the tao of cycling: good

Sunday, May 3, 2009

good

I feel good.
which is a great big, tangled bundle of pleased, happy, joyous, capable, successful, proud, and, well, whatever it is I give myself for eating a banana.

I rode to the top of big mountain today. I RODE TO THE TOP OF BIG MOUNTAIN TODAY!
first of the season, and it felt just fine. I didn't die, I didn't collapse at the top, in fact, I could have kept going.
this is good.

and here is my mile by mile notation of said ride:

mile 1: overcast, gray, cool, wet pavement.
mile 2: pavement dry in spots, spots of blue sky to the north
miles 3,4,5: sunlight!
mile 6: clouds move back in, a few sprinkles
miles 7,8: cloudy, cool, no sprinkles
mile 9: weak sunshine, then more sunshine, and I am on my way down to the reservoir
mile 10: cloudy, a few sprinkles
miles 11,12,13: mostly cloudy, cool, solitary
mile 14: sunshine returns, and a tailwind, ah . . .
miles 15,16: sunshine, lots of rocks that have tumbled down the hillsides decorate the road
mile 17: sunshine, a headwind, some crosswinds, a brief tailwind . . .
mile 17.5: the summit, the apex, the top, woo hoo! sunshine reigns, but to the east dark, heavy clouds hover, and to the south and west clouds hang on white mountain peaks
miles 18,19,20: a blur, chilly, sun lighting my way
miles 21, 22, 23: cruising along, heading back by the reservoir, pavement is almost dry
miles 24,25: heading up little mountain, dry, sunny, blue skies
miles 26-30: fluffy white clouds, blue sky, dry pavement with only occasional puddles
miles 27, 28: a little headwind, lots of cyclists in short sleeves and shorts, who were obviously less impatient than I
miles 29, 30, 31: so dry, so sunny, so great
miles 32, 33: out of the canyon, an early summer day in the city, gardeners galore
mile 34: dry, sunny, gorgeous
mile 35: the final mile, all downhill, no water anywhere, thousands of happy flowers
mile 35.05: wheeled my bike over to the hose bib, where I sprayed off the dirty streaks and clumps of dried mud, and flicked off the dead worm pieces stuck to my brake pads, while it hailed on me. truth.

it's been a good day.

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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.