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I used to be a daily rower. Once, on the water, on the Potomac; then, on my Model C Concept2 Indoor Rower AKA the erg. My business partner, Dan Krueger, asked me if I had been rowing. I admitted that I had not. He re-lit my rowing pilot light. God bless that guy! I am back in the sliding saddle again! I have gotten out of the habit and have started up again today, no matter what else I have on the docket. Even if I walk, run, ruck, swing, ride, or spin, I need to get that slow 5,000 meters in every single day.

I am finally doing it. After I burnt out my knees by going from zero to forty-five minutes of spin class in a day and then every day, I allowed myself to recover and now I am slowly building myself back up to committing sixty-minutes every evening to Maffetone rowing on my Concept2 indoor rower.

Neither bicycling nor running give your knees the sort of full range-of-motion they need to warm up and lubricate. Only rowing—either indoor erging or rowing on the water—offers a combination of the aerobic load of the a bike and the therapeutic strengthening offered by leg presses, leg extensions, and squats.

While it all started with my discovery of Slow Jogging by Hiroaki Tanaka, it's expanded to Slow Running by Chris Bore and The Maffetone Method by Dr. Philip Maffetone. And, of course, there is also the incredibly-useful book, Row Daily, Breathe Deeper, Live Better, by Dustin Ordway, which also suggests consistent, persistent, daily exercise with a twist: there's no such thing as too slow as long as you do it every day.

I have been Zwifting, Zwalking, riding, and swinging this Summer. Now, I am adding my Concept2 indoor rower and SkiErg into the mix. Luckily, Concept2 allows you to do this slowly and powerfully with the Dog Days of Summer individual challenge. Better yet, it is compatible with both my erg and my SkiErg. So, I cycle between them, working hard to build my strength, fitness, and endurance.

I was having a terrible time keeping my CBreeze on the fan so I glued sloppy please rails on either side of my Concept2 Model C's fan. Really messy. Used a silicon glue. The paracord rails aren't going anywhere. No more struggling with the placement of the elastic cords. 

Between now and midnight, October 15, I have 20 full days to row at least 200,000 meters. So far, I've rowed 59,508 meters and have 140,492 meters left to go.

The Fall Team Challenge (FTC), runs every year from September 15–October 15. The Fall Team Challenge is a club challenge where club members try to reach either 100,000 meters or 200,000 meters by the end of the challenge.

I checked out of work a little early this afternoon and got some rowing on my Concep2 Indoor Rower, my trusty old Model C with the PM5 monitor upgrade.

The Concept2 virtual team challenge, World Erg Challenge, is ten-days old and I've only clocked 24,607 meters so far--but I am still mid-pack in the Potomac Boat Club.