Day 5

C2 HC is ON. Yup. After much internal debate I decided that I really enjoy the Concept 2 Holiday Challenge. OK, I just really enjoy a challenge. In the past I have gotten a little obsessive about it - squeezing in second workouts and rowing through illnesses just to finish. I've burnt out each of the other times I done it - I've finished them and then not rowed again for a month.

But not this time. I have chosen to participate because it's a fun challenge. I have set the intention to participate in a balanced and joyous way. I am (trying to) let go of any attachment to the outcome. I will get up and row each day so long as it feels good. If I finish, I finish. If I don't, I don't.

That said, I wear a heart rate monitor to keep from working too hard - and that only stops me some of the time. It's an upper limit for me. Without it I exhaust myself. I love anaerobic threshold workouts. That's where you pick a pace right at the top edge of your aerobic zone, just shy of becoming anaerobic, just barely sustainable, and hold it there for the duration. Unfortunately, it's a bit draining. And I just don't have the kind of life that allows me to recover from those workouts. No lying around with my feet up for me.

I'm also 47,453m into the 200,000m challenge. To be on pace I would have rowed only 35,715m in these first five days. I've already earned myself a day off! Of course I am notoriously bad at taking days off. What if I get sick later? What if I don't? Then I can finish early! Or set a new personal record for meters rowed during a challenge... And this is where that intention to participate in a balanced (and sane) way comes in.

Here's what it comes down to: it takes me 7-8 minutes to get good and warmed up, flushed, heart rate into my steady-state zone, sweating (pretty picture, I know). The next 20 minutes are OK, but a bit tedious. This is the part where I just want to be done already. Once I hit about 30 minutes I get a nice little extra endorphin rush and I settle in for the long haul. Under the influence of this very pleasant brain chemical I start plotting just how far I'll go: only 6 more minutes and I'll be at my daily minimum (7,143m), only 4 minutes after that and I'll be at 8,000m, less than 5 minutes after that and I'll be at 9,000m, and then I'm so close to 45 minutes I might as well do that, but that's only 3 minutes short of 10,000m, and if I go for another 8 minutes I get get my daily average up to 10,000m, and then it's not much longer to an hour... Endorphins are a dangerous thing for a challenge lover like me.

So this year my personal holiday challenge is to complete the C2 HC while maintaining perspective and balance, and not burning out. I'm learning to manage my endorphins...