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Mr Blair was familiar with Eric Prydz's song Call on Me, which features women doing aerobics in revealing leotards. "The first time it came on, I nearly fell off my rowing machine," he said.

Link: The Times

We've got a number of special on-line offers in the Concept 2 Shop at the moment. Firstly, if you purchase a machine through the website at the moment, you currently get a free Heart Rate Interface worth £32.90 which, when used in conjunction with a chest belt transmitter and heart rate monitor, displays your heart rate on the performance monitor. Secondly, and most excellently, if you spend over £1,000 online you get a free return flight to the United States, flying with leading scheduled airlines to Atlanta, Boston, New York or Washington. Obviously there's a wodge of small print to go with this, so go to http://www.concept2.co.uk/shop/america.php for more information.

Also, while we're on the subject, we've found a load of formerly out-of-stock clothing down the back of the sofa over Christmas. There's therefore limited supplies and sizes of kit back up on the site at greatly reduced prices, including snazzy men and women's All-in-Ones at 20 quid, down from £39.99: http://www.concept2.co.uk/shop/moa_clothing.php. We'll probably also chuck in a surprise free gift if you order any of this stuff: (the main surprise will be if it's not an old t-shirt, but still, it's free and all).

The 2005 World Indoor Rowing Championship is on February 13th in Boston, USA. The deadline for entries is January 28th, so if you're thinking of entering, you'll need to get along to http://www.concept2.co.uk/wirc/entryform.php sharpish.

There are a couple of things to note about this year's championship: firstly, there are now five- year age categories for the veteran 50+ events. Secondly, we can now announce the captain and coach for this year's team.

The captain is former Royal Marine and member of the SBS Bernie Shrosbree. A former international at both biathlon and triathlon, Bernie is now a human performance coach, whose clients have included the likes of Jenson Button, James Cracknell, Colin McRae and Bath Rugby Club. He is also the recent author of "Inspired: The Blueprint For Total Conditioning" available at all good bookshops and also all middling indoor rowing websites: http://www.concept2.co.uk/shop/shrosbree_book.php

The coach is Eddie Fletcher, who's a familiar name on the indoor rowing circuit. Over the last few years he has coached World, British and Grand Prix medallists and record holders notably Anna Bailey and this year's Open Champion Graham Benton. His medal haul at the 2004 British Championships was an impressive seven gold, three silver and five bronze from rowers he coaches or advises.

More on Bernie and Eddie can be found in the News section of the World IRC website. A copy of Eddie's notes on preparing for a race can be found at Coaches Notes section of the site and are well worth reading by anybody into indoor racing.

We'll be sending out a free copy of Bernie's book in the post to all members of the British team, so if you've not entered through Concept 2 UK and haven't informed us that you'll be competing, make sure you drop an email to wirc@concept2.co.uk and let us know your details. This way, we'll also be able to keep you in the loop about any activities that will be taking place in Boston.

Every week, sponsored events involving the Indoor Rower take place up and down the country. Quite often, however, we never hear anything about them so, if you're involved in a charity row and you get chance, make sure you send us a report from the event. Not only will we put it in the newsletter and on the website, but hopefully it will help lend inspiration to others wishing to raise money. Send the details of your row to editor@concept2.co.uk. As ever, photographs are more than gratefully accepted.

The Indoor Rowing News has broken so many resolutions in the past, we've got half an eye out in case we get invaded by the United States. However, if you're determined to slough off the old you and replace it with one who looks very like the old one but with a better VO2 Max, then Terry O'Neill is on hand to help. A former Olympic rowing coach, if you want to take advantage of his hard-earned wisdom, drop him an email at terry@concept2.co.uk.

Chris Blagden: "I am a Category 1 golfer looking to improve my fitness levels. During the golf season (April-October), I will be playing numerous 36-hole competitions where the second round follows immediately after the first, which is pushing towards the ten-mile mark. I find I tire after the first round and consequently my timing and concentration suffer. I am three weeks into a 16 weeks, four days a week programme I took from the website (http://www.concept2.co.uk/training/interactive.php). Could you advise me as to how much training I should do during the golf season so as to keep my end of programme fitness level without tiring myself for the golf? Is it better to do maintenance training or push on with another 16-week programme based on my new 2,000m best of 7:52? Any advice would be a great help."

Terry O'Neill: You are quite right in believing that fatigue will affect timing and concentration. A higher level of aerobic condition measured in terms of maximum oxygen uptake will combat this. Rowers have amongst the highest levels of oxygen uptake of all sportsmen; only cyclists have been measured with a higher capacity. Therefore following a training regime for rowing would appear to be a good idea.

However, a 2000m rowing race is a combination of about 70-80% aerobic effort and 20-30% anaerobic, and a rowing programme addresses this requirement. Golf is exclusively aerobic and so I would say for you the 16 week interactive programme would need to be modified. I would not see any transferable benefits from training sessions in the AN and TR bands and so I would cut these down. Don't cut them out completely because apart from the actual physical training benefits, if the programmes is not varied and interesting then it becomes boring and will lead to missed sessions and eventual drop out.

At the other end I would reduce the number of UT2 sessions and increase the number of sessions in the AT range. This is because training in the AT band is the most effective for improvement of aerobic capacity.

As for the training during competition, contrary to what you may think, the fitter you are during your competition period the more energetic you will feel, and therefore less tired.

What I would try is during competition consider the 36 holes as low intensity training (UT2-UT1). In between I would do sessions of UT1-AT.

7:52 for a first 2,000m is not a bad start and normally you would show some rapid improvement by following the programme. Of course, modifying the programme so you are in better shape for golf means you will not reach your full potential over the 2K distance.

Although fitness levels will have a bearing on your ability to focus and hold form, it is not the only factor. Your mental state will also have a huge bearing on your performance. I can help with the physical side but you may consider getting hold of some books or articles on sports psychology. To be at your best there are three areas that require equal attention, the physical, technical and mental. Failure to address any one of these will lead to underperformance.

The dates for this year's Rowathlon series have now been announced. They are:

A rowathlon race is similar to a triathlon except that it's much better as you get to stay nice and dry due to the swimming leg being replaced by indoor rowing one. Points are awarded at each of the events in a similar way to the British Triathlon Association Grand Prix scoring system. Like last year, the overall winner in each of the four senior race categories will win a trip to Copenhagen for the Concept 2 European Open.

For more information on the triathlon series, or to download an entry form, visit http://www.concept2.co.uk/rowathlon/

The Glasgow Grand Prix, the penultimate race in this year's Grand Prix series, takes place in Motherwell (yes, we know) on the 23rd of January. We'll be bringing you results, reports, replays, photographs and updated standings as soon as we can after the event. The final race in the series is in Manchester on February 13th and, although it unfortunately clashes with the World IRC this year, it promises to be a great end of season event. For more information on the Grand Prix series, go to http://www.concept2.co.uk/gp/

Also: while we think about it: all the available replays, race graphs and split times from the Concept 2 European Open in Amsterdam are up on the site now, so if you competed, you might want to shuffle along to http://www.concept2.co.uk/euro/

Andrew Pearce: "Have you any advice or training tips for the Rowathlon events e.g. how to split training time over the three disciplines, distances to cover for speed and endurance for the row, bike and run (assuming standard rowathlon distance 3-4k row, 20-30k bike, 3-5k run)?"

Terry O'Neill: I don't have anything specific but if this is your first one then your race strategy is most important.

Of the three disciplines, the row is the least significant in that, if you row comfortably within yourself, you will only be one or two minutes down on a time where you really go for it. One or two minutes on a 30km bike ride is nothing and easily recoverable. How well you do on the run will depend on what you have left in your legs after the bike.

So the bike is the most important section and I would spend as much time as possible cycling. I would then spend the next highest time running and the least time on the rower.

As a rough guide I would divide the training time available into eight parts. I would then allocate 5/8 to cycling, 2/8 to running and 1/8 to rowing.

This may seem a bit extreme but the row will have to be aerobic and the cycling will help develop your aerobic capacity. If you push too hard on the row you will be dead before you start.