3,000,000

In the next few days I’ll reach an exercise milestone: 3,000,000 meters rowed on our rowing machine. It’s taken me almost two years to reach this milestone (22 months and 1 day, to be exact).

To put that in perspective, 3,000,000 meters is about 1,864 miles. In 5000m (3.1 miles) to 12,000m (7.45 mile) increments. I average 34,000m to 40,000m a week.

Given this milestone, you might think I enjoy exercise.

You would be wrong.

I hate it.

Hate it. Hate it. Hate it.

Hate.

It.

Hate it.

I have reached this milestone out of sheer discipline. I have an exercise schedule and I stick to it, even when I really, really, really don’t want to. Which is pretty much every single day. I participate in online challenges set up by the company that makes the rowing machine - I try to create goals and challenges for myself. Anything to keep going.

Every time I am supposed to get on that blasted contraption, I battle myself to 1) set up the environment (movie to watch, fans on, water nearby, etc.), 2) stretch, 3) begin actually rowing, 5) deal with the sweating and dripping (I really hate that), and 5) keep going when I want to stop – which is most of the time I’m rowing.

Clearly for me, exercise is a mostly mental challenge. I can do it – it’s a matter of making myself do it.

So why do I do it? Several reasons, and not necessarily in this order:

1) Understanding that regular exercise really is an important part of a healthy lifestyle.

2) Balancing risk factors for health issues that may (or may not) arise as I get (ahem) older. My mother has pretty bad osteoporosis and recently had spinal fusion surgery, for example. I don’t want that in my future.

3) It’s always nice to look better than the moms in the snotty cliques around town. (Me? Catty much? No!)

4) A good example for my kids. Especially my daughter. There are eating disorder issues on my side of the family (me included, actually) and I want to break the cycle.

5) I like to eat.

I bought this rowing machine for my husband for Valentine’s Day in 2004. I had just done a little contract work and had some non-budget cash – and he’d long been looking at getting one. He rowed (on water) some in college and knew that it was great, complete exercise – a lot of results for time spent and non-impact. (I tried rowing when I started college, but gave up quickly when I realized I would be required to get up early most days. I am not a morning person.) When I gave it to him (“for your heart,” I wrote in the card), he declared that it was too much, too big a gift and he would only keep it if I would agree to use it, too. Did I mention I was 7 months pregnant when I gave it to him? I said, “Yes, I’ll use it,” while chuckling to myself, “Not likely.” I hadn’t exercised with any regularity since….since….well, I guess the correct answer is ever.

My husband started using it immediately. He loved it. It was still hard for him to integrate exercise into his schedule, but intermittent time on the rowing machine was better than no exercise at all.

A bit over a year after I gave him the rowing machine, I realized that my high school reunion was going to be during the same time that we were visiting out west. Not that I intended to go – I didn’t! But I felt that the possibility of running into someone from high school during our visit was high, and I didn’t want any of those old ghosts to see me as I was right then – with still quite a bit of, um, softness left over from that last pregnancy. And so it began.

By the time we headed west that summer, I almost had abs.

Shortly after that visit west, I started logging my meters online – and that was almost 3,000,000 meters ago.

As much as I hate getting on the rowing machine, I am proud of my efforts and that I’ve become fairly strong. My back doesn’t bother me as much as it used to (scoliosis, a car accident long ago), and even though the last couple of weeks don’t reflect this, I feel that my lungs are stronger and I need my asthma inhaler less often.

The kids see exercise as part of a regular routine. That’s something I never saw growing up. C plays around on the rowing machine, and I encourage him to do more. I bet it would help his baseball skills to just plain get stronger, especially upper body. S is too young to do anything other than push buttons on the monitor, and slide around on the seat. (M, however, isn’t allowed near the rowing machine due to his valve issue – this frustrates him, of course. We need to find another exercise example for him.)

So my online logbook stands at 2,990,449 meters. I’ll do 6000m on Friday, and either 6000m or about 12,000m (an hour) on Saturday to put me over.

And just like every other day on the rowing machine, I’ll curse it the entire time.

(As a side note, I’ve long since surpassed my husband in total meters rowed. He’s just over 1,000,000m, I believe. :-D )