Advice on joining a team/collaboration/interaction.
Posted: May 12th, 2021, 4:00 pm
Hi all
Thought about this post whilst out walking the trails with dogs earlier - bear with me please if it ends up somewhat lengthy!
I'm 44, live in the UK. Traditionally I've been 'fit' as I've generally had a sport to dedicate to, a coach and goals. I'm a bit 'all or nothing' about things in general, the same is true of my sporting past. The main bulk of my previous fitness came from the bike, initially riding for fun, then sportive events, then a few years dedicated to time trialling. I had to pause that for a while due to a suspected heart condition, which took the best part of 2 years to diagnose (and ended up not being heart related). Given the green light to go back to TT, I'd just had a couple years with (young) family time not impacted by training and racing schedules, so the guilt of going back to it won and I packed it in for good. Since then I've been a little aimless, dipping in and out of a few things. For a while I decided Ironman would be a good goal (I hate running, so seemed a good challenge) - that was all going very well until a knee issue from way back in the early 2000s put an end to the running.... in hindsight, starting to run was a terrible idea. Got as far as running a half marathon comfortably and also did the Goggins 4x4x48 thing, so was doing OK with it I suppose. There then followed a couple half-hearted efforts at buckling down to gym/weights, which again had results but I haven't found myself wanting to stick with it longer term.
Cycling for me was always an exercise in solitude - I trained alone indoors and outdoors, raced alone (as you do, in a TT), and that was one of the things I liked about it, an element of escaping and switching off from everything else. With the weights thing first time round I got tired of spending so much time in my garage alone doing it, then second time round in Covid lockdown it was worse, seemingly existing only between home office and home garage/gym. Blood pressure is up (being dealt with via the doc), cardio and general physical fitness is declining - and with it, the mental wellbeing is waning too. I've come to realise that in terms of exercise I'm kinda lonely - so time to do something about it!
On my walk earlier I was thinking about the bike - doing more rides with others maybe, perhaps getting into Zwift's race scene perhaps. But, as much as I like the bike and I will indeed do more of it this year, I'd like to get my teeth into something new. One of the things I dabbled with briefly in the last couple years was rowing, and a friend who knows more about it says I have (or had!) a good engine for it - I'd a 6:53 for 2k at second or third attempt, 1:53 split for half marathon, 1:59 split for full marathon. I find it nasty, but much like TT training, in a good way (just!).
So, I got to wondering how I could buckle down to some rowing proper, but doing so in some manner of group or club, where there's perhaps an element of 'team', or collaboration and interaction of some sort. One day I'd like to do the 100k - but in the meantime I'd like to be 'involved' in something. I'm sure I'll get some of the fitness back quickly, but more importantly in the short term it's the mental aspect I'd like to address and I think a group/club/something would be a big motivator. Any advice on the sort of things I could look at would be much appreciated indeed.
Thanks!
Thought about this post whilst out walking the trails with dogs earlier - bear with me please if it ends up somewhat lengthy!
I'm 44, live in the UK. Traditionally I've been 'fit' as I've generally had a sport to dedicate to, a coach and goals. I'm a bit 'all or nothing' about things in general, the same is true of my sporting past. The main bulk of my previous fitness came from the bike, initially riding for fun, then sportive events, then a few years dedicated to time trialling. I had to pause that for a while due to a suspected heart condition, which took the best part of 2 years to diagnose (and ended up not being heart related). Given the green light to go back to TT, I'd just had a couple years with (young) family time not impacted by training and racing schedules, so the guilt of going back to it won and I packed it in for good. Since then I've been a little aimless, dipping in and out of a few things. For a while I decided Ironman would be a good goal (I hate running, so seemed a good challenge) - that was all going very well until a knee issue from way back in the early 2000s put an end to the running.... in hindsight, starting to run was a terrible idea. Got as far as running a half marathon comfortably and also did the Goggins 4x4x48 thing, so was doing OK with it I suppose. There then followed a couple half-hearted efforts at buckling down to gym/weights, which again had results but I haven't found myself wanting to stick with it longer term.
Cycling for me was always an exercise in solitude - I trained alone indoors and outdoors, raced alone (as you do, in a TT), and that was one of the things I liked about it, an element of escaping and switching off from everything else. With the weights thing first time round I got tired of spending so much time in my garage alone doing it, then second time round in Covid lockdown it was worse, seemingly existing only between home office and home garage/gym. Blood pressure is up (being dealt with via the doc), cardio and general physical fitness is declining - and with it, the mental wellbeing is waning too. I've come to realise that in terms of exercise I'm kinda lonely - so time to do something about it!
On my walk earlier I was thinking about the bike - doing more rides with others maybe, perhaps getting into Zwift's race scene perhaps. But, as much as I like the bike and I will indeed do more of it this year, I'd like to get my teeth into something new. One of the things I dabbled with briefly in the last couple years was rowing, and a friend who knows more about it says I have (or had!) a good engine for it - I'd a 6:53 for 2k at second or third attempt, 1:53 split for half marathon, 1:59 split for full marathon. I find it nasty, but much like TT training, in a good way (just!).
So, I got to wondering how I could buckle down to some rowing proper, but doing so in some manner of group or club, where there's perhaps an element of 'team', or collaboration and interaction of some sort. One day I'd like to do the 100k - but in the meantime I'd like to be 'involved' in something. I'm sure I'll get some of the fitness back quickly, but more importantly in the short term it's the mental aspect I'd like to address and I think a group/club/something would be a big motivator. Any advice on the sort of things I could look at would be much appreciated indeed.
Thanks!
).