Viking Lars | Saturday, 16 December 2023
The best motivation is fun. Doing something that one really enjoys is the best motivation there is. I’ve been working on my casting for the past couple of years, unfortunately very on and off. Sometimes with a handful of weeks of focused training (carrying mostly), but every little trip to the park has been fun. I usually start with carry exercise and then drift off into something else. I haven’t practised for a couple of months, but when I last did, with a degree of focus, it was shooting for targets.
Shooting for targets is fun and much harder than normal target practice. Hard is fun (in some cases, certainly not all) and I fish a lot of streams where there simply isn’t room to carry the length of line needed to hit the rise. Which means that shooting is needed and the combination of shooting, hitting the target and with ample presentation is actually not easy. To my knowledge even something that very few people practice. My local park is close enough that I don’t mind going over for just 20 minutes, which is better than not going.
Of course, life, family, work, weather, or things to do and laziness has a way of getting in the way, at least providing a viable excuse. In the spring of this year I had some rather extensive surgery, which is why I was absemnt from the froint pages and Board for a couple of months - I'm sure you all missed me. The surgery required (and still does) some specific rehabilitation exercise. I my preteens and until I was 21, I did quite a lot of martial arts (you know, constant refining my inherent axe skills). Then I drifted into cycling for a long time and then full time work hit. Which I am very grateful for, because I thoroughly enjoy my job. There’s been long pauses between training as well. At some point, I took a decision to lose some weight (a lot, preferably) and get fit again. I began with walking quite a lot, then started in a gym to get a fuller workout (and eliminating the weather-excuse). Then a few years ago I took up cycling again. My old bike was just taking up space and I decided to restore it to a working level with the intent of selling it. I dug out my old winter cycling kit (which suddenly fit me again) and went for a spin and immediately found I enjoyed it. 40km on that first “training” ride for 15 years and I was pleasantly surprised that my fitness level was good enough that I didn’t hate it. So I kept the bike. That better than average fitness level proved essential in my rehabilitation. On the second day after the big surgery I was on the hospital indoor bike (very much to the surprise of the nurses and doctors). As cycling had completely taken over my training I had not really done any core and strength training, because I wasn’t going to the gym anymore. I had abdominal surgery, so the physiotherapists in charge of the rehabilitation had focus on core training and “demanded” a more general training regime to get everything back in working order. The team I was (and am) on is outdoor training, which I really enjoy (I actually don’t like gyms at all) and of course, lots of attention to cardio as well, which in an outdoor setting means running.
Even in my martial arts days I never really liked running and it was a necessary nuisance. But once again, I discovered that my general fitness was good enough that I could actually run meaningful distances. As it happens, I now enjoy running. The strength and core training I do at home is very much the samt as in rehabilitation. I do strength and core exercises with 1km runs in between. On a good day I end up running 7km in total. To sum up - I enjoy cycling and exercise more than ever (it's also more needed than ever before, but that's a different story).
The long and short of the above is that sometimes I combine motivations. I go for a run in the park, bringing a rod and my practice line and reel. I strap the rod to a hydration pack, into which I can just fit the reel, when the water bladder isn’t full. It’s not that I need the water as such, as I rarely run more than 4km, when I’m only running, but it’s a fairly good way of bringing the tackle and certainly better than running with a bottle in one hand and reel and rod in the other.
This combination does have a built in weather excuse, because the weather needs to be good enough that I don’t get cold when I rig the rod and line after then run. I won’t be going out today. It’s windy, 4 degrees and high humidity. That *could* send me out running and exercising, but (this is an excuse, I know, but a fair one) I did 90 minutes on the indoor bike last night, so… But the motivations is there, so I might go out anyway - who know. The fly tying station is set up and looking out, that might have an effect on training motivation.
That was a long front page and a rather long detour to explain that I now sometimes combine a run with casting practice. Furthermore, Paul and I are suddenly sharing training results and metode as well, which I really enjoy as well. Paul’s Iron Man training is much more specific than mine, so I get good advice from him. Mostly about how I spend too much time working out too hard, but sitting on the bike, basically at a speed and pulse rate at which I could go on forever, is just boring. Pain is gain in my head. Which also goes for casting, right now, because recording myself casting and reviewing when I get home is sometimes quite painful (for the ego).
Have a great weekend!
Lars
PoD: Have you seen the new rod socks? I love the fabric and the camo pattern. I also just got that new hydration pack from a colleague. It’s the same the Danish military uses and just from trying it on, jumping around a little, it’s much better than the cheap one I had before. As if practicing in a park doesn’t attract enough attention in it self, imagine doing so in tights as if it was a real endurace sport. I get long stares sometimes.