A mom tells us about her discovery of Indoor Rowing.

Somewhere around 54 years old and 54 pounds too heavy I thought it

would be a good idea to erg just for some extra exercise. Actually just

bending over and tying my shoelaces before erging was enough to make me

want to sit down. For months I'd been hearing the spinning of the

Concept2 and the beat of the music as my son worked out in the

evenings. Xeno had mentioned the online competition but that really

didn't mean anything to me. Not then anyway. I took my first spin

during the day when nobody was around. A whole 500 meters later I was

exhausted. While logging on for the first time I slightly edged out

Christopher, Xeno's 3-year-old son. A girlfriend of mine had been

logging her mileage with the Iron Oarsman team and she was thousands of

meters ahead. For the next couple days I kept up the 500 meter pace

until my son came in and wryly observed my technique. After a few

helpful pointers, and a few more, he helped me balance what I was

doing. (Now I see him coming and automatically sit up straighter.) By

then I was becoming competitive - just for fun I wanted to catch up

with my friend. So I started erging in the early morning, at lunch,

during television commercials, and before I went to bed. The dog

couldn't understand why I wasn't throwing the ball as much for him

anymore, the dishes didn't always get done, and the wash kept piling

up. Every time I logged on my miles, I checked to see how far my friend

had gone. If she went 2000 meters, I went 1999 meters. A month later I

had logged on 186,000 meters and driven my friend crazy - she's even

more competitive than I am. One evening while she was on the erg at

their home, her son came in around 7:30 p.m. and said he was hungry.

Through gritted teeth she said "Not until I'm done!" It was then she

realized we had become obsessive about our exercise rivalry. So we're

back to erging for our own personal best. I figure by next May 1st

we're going to be in way better shape than we are right now. I'd like

to be able to say then that I'm 55 and 55 pounds lighter...

Xeno Muller, Olympic gold and silver medalist, indoor rowing, rowing technique.