Achilles

Goal #4 complete, saved £1217 from my Aug paycheque! Will make it a personal goal to save £1200 from Septembers paycheque as well. +1 WIS Also tested my 2km time and I'm down to 7:15.8, which is nearly halfway between my starting point and my goal. Still a long way to go however I still feel great about this time! I'm not sure if 7mins in 3 weeks is realistic but I'll keep trying.

Woohoo! Completed my first goal today on the ergo today by beating my target pace of 2:00 over 30 mins! +2 STA to me =) 30 minutes @ rate 20, distance: 7535, pace: 1:59.4/500m, s/m 20

Had a bad week. A "life event" through me off course, made me relapse into some bad habits. Only rowed 20km this week and ate maybe 50% paleo. Not good enough. I'm going to just get over it and move on! Today's a new week and a great time to get refocused.

Yeah, I definitely recommend to slow it down a bit and try to keep a constant pace. Maybe around 2:20 or 2:30 / 500m? Then on your next session, try it at 2:18 and see if you can hold that. If you can knock off a second or two from your pace every week, you'll see a big improvement!

Mission 1 complete, +1 STA =)

Awesome, what rate and pace were you going at?

First week update Rowing (on the water, single scull) - 36km Rowing (ergo) - 8km Little less ergo this week as I've been building up distance on the water. My two ergo sessions (5km and 3km) were both under a pace of 2:00/500m which makes rowing at that pace for 30 mins (ie 7500m distance) by next week seem achievable! I've probably only been 75-80% paleo this week. All my main meals have been good but I've been slipping with snacks at times. I usually don't eat much of a breakfast on weekdays which certainly doesn't help avoiding quick snacks during the day! As for savings, I'm still comfortably on track for saving £1200. Maybe even £1500 still if we're optimistic!

Here are my numbers for the challenge Rowing (on the water, single scull) - 36km Rowing (ergo) - 8km

I'll second rowing (either on the water or indoors). It's low impact and a great way to build up aerobic and anaerobic performance. You can start pretty easy on it and build your way up. Let me know if you need some ergo (indoor rowing machine) tips!

Good goal! Have you thought of trying a Couch to 5k (C25K) plan? Here's a link to a sample plan. There's also app's you can use to help you get started. Might be worth looking in to? Good luck with your goals!

Most uni's have a 1 year novice program for people new to rowing. I find most people first learn rowing in university. I'd recommend giving it a try!

If you haven't read it yet, I'd recommed The Great Gatsby. It's entertaining, well written and short enough that it'll (hopefully) encourage you to pick up another book shortly after! Bonus point, you'll be able to talk about how the book is so much better than the film when the new film is released next year

Cool, let me know how your ergo sessions go! I think you'd be able to do a 7min 2k if you're able to run 3km in 12 mins. Might take a bit of practice getting your technique and pacing right. Does your uni have a rowing club? For lightweight, the crew average has to be <= 70kg with no one person weighing more than 72.5kg.

I read GetRichSlowly as well! Though I do find it a little hard to relate. I'm definitely prone to lifestyle inflation (though I did manage to cut my rent by 66% last year by downsizing when I switched cities).

I should have been more specific! An ergo is an indoor rowing machine (almost always a concept2). There will very likely be a tryout for the seniors squad, especially because I'm pretty new to the sport. I'm expecting the tryout to consist of a 2k test on the ergo (to test fitness) and a row in a single scull (1 man boat, sculling refers to rowing with two oars) to assess my rowing skills. A 7 minute 2km time (one of my goals) is a decent time for the beginning of the season as it shows I have potential to drop further in time for the spring. One of the clubs says that they want their lightweights to demonstrate they have the potential to reach 6:35, so hopefully 7 mins counts as potential!