You ever take a nap, and then wake up to feel like you are in another dimension? Where things seem normal, but you can’t quite catch up to what’s going on, so there is a persistent itch at your mind that you have entered an alternate universe and are trying to assimilate as quickly as possible?
No? Just me? Alright then.
Day 9 took place after an unplanned nap that lead me through some sort of cosmic shift. Or maybe that REM sleep was just tha bomb. When I was able to shake the cobwebs, I went to the garage and started putting in the work, and was feeling really good.
Since I was feeling SO good, I decided to see how far I could go without rest, and without looking at the PM3 monitor. Which is like the proverbial watched pot that never boils, if you are up to date on your cooking jargon.
The repetitive actions that are involved in rowing can be sort of hypnotic when you really find your groove. The action can cause you to become even more introspective than normal, especially more introspective than almost any other physical activity. That is because your mind is not having to focus on the movement of the body, so it re-doubles its efforts to converse with you, in order to find out why exactly you are putting yourself through this punishment. You may even imagine yourself sitting on a couch, in front of a studio audience, discussing where it all went wrong with some TV personality, like Oprah. Or maybe, your voice just likes to sweet talk you into giving in. Either way, there is deviousness involved.
When my inner voice started to get even more jackass-ish, I just dug in, and let it fly. Before I knew it, I had 3K+ meters in the bank. This was a record distance for me in recent history, so I decided to take a break of 1 minute. As I sat on the rower, waiting for my heartbeat and breath to return to a more normal threshold, I thought, “I wonder if I can do that again?”
Luckily, the narrator of my life story was able to tease us all with, “He could, in fact, do it again. Times 3.” Cue musical crescendo.
That’s right. 4 intervals of 3K. 4 minutes worth of break time for 12,000 meters. A feat of mythological strength (for me).
Take that, Oprah.
Here are my pics from Day 9.
This is a slide show of the close-ups I took of the route I travelled on Day 9, 11 pictures in total.
At the end of Day 9, I have travelled the following measures:
Distance: 108,225 meters (I BROKE 100 KMs!!!!)
Time: 8 hours, 34 minutes, and 50.4 seconds
Day 9 had me travelling to an unnamed island, settling for a small cove to provide some protection from any rogue waves. I would have liked to have made it to Verdens Ende, but just couldn’t figure out a way to do it, with the meters I put in for the day. Some forward planning might have helped me to realize the potential destination, so I will try to do so, at least until the point of reaching the great expanse of the North Sea, and saying goodbye to the Norwegian peninsula.
Skål!
