Red Bank, NJ–May 2014
Spinners watch out, the rowers are taking front stage, and center.
Cyclists are turning more and more to rowing during the off-season winter months, and even now converting parts of their summer workouts to rowing competition, reports Tassana Landy.
“Indoor rowing is the new spin,” she said in an email to Cyclists International. But the story is deeper than that.
Landy herself was a daily bike rider as late as 2013. Now she competes in rowing year-round, and travels out-of-state for rowing competition.
As she explains in the perfectly crafted video by Adam Volerich below, now that she is in her 50’s she has turned to rowing as her new sport. In the video she talks about competing in the World Indoor Rowing Championship held in Boston, MA., this past February.
Says Landy, who doesn’t look a second over 30 , “This decade is about rowing. Maybe in my sixties I’ll start ballroom dancing.”
Much of Landy’s good looks could be attributed to genetics, but no doubt her avid adherence to cycling all these years has paid off as she passes for several generations younger than those around her. No fat hangs on her body like the rest of her cohort, and she exudes a charming youthfulness in her manners as well.
And this all without becoming a lunatic exerciser–afterall she still takes care of two grown kids as well as reams of visiting family and friends from Thailand, one half of her ancestry (the other half is Dutch.)
Landy said she came in fifth in her category, light weight women between 50 and 54. She also rows regularly with a local training club, and shifts to the Navesink River near her home in Red Bank, NJ when the weather is warmer.
One of the advantages, stronger core and overall body strength, as well as safety from crazy motorists on the road. What’s more, for Landy and many other rowers, outdoor rowing returns in the spring and summer months, making it an ideal cross-training summer sport, pleasantly spent amid nature.
Rowing Machine from Adam Volerich on Vimeo.
Arnold Fraiman, who served in the New York Supreme Court for 16 years and was an avid cyclist turned to rowing after the age of 65. I interviewed him for a book about sports after retirement, and he famously told me, “Jen with cycling you get a lot of broken bones, a lot of broken bones.” Rowing offers the same degree of fitness he said and was just as much fun.
To find out more about rowing in New York, try Row House on 55th Street. Rowing is also available in New Jersey at any of the several rowing clubs.
http://vimeo.com/m/92363686
