even though nothing has happened rowing-wise in the last week, a couple of things have happened.

I received sponsorship of £50 from my sister's neighbours in Hong Kong, Sabine and Hubert, which Iam very grateful for. My sister has also been over to see mum for few days before going back to Hong Kong via her Paris home.

An article has also been published in PSP Matters, the magazine for the PSP Association, for which I am trying to raise money for. So if you are reading this after seeing the magazine article, "hello to you" and thankyou for your support.

I hope to be back on the rower on Thursday and make up some ground before going on a Swift Water Rescue course with work for a few days next week.

Saved by the bell!

I had intended another 10K yesterday, but we spent the afternoon and evening tackling a fire in the guildford area. Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise as I have been feeling a little unwell and now I have a raging sore throat, so it was probably good to lay off the rowing, although the firefighting was quite tiring in itself. I also spent last night helping with beth who is ill. We had to take her to hospital as her breathing was very laboured. She has croup which sounds awful but with a few steroids and some rest she should get over it fairly quickly.

Anyway, the Autumn rowing challenge is still going well and I can't wait to get back on the rower to do my bit for the team.

Best week so far!

I have rowed 71097m this week over four days. Aswell as setting personal bests for 5k and 10k I also set a personal best for the half marathon with a time of 1 hour 34mins, which is 8 minutes faster than my first half marathon of the year.

Empty the tanks is currently 9th out of 191 teams competing in the Autumn Challenge.

My total to date is 584,880 metres.

Two personal bests on same day!

The Autumn rowing challenge began yesterday. As part of 'Empty the Tanks' virtual rowing team the aim is to collectively row as many metres as possible between 15th Sep and 15th Oct. We are currently 6th out of 171 teams worldwide.

I rowed a 5000m before lunch yesterday breaking my 5K personal best by two seconds. I intended to row a slow 10K later on in the day, but was feeling good, so i went for it and took about 19 seconds off my 10K time, which now stands at 42m and 3s.

Hoping to row 200km during this coming month?!!

Halfway!

After 133 days 'at sea' I have reached the halfway mark. I rowed 10Km at 7am this morning before work, spent the day swimming in the Thames doing some water rescue training and then rowed another 10Km when we finished that. That has brought my total metres since May 1st to 503, 783m. That's an average of 3778metres a day, although I only row four times a week, so my actual average that I have rowed each session is 9688 metres.

5 days to go until the start of the 2009 Fall rowing challenge, in which I shall be rowing as part of a virtual team to see which team can row the most metres in a month. There are 48 members of the team competing out of several hundred, so i will let you know in the middle of October where we came.

Sponsorship has come to a bit of a standstill, but still at an amazing £1010. Thanks to Mrs Pauffley who sponsored me £5 recently when i met her at the fire station open day. Her mother had PSP too; so thanks to you Mrs Pauffley.

Bye for now.

Nearly halfway there!

461102metres in total!

I have rowed another 41609metres this week; 4 x 10Km and my first attempt at 1mile (1609m) My time for 1 mile was 6m 12.9s, which I was pleased with.

I attempted a half marathon on Bank Holiday Monday, but was called out on an emergency after about 3000metres. By the time I returned it was too late to do the half marathon, so I made the distance up to 10Km

I have joined a virtual rowing team called 'Empty the Tanks'. There are various team challenges and in September the challenge is to get crew members of a 'virtual boat' to row a mile as quickly as possible. To see more about the challenges follow Caroline's link at the bottom of this page. She is the team captain and the one who gave me the idea for the 1 million metre challenge.

On the whole, a good weeks rowing!

Four months 'at sea'!

I have been rowing for four months now. Here are a few facts:

I have rowed 439,493metres.
I have been on the rower for a total of 32 hours,33 minutes and 3.5 seconds.
124 days have elapsed since I first set out.
I am averageing 3554m a day but have missed four weeks rowing due to illness/holidays
The actual days I have rowed I have averaged 9351metres per day.

Sponsorship stands at £1010 so far.

Back from Holiday, back to rowing!

Well after about a month with hardly any rowing, I'm back! Two weeks off ill, followed by a week with hardly any rowing preceeded my two week Summer holiday, so I've hardly rowed for the last month. This has dropped my daily average since the 1st May down to 3329m, but i can still achieve the full 1 million metres in the year. This week is easing myself back in gently and I've done two 5Km rows on Monday and Tuesday, day off today and back into work and hopefully on the rower tomorrow.

I received another £5 in sponsoship money from Liam, who visited the fire station about a year ago to make a video for his college project and he kindly sponsored me even though we've only met once, so thanks Liam for your support!

It was great to have two weeks off with the family. The first week we stayed at home as mum had been admitted to hospital and we wanted to be around to support her. We went away to Wales for the second week and saw Ruth's family aswell as a few days camping, which was great.

Mum is still in hospital. She has been in for three weeks so far this time. Progress is slow, but there is talk of a home visit possibly next week to see if mum will be able to cope at home.

Thanks for reading! Bye for now!

Illness halts rowing!

Rowing has ceased temporarily. I've had a nasty virus for a couple of weeks, as has the whole family. I was back to work on Monday, but didn't feel up to rowing Monday or Tuesday. Then today, mum was taken in to hospital again, so i'll be off work tomorrow and possibly Friday. Then the next two weeks is supposed to be our Summer holiday, but that may not happen depending on how mum is. So the rowing is stuck at 357,493m for the next few weeks. But I'll be resuming as soon as I can, with full determination to complete the full million metres! Bye for now!

£1000 raised!

I have reached the £1000 mark with the help of my work friend John Pennington, who is also a dedicated rower and has a 10Km personal best of 38m 25s; so I have a way to go before I get anywhere near that time. Once again i am so grateful for every sponsor and the support and encouragement thatIcontinue to receive from friends and family.

Struggling with the rowing this week due to illness, but still on target.

New personal best!

Put in another 40Km this week. I beat my personal best for 10000m; it now stands at 42m 22.1 seconds, so I took another 12 seconds off it. I would love to get below 40 minutes, but I think that is probably a long way off. Total distance stands at 344,493m.

Offline donation!

I received a £20 donation from my friend Mary today taking the total to £995 + gift aid.

Disappointing weeks rowing!

Well, emergencies do happen and my rowing was disturbed this week by a fire one day and another day we had to take the fire engine to our service headquartes, so consequently I only rowed 13396metres. However, with the hot weather it was quite a good week to row less.

I received another donation from my mum's friend Aliya through the post so I am really near hitting the £1000 mark, so thankyou Aliya.

Map up and running again!

I have redone my virtual rowing map which seemed to disappear a while ago. I have plotted my distances a month at a time for the last two months. The link for the map is down the right hand side of this page.

Nearly two months 'at sea'

Well, it's nearly the end of June. I've rowed 291097m since May 1st, so I'm well on my way. My map seems to have disappeared, so Iwill try to redo it whenI get time. I had my fist offline donation this week, so thankyou Sheila for that. The total now stands at £960 plus gift aid.

In the papers again!

An article that I submiited a few weeks ago was finally in the Walton informer this week. It is similar to the Surrey Advertiser article, but hopefully raises awareness of PSP a bit more. You can click on the picture to read the article.

Quarter of the way!

I've just reached a quarter of my total metres by rowing a half marathon, which equates to 21097metres. I took over 6 minutes off my personal best for that distance and finished it in 1 hour 36 mins and 57.9 seconds.

My total metres now stands at 251097m and I've spent 18 1/2 hours on the rower.

Mum due out of hospital

After 9 weeks and 6 days, mum is finally all set to come out of hospital! She is excited, but apprehensive about returning home after such a long time in hospital. the NHS have been great so far and mum has a new electric bed to help her up, aswell as many other useful aids. An electric wheelchair has been ordered, which should help her to go down to the restaurant and maintain as much independence as possible and carers will be in frequently to help with mum's needs.

I started the rowing after mum went into hospital and have now rowed 220,000m. Sponsorship now stands at £950 plus gift aid, so nearly half way to reaching the target set.

NHS poster!

You may remember i mentioned that i was roped into a photo shoot for an NHS campaign; absolutely nothing to do with the rowing, but here it is!

...with a little help from my friends.

So far this week i've rowed another 30Km. Today my friend and workmate Robin paced me for the first 7000metres before going to do some serious excercise. I finished the 10Km in my fastest time so far of 42mins 34.2s

Week 5

On the rower 4 times this week. 10Km each time. Total rowed 160,000m. To see my progress check out my map by following the link on the righthand side of this page.

Back from Holiday!

I had a great week away in Dorset with the family and did absolutely no excercise at all! Needless to say it was a bit of a struggle to get back on the rower, especially in the heat, but I managed 10,000m on Monday and again on Tuesday. Yesterday's row was interrupted by a car fire, but i noted the time and distance covered and managed to finish off when i got back. Day off today - back on the rower tomorrow. Total rowed so far is 140,000m. Total raised excluding gift aid stands at £860.

Week 3

Another week completed. 30Km rowed this week. A bit less than i had hoped due to a callout on Monday, but managed three consecutive days of 10Km each making the total rowed 120Km (see my rowing map link down on the righthand side of this page) I beat my persaonal best again yesterday by about 4 seconds for 10000m taking my fastest time to 42m 48.6s.

I have raised 30% of my target. That's £730 which is amazing! I really do have to complete this challenge now! I can't tell you how grateful i am for all the support from so many friends. Thank you also to those who have left me a comment. Please feel free to add your encouragement too!

Oh, I got roped into a photo shoot yesterday, (nothing to do with the rowing) the NHS needed people from the community(firefighter/policeman etc) for some publicity for St Peter's Hospital, so if you live in Surrey then look out for me on some NHS leaflets and posters etc in hopstitals, doctor's waiting rooms etc.

Also check out the Surrey Herald this week, i think i may be in that too for the rowing.

Bye for now, I'll be back!

A Slight Setback

Dissapointing day as far as rowing is concerned. Got called out to a fire at 8:30am and stayed out all day. Kept hoping to get back in time for a quick 10Km but didn't get back till late. Oh well, emergencies do happen! Still on 90Km.

Week 2

The end of the second week has arrived. Yippee, the weekend off! I have rowed 90,000m since the 1st May. This week I have broken my personal best three times for 10,000m. It currently stands at 42m 52.9s. My first press release came out in the Surrey Advertiser and was put on the front page! Obviously nothing interesting happening in Surrey at the moment!

I have updated my map, so you can see how far I've gone in two weeks.(A long way to go!) To view my map follow the link on the right, under useful links.

The sponsors keep coming in so thanks once again to those of you who have shown your support in this way.

I have one more week at work before a week off, so hopefully i'll be back on the rower on Monday.

A few statistics

70Km rowed so far.
5 hours, 8mins, 21.4 seconds on the rower.
7 rowing sessions at 10Km each.
Fastest time - 42 min 56.9s
Slowest time - 44 min 55.1s
121st fastest time this season in the world for my age category (40-49)(ok only 156 people in my category so far!)

£585 donated so far! Thankyou all so much.
£53.59 on top of that for gift aid.

Approx 4200 calories burned off.
Haven't lost much weight but hopefully converted some fat to muscle!

Only 930Km to go!

End of the first week

I have completed one full week and clocked up 50000m so far. I have had some generous support from far and wide; places such as Spain, Hong Kong and Geneva, not to mention the UK and sponsorship currently stands at £310 + gift aid. I have also submitted a press release to the local papers, so if you live in Surrey, then keep you eyes open for the Herald, Esher News, Informer etc.
I am realising that this is going to be more of a challenge than i thought, but i have the weekend off before i get back on the rower on Monday. Some people have asked me what PSP actually is. I will write a bit on it soon, but for more information you can check out http://pspeur.org/ .

The gloves are off!

Day 6 of my 1000km row! I have managed 30Km so far and received some very generous sponsors. When I row the seat is fairly uncomfortable, so i have two pairs of gloves to sit on and give me a bit of cushioning. No more! My new Concept 2 seat cushion arrived today! Not very exciting you might think, but with 970,000 metres left to row, it's exciting to me!
My fundraising page has also been translated into French today by my sister, who has lived in France for years, but now lives in Hong Kong. So hopefully she might be able to encourage some of her friends to sponsor me, aswell as raising awareness of PSP. Mum is still in hospital, but having a home visit next week to see if she is able to go home again, with some support. She continues on without complaining or grumbling, even though her condition must be very frustrating for her.

Hopefully on the rower tomorrow or Friday to try and get ahead of my weekly amount.

Preparation for the rowing challenge

I started rowing about two months ago and have so far rowed about 180KM. All my rowing has been done on a Concept 2 rowing machine. I usually row four times a week, anywhere between 2Km and 10Km and have so far included one half marathon. This challenge started on May 1st, which is the start of the new rowing season. To achieve 1 million metres in a year i'll have to row roughly 20Km a week, which is about 5Km each time i row. Obviously with holidays etc, i'll need to row some longer distances to keep up, so this will really be a challenge for me.

I've also set up an online donation page, created this new blog and created a map to show the progress i would be making if i were really rowing round the UK. I've also rowed my first 10km, so there are only 990,000m to go!