the tao of cycling: lunch bunch

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

lunch bunch

today instead of counting cars heading up and down the canyon, I counted cyclists. and I was pretty busy doing so considering it was a weekday early afternoon.
to be truthful, I lost my train of thought a few times and had to work really hard to try to remember where the count was, so my number is not completely accurate, but I'm sure it doesn't really matter. I'm close.

cyclist number three, heading west down the canyon as I was heading up, wins the My Favorite Cyclist Today prize: she was grinning from ear to ear and looked as happy as I felt. I love that. cyclist number ten heading west was a close second, as he actually verbalized a "hello" across the road to me. third place goes to the guy in tee-shirt and shorts who was cruising down the back side of little mountain as I was heading back up from the reservoir: he wins the Warm-Blooded Cyclist award today, because 54 degrees to me still warrants a little more clothing than what he had on. he said hi, though, and I'm pretty sure that was a happy grin I saw connected with the greeting.
and the other forty or so cyclists out today seemed outwardly pleasant enough, though I imagine inside they must all have been feeling like me, incredibly grateful to be out in this weather at this time of year. how else do you explain almost 45 cyclists riding up and down emigration in the middle of a workday? it's not something I see very often.
I wonder how many are on a lunch break and return to work stinky, starving, and on an endorphin high? do you think this is something that increases productivity, or perhaps just guarantees them solitude for the rest of the workday?
I passed three men heading up today, and they were all of an age that makes me think they didn't have to worry about lunch hours. they were all riding steadily, just at a pace somewhat less than mine, and they stirred thoughts within me about my riding future. will I be riding in 5 years, in 10? and will I be riding when I'm in my sixties, my seventies? I don't see nearly as many women of "retirement age" out riding as I do men of the same age. which makes me curious. and I guess it really doesn't matter who I see out there doing what, it all just depends on what I do.
I plan to keep riding.
and waving and smiling and saying hello.
and some day I'll probably ride a little more slowly.
but I will still wave, and smile, and say hello.

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.