Like many, perhaps, I have issues with balancing Life and Sport. It’s not that “balance” is so much what is needed — that can be an essentially skewed concept. I need more importantly to remember just how to do sports right for decent living.
(The concept of balance can easily allow one to try to offset one skewed approach — say, to working with a bad attitude — with doing sports too intensely. A bad way of doing one isn’t “offset” or “fixed” by a bad way of doing something else.)
I find myself getting caught up in wanting to optimize my performance. So that I’ll start using a heart rate monitor to make sure I don’t start too hard in a race. Well, one could just as easily just start a race by going “medium hard” than by using a HRM. Not perfect, but far simpler.
Or I can get caught up in the minutae of optimizing my equipment. Now, in my case I’m usually just trying to avoid using broken stuff, but it’s easy to get very fussy about such stuff. Making sure you have your basics covered seems plenty.
One way I help myself relax about all this is by attending some events as a spectator. Also, by just going out on jaunts for the plain fresh air of it, instead of as part of a plan. Also, by going out in simple attire rather than changing your entire wardrobe, is a way to take it a bit easier.
Pro’s have to mind their manners — the rest of us really might be better off when we just kick back a fair bit.
OK, maybe we need to ask what does sport mean to us. Why do we do it? Is it for relaxation? Is it for health? If so, then we probably shouldn’t get too intense about it. Nor should we warp our bodies to conform to the sport more than to our basic health — it seems that folks like runners and bikers can find themselves too skinny or too weak in the upper body if they take their sports too far. (Of course, not everyone is physically inclined that way, metabolically.) But back to the intensity — this might relate to balance: if you need to “blow off steam” from work then maybe it would be even better and more effective to sort out why you’re building up steam on the job in the first place!
A huge lesson in sport is that best results come from being relaxed, from breathing deep down in the belly. Well, work benefits from this, too. One can still be sharp and on-task! The need to blow-off can come from being pent-up — and being pent-up is not always the path for clearest vision on the job. Go hard — on the job and in the sports — but breath deep, from the belly.
But on to another kind of health: It’s easy to do sports so intensely that we risk injury. We may be having fun while we do it. We may even consider it to be casual. But the move might be riskier than it need be. OK, injury is a risk no matter what we do, but we shouldn’t go begging for it.
Road bike sprinting is probably something 50-yr-old’s should be moderate about. Let the pro’s hone their skill.
Consider your insurance and your injury compensation! If you live the DIY lifestyle with a high-deductible policy, be careful out there! There’s a reason why lots of the folks who do risk sports are well-heeled professionals or tenured/unionized sorts: their lives could handle an upheaval better than could the DIYer’s! Of course, injury isn’t easy for anyone, but BE CAREFUL!
I recently took a spill from my touring bike while enjoying a “wheee!” moment on a trail. It was a hard fall at high speed. It happened in an instant. Sure, I can bike trails on a touring bike, but my hone was a little off due to a recent several days of car-driving. It was a mistake. I almost got hurt. Likely half of those who suffered such a crash would’ve had to see a surgeon. I got lucky. (Well, I also know how to crash. I don’t panic, and try to roll with the motion. Like, I also just tipped-over due to click-pedal not releasing — I made that like a judo roll and felt no impact. Practicing running somersaults is smart even for old-timers! It’s best even to roll all the way over with those click-pedal tip-overs. They happen all too often to most everyone — but quite a few folks break bones doing them!)
Now, I wasn’t being intense that time. It was mostly just an accident — if you spend at least an hour a day out in the fresh air like you should then things are going to happen. But it reminded me that lately I’ve found that I get my best cyclocross results when I “turn on the afterburners” of gungho focus and intensity. They say you have to be “angry” to do good CX. I know what they mean. But is it smart? Doesn’t it seem to beg for mishap? Who knows. Thankfully, CX is a soft-ground sport most times. I think I’ll back off a touch, at any rate.
How to do it for the long haul — that’s the question and the challenge!
Food for thought!
