For a long time I didn’t keep track of how fast I could row on my rowing machine.

At some point reaching 1200 calories per hour was a big feat, compared to my steady state in the 900s.

Later 1300 calories per hour was big, even if only for a few strokes.

Eventually I hit 1400.

When I hit 1500 I figured it would be my last big hurdle because of the effort it took to reach. I could reach the mid-1500s for a while, probably over a year.

Last week I hit 1600 calories per hour. Actually, a bit more, but I don’t remember the exact number. I was busy rowing as hard as I could.

I hit it in more than one interval. The workout was 3 minutes at 750 cal/hr, then 8 intervals of 30 seconds as hard as possible / 90 seconds about 350 cal/hr, followed by 3 minutes cool down (around 1000 cal/hr because why save it?).

I thought of stories I read in Martin Gibala’s book on interval training of researchers cheering the people they were studying enough to draw other researchers out of their offices down the hall. I wonder if having people cheer me would boost my performance. As it was, it was just me.

I think the improvement partly came from deadlifts and squats on other days, practice varying resistance levels and cadences, and improved form … but mainly doing intervals.

I doubt it’s a feat for competitive rowers, but I hadn’t made it a goal, so I’m not making a big deal of it. I’m not going to ignore it either. I just did it as part of my regular exercise and it feels good.

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