About the biking... ;) Sixteen thousand miles later....
What happened to me? How and why did a trade my running shorts for padded cycling shorts?
Why I ride, why we ride. As one cyclist tried to explain:
“The man saw no adventure, no challenge, no conquest, no sweat, and no sense of accomplishment in what we were about to do – only stupidity. There was no way to explain to him our need to explore, to find out about the rest of the world, and to discover and develop ingenuity, endurance, and self-reliance – that pioneer spirit that had been buried under the comforts of modern society.”
― Barbara Savage, Miles from Nowhere
I ride without getting anywhere... I ride without any care. While my cycling heat map may not look impressive from 30 thousand feet, hidden between the lines, is a symphony of glorious blood sweat and tears. My victories are personal. I ride to kick my yesterday's ass. A little farther, a little faster, up the hills I couldn't fathom climbing at one time.
I have seen more beauty than my soul can hold. I have had my face splashed by the spray from the Pacific Ocean while cycling (in my home away from home Depoe Bay Oregon by the Spouting Horn), struggled up the rim surrounding the 9th deepest lake on the planet on 100 mile ride (Crater Lake). I have been bitten by of dog while riding (of course, but really... how the heck did a dog bike me on my ass while I was riding a bicycle?) I have been honked at, smoked (which is what I call when a country truck flips a switch to illegally pour fuel into the exhaust to create a toxic black cloud). I have had too many close encounters with vehicles that I could possible count. I've been yelled out, had things thrown at me, been purposely driven off the road, any yet, the positives of cycling outweigh the negatives by such a wide margin, those those things seem trivial.
And I have been sick... sick before I ever set my rear in a saddle. It was something I always knew was there... but didn't have a name or diagnosis. Something I realized while I was still running... something I was aware of a good 25 years ago. And while exercising can't cure everything, it can be a big help. Your body likes to pushed. It adjusts to what you tell it to do. It, if you keep pushing, will take you up mountains you never dreamed of climbing.
And me? I am not done yet. I have many more miles to explore. I may not do it as fast as I want to, I may not be able to do it exactly like I envisioned (running vs cycling), but I will keep moving, keep struggling, because when I finally give up, that will be the end of my story. Cycling = life. Bring on the next hill, I am ready.
