I don't use the View Recent Discussions feature.
I just navigate to the main forum index page: http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/f/default.aspx
and then I scroll down the list of topics and look for things that catch my interest.
For threads I've already commented in, I use the Your Discussions feature.
I also navigate by using the bread crumb trail at the top of any open thread (boxed in red in the screenshot below):
I use that to go back to the subforum or to the index page itself.
There's no right or wrong way, of course, only the way that you like best.