Balancing Workouts With Life

[[old] RacerX]

<!--QuoteBegin-NavigationHazard+Mar 30 2005, 06:59 PM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(NavigationHazard @ Mar 30 2005, 06:59 PM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Roland, my experience has been that on-the-water rowing in a single is relaxing precisely because it occupies your total attention.  Bring your troubles into the boat and dwell on work or life and you'll soon be swimming....  <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />Exactly! for me stress relief is time spent fully "in the moment". And anything that has a consequence for doing it incorrectly is a great way to focus the mind. Sculling, snowboarding, motorcycles all work for me.<br /><br />Aaron

[[old] Roland Baltutis]

<!--QuoteBegin-RacerX+Mar 30 2005, 08:11 PM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(RacerX @ Mar 30 2005, 08:11 PM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin--><!--QuoteBegin-NavigationHazard+Mar 30 2005, 06:59 PM--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(NavigationHazard @ Mar 30 2005, 06:59 PM)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Roland, my experience has been that on-the-water rowing in a single is relaxing precisely because it occupies your total attention.  Bring your troubles into the boat and dwell on work or life and you'll soon be swimming....   <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />Exactly! for me stress relief is time spent fully "in the moment". And anything that has a consequence for doing it incorrectly is a great way to focus the mind. Sculling, snowboarding, motorcycles all work for me.<br /><br />Aaron <br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br /><b>What about the erg though??? </b>Do you also find, like me, that it doesn't offer anywhere near the same level of stress relief as the outdoor activities mentioned above? Or is it just me?<br /><br />I can bring my troubles into the single scull in calm weather conditions only (which is quite frequent on the river I row on). River scullers develope a sixth sense which allows your mind to wander. I'm not sure if I can explain the exact science of it but..... Without turning the head around to look, they can navigate up or down a familiar windy river, with the body automatically changing pressure from stroke to bowside depending on the bend or object in the water. In calm conditions, once warmed up, balance is not so much of an issue allowing you at times to go into auto-pilot, especially once you've achieved good run on the boat.<br /><br /><i>Keep it smooth, keep it relaxed<br />Roland Baltutis</i><br /><br />

[[old] maf]

All this focus on stress as a negative is missing the point...<br /><br />Stress is good! It's a motivational force that challenges us in our daily lives to do more or better (ie change). It's part of the human condition. <br /><br />When we can no longer handle the stress, because there is for some reason too much stress, we go into distress. Distress is bad, but it's a long way from everyday stress.<br /><br />Michael

[[old] NavigationHazard]

<!--QuoteBegin--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->What about the erg though??? Do you also find, like me, that it doesn't offer anywhere near the same level of stress relief as the outdoor activities mentioned above? Or is it just me?<br /> </td></tr></table><br /><br />I would say that for me, erging on the whole offers a <i>different kind</i> of stress release. I find it rather less about focusing one's thoughts from the getgo and more about using hard physical effort to banish quotidian concerns. If nothing else, erging can be -- but doesn't have to be -- a great way to push my body to its limits. But that too may just be me, and the way I train indoors vis-a-vis my opportunities for outdoor exercise.<br /><br />Since we are all different from each other not only physiologically but also psychologically, we probably have idiosyncratic understandings of what stress is for us as well as how best to relieve it. Heck, most of us probably are different from ourselves on a day-to-day basis. So it makes sense to me, at least, that different activities may 'work' better at some moments in our lives than they do at others.<br /><br />Re sculling, I was being a bit tongue in cheek. Of course experience and good water allow you to move onto autopilot, and even I stay dry most of the time. My one flip last year was when one of the rigger stays on an old boat broke in two.... <br /><br />From the sound of things, I envy you your river. Where I row the mighty Passaic -- its toxic mud always ready to embrace the inattentive -- is an urban river carrying several million people's detritus. We call the volleyballs, discarded *** DELETE - SPAM *** cabinets, lawn furniture, and tree branches that float by "chunk." It's not so much that it flips you, it's that you can break off your skeg and/or dent the boat if you ignore it. The river also is tidal -- not as bad as (say) the Thames between Montlake and Putney Bridge, but subject to 6' or so of fluctuation. This forces you to pay occasional conscious attention to the changing interplay of wind, river current, and incoming/outgoing tide....<br /><br />

[[old] gw1]

<!--QuoteBegin--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->What about the erg though??? Do you also find, like me, that it doesn't offer anywhere near the same level of stress relief as the outdoor activities mentioned above? Or is it just me? </td></tr></table><br /><br />For me the C2 is both a training and assesment device, certainly not a stress reliever! Actually the thought of an afternoon session of 12 x 500m intervals is far from stress relieving. Now the thought of a few hours surfing some uncrowded waves with a light off shore breeze, that'll make all your worries go away for a while!<br /><br />GW

[[old] Ducatista]

<!--QuoteBegin-Roland Baltutis+--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(Roland Baltutis)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Stress then is where we differ in opinion. You say that it's not always a bad thing but I try and avoid it like the plague. </td></tr></table><br />That's what makes the world go round, eh? I like this approach: find and live your ideal lifestyle, and recognize that your ideal isn't everyone's. (Can be adapted to just about anything: training regimen, riding style, sense of humor...)<br /><br /><!--QuoteBegin-Roland Baltutis+--><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><div class='genmed'><b>QUOTE(Roland Baltutis)</b></div></td></tr><tr><td class='quote'><!--QuoteEBegin-->However, I understand that you can get relief from stress in other ways. Before I started a family I use to ride my high performance motorcyle, giving it a good thrash along a windy mountain road scrapping my knees on each bend. I came back feeling good and relieved of any stress. A Ducati does offer more stress relief than a Triumph but the catch is that you'll need to work longer hours to pay for it. </td></tr></table><br />Several sportbike riders on the board, who'd-a thunk? I'd say a Ducati is a better stress reliever than a Daytona only for those who find maintenance and/or repair shops soothing. (Mostly kidding, Aaron — <i>damn</i> I'd love a 999.)<br /><br />I agree that outdoor activity is especially restorative. My daily pedestrian commute is key to maintaining my sunny disposition. The route is urban, and takes me across a narrow isthmus from one lake to another. The best of both worlds. The ice is almost gone from the smaller lake, finally! Soon I'll see the real rowers scooting past our office.