Tag Archives: sports

Rowing, Sports

Battling injuries and insecurities

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This is so frustrating.

Managing to get in a full training schedule is proving hard as I continue battling minor chronic injuries in my right arm, left leg, and lower back.

After the flu and a silly ailment that stopped me from training in the first weeks of the year, I now have to deal with a shoulder pain, niggling elbow and lower back tension.

I can train, and I am training, and quite hard. My most recent indoor row was my record since when I started, meaning I am in good physical shape. I just feel I can do far better. It can be quite tough on the body though.

Now, I’m doing nine trainings a week – three days with one session and another three with two sessions, plus a day off. The increased tempo might explain the injuries, but I really need to step up as it’s now less than 650 days to go. There is no going back.

I’m also somewhat concerned about my capabilities when it comes to the crossing. I have the knowledge, but my confidence is at a bit of a low. It comes in waves – one week I feel great and confident, then next two are low and insecure.

The next few months are going to be crazy with getting the boat and all the red tape around it, doing ‘live’ training sessions in the Med, and getting all the race paperwork done correctly and on time. All this come while managing a (currently) challenging job and also undertaking my family duties.

It’s all so terrifyingly scary and exhilarating at the same time. Can’t wait for the pieces to start falling into place to be honest.

What’s this all about?

In December 2025, I am participating in the World’s Toughest Row as a solo rower. The endurance race will see around 40 teams compete to cross the 3,000 miles from La Gomera (Spain) to Antigua. This is an unsupported row, meaning I will be all alone during the crossing.

A land team back home and the organisers (Atlantic Campaigns) will provide the important backup needed to complete the row.

Rowing, Sports

Tough start to the year

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So January has been a tough month to deal with, at least in terms of physical fitness.

I ended the year getting sick twice, which never happened before. This interfered with my schedule. I couldn’t afford to fall back further.

Starting 2024 meant stepping up to nine trainings a week, which included three days a week with two training sessions. In 2023, it was once a day, six days a week.

Thus far, I have only managed two daily trainings once. One week into the year, I developed a physical condition that has really taken a toll on training. This condition has knock on effects, meaning with January at its end, I have done relatively little.

It’s very frustrating as I’m desperate to really start pushing. With less than 700 days left, there isn’t too much time left to get in shape. It may seem like a lot, but there is a ton to do apart from training.

I know it’ll get better, but I’m not really known for my patience. Rant over.

Rowing, Sports

Lots to do

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When I decided to go on the World’s Toughest Row solo row across the Atlantic Ocean in October 2022, there was a ton of time to do things. The other day I realised that the row is actually next year.

Admittedly, it’s in December 2025, which means a tad less than two years. It may seem like a lot, but when you consider what I have to do, it’s not.

Doing it virtually alone (bar a friend and my wife) means that a great deal of the work falls on my shoulder. Add in the language barrier here in Switzerland and everything becomes more complicated.

There is also the matter of training, which, happily, is back on course. I wasn’t injured or anything – just has no electricity in the basement where my home gym is. That meant no HIIT nor weights training.

It did mean a lot of time on my rowing machine, so much so that my had calluses feel like I have little pebbles permanently attached to my hands.

On a very positive note, I think I’ve cracked the navigation thing and now have set a 100 nautical mile corridor that I will (should) stay in for my crossing. That’s around 200km – it may seem like a lot, and it is. Keep in mind that the weather and sea currents play an important part in all this and will more or less determine where I go. Having such a corridor allows me a great deal of flexibility.

The important thing is I know how to get to the other side.

My most pressing job now is to get the boat. There is a ton of paperwork required to get it in, and with the help from a Swiss rowing mate and my wife working the phones, I hope to manage to get her here without huge headaches.

Finding a name is also proving hard – not for lack of choice but because I have too many ideas. Will figure it out, but here as some options I’m considering:

  • Wingster
  • Wings
  • Sea Fox
  • Emma
  • Sophie
  • Wanderer (or Wanderoar)

I’ll figure it out. Feel free to send suggestions.

Rowing, Sports

Training: Ramp up phase coming to an end

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In December 2025, I will be rowing the Atlantic Ocean as a solo in the World’s Toughest Row.

I started training for the row in October 2022, getting back onto my indoor rower in what was a somewhat haphazard pattern that was aimed at getting my muscles, hands, bum and everything else used to rowing again.

It was around the same time that I also started training for a marathon in Zürich, a long time wish I had. This meant dividing my time between rowing an running, with running taking the lino’s share of my training time.

With the marathon done and dusted towards the end of April, my focus sharpened and rowing – mainly indoors – became my priority.

The period between October 2022 and December 2023 was designated as my ramp up phase, where I get back into shape. My litmus test for this was being able to do 45 minutes on the rowing machine without any big effort.

To do this, 45 minutes on the erg also became my minimum time. In comparison, when I did my 2021 row, 30 minutes was my minimum time.

I also wanted to do so in a decent time for a 53-year-old. In my books, that’s 2 mins 30 secs or less per 500 metres on a regular (rather than just once or twice). To put this in perspective, my earlier times were more like 2 mins 50 seconds per 500 metres.

This has been achieved with a month to spare, so now the ramp up time can successfully come to an end.

The next stages begin in January. Here the focus will be on technique, muscle building, and endurance.

Injuries
Inevitably, injuries are starting to creep back in. My right leg hamstring has been an issue for years, and still is. I feel pain, but can continue working out normally. It’s uncomfortable, but I can handle it.

I also have a left side lower back pain that seems to come and go. That is more concerning as it makes training quite hard.

The worst is my right shoulder. I hurt it in a biking accident seven years ago and it is now flaring up again. I believe it’s because of my increased weight training and more intense rowing. The pain is extending down the arm to the elbow and the other way to my neck.

In the end stages of the ramp up training period, I started training two times a day on certain days. This has also exacerbated the injury. The issue us that the intensity is now increasing.

I’ve taken a couple of days off training with the hope that everything calms down and I can kick off the next phase.

Rowing, Sports

Solo and unsupported, but not alone

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The biggest misconception about rowing an ocean – solo or not – is that a boat with an engine (or sail) follows you around.

Rowers are thought to wake up bright and early, row for 12 hours and then get back on the support vessel for a nice warm shower, dinner, glass of wine, followed by a comfortable sleep in a normal bed before repeating everything the next day.

That’s not exactly what happens. It’s actually very far removed from reality.

In keeping with the spirit of the first ocean rowers, the row must be unsupported, meaning there is no support ship, and we cannot accept any assistance from outside, not even a cold can of beer.

From when I leave land on 12 December 2025 until I get to land – presumably around mid-February 2026 – I will be on my own. I will be rowing a minimum of 12 hours a day, up to 14 hours if possible.

The remaining time will be used to maintain the boat, contact race organizers and family plus my support team, taking footage, checking internet (yes, I’ll have internet this time), cleaning, cooking and sleeping in a small cabin.

I will be taking part in a race – the World’s Toughest Row – so I will be racing. It’ll be difficult to beat the teams of five or four, but I may be able to catch some duos and trios if I push hard enough and am lucky with the weather.

The race organizers have a sailing boat visiting rowing boats, but they won’t stay around for long for me to get on board to shower and have dinner and take a nap.

For most part, I will be rowing. Solo and unsupported maybe, but not alone in many ways.

Watch my last rowing adventure across the Atlantic here or see below.

If you are interested in supporting or sponsoring my row, you can contact me on maltarower@gmail.com  

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My name is Cross Rower

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One dark and wet November evening, just over one year ago, a mundane decision kicked off what is most likely to be one of the biggest and hardest challenges I’ll ever face – both mentally and physically.

First, I’ll take a few steps back to February two years ago when my brother Mike passed away.

Like most in a similar position, the events of that Saturday morning left a deep impact on me. I was left with an unfillable void. As I was saying my final farewells to Mike, I decide that I had to do something in his honour, and in the process help organisation who do so much work to help others in their time of need.

The only problem was I had no idea what to do.

Fast forward to November 2018.

While looking for a TV programme to help me with my German, I stumbled across a film with four Swiss guys rowing across an ocean. Rowing an ocean. Bloody crazy.

The Swiss Motion team were packed onto an eight-metre by 1.5-metre boat and in just over 30 days they rowed nearly 5,000km (3,000 nautical miles) across the Atlantic Ocean.

Swiss Motion competed in the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge – this year, 35 teams are competing. Not sure if it’s a record, but it’s quite a lot.

The 2019 edition is currently underway and the first team is expected to make landfall right now.

I can’t do the Talisker Atlantic Challenge just yet – it’s beyond my financial means. But I decided to row the Atlantic anyway. I’m joining adventurer Ralph Tuijn (photo above, left) on a trip from Faro in Portugal to Cayenne in French Guiana in South America.

It’s a 6,000km trip where a team of six – including me – will row 24 hours a day, two hours on and two off. The aim is to reach our destination in less than 48 days. The current record for this stretch is 48 days, 4 hours and 30 minutes.

It’s one of the toughest challenges there are, and to break the record, we will need lady luck to be on our side with good trade winds and fair weather.

I have been preparing for this challenge for just over a year. I’ll also be joining my local rowing club to get as much on the water time as possible. Until now, I have done around 2.3 million metres, but all on an indoor rower.

The actual trip across the Atlantic leaves Portugal on 1 March 2021 and I hope to get to South America by 16 April 2021 – the day before my brother’s birthday.

This is significant because I will be collecting money for charity in my brother’s honour, among others. For more information, please visit my website: www.crossrower.ch

Sports

Obituary for a friend I never met

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It was a near daily experience for me to see this unassuming guy running, pounding the streets in Sliema as I waited for the bus in the 1980s. I could tell how long the bus had taken to arrive by seeing how far this guy had run. It was like a ritual.

I always wanted to jog, but as a somewhat messed up teenager, I was more interested in smoking and other debaucheries.

Work then got in the way and any ambition I had of taking up running as a sport faded away. But this guy kept appearing, and I kept watching him stride along. And I kept thinking that someday I would run, too.

As this guy ran, it seemed as though he was made of two extra-long legs and had a stride that professional runners would be envious of. As I upgraded to a car and left ‘my’ Sliema bus stop opposite Gelateria, I still saw him numerous times, mainly in my hometown.

And each time, I promised myself that one day I would start running, too. I later saw the guy had competed for Malta, and even won medals in the Small Nations Games, and I knew that if I had started running, maybe I too could someday make it to the papers.

That never happened, but what did was that many years after I first saw Gerald DeGaetano I took up running and have completed two marathons so far, and am training for another.

I never met Gerald, but he was an inspiration. For this, I thank him and consider him a friend I never met.

Gerald DeGaetano passed away on 8 January aged 53.

Sports, Thoughts

Successful failures

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I realized that two of my supposedly biggest sporting failures in terms of results were actually not as bad as I believed. No, scratch that. They were successes. Let me explain…

The first was a football game I played towards the end of the 1980s. I played in goal for the youth team of one of the bigger clubs in Malta and we were thrashed 4-0. It was a complete onslaught with wave after wave of attack.

Balls were coming at me from all direction and with varying speeds – from very fast to what seemed like ‘ludicrous mode’ (with apologies to Tesla). Now, I conceded four goals and felt terrible when the game ended. Surely, if you lose 4-0, the goalkeeper cannot feel great, can he? But what happened next surprised me.

As I was walking back to the bench, all the opposition players came to me to shake my hand and pat me on the back. They greeted me with ‘well dones’ and ‘amazing performance’. My team, too, were swarming round me. I was expecting jeers and criticism after conceding four.

The thing I hadn’t realized was that if I weren’t in goal that day, and played so well, we would have probably suffered a humiliating defeat comparable to Malta’s performance against Spain in 1982.

The next is the marathon I ran last May. I must admit, I came last in my age group. It did take me a staggering 4 hours 50 minutes to complete the 42.195 km track. A bit disappointing, I thought.

Really and truly, just finishing was an achievement in itself – it’s just a matter of having the right perspective.

The moral of the story is that you should not let your mind be clouded by doubt and lack of confidence. My Maltese teacher at school, a large part-time farmer with a permanent frown and temper (although a great teacher – just in case he’s reading this), said no matter how ugly you are (yes, he said ‘ugly’), you will still find your way in life, and even find a partner. He was right. Apparently, despite his grumpiness, or maybe in spite of it, he could always see things from a different perspective.

Sports

No excuses

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It’s not an excuse, nor a veiled attempt at justification of a poor result – I haven’t trained anywhere close to what I should have done and the results will show. Preparation, in any world, is key to success.

So much so that for the first time in seven years, I debated whether to participate in the Zürich Triathlon. Four years ago, this would have been unthinkable. My current level of fitness, however, has cretaed some doubts as to my ability to actually finish the race.

I surveyed my performance during training (the little I did) over the past months and calculated that I should finish in a time of around 90 minutes (best 89 minutes, worst 93 minutes). My calculations do not take into account the adrenalin of the race, the nerves and tension and the inborn human competitive spirit. Either way, I doubt it’ll be that far off from my prediction.

My best time was a handful of seconds over 71 minutes, so I am way off where I should be. But you never know – if I have a good day, I may perform better than expected, which is why giving up is out of the question.

At 8.40am, I will take the plunge – literally – into the lake and give it my all. Soon after, I’ll be on my bike and then tackle the last bit on foot – hopefully running. Anything less than an hour and a half will be a bonus, but I must admit I will be disappointed if I do worse.

Sports

Disappointing result, rekindled spirit

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To say I’m disappointed is an understatement. My triathlon result was not what I had hoped for, even though after two disciplines I was actually more than a minute ahead of last year’s time.

I dropped four places to 78th (out of a field of 110 racers) from 74th (102 participants) last year. My time was 1h21m02sec compared to 1h19m38sec – 84 seconds slower. The heat played a part, but the lack of proper training and lack of form were the real reasons.

Swimming was great with my time eight seconds quicker compared to last year, and the usual stress that has dodged every triathlon I competed in – and it’s more than 20 over the past seven years – was conspicuously absent.

The cycling didn’t feel great, but I still managed to complete the 20km in 1m13sec faster than last year. Counting in the two transitions (both exactly 2m06sec), I was around the 50-minute mark coming into the running.

My muscles reacted as the always do – badly. But it was no different from the past years. I calculated that I could make it as my time of 26 minutes last year was well within reach.

After the first kilometre, I realised that it wasn’t looking good. It took me more than seven minutes to complete. A quick calculation meant that at the same pace, I’d cross the line in well past the 1h19m mark I had set myself.

Try as I might, I was running on empty. I had nothing left in me. With two kilometres left, I was barely 10 minutes away from my self-imposed limit. I ran hard and dropped my time to under six minutes, but it was too little too late.

The last kilometre was my best, but around 400 metres from the end I was at 1h19m40sec. I still ran as hard as I could (and even passed another runner) to cross the line to wild cheering and riotous applause from the thousands who turned out to see me (That didn’t happen, he’s delusional – Ed).

The key take-away from the whole event was that I had fun, I really enjoyed it. And now, I feel incredibly motivated. I might even do the Zug Olympic triathlon with my mate Fergus, who clocked a fantastic time of 1h15m56sec on Saturday.

This time, more than any other time, I’ll get it right (with apologies to the undefeated England 1982 World Cup team).