the tao of cycling: heart

Monday, August 11, 2008

heart

recovery ride today. lately my route for a recovery ride takes me first to Michigan, and then to Tuscany, and that just makes me smile. Okay, in reality it's Michigan Avenue and Tuscany the restaurant, but in my mind . . .

recovery rides are about keeping my heart rate below a certain number, and this is always challenging. and my heart monitor was playing games this morning, as I know that my heart wasn't really beating 228 times per minute about a mile into my ride. then it would jump from 159 to 179 when my effort didn't increase at all, and then it would sit at 44 for a good couple of minutes . . . now I have plenty friends who don't wear heart monitors, because they KNOW when they're working hard. I understand that, and I think I'll probably be there someday. but for now, that observation and adjustment is important for me.

so "heart" is on my mind, especially since my monitor is acting up. then I ride by a sign for a company called "WhoMovesYou.net" and I think this is kind of clever and I segue right into What Moves You . . . and I know that when I get home I will come to the computer, close my eyes, and type a list of what moves me. so here is a list of what comes to me this morning:

ordinary people doing ordinary things
adults with down syndrome
baby quail
starving children
crisp, cold mornings like this one
brilliant sunlight behind clouds that makes them appear to have silver edges
firelight
moonlight
the tremendous expanse of night sky covered with stars
small gestures of love
swooping down curving roads
water, in just about any natural form
one of my children teaching another something
my oldest son laughing
people in emotional pain
deer, especially young bucks with furry antlers
the smell of lemongrass
nights in white satin, by the moody blues

a small list, but no small feelings attached. and this is how it all comes together for me: some of the things that move me are like my heart beating in a slightly elevated zone. it isn't uncomfortable, it feels good, and it's good for me. and some of the other things that move me are like my heart beating in a higher zone: intense, a little uncomfortable, but still good. and still others send my heart over the edge, like my monitor this morning. too high of a heart rate, for too long, doesn't feel good at all. it hurts, it can make you ill. some of the things that move me impact me this way, and I really can't sustain that feeling for too long. I have to move my thoughts to something less intense, I need to move out of that zone.
hearts are beautiful and fragile, vital, almost incomprehensible. I exercise my physical heart to stay healthy and alive, using a monitor and a guideline. I exercise my emotional heart, also, and find that perhaps I need to work those higher zones a little more, so that it's not so uncomfortable to be there.

No comments:

Post a Comment

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.