I was watching the Head of the Charles a few years ago, standing next to the boathouse where the seasoned announcer spoke over the loudspeaker as the crews rowed through a particularly tricky bend and under the adjacent bridge. The master's single scullers' race was in progress, and the announcer, recognizing one competitor as a long-time familiar contender now in his late forties, quipped "Fightin' that decay".
At the time it struck me as a pejorative thing to say, there within earshot of a guy who's going all out and doing pretty well. But it was clearly also the voice of experience, and I've never forgotten it. Now that I'm not too far from that age, it comes back to me when I'm struggling for the will to exercise.
For the last few weeks I've only managed to exercise about once a week, and I'm definitely feelin' that decay. It's a downward spiral as the lack of exercise reduces my overall awareness and I'm sucked dronelike into the whirl of daily tasks. This is when the nonunity of mind and body becomes most apparent. The body has its own voice that the frenetically buzzing head can shut out when it's overloaded with the daily rush.
I've got to do something about this! I'm going to go for the third annual Concept 2 Holiday Challenge again. I did it the first year, but last year I let other priorities get in the way.
I'm a desultory exerciser when I'm not driven by an external commitment, so for me this means lots of planning and physical will. Does anyone else feel this way, wanting a challenge and maybe some peer pressure to keep it up? I was thinking of setting up some kind of exercise blog or wiki or something we could all share. We'd log our workouts and encourage each other.
Anybody interested ?
November 24, 2002 10:04 AM