You may have noticed Lou and Jayne doing a lot of short fast erg training recently ?

The reason for this is they are making a World Record attempt with a number of other women from across the country this weekend.

It is taking place on Saturday 18th May at the Touchwood Shopping Centre in Solihull.

They will attempt to break the world record for a small team of 9 women between the age of 50 and 59 to row 100km on an indoor rowing machine which currently stands at 6 hours 43 minutes.

The name of the team is the 'Warrior Women' and they are all raising funds for the Brain Tumour Charity. One of the ladies in the team has a daughter who lives with a brain tumour and has had support from the charity for 12 years which has been a lifeline for them.

Here are Lou's personal reasons for making this attempt:

"I was approached by the lady organising this event having competed against her in the 2016 British Rowing Indoor Championships (or should I say beaten by her!) She was contacting as many national / international medal winners as she could, to put together a team of strong, committed women who were mad enough to train for this challenge! I immediately said yes, despite having had a hip replacement last year, and saw this as a way to regain my pre-surgery fitness as well as to meet some amazing women and raise funds for a worthy charity.

Training has been tough, especially as I have also been getting back to my first love of competitive rowing and racing 'on the water' which quite frankly is a lot more fun! I have always seen the indoor rowing machine as a 'necessary evil' in a training plan so have had to fight a number of demons to force myself to train on it!

The plan on the day is to row in 2 minute stints with 'Strappers' to hold our feet down to make rolling off the machine really quick and allowing the next person to jump on without losing too much momentum. In order to break the record, we need to keep a 'split' of no longer than 1 minute 57 seconds for every 500 metres rowed which is a lot harder than I thought it would be!"

Lou asked Jayne to join the Team ( being a strong, committed slightly mad woman no doubt !) and she has also found the training painful and demanding. Despite a back injury she has persevered and they are now both determined to break the World Record on Saturday ! We wish them and the rest of the Warrior Women good luck from everyone at MKRC !!