Becoming "one" with the bike

[spazzdog]

What does it mean "becoming one with the bike"?

Please excuse this little sidetrip into personal philophey... zen if you will. I'm not a religious person, not in the organized sense. I'm coming back (I hope) from a breakdown that has left me in a position where I must rebuild my very core... if I can discover what it is.

So, as you've all read in this thread or that, I'm a bit away from turning 49, I'm on disability (mental not physical) and I've chosen cycling as my re-entry into the world. My goal is to race... to enter and do well in 2006 at the Gay Games in Chicago. OK... maybe more info than you needed. But this is me. I put it out there. Sometimes it's good and sometimes it's like spitting in the wind.

I decided to start this thread to explore inspriration. Goals, dreams... things that get you hot to throw a leg over that beloved bike and pedal, be it on the road or in the woods. With goals and dreams, sometimes, come fears and anxiety.

For me, in my current state, I have to work for a week to get me out of the house to ride. Leaving the security of my home is scary. I might have to talk to someone. Or I might get lost. Or I might have a panic attack... or I might just have a great time.

This thread is to discuss what does it for you... me. What is it that makes the Ride.

Right now I'm drowning myself in cycling literature, films, mags, etc. I seek inspiration...

For my first trick I throw a book and a movie into the mix.

The book: The Race by Dave Shields. It's a little story about a guy, a domestique, that finds himself in an unimaginable position in the Tour de France. Not the great american novel, but inspirational none-the-less

The movie: American Flyer with a young Kevin Costner
and another 2 Seconds which is French with English subtitles, about a downhill racer (female) and her coming to terms with time.

Meanwhile I try to get out the door to ride... to find myself.

Remember grrls... inspiration.

[Trek420]

spazzdog mused "What does it mean "becoming one with the bike"?"

> ......My goal is to race... to enter and do well in 2006 at the Gay Games in Chicago.

a worthwhile goal and one I know you'll acheive 8-)

> I decided to start this thread to explore inspriration. Goals, dreams... things that get you hot to throw a leg over that beloved bike and pedal, be it on the road or in the woods. With goals and dreams, sometimes, come fears and anxiety.

Good subject. I'll try a potshot at the subject. I've also had what is termed a very bad year, don't ask, and what has pulled me through is cycling, and training for and completing the AIDS ride (and friends, my dog, therapist and family not neccesarily in that order).

I've also, speaking of zen, given much thought to my other activity, martial arts, Aikido.

Last December I tested for and passed my second degree black belt test, this is not to brag or anything it's just to set up that besides the test my teacher always assigns an essay.

She hasn't asked me to do that...yet...shhhh, don't remind her ;-)

But what I had in mind and will use for the next test where I surely will not escape the dreaded essay was ideas on the similarities and differences of Aikido and cycling. It's more than "roundness". Cycling of course is about circles, circular pedaling motion, wheels, the spiraling motion as power transfers from arms to core to legs, following the curves of a trail. Aikido is spiraling redirection of an opponents energy, big circles become small ones etc.

Circles feel good, your body likes them, your joints like them. I could probably exlain why but that's another thread.

One difference though is goals. In cycling there are small goals and large goals. Your long term goal may be a race or century could be a year or so away. You build to that on small goals; taking a hill faster, or in the middle chainring instead of the granny, off season training, base miles, lift weights. and then there are the set backs, more about that later I think.

Aikido has no contests, competitions, judgeing, just endless training and as you advance less frequent yet more challenging tests. One friend told me piloting a plane is like that: long hours, even years of utter boredom interupted by rare moments of panic. To maintain focus I've had to make my own goals like this year I'd like to get better at falls, breaking that down to different types of falls such as backrolls which I suck at.

This year I attended a workshop with Doshu-he's like the head of all Aikido, I won't bore you with all that. Everyone who is anyone was there and at one point I found myself training with a gal who is in a wheelchair. I knew she was at least black belt rank, I knew she was good despite her obvious extreme disability, she tossed me around like a rag doll. Later at a break I was reading an Aikido publication. There was an interview with the very gal I'd just trained with. She talked about the accident that left her paralyzed from the neck down, doctors had said she'd never walk again or even move.

Through extroardinary support from her friends who worked with her on physical therapy she can now train, went on to earn her third degree black belt, can even stand a little unsupported, has nearly full range of motion in her arms, just her hands seem affected. She felt most spinal cord victoms could do this if they had access to this kind of support with insurance but....that her life as an athlete made the difference.

Because she's an athlete she was familiar with set backs and acheivements. She'd gone from being totaly out of shape to her bc (before crash) state of great fitness, when she was able to accept being back at less than zero she created a plan of recovery, celebrate progress such as able to move one finger, accept set backs and plateaus.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that one of the many many things I like about my bike besides the pure physical pleasure of riding (like if someone bikes past the dojo while I'm training I let out an almost perceptable whine, but if i ride past the dojo while folks are training other than 'I should be there' guilt I don't feel the same way) is that every ride there is something to celebrate even if it is just that I got out when the weather sucks, or I rode instead of drive, but I can almost always find some way progress was made. Where in martial arts while my GOAL is to do something better each time often that is not the case.

> Remember grrls... inspiration.

[Irulan]

For me, "one with the bike" means riding any thing that comes my way in the trail, without having to think about how to ride it... just 100% flow, not worrying about line, technique, hitting things, rocks. speed.... my body just knows what it needs to go and all I have to do is look down the trail.

As for inspiration... just getting outside is mine.

Irulan

[Trek420]

Irulan observed: "riding any thing that comes my way in the trail, without having to think about how to ride it... just 100% flow, not worrying about line, technique, hitting things, rocks. speed.... my body just knows what it needs to go"

Thanks Irulan, again I'm selfishly abusing this thread to work on the essay idea here, there is an aikido analogy to what you feel, it's called Takemusu Aikido. Loosly translated means (so I'm told, hope it does not mean "your uncle is green, the road is sick") "aikido that invents itself".

Every athlete needs basics. Your body has its own muscle/nerve memory (can someone here explain why this works?). You don't get there by thinking, reading, watching OLN, training logs in your palm pilot...you can only train the basics till they become a part of you, a part of your body. Then and only then every so often you'll wonder "where the H*ck did THAT come from?" When you train the basics then forget them, don't think, just flow this amazing stuff appears.

Those moments, while rare are worth all it takes to acheive them.

They happen only for those who've done the hard work.

[Maine-iac]

every ride there is something to celebrate

I second that that statement and continue with every day there is something to celebrate. Some times we just need a helping hand to see what it was.

[Irulan]

I'll stick to platitudes...

"practice makes perfect".

What I really want to know is why just when the flow gets totally connected,somes YOU ( the rider) get completely disonncected, which ususally means upside down somewhere for a mountain biker.



Irulan

[Trek420]

Irulan asks "why just when the flow gets totally connected, somes YOU ( the rider) get completely disonncected, which usually means upside down somewhere for a mountain biker."

sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes your the bug

[spazzdog]

I think the disconnect happens when you start "thinking" about the connection you just made.

The connect happens (in my past) when my brain stopped buzzing and my body just went with it... like riding a horse bareback. You are the horse, the horse is you. As soon as you go "Wow! this is great, how the hell am I doing this" you go boom.

I try to save the thought process for afterwards... writing it, analizing it, whatever.

[Trek420]

my hat's off to mountain bikers, just seems so complex...convoluted trails, rocks, roots, kamikaze squirells, switchbacks. I get all farklempt just going over tracks...omg, it's an obstacle!!!! argh!!

[Dogmama]

Trek - getting on a mt bike really improves road skills. Sand isn't as scarey & rain isn't as daunting. The only problem is that you must remember WHICH bike you're on. Awhile back I took my road bike through a big nasty hole...oops! Wrong bike! Talk about being jolted back into reality.

[pedalfaster]

Riding some place new always does it for me, if I feel my cycling has gone "flat".

Getting lost can be a good thing.

I'm still on vacation-high after riding the Skyline Road in Shenandoah National Park.

If I can't leave town, I try riding regular road routes and trails "backwards".

[maryellen]

I learned to ride in June 2003 in an effort to . . . lots of things: . . .deal with depression . . . do something solely for me . . . be more social . . .cope with emotional confusion about a complex situation re my relationship . . .have fun . . .do something different.

Cycling has been all of that and more for me. It forces me to push the envelope on my fears and preconceived notions of who I am and my capabilities, provides me with a forum to be social in a way that feels (almost) manageable, connects me to pure joy *and* is lots of fun. And more . . .

[spazzdog]

Got another book for you:

The Rider by Tim Krabbe'

And that ends todays literary contribution.


Went on my 1st ride in 2 weeks (had to wait out the kidney ailment)...

Decided to do the 18 rather than the 26 (group choices) since I was unsure of the kidney reaction to bike position.

Did OK except for this one honkin' hill... I ran out of gas midway (went out too hard in beginning of ride), unclipped left, road canted right, yep... you guessed it! Unscheduled dismount. So sure was I that I could save it, my right hand never left the bars.

Result: single point landing on elbow, rolled to back. Now looking like a dead armadillo on wheels I cracked up and dropped my leg to the pavement, right foot still clipped in, rear derailler hits ground hard.

So, todays trip to the bike doctor wasn't too $$, they just had to bend it out a bit. Nothing broken on Epesi or my body.

I do it once every season I get on a bike. Sure am glad that's over for this season.

Did finish the ride, bent derailler and all. Felt pretty derned good!

spazz strikes again!

[SnappyPix]

Glad to hear that you're okay after your fall, and that your trusty two wheels didn't need intensive care!

Cycling, for me, is a mix of so many different emotions and drives. It's my meditation, my happy place. That sense of euphoria when it's just me and the bike on a quiet summer morning, or that kick of adrenaline when I've powered up a hill. It's the "weeee" factor when I'm freewheeling downhill at top speed (never seen a runner with a grin on his/her face coming down a hill!). It's my main method of transport, my thinking time.

No greater feeling than when you're whizzing along a quiet country road, just the sound of your wheels turning on the tarmac, the sun shining on your face and that happy feeling deep inside your soul.

Fantastic. Nothing else like it. Couldn't live without it.

[Trek420]

spazzdog "Got another book for you:

The Rider by Tim Krabbe'"

Thanks, I'll look into that...need another good read.

"I do it once every season I get on a bike. Sure am glad that's over for this season. "

owwwwwie, glad you and Epesi are ok, spazzzz, you're spozzed to be one with the bike, NOT the pavement ;-)