the tao of cycling: hummingbird lane

Thursday, June 25, 2009

hummingbird lane

yesterday half a dozen hummingbirds danced with me as I rode up the road.
this won't last long: as I remember, it is only a brief phase of summer when these diminutive beauties hover and frolic about the bike lane, traveling with me, welcoming me to their beautiful home.
perhaps a month ago I was visited by one of these petite feathered creatures in my back yard, convincing me to get my hummingbird feeder out and filled and ready to welcome more of them.
and no one seems to have found it yet.
I haven't given up hope, but each day I look at the plentiful pink liquid and sigh a little sigh, unsure of how to let them know I am ready for their presence.
I am not alone in my desire to have hummingbirds grace my space with their presence: I frequently see feeders out as I'm traveling about. a couple weeks back when I rode the road less traveled, up deep into the northern arm of emigration, I passed a house with at least half a dozen hummingbird feeders ~ and a big, red Utah Utes flag ~ on the front porch. I imagined that house to be the perfect setting for enjoying these little birds: the house perches on the western sloping side of the street, looking across to a hillside of green, and big sky behind. for these homeowners to look out their windows to see handfuls of shimmering hummingbirds hovering to drink, with open hill and endless untouched sky behind . . . what a gift.
I would settle for just one little visitor, dancing around my solitary feeder with its few bushes and a cedar fence behind.
as I said, I haven't given up hope, but I will continue to look forward to the next week or two of riding up the bike lanes, watching for my welcoming committee, and reveling in their singular beauty and undeniable strength and charm.
I will never reach a point in my life where the presence of a hummingbird in the space that surrounds me fails to bring me joy and awe.

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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.