garynuke

Why bike...

Besides the good for ya exercise reason? Hmm...I've been asked that before. First you should understand what I mean by bike. I enjoy leisurely cruises sometimes...through the streets of downtown Houston (on a weekend day when the traffic is way down) or along the flat dusty trails of Allen Parkway or one of the other bayous. And the other extreme is I'll bike with others in a road ride up to 110 miles in a day (I try to average 19 mph or more). Another extreme is mountain biking where I'll mountain bike some of our harder trails in Texas (found near Austin) which will inevitably result in something bleeding.

Yeah...I enjoy the freedom...but I also enjoy putting out that last little effort that your mind doesn't think it has to give. It's that pain that you experience that lets you know you're alive! About 2 months after I first got into cycling...I rode my first century (100+ miles in a day) ride was the 1999 MS150 charity ride which was from Houston to Austin (176 miles). There are a lot of newbie riders that join in that ride cuz it's a blast! There are nearly 7,000 riders in that ride! Many people ride just that ride and put up their bikes for the next year. (Which makes it a tough ride for 'em each year.) I remember on the second day going through Buescher State Park near Bastrop...a short park, but VERY hilly. There are some places that you'd swear the hill was steeper than 45 degrees. I remember cranking up one notably steep hill and passing a twentysomething chubby woman who was struggling up the same hill on your ATB cruiser. She was obviously one of those that either rode only this one ride each year or her friends had cajoled her into "doing it". She was standing on her pedals to use her weight to help push them down and she was barely moving forward because the hill was so steep. Sweat was dripping off of her arms and face which mixed with the tears streaming from her eyes as she repeated to herself with each pedal stroke..."I can make it...I can make it,..I can make it..." Now that's guts, people!!! That's life! That's is what it is all about! When you're fighting with everything you have for that last effort hidden deep in your body and soul in order to achieve something you thought you could not. That's not something you can do on the couch...and rarely something you can even do at the gym. It didn't matter that she wasn't buff or fast or cute or smart...she was beautiful in that light...an example of someone that was putting all of her mind, body and soul into that one single focused effort. I know she felt more alive then (probably a bit more afterward :-) than she had all year long. She'll have that memory with her for years to come. She'll look back and remember how hard she fought to do that ride and know with satisfaction that she did it. She was a true athlete, in that she learned to conquer and control her own body, instead of letting it control her! Read more about how athletes face this same situation.

Sometimes I reach those points in my ride and sometime I just let the wind blow over my arms as I listen to the breaths exhaling from my body...but no matter what...I'm never able to be upset, worried or mad about anything in life when I'm focused on just making those circles with my feet.