In these months of hunkering down during the Covid-19 pandemic, being able to use a rowing machine is a blessing. Sometimes, it can be relaxing just to put a movie on the tube and row at a leisurely pace for a long time. There are a number of short workouts you can find on the web. An intense interval workout followed by plenty of stretching is a great change of pace. If you want to row long/many meters, but find it difficult to continue for an hour or more, break your rowing time up into two or three sessions, morning and afternoon, noon and evening, or whatever works for you.
There are many alternatives and complementary workouts you can do to supplement rowing on the erg. Many communities have bike paths or roads that are relatively protected and allow for road biking. Running is safe as long as you can maintain social distancing. And even walking is far superior to sitting and does the body lots of good, whether you are a “New York walker” (fast) or not.
When you row, consider keeping track on your own, or even logging your distance and time into an online portal such as the C2 log website. If you record your workouts there, you can also compare times to the experience of others. And there are numerous competitions that add a layer of interest, some for individuals and some for teams. Consider joining a team if you do not already belong to one for purposes of keeping track of your time and distance rowing. For many of us, that added layer of context adds a significant incentive to simply rowing for yourself.
Enjoy!