Monday Not Fade Away
A few of the fly fishers I know have faded away. It does happen at all ages – in case you are wondering! Paraphrasing Jesus’ saying, “Many are called, but few are chosen,” could have the words, “by fly fishing” added at the end, and there you have what I have seen with the young men who, growing into their teens, make those “discoveries.” Chief among them, girls, of course, but followed by a litany of other distractions that place fly rods in the backs of closets and corners of garages across this diverse Country.
For me, picking up a fly rod made my prior passion-near-obsession for road cycling come to a complete stop. In the interim years, I unloaded all my bikes – except one. When you find the right bike, the right road bike that fits you like a glove, and just wants to keep working for you? It’s just like one of those fly rods you never let go of, come hell or high water.
Not So Simple
But getting back on that horse, after fly fishing has bucked you off for a couple of decades? That can really make you wonder, about your old self, your new self after a major cancer battle left you sitting on your ass in the arena with a dust cloud going up, and wondering if you can crank it up again, and wondering if that bike sitting over in the corner still loves you as much as it used to … not faded away.
Well, as I approach the Golden Pond, all I know is it is time to round out my sports menu with the priority being to extend the Go-Go hunger for fly fishing, not down at the pond, but at the top of that mountain, or wading five miles down the pristine South Padre sand – before I even look back to see how far I’ve gone. More, not less, is today’s lesson friends.
Other Forms
Looking at other forms of real exercise feels like cheating on the time I could have for fly fishing, but at different times in our shared obsession, we arrive at the same fact: If we were in better condition, our tanks would not empty so fast, our elbows, shoulders and backs would take us to the promised fish, and we would wake up the next morning ready, ready to go back and do it all again. No rest days.
My simple, or simplistic approach going forward, is this; round the tight loops out with a dose of cardio workout, a dose of strength and a dose of stretching out the pieces and parts that are being challenged to perform as if I were forty-two not looking sixty-two straight in the eye.
It’ll Bleed
For those fly fishing readers who are not experiencing the symptoms of your own mortality, I say, MORE POWER TO YOU! You may well begin to fell disappointed when the topics of conditioning bleed over into this small corner of the internet fly fishing world. Guess what? You’ll be back someday.
For now, it seems like I am still a little bit taken by sports that can cause unpredictable pain or injury. Cycling in Denton, Texas, that is leaving the front door on my road bike and riding out to Sanger? Those days are over. Denton, since I got thrown from the saddle, is a Town that is a City now. Danger abounds. The other sport I have lately become taken with is no walk in the retirement home either – wakeboarding. Although I have done it only once, I can see what benefits it brings – core body workout with a heavy emphasis on balance and movement. If I had my surfboard abruptly pulled out from under my expectations at SPI, maybe another local watersport can fill that void. Taking all that “abuse” leads to one place – YOGA, or at least a yoga style of stretching and movement that can and should extend an active lifestyle even further, and further away from the Golden Pond.
The Twist
So there we have it, the Monday Morning Twist. All we have to do is fit all this in with a chunk of time in the Borderlands next week, and we will not fade away! Stick around, this is going to be an interesting ride, even if it may last only eight seconds!
End Note
Last night, after the sun had set, I rolled my bike out onto the newly paved street in front of the house. She got under me, and I put flipflop pressure on the Speedplay pedals, and we were off again, with no time lost in a seventeen-year suspended animation. What an amazing piece of gear this old road bike is, I whispered to her in one word … “amazing.” I am confident neighbors at their windows looking out were saying, “look at that crazy old guy talking to his bike!” Now, to add one-million candle power lights to keep idiots from running me down – that comes next!
Category: Body-Mind-Soul, Fly Fisher Health and Wellness
