Why I ride

[PAP103]

I am in training for the Pan Mass Challenge. I have a beautiful new bike and proper cycling clothes. I ride with wonderful people and a great club. I ride regularly building up my speed and miles. Faster, faster! more miles, more miles! I started training in February at the gym and finally got outside for rides in April. Its all great!!

So, why do I hate it? Not long ago, I couldn't wait to get out on my bike. Why is it that now I have to drag myself out the door with little motivation?

Last night I went out for a ride by myself in my own town. I live in one of the most beautiful places in the country - New England. My ride follows the coastline along sandy beaches and rocky shores. I stopped at the lighthouse for a short break and enjoyed the sight of the harbor sparkling in the sunshine and the cool breeze on my face. I could smell the salt air and hear the gulls screeching on the beach. Then I got back on my bike and headed around the back shore where the waves crash over the rocks and the ocean goes on forever. I rode slow to take in the scenery and found myself smiling at joggers and walkers with their dogs. Everything seemed to have a new perspective. I rode on up the hill and around to stop again at Good Harbor Beach. I sat by the bridge and watched kids swimming in the creek, dogs frollicking along the sand and couples walking hand in hand at the edge of the water. The sun was starting to set so I headed back along the backshore enjoying that famous ocean view from the opposite direction. The wind was in my face and I was loving it. I stopped again (yes 3 times!) at Niles Beach and enjoyed a long cool drink and a small snack. I spoke to the mothers and their children as the walked past me toward the water. I watched at the sun slowly turned to orange and lowered itself toward the horizon - this was my cue to head home. I rode only 15 miles and enjoyed every one of them. Now I remember why I ride.

I had been so caught up in training that cycling became more miles, faster and faster. The only scenery I saw was the rider in front of me and my only thrill was being able to keep up.

So, slow down a bit and enjoy your ride. Its OK to stop 3 times on a 15 mile ride. Its OK to ride slow and take in the scenery!

God grant me the serenity to accept the gifts that you have given me and the presence of mind to enjoy them.

Happy riding to you all,
Patty

[mimitabby]

Nice post.

[bouncybouncy]

Thank You :)

[Grog]

Thanks for this charming reminder... :)

[pooks]

This is actually why I want to ride!

The idea of races and long distances doesn't do anything for me. But the idea of touring on vacation, of taking beautiful rides, does.

I guess it's the story of my life, though. I hate "walking for exercise" since I get antsy about seeing the same scenery all the time, get hot and tired and just want to take a shortcut home. But get me on a hiking trail and I can go for hours!

Thanks for the great post. You're lucky to live in such a place.

[Trek420]

Thanks for the reminder, well put, well said. I needed that :)

I was just thinking about this on the walk (yeah, I walked) to work with all the different motivations, spiritual, physical, goals, feeling better, getting stronger...are most of us tree-huggy people?

Concern for the enviornment is part of why I ride but mostly just a happy accident, there's all this other stuff: meeting people, feeling better and the great cycling community (including TE).

Gotta get to work so don't have time to phrase the question more articulately than that but good thread...why do we ride?

[Veronica]

Great post! I was reading it to Thom and he replied, "Remember this on your tour."

I'm always trying to limit my time at rest stops. I need to be out of that mindset for the next three weeks. :)

V.

[Veronica]

...why do we ride?


Mostly because it's fun. I just like the feeling of being on a bike. That's why I commute to work - now that I have a trailer, I can even haul some of my big stuff to work. :) Fewer driving days. Yippeee!!!

I like that I can eat what I want and still stay a healthy weight. I can see, feel, smell so much more on the bike. Most of it good. :p

Fast is fun!

I like the challenge of training for longer, harder rides. It suits my goal oriented, competitive nature, without turning me into too much of a nut. Although I keep bringing up PBP.

But really... because it's fun.

V.

[Trek420]

did we mention it's fun? :p

[pooks]

I agree with the fun part -- and it creates its own breeze (unlike walking, which just gets deathly in the heat and muggy weather).

[jobob]

Although I keep bringing up PBP Excellent !!! :D I'll stand by the side of the road and hand you a crossaint as you whiz by.

jo looking for an excuse to go to France, this is good as any and better than most bob

[Veronica]

Excellent !!! :D I'll stand by the side of the road and hand you a crossaint as you whiz by.

jo looking for an excuse to go to France, this is good as any and better than most bob


You know we could just go and do our own tour. I've got a book...

V.

[Trek420]

pooks "I agree with the fun part -- and it creates its own breeze (unlike walking, which just gets deathly in the heat and muggy weather)"

it's cooler than driving. Yesterday I drove to the Pet Club for bribes uh treats for the dog. My dog trainer said that was crazy.

Hey, get into the hot car drive 2 blocks to the store the AC will never work. Hop on the bike, nice cool breeze.

did I mention it was fun? :p

[Denise223]

Hi Patty!

It is beautiful out here in New England... I agree :D .

Thank you for your post.

Pooks, I agree with you too -- regarding the "breeze"... During our rides last week (when it was hot & muggy), it was lovely feeling the wind. It was soooooo much cooler than if we had been walking, that's for sure :cool: !!

It IS fun :)

Denise

[Crankin]

Patty, I totally agree with you. I have been an exercise addict (is there a 12 step rpogram for this?) for most of my adult life. I loved aerobics so much, i started teaching classes. Guess what? It became a job, even though it wasn't my "main" job. I stopped teaching after 10 years and loved being a "consumer' again. A few years after that, i couldn't stand going to the gym. i put no effort into any of the actual things I was doing there. I started gaining weight. Then my husband, who had been a couch potato started cycling. At first, he went out when I went to the gym. After about 2 years, he said, " I'm getting you on a bike." Well, so it started. First me poking along on a mtb with slicks. After a year of that, I got a road bike. Up went my speed and my distances. Then we joined AMC. I saw that i rode better than a lot of people. I got a better bike. I started doing 50-60 mile rides. I found cycling friends. All of our vacations revolve around cycling. I love being outdoors here in New England, too. But, I can't get into the "club" scene with riding. I am a little competitive, but if I start riding just to get better, I will start hating it. Every year around the end of August, I feel burned out. I take a week off. I guess this is why I haven't done anything like PMC. I do want to stop and smell the roses and I feel good that i have achieved so much in five years, but I do this for fun. By fun, i mean I'm outside, getting fit, burning calories so I can eat, and being with friends. It does not mean "Oh, gee, I'm going to have fun by climbing Mt. Wachusett." That would just be painful. Sure, I could do it, but what would it prove? I know that I do more than 95% of the people out there. Remember that. Don't compare yourself with the small select group who do double centuries or more. I used to compare my body to the other instructors at the gym. Now that was a skewed comparison, since they were all 15 years younger than me! You are raising money for a good cause, so remember that.

[Bike Goddess]

I started riding 3 years ago and did most of my longer rides with my local bike club. I wasn't confident that I could be alone and fix a flat, etc. Most of the riders were faster than I was, and I always felt I needed to pick up the pace. Sometimes that was fine, other times it wasn't.

This past fall (2005) I decided that I really enjoyed doing metric centuries for my twice weekly long rides. Turned out no one else in my club wanted to do that distance with me. They just wanted to do the regular ride of the day. Now, if I don't see them on the route, it's no problem. I always travel on roads where other cyclists are likely to be so that if something does happen, help is close by. I can go at my own pace, stop anywhere I wish, and enjoy the scenery. This has made my cycling experience much richer for me. I still enjoy being with a group on a ride, however at times it's hard to change my modus operandi in those situations.

I think all of us at some point find a way to make cycling enjoyable. I know that it helps for me to have long term goals as there are days when my mind isn't interested in doing anything ("thank you for sharing- we are going out anyway"!). It also helps to have forums like this one as it keeps me engaged in the conversation as well as affords a place for me to meet and ride with other like minded souls.

[DrBee]

Great post Patty! You summed it up perfectly! Sometimes we need a reminder that it's not just about going faster and training training training. I'll try to think about your post on my next ride.

I ride because I love the feeling of the breeze, the speed, feeling like I'm doing something for myself, and so that I can eat what I want. I love the comraderie that we have here on TE. And - little benefits like when I was in a gas station restroom yesterday (we're travelling) and walked past a full length mirror and saw more muscles than jiggle in my legs :)

[pyxichick]

I love riding with other people because it feels powerful to be in a group working toward the same goal. (And I can go faster.)

I love riding by myself because I can explore areas of my city that I've never seen before. On my last ride I found a little cafe about two miles from my house, hidden in a residential pocket on a street that I would've never gone down in a car.
;)

[Lise]

I ride because I've never felt so strong, powerful, and free as I do on a bike. It's the closest I can come to that childhood dream of flight.

I also like the power of not depending on my car. Of zipping in and out, getting there before the cars do, "parking" right in front of wherever I'm going, and never worrying about feeding the meter or parking tickets.

[crazybikinchic]

It is my "purple happy pill". I use to work with someone that was on an antidepressant that was purple. She said that it had a smiley face on it. That being said, I am a nicer person when I ride (or exercise in general). When I am exercising, I do not have any problems, they just disappear for awhile. When I ride, I am FREE!!!! That's all.

[chartman64]

I've just gotten back to riding after a long absence. After not having ridden since grade school, my boyfriend bought me a mountain bike for Valentine's Day back in 1999. I trained on it for a couple of months in preparation for a trip we were taking to England which included two days of biking. It was a lot of fun, but I didn't get hooked. A couple years later, he wanted to do another bike trip, so I got back into training. We rode the Ring of Kerry in Ireland. A LOT of fun and incredibly beautiful; resulted in a billion beautiful pictures and memories. But again, as soon as we got home, the bike went back into storage.

It wasn't until the price of gas hit $3 that it occurred to me that the bike might be useful for something other than the occasional vacation. I started training so that I could use it for errands and exercise. It's harder now, because I live at the top of a very, very steep hill and while going down is lovely, getting home is a pain in the behind.

But that was just about two months and 11 pounds ago. I'm slowly building up speed and endurance, and spending a little less on gas. I did my first group ride about a month ago, and am planning to do my longest ever (about 50 miles) next Saturday.

And I'm inspiring my boyfriend -- we've started talking about our next trip. Not sure where yet...

[pooks]

Were there a lot of tough hills on the Ring of Kerry? Any scary bits? What's the traffic like? (Should I be asking somewhere else?)

[Grog]

It is my "purple happy pill". I use to work with someone that was on an antidepressant that was purple. She said that it had a smiley face on it. That being said, I am a nicer person when I ride (or exercise in general). When I am exercising, I do not have any problems, they just disappear for awhile. When I ride, I am FREE!!!! That's all.

Well said! Same here.

When I ride, I just stop thinking about anything but the very present moment. That's a wonderful thing for me!

[chartman64]

Were there a lot of tough hills on the Ring of Kerry? Any scary bits? What's the traffic like? (Should I be asking somewhere else?)

The route we took (this was back in March of 2001) wasn't frightening nor terribly difficult. There was very little traffic, our pace was very relaxed. There were a couple of tough hills; our second day out of Glenbeigh heading toward Waterville featured a long climb that was a bit steep for me, but again, I had VERY little training, stamina or endurance at the time. I think I'd do much better with it today. Actually the biggest challenge for me was to stay on the bike for more than a few minutes without needing to stop to take more pictures. It was all so incredibly and indescribably beautiful.

We're talking about going back to Ireland for another riding trip,this time a bit further north. But we're also talking about Italy and Eastern Europe. Who knows?!

[margo49]

The human body was put together to *move*. Not to just think and feel emotions - to move an enjoy its coordination.
A bicycle is the ultimate human-machine interaction. It can do nothing without you to ride it. And what you put in it is what you get back.
It is perfect for a woman as she can ride and maintain it independently and without too much need of special equipment or technical assistance.

I love to ride and I feel I am My Best Self on my bike

[Bad JuJu]

I love to ride and I feel I am My Best Self on my bike
I couldn't have said it better, margo49: I'm a better person when I'm riding, and I'm a better person FOR riding. And, when I'm on the bike, I know that's where my whole self wants to be.

[Tater]

I ride because I really can't imagine my life without some kind of motion in it. I am happiest when I am riding or running. Sure, the health benefits are great, but I really dig the childlike joy of riding my bike, the breeze on my face, the sound of the freewheel ratchet, shopping for bike stuff, the beauty of a paceline...I could go on and on!

Mr. Tater and I just moved, our 90 mile round trip commute by car just got reduced to a twenty mile round trip by bike commute. I am really looking forward to parking the truck and using my bike for my primary mode of transportation.

[Denise223]

Hi Patty:

I came across your post from last year and wanted to bring it back to be enjoyed by those who haven't read it. (or if you have, you can enjoy it again like I just did :D ).

Peace & Love to you all,

Denise