Coach Mike has created a Summer Fitness Challenge to help recognize your efforts to stay fit in the offseason. The challenge runs from June 20th (1st day of summer) to the 1st day of school (Sep 6th). The focus will be on improving your aerobic base, so think running, biking, erging and swimming. To get the most benefit, aim to raise your heart rate into the 145 to 160 beats-per-minute range for at least 45–60 minutes per workout. And, of course, you’ll want to be sure to include stretching to improve flexibility.

Reminder that Coach Mike had asked for rowers to measure fitness at the start of the season by setting a benchmark 2K (2000 meter) erg time. Refer to the target erg times for men and women to be reasonably competitive. Print out the chart and put it on your fridge.

In his Fitness and Boat Placement article, Coach Mike advised that you keep a journal to track your workouts and your progress … include stats like your time for a mile run, number of pushups and pullups, 2K and 5K erg times, and distance running, biking, swimming, or rowing.

How the Fitness Challenge works:

• Make time during each week to do one or more of the listed activities. Shoot for five times per week, and mix it up between the activities to keep it interesting.

• Track your distances for each type of activity* and send your weekly tally by activity to the captains by Saturday at 5 pm. If you achieve a personal best in any measured distance during the week, like a 2K erg, a mile run, or a 100-meter swim, be sure to include that in the note to the captains, too.

• Weekly leaders and PRs will be posted at www.jebstuartcrew.org on Sunday.

• At the end of the summer, Coach Mike will award a $25 gift card to the rower with the highest final total for running. And one for the biking leader. And one for rowing/erg. And, yes, one for swimming.

* Rowing done as part of a summer program counts, too. Ask your coach to provide a distance estimate each day, or try out on mapmydistance.com.

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