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Athletic Challenges and Achievements by Ordinary People

Archive for category rowing

Sports/Exercise Report

Mar 31

Posted by ira in Zumba dancing, exercise, gym stuff, rowing, sports, tennis | No Comments

March ended up being an exhausting month of activity: 21 days total of sports and gym time and four crunch sessions. This compares with records of 25 physically active days in November and nine crunch sessions in December. I did increase to 750 ball crunches twice, up from 550 in February, but below my record 1050 in January. I think the two weeks of vacation travel with restaurant meals was unsettling and used up exercise opportunities. I can’t yet play tennis on a plane.

The three draining days of downhill skiing (one of those on moguls) wore me out for the last two weeks. The week I returned home, I played squash and tennis 9 out of 10 days. I was tired. For the month I played tennis 13 days and 27.5 hours (record is 16 days and 41 3/4 hours), squash two days and 2 hours (record is 8 days and 7.5 hours), made it to the gym four times (just 2 hours), rowed 4 times and went to one Zumba class.

The last day I played tennis on the 29th, I was terrible…lots of unforced errors. Somehow I just couldn’t make it easily through 3 1/2 hours of tennis, when in previous months I was able to last for 4 1/2 to 5 hours. Maybe I will be recharged after my 69th birthday on April 5th.

How Do You Row Across An Ocean Alone When You Are Only 22?

Mar 30

Posted by ira in OTHER PEOPLE'S STORIES, rowing | No Comments

Katie Spotz just completed a 70-day solo row across the Atlantic two weeks ago, the youngest person to ever cross an ocean in a rowboat. She is 22 and has been planning the trip from Africa to South America for two years. What an achievement, what an ordeal, what a brave journey, what an inspiration. You can read about it in this New York Times article written by Christopher Maag. Or you can go to her web site This is merely Katie’s latest athletic accomplishment. She really is not an ordinary human. One has to ask how some people become so extraordinary? Immediately below are some excerpts from the Times article.

Katie Spotz in her boat that she rowed across the Atlantic

Katie Spotz in her boat that she rowed across the Atlantic

Amazingly “…her biggest boating experience (prior to attempting the ocean crossing) consisted of a 40-mile practice row on Lake Erie that ended with her boat being pinned against a cliff by wind and waves. The boat was nearly destroyed. Many people asked Spotz how she could row across the Atlantic if she could not even row on Lake Erie.

The answer, she said, is that the biggest danger in ocean rowing besides hurricanes is coming too close to shore, where the current can overwhelm the rower and push the boat into the rocks.

…Her 19-foot yellow wooden rowboat was broadsided by 20-foot waves as she approached South America. It was a frightening ride, even though the boat was built to withstand hurricanes and 50-foot waves, said Phil Morrison, the British yacht builder who designed it…

…the voyage (was) a grueling test of endurance. Spotz developed painful calluses and rashes from rowing 8 to 10 hours a day…”

Here is some more on the story from an issue of EcoWatch published before Katie began her unbelievable rowing adventure.

Spotz plans to leave West Africa in mid-December and remain at sea from 70 to 100 days and travel 2,500 miles from Dakar, Senegal to Cayenne, French Guiana. Her 400-pound boat will be equipped with many safety measures, including a GPS tracking device, emergency beacons, water-maker, satellite phone and more.

Spotz is spending her days in Ohio working on three areas—physical, mental and ocean training. She is mixing high intensity cardio workouts with weight lifting and weekly long rows on the erg machine, and uses meditation as a form of mental preparation. Her boat is docked at the Mentor Harbor Yachting Club and she is training on Lake Erie through October, when the boat will be shipped to Africa.

Katie loves challeges

Katie loves challeges

“I love challenges, especially challenges where you push your mind over matter,” she said. “One reason I am particularly interested in ocean rowing is because it becomes a way of life. When you compete in most endurance events, you complete the event and then go back to all the comforts of home. I want a raw, inescapable challenge.”

Spotz is no stranger to challenges. In 2006, Spotz completed a 3,300-mile bike ride across America for the American Lung Association. In 2007, she went to Australia for a 62-mile ultra-marathon. And last year, she became the first person to swim the entire length of the 352-mile Allegheny River to increase awareness of the need for safe drinking water. In November 2008, Spotz also completed a 150-mile run in the Mojave and Colorado desert. Read the rest of this entry »

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Lawyer Martin Dodd Rows Daily At Lunchtime

Dec 23

Posted by ira in OTHER PEOPLE'S STORIES, rowing | No Comments

I took up rowing about 25 years ago at the age of 32. Although the crew team recruited me heavily in college (I guess I had the build for it), I ran track and swam. I ran seriously through law school and eventually started doing triathlons, but knee surgery and a pretty stupendous bike crash got me seeking a new sport. At the time I was living right on Long Island Sound and could drop a boat in the drink right off my front yard, which I used to tell people went “all the way to Portugal.”

Leslie at about age 50—2008

Leslie at about age 50—2008

My first boat was an Alden double that was kind of sluggish but beamy, stable and fun. While I always rowed it as a single, it would comfortably accommodate a passenger, and often I’d let my girl friend row me around. On a scale of one to ten, Leslie was at least a fourteen-and-a-half, and with her at the oars in a skimpy bikini, while I lounged in the stern with Heineken in hand, I soon became the envy of many a yachtsman as we plied the waters around the Thimble Islands. “What’s that guy in the funny little boat got that I don’t?” Leslie is an accomplished actress and playwright who still lives on the shoreline. We usually get together once or twice a year and go for a row.

I have since moved inland, and, while I get out into the salt as much as I can, I do most of my rowing now on the Farmington and Connecticut Rivers, as well as some lakes in Northwest Connecticut. Currently I have two rowing boats, an Alden Star and an Appledore Peapod.

Martin in his Appledore—1995

Martin in his Appledore—1995

Named after one of the Isles of the Shoals in Southern Maine, the Appledore is an old workboat design modified for sliding seat rowing. It’s 16 feet long, 33 inches wide, and was the proudest creation of Arthur Martin who basically invented the sport of recreational rowing with the introduction of the Alden Ocean Shell in 1971. The boat has a real sharp entry, a lot of bow flare and is relatively flat amidships. She can be rowed single or double, carry a passenger and a lot of gear (yes, for old time’s sake, Leslie still rows) and handle incredibly rough conditions. Somebody rowed one around Cape Horn once, and there have been times when it’s started to blow that I would have felt more secure in the Appledore than my 23 foot powerboat.

An Alden Star (not Martin or Martin's scull)

An Alden Star (not Martin or Martin's scull)


The Star at 22 feet long and 18 inches beam is also somewhat flat bottomed but does not pound. Its most unique feature is a squared-off reverse step transom that supplies some hydrodynamic characteristics of a longer boat, as well as lift to keep you from pooping in a following sea. (Ed: pooping is when the sea comes over the stern—rear—of a vessel) This boat is also truly amazing in big waves. It’s rugged, and I have dropped it a number of times and run it into all manner of stumps, logs, lobster pot buoys and other obstacles, all without damage, although I did need to patch the transom once (an easy job) after my ex-wife ran into it with her little blue Volkswagen.

I have a high pressure, sit-down job as general counsel of a large engineering company, but my office is about five minutes from a beautiful stretch of the Farmington River. I keep the Star on a rack on my pickup truck, and most days when there is no ice, I drop it in the river at lunch time and am gone for about an hour. I row downstream to an old dam, then turn around and row upstream back to where I started. Things that seemed like problems when I started are mere bagatelles when I finish. As Arthur Martin used to say, “my boat is too small to take my cares with me.” The other day as I was loading the boat back onto the truck, I asked myself how much extra money would I take to go back to the high-rise law firm world where I couldn’t do my noontime rows. The answer was: “no amount of money in the world!”

A lot of people work out at lunch here, Read the rest of this entry »

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Dan’s Love of Sculling Covers 54 Years

Dec 11

Posted by ira in OTHER PEOPLE'S STORIES, exercise, rowing | No Comments

(None of the photos below are of Dan or his specific boat. But they will illustrate for newcomers some aspects of this wonderful sport.)

I have been rowing sculls in the northeast since I was 14 years old. On and off, except for one break of 15 years. It’s a great sport, a non-impact kind of exercise. You’re on the water, which gives me a good feeling, and is a nice place to be. I love going so fast.

singles rowers in foreground—notice squarish, symmetrical oar shapes

singles rowers in foreground—notice squarish, symmetrical oar shapes

It’s great cardio, uses every muscle in your body. You use your legs, arms, feet and back. I’m usually in pretty good shape.

Actually it’s not just exercise. It’s a total experience, being part of nature. I don’t even mind rowing if it’s raining.

I row close by each summer, beginning in April or May as soon as the ice is out. I’m off the lake early October. I usually row four to five times a week for an hour and a half each time, so it’s about two hours total round trip. I go around 7 to 7:30 in the morning or 7 to 7:30 in the evening, when there is a beautiful sunset.

Mt. Tom Pond, where I row, is about 65 acres, and I can go about 0.9 mile per lap. I do 6 to 8 laps each session. After it is too cold to row on the water, I use my Concept 2 rowing machine. (see photo below)

before the stroke with seat near feet—notice legs bent before pulling the oars

before the stroke with seat near feet—notice legs bent before pulling the oars

A scull is a boat in which your feet are fixed in foot stretchers, and the seat moves forward and backward on wheels in a track. There are two long oars that the rower uses.

Some rowing boats have 2, 4, or 8 oars, but each rower only handles one oar. These are called “sweeps.”

racing shell—notice legs extended after finishing the stroke

racing shell—notice legs extended after finishing the stroke

I have two different boats. One is a shell (a racing scull), which is 26 feet long, 11 inches wide—pretty narrow—and weighs just 45 pounds. I use it in the warmer weather. It’s made by a company called Schoenbrod.

The other is a wherry, an English style rowboat that is sleeker than what you usually see here. It’s about 15 feet long, 30” wide and weighs about 140 pounds. I use it when the water is cold and icy. Mine is a Heritage 15 design by Little River Boat Works. Read the rest of this entry »

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