Rowing an Ocean

In mid-December 2020, I'll step off a dock and into a row boat. I'll set off on a journey of 5000 kilometres rowing upwards of a million strokes. When I finish, I'll have completed the hardest mental and physical adventure I can imagine.

The eight or so weeks of the race will represent a small percentage of the time put towards this adventure. It will be the culmination of three years of thought and effort. From learning to row to rowing the Irish Sea to fund raising to promotion; there have been a lot of learnings.

The preparation is long from finished and the row is still twelve months from starting. In the journey so far, I've learnt some lessons worth sharing.

Sort out your routine

This lesson has applied to every part of this adventure. For the morning training sessions, I've all my training gear laid out the evening before. There is a water bottle filled and ready to grab. Fitting training sessions in with family and work is hard enough. Don't give yourself excuses to drop out or delay.

On the Atlantic row we'll row two hours on two hours off. Our routines will need to be well practiced. For lots of reasons we want the change over to be fast and smooth. Each of us putting in an honest session.

Sleep is an important thing

Getting enough sleep should be an obvious thing. Life and work get stressful sometimes. I have showed up at training sessions with a significantly less than the recommended eight hours. My biggest learning out of this is it's impact on resiliency. Your ability to push through the hard challenges get that much harder. The mind is weaker to the murmurs saying it's easier to quit.

Endurance takes practice

The ability to keep going when your body is saying no and your mind is shouting at you to give up takes time to develop. If you keep pushing. It's one thing to say you'll keep going. It's quite another thing to actually do it when your arms and legs are aching. That little pain you had in your knee is now a monster threatening you with the loss of limb.

There will be times when this row is going to hurt. The training that goes into this isn't just about building fitness and physical endurance, it's about preparing the mind.

A great example of this is the 2km row. It's a beautiful test of physical and mental strength. It's too far to just muscle your way though it. You've got to breathe, you've got to settle into it, you've got to push right to the end. Repeating this challenge strengthens the mind. It gets the mind accustomed to the uncomfortable state and increases the amount of time you can spend in it.

Find a good partner

The idea to enter the race first came up while Kev and I were sitting around a camp fire over a couple of beers. Both of us had heard of the race and had followed previous entrants. I'm not sure either of us had ever contemplated doing it on our own. There are not many people who would even vaguely consider the idea of the race. We needed somebody else as interested and excited about the idea.

From our first discussion, we thought we would be a good partnership for the race. It wasn't enough that we were both interested, both of us had to bring something to the partnership. Kev had run a few marathons including the Art O'Neill and Connamarathon ultramarathons. I'd done an RYA Yachtmaster Offshore a few years before. Both of us brought proven skills the other could depend on. We have built a team founded on respect of the others ability.

Don't try to row an ocean straight away

There are definitely people who have taken on the Atlantic with little or no background in rowing in a short period of time. This "strategy" can work, but it is high risk. and likely to cause a lot of stress. The path we are developing is focused on taking making meaningful steps towards our goal.

For us, the first thing is was to join a rowing club. From here, it was setting out the steps for us to go further. The rowing club participated in the Celtic Challenge. We saw this 150km race across the Irish Sea as a meaningful stepping stone. So, we trained hard and made sure we qualified during team selection for the race. This allowed Kev and I to prove to each other we could commit and are capable of taking on bigger things.

Keep your eyes on why

For me, the dream is to wake early, hearing the water move against the hull. I picture myself crawling out of the cabin early in the morning. A steady breeze is blowing behind generating a steady swell beneath the boat. The cool damp touch of the deck in front of me as the sun comes up. I brew up a cup of coffee before sitting down to continue my row across the open ocean.

The dream is what keeps me focused. It's where I go to when I'm tired of training and asking why am I doing this. I need a vivid picture of what that happy place is.

Mix it up

If I was just to sit on the rowing machine doing long steady state rows that wouldn't be much fun. Training has to be mixed. For the Celtic Challenge, this was boxercise classes. At the moment I do long rows and weights in the gym. This is mixed with training classes with Irish olympic rower Niall O'Toole as part of his Crew Class. These classes are a lot more focused on building speed and strength.

Share your wins

Self promotion doesn't come naturally to me. A race like the one we're entering though cannot be done alone. You have to let people know about it.

From the time I started on this path to the Atlantic, people have consistently supported. As I posted images of my first novice race onto Twitter, people liked this and said well done. For the Celtic Challenge, people I hadn't met or seen for years reached out to donate to the club and the RNLI. I've been encouraged, motivated and supported by all. The little comments I've received from people really make a difference.

I'd love your support in getting to the start line. I'm currently raising funds for the purchase of a boat. This is the single biggest expense in this expedition - somewhere between €35,000 and €55,000. Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated: GoFundMe

For more information on the row, see The Salty Pair