the tao of cycling: 5

Friday, March 6, 2009

5

this morning I was at the gym by 5 so that I could be home by 6:15.
my 16-year-old son left on a bus headed to las vegas this morning, and I had to prepare his "lunch" (a chicken on ciabatta sandwich, 2 PB&J's, 2 granola bars, 5 chocolate chip cookies, a large bag of doritos, and a 2-day supply of beef jerky) and deliver him to school by 6:45. picture, if you can, a charter bus with 42 male, high school age lacrosse players, on a 7 hour trip to a tournament, missing a school day, free from teachers and parents for three days . . .

it was like a reunion at the gym: I walked in at 5:02 to see nick, bunny, and richard already busy on their chosen cardio machines. a year ago I was consistently there with them each morning at 5. but this year my arrival time is closer to 5:40, and by 6 am I have waved goodbye to all 3 of them.
nick asked me this morning what was wrong, could I not sleep?
ah, even if I couldn't sleep, I doubt I would drag myself out of bed and go to the gym because of it.

I paused a lot this morning.
I always arrange my workout so that I alternate exercises, letting one muscle group rest while I work on another: I'll do lunges paired with seated rows, then leg curls paired with superman flies, and so on. this way I can keep moving, and make the most of my time there. I don't like to waste my precious time. I'm forever thinking about the order of my workout, planning what will be next based on machine and floor space availability and letting my legs or arms recover before fatiguing them again.

but this morning, I found myself adding a few moments' rest in between some of my activities. sometimes it was to stretch, and sometimes it was to let my heartrate drop back down. and once or twice it was just to wipe sweat off my forehead.
but I didn't rush myself through a single one of those pauses.

richard, bunny, and nick all left before me, and when I left the place was hopping with the next wave of regulars, the cardio machines humming and weight machines clanking and whirring.

driving home a little after 6, I remembered again how much I love the early early morning, knowing that I've already got a leg up on my day.
literally.

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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.