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A guide to some of the more common terms used in indoor rowing can be found at http://www.concept2.co.uk/rowing/glossary.php.

One of the most popular uses of the Indoor Rower is to help lose weight. There are some great testimonies on the site showing how people have managed to shift the pounds using the machine. Although using the machine is simple enough, losing weight can be a difficult process, with plenty of advice flying around, especially as many people trying to do so may not have followed a structured fitness plan for a number of years.

In order to try and help, Concept 2 have recently created a free 35 page Weight Loss booklet. Whatever your aims, the information in this guide will help you to do two things.

First it will help you answer the questions - "What should I do?", "When should I do it?", "How can I stay on track?", "Who can help me succeed?" and, most importantly, "Why am I doing this?"

Second, it will teach you some practical steps to knowing what to do, when to do it and how to stay on track. This information has been gained from experience with thousands of exercisers and many elite athletes.

The guide consists of four sections: Section 1: Your Plan gets you to ask the questions, "Why am I doing this?", "What do I want to get out of it?" and "How am I going to do it?" and helps you to create an action plan.

Section 2: Exercise Guidance does exactly what it says. It gives guidance about exercising, stretching, warming up and cooling down.

Section 3: The Training is a training guide designed by Olympic rowing coach Terry O'Neill to allow you to improve your fitness and help you lose that fat.

Section 4: Healthy Habits is full of ideas that will help you with creating a healthy diet, what foods are recommended and what should be avoided, and some lifestyle suggestions to help you maximise the programme.

This guide does not provide you with a quick fix. Fad diets may help you lose fat quickly but that fat almost always comes straight back. We think of this as the slim slow plan. This allows you to change your lifestyle, learn habits that make your lifestyle healthier and continue with this healthier lifestyle.

To download the Weight Loss booklet, visit: http://www.concept2.co.uk/weightloss/booklet.php.

The Evesham Golden Mile takes place on the 9th of July at Evesham Rowing Club. As well as being a rare summer race, it's run over the almost as rare mile distance, giving you the chance to have a crack at the British records for the distance. With over 160 entries this year, the event is well up on last year's entry. The race timetable and a competitor list can be found at http://www.concept2.co.uk/racing/calendar_uk.php?id=163.

Tel's Tales is the question and answer column written by three-times Olympic rowing coach Terry O'Neill, a man whose knowledge of training and rowing is written in every hard-earned gnarl and knobble of the knees he insists on getting out every summer. If you've got a question you'd like to ask, send it to terry@concept2.co.uk.

Andrew Burrows: "I have had a lactate profile done on myself a few months back and have been doing all my training (UT2/1 at this stage of the season) using the Heart Rate zones that I received from the results. My question is this: in heat such as we had this weekend my HR for any given pace is a lot higher than if the weather was cool. As an example, my 60 minutes at 20spm UT2 rows which are done at a HR of between 144-154, in the cooler weather as an example I get an average pace of 1:55.7 for say an average HR of 148. This weekend I did the same row but in the heat and got a pace of 1:58.2 at an average HR of 150. That's a huge difference! What is the best way to go about this? Do I stick to the HR zones and let the pace suffer accordingly or do I stick to a pace and just let the HR suffer accordingly (i.e.: go higher - into UT1)?"

Terry O'Neill: Training intensities are determined by blood lactate levels, but you have to use the tools available. Monitoring blood lactate in real time is impracticable and the most practical way to monitor work intensity is heart rate. It is eminently sensible to get a lactate profile so you know what heart rate relates to what lactate level.

There are caveats and one is the heart is not only supplying oxygen and nutrients to working muscles, it also has to deal with stabilising the body temperature and fighting invasive bacteria. For these reasons you could have an elevated heart rate that is nothing to do with work intensity.

If you are feeling OK and it is a hot or humid day then you can expect your heat rate to be elevated and yes, ignore it, because if it is a result of ambient temperature, your lactate levels will not be higher.

My views are these. If you are on a high volume training plan, (15-20+ hours a week) then you have to be very careful about work intensity, as the risk is over-training. If you train once a day there is virtually no risk of over-training and in this case a high intensity programme can be followed. If you follow a high intensity programme then you can work on power output and forget heart rate. You can also work on power output on the high volume programme but high performance athletes have a substantial support mechanism as a safety net.

A couple of newsletters ago we mentioned the Endurancelife 7x7x7 event, which is made up of seven different marathon distance events every day for seven consecutive days. Starting on Sunday, July 3rd, the events are:

Day 1 - Off road running marathon Day 2 - Mountain biking marathon Day 3 - Open water kayaking marathon Day 4 - Traditional road running marathon Day 5 - Cycling time trial marathon Day 6 - Indoor rowing marathon Day 7 - Multi-Sport - kayak, run, bike marathon

Anyway, Natasha Ballard from Weston-super-Mare is taking part and she sent us the following email:

"Hello, I am mad enough to be doing the Endurancelife 7x7x7 event starting next week I believe attached to one of your rowers for half a day. Here is a picture of me on an ancient example of your fine steed lent to me by my local fire station. I've done 264 miles of row training and I think I've killed it. As for me, well I purchased a seat pad and mitt things from you last week; the pad helps a bit but not enough. Anyway, thought this could brighten a rainy Friday for you and invoke that phrase, 'rather you than me'!"

Natasha can be seen on the right on an old Model B. We especially like the fact that the skateboard makes her look like she has a Princess Leia haircut. To sponsor Natasha, visit either http://www.justgiving.com/H7x7 or http://www.justgiving.com/FB7x7.

For more on the Endurancelife 7x7x7 event, go to http://www.endurancelife.com/races/seven/overview.asp.

Last newsletter saw the World's Biggest Cartoonist, Rog Brown, fob us off with half a cartoon about Matthew Pinsent's recent knighthood, forcing us to come up with an impromptu caption competition. Fortunately, readers of the newsletter rose to the challenge and we received a load of good entries. Just edging it, however, was Kev Anderson, who wins the prize of a signed copy of Matthew Pinsent's autobiography for:

"So just remind me, the catch is where I drop the blade in, and push with both feet?"

On April 23rd, 2006, the President of the British IRC, Sir Steve Redgrave, will be taking part in the 26th Flora London Marathon with the aim of breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest charitable amount raised by one person at a marathon anywhere in the world. He has a target of £1.2 million and he needs your help to get there.

He has set up a secure page operated by justgiving.com where you can pledge any amount, and just a few pounds will be a great help to the three projects which the Steve Redgrave Trust has chosen to support through Steve's marathon run:

The Association of Children's Hospices - a registered charity which brings together more than 40 voluntary sector children's hospice services throughout the UK dedicated to the care of children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions and their families.

The Steve Redgrave Trust inner-city schools project - working to give children in Britain's inner city schools access to healthy activity, exercise and sport.

Children with Leukaemia - a national charity dedicated to conquering childhood leukaemia through research into the causes of the disease, improving treatments for sufferers and the welfare of leukaemic children and their families.

To donate money for his marathon record attempt, visit: http://www.justgiving.com/sponsorsirsteve

A note from Steve:

"Even a pledge of a few pounds will make a real difference to the lives of the young people we will be helping through the Steve Redgrave Trust, and donating some sponsorship is quick and easy - you are just one click away.

"Sponsoring me online will allow us to collect Gift Aid on your donation, giving us an extra 28p in every pound which really is a great boost towards the total so please pledge online if at all possible. Alternatively, you can call 0870 458 0045 (standard national call rates apply) for other payment methods.

"I hope you are able to play your part in helping us towards that record, and no matter how small or large your donation is, thank you very much."

Cliff North: "I read with interest the experience of Karen Hambly in Indoor Rowing News #125 and her use of the Indoor Rower for rehab after major joint surgery. On May 16th 1998, at the age of 59, I crashed off my mountain bike in the Peak National Park on an off- road trail. I wrecked my left ankle and after the cavalry arrived, with a four wheel drive ambulance, and got me to hospital in Sheffield, I had reconstructive surgery, five days in hospital and three months on crutches.

"When the pots (I had three) finally came off in early August and with the encouragement of my sympathetic physio, I started gingerly on the Indoor Rower at my local gym doing just five minutes gentle rowing with the damper lever on one. The rowing action gradually built strength and flexibility into the ankle and leg as well as developing much needed all round fitness after weeks of sitting around with the ankle in plaster.

"Rowing, of gradually increasing length and intensity, along with more conventional hospital physiotherapy, worked a dream and when I was finally discharged from the fracture clinic in the December, my surgeon was amazed at the progress, bearing in mind my age and the severity of the fracture which had involved torn ligaments and the need for the surgical insertion of a steel plate and seven screws to hold the joint together. They are still in there and since this time I have rowed every week apart from holidays along with stretching and weight-training for general all round fitness, my routines developed with the help of the Concept 2 Training Guide [http://www.concept2.co.uk/guide/]. I stared counting the metres in 2003 and I have the million metre distance award and am on track towards the five million, all being well.

"So spread the news about the efficacy of the Concept 2 Indoor Rower for rehabilitation after severe joint trauma. It really does work. Oh, and I have not been on a bike since 1998."