The Dark Horse Rowing challenge for September is to do a virtual row from Beijing to one of the 8 main destinations on the Great Wall of China, with distances ranging from 65km to 130km. The challenge is to do it in 9 sessions with no more than 3 minutes rest between any section in the same workout.
Ever since this challenge was posted I have been looking for a way to put my own twist on it. The three longest destinations at around 130,000m did not seem quite far enough, so I thought maybe do Shanhaiguan – where the Great Wall meets the sea.
But at 290,000m from Beijing, this would be over 32,000m for each of the 9 workouts which was a bit high even for me.
I then did some more research on the Great Wall and discovered that it is 21,196km in length, now that sounds awfully like a half marathon if you just swap kilometers for meters.
Then I thought how about nine half marathons and add on some cool down meters and just do the shortest 3 locations at one a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday).
Week 1 will be Juyongguan (60,000m) as 3 x 21,097m (63,291m).
Week 2 will be Huanghuacheng (65,000m) as 3 x 21,097m + 1,111m (66,624m).
Week 3 will be Badaling (70,000m) as 3 x 21,097m + 2222m (69957m) – cool down usually runs on to 2237, so we should be good for 70Km, pus if anyone is really counting, there will be plenty of meters over from the first 2 weeks.
Unfortunately the first two days of this destination will not count towards the Concept 2 Fall Team Challenge as that does not start until the 15th, likewise my weekend OTW rowing will not count for either of these challenges.
As for the sight seeing, I have decided to start each trip from the Forbidden City in the middle of Beijing.
At around 7000m out we pass the Big Bell Temple.
Then at around 14,000m we pass the Beijing Sport University.
Day one finishes at the Zhongguancun Life Science Park at around 21,000m
Map for day one:
I finished the 21097m in 1:39:54.8 a pretty good steady state row with a little push at the end, I watched a few more episodes of Battlestar Galactica as this is my current long distance distraction.
Tuesday Calisthenics involved Random sets of:
- Rings Pull Ups
- Rings Chin Ups
- Rings Bent Knee Rows
- Rings Rows
- Rings Archer Rows (Angled)
- Rings Scapular Pull (Hanging)
- Rings One Arm Assisted Scapular Pull (toes on floor)
- Bent Knee L Sits (Rings)
- Isometric Holds (Rings)
Tuesday evening archery, we started a new beginners class, I shot my longbow on the other half of the hall and acted as field captain for the rest of the club.
Wednesday morning rowing was day two of our journey to Juyongguan we make an early start set off before dawn from Zhongguancun Life Science Park.
Not quite following the direct route, we head due north and at around 7000m we pass the Shahe Reservoir at the junction of the Beisha and Nansha rivers.
Continuing north and after another 7000m we reach Changping New City Binhe Forest Park.
We finish for the day at The Ming Tombs, and the tomb of Empreror Gongrui, father of Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty, dedicated to Emperor Zhu Youchang and his mother, Cixiao.
Map for Day two:
This was another steady state row watching more episodes of Battlestar Galactica.
Slightly warmer today which led to my HR being slightly higher than Monday. The aim on these sessions is to finish them all in around the same time, at just under 1:40:00, I am not pushing for any PBs here.
Thursday was supposed to be a break from rowing, but I decided I wanted this part completed then and have a day of rest from the RowErg before my OTW rowing on Saturday, so decided to do round 3 a day early.
We start day 3 of our journey to Juyongguan from The Ming Tombs
First we head 4000m north to visit another tomb at Dingling – where Wanli Emperor, together with his two Empresses: Wang Xijie and Dowager Xiaojing, were buried, there are 13 tombs in the Changping district.
Next a short 700m hop to Treasure Town and the Zhaoling tomb which is the tomb of the first Quing Dynasty Emperor Hong Taiji and his Empress Xaioduawen.
Then 6,000m to the Huyu Natural Scenic Area.
Then finally a last blast to the Juyong Pass of the Great Wall
Map for Day 3:
Many thanks to our guide Lo Stro Krate from Ro Wing Adventure Tours for planning the route for us.
I was interrupted by the Postman with about 3K to go, so had to put in some effort at about 2:06 pace and 30spm to still finish below 1:40:00 and keep my average pace and stroke rates, hence the high HR for the last segment.
Lo then suggested that rather than take a fast rickshaw back to the Forbidden City to start the next leg, we should switch the order that we were intending to do the destinations and turn it into a continuous journey.
Map for the first leg of the Tour:
So the next destination is now Badaling, a mere 8,700m along the Great Wall from Juyongguan (what is an extra few meters when you are aiming for around 200Km anyway, plus today is day one of the C2 Fall Team Challenge).
I already have some spare meters from the journey so far (3 x 21,097 = 63,291m – 60,000 for Juyongguan = 3,291m) so I needed to row an additional 5,500m to make up the required 8,700m.
The first stop along The Wall is the Badaling Water Gate at 5,500m.
Then after a further 3,200m we reach Badaling.
We will stay here until we start the next part of our journey back to the Forbidden City (70,000m)
Bonus Map:
This second workout was started within 1 minute of completing the 1/2 marathon. Yet more episodes of Battlestar Galactica were watched during the two workouts.
Friday morning I decided to do 5000m for the September SkiErg Performance Series, I will probably do the 2K next Friday and the 1K at the end of the month.
1K warm up (4:46.9), then into the 5K, I tried to keep my pace to 2:10/500m or better, then made a push for the finish with about 500m to go trying to keep the pace around 2:05. I finished with a time of 21:26.4 which is a new PB by by 1:15.9 and beat my July time by 2:04.5. Finished off with a 1128m (5:43.5) cool down.
Saturday morning masters rowing started off with us cleaning and moving some boats around that had been brought back from the sailing club before heading in the 4-, I was in the number 3 seat again, 8518m of mainly technical drills. I then headed into Staines and had a haircut and some lunch before heading back for the Leisure group.
Leisure group row was with Josh in the leisure 2x, myself at stroke and Josh steering I recorded 4167m on the SpeedCoach, however it did not record the first 2000ish meters and also refused to connect to my HR chest strap.
Shortly after we came in, a Gloriana boat came past and was asking if they could use our landing stage on Monday to load 18 oarsmen, the boat was to be used as part of the Queens funeral.
I had agreed to help out with a new learn to row group as an extra rower, although they were not ready to go out on the water that day, so they were learning technique on the RowErgs. I decided to do a few sessions as well, I did not have my phone with me and the PM3 monitor would not have connected to it anyway.
I did a slow warm up of just over 1000m, then a 500m sprint in 1:37.2 and followed this up with around 2500m of cool down that also included some stop drills.
Sunday afternoon archery Short Metric shoot against Laleham Archery Club, quite a windy day and as a result my score was down quite a bit.
Fortunately for us most of the better archers from Laleham were at another shoot in Woking, so we ended up winning the made score and the handicap score.
This means we finish the season 3:3 on the made score tournament and 5:1 on the handicap score tournament. The presentation shoot is next weekend at Aquarius, but I will not be attending.
Distance covered on the Juyongguan leg of the tour was 63,291m
Distance total for the challenge at the end of day 6 now stands at 68,867m.
Distance covered for the Concept 2 Fall Team Challenge is currently standing at 37,375m