the tao of cycling: those who do

Thursday, July 24, 2008

those who do

first, a few quick facts:

1. had my first GU of the season this morning. yucch. mango: just don't do it.
2. left just before 6, rode from my house to brighton and back, 50 miles.
3. dropped my chain twice and have shifting problems....back to the boys I must go.
4. seemed to be sharing the canyon with an inordinate amount of unfriendly people.

which leads me to today's subject: people who get out there and do things. I love them!
on my way home today I crossed paths with the July 24th Marathon runners. it was at the mile 18 marker I met the path, and I was catching the tail end of the runners. most of the runners were older or heavier, and none were moving too quickly. but they were moving. running. I have this fantasy that I'm a runner, that I can just leave my house in any kind of weather and run, run for miles and miles. it is complete fantasy. I think, perhaps, if I really committed to it, I could teach my body how to run. but for some reason I can't seem to make myself commit.
I have enormous admiration for runners. I want to be one. cycling seems like cheating, as I get to coast sometimes. and I can cover all those miles because often I'm not working that hard. runners, on the other hand, are always working. the best of them float, gliding along the surface, feet connecting with the ground only to bounce them back into the air. they are sleek, smooth, amazing machines.
but I reserve my highest admiration for the ones who struggle. the ones who are sweating and panting and moving at the speed of, well, me. today's runners comprised the elderly, the infirm, the overweight. and they were out there participating in life, challenging themselves, succeeding. these people inspire me much more than a lance armstrong or a tiger woods.
some mornings as I'm riding I see a woman on rollerblades coming down wasatch boulevard. she is middle-aged and not slender, and we exchange grins and hello's while I think about her commitment to health. she is out there, she is moving. and I find that those in her category are often more friendly than those at the more experienced end of the continuum.
so this is my small tribute to those who get out there even if they finish last. DFL is a million times better than not starting at all.

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the Male Ego

The other day I was coming down a canyon in my drop bars (two years ago I would have said, 'what's a drop bar?'), working hard, when I came up on two guys who were also heading downhill but at a more leisurely pace. I passed them, said hello as I did so, and pulled back into the bike lane. a few minutes later they went flying past me, faces looking dead ahead, not a single bit of acknowledgment that I even existed on this planet let alone was involved in and enjoying the same sport they were.
I have to attribute this to the male ego. what else can it be? now I know we all have egos, myself included. and mine even shows its ridiculous little head once in a while, or perhaps more often. but the difference between mine and say, those of certain men on bicycles, is that I KNOW mine exists and I can LAUGH at mine. I know my ego was quite excited to pass those guys, and I could also smile because I knew if the men had really been working like I was, they would have kicked my butt down the hill.
I think I pissed them off.
and I'm sure I will be sharing with you much more of my thoughts about the male ego . . .

a little history

I was married, and I had a mountain bike which I rarely rode. we separated, I moved out, and four months later someone stole my bike. the next spring, 2005, I bought myself a new mountain bike. I rode occasionally, and in april 2006 I rode in my first century, the Cactus Hugger in St. George, Utah. I made it 54 miles on that mountain bike, and it took me about 6 hours. I think that included the rest stops where I prayed that someone would steal my bike again . . .
in june 2006 I started riding my mountain bike five mornings a week, a 45-55 minute loop that was intended to be all about exercise. and what I found was that I loved the quiet, peaceful morning full of bird chatter and barely breaking sunrises. by that fall I was hooked, and began considering the purchase of a road bike. I rode up emigration canyon for the first time that Labor Day of 2006, panting and plowing along on my trusty (heavy) bike, and a month later I was the proud owner of my own road bike: I had become a two-bike girl!
a 17-week-long "power camp" over the winter and a handful of new friends kept bicycling front and center in my life, and when spring of 2007 rolled around I was ready to hit the pavement. I rode my first century the end of april, when I again went to St. George and completed that Cactus Hugger. it took me about 7 hours, but this time I rode the entire 100 miles with about 9300 feet of vertical gain. woo hoo!
I started riding canyons around our area, emigration and millcreek, city creek, big cottonwood, little mountain and big mountain, and once--yes, only once--little cottonwood.
then in september of 2007, I rode from Logan, Utah, to Jackson, Wyoming, in the slightly infamous LOTOJA race. I rode, I did not race. and I completed the thing, crediting my good training buddies, the incredibly perfect weather, my support team, and an amazing convergence of all things positive in the universe.
I put in about 3500 miles last season, and as of today, july 19, 2008, I have about 1700 in, adding to it every day.
I have again signed on to ride the LOTOJA race, and my goal is to have just somewhere near as great a ride as I did last year. oh, and to have someone fun to talk with along the way as I got incredibly bored last year . . . star valley is still a nightmare scene in my biking memories . . .
and here is a picture of the machine that has helped me reclaim my life.