the tao of cycling: gumby and elastigirl

Thursday, October 1, 2009

gumby and elastigirl

sam taught yoga this morning.
he's the ashton kutcher look-alike, though I'm not sure if ashton owns a pink knit watch cap like the one sam wore this morning. but it's certainly possible.
I like sam.
and this morning he had me grinning as he talked about super bendy people.
now if you're super bendy you'll be able to do this easily, but for those of us who aren't......
I fall into the latter category, the "aren't."
I'm not a gumby.
I creak when I bend, and there are some directions in which I just don't fold.

his talk about super bendy people led me to think about gumby, and elastigirl, from the incredibles.
once in a while our dinner table conversation gravitates to which super hero powers you'd want to have. would you rather be able to move from one place to another in an instant, or be the strongest person on earth? would you like to be invisible, or would you like to be elastigirl? one of my daughters always chooses elastigirl, though, to be honest, I think that's all about being lazy and wanting to have things without moving to go get them.

sam's yoga practice brought to mind gumby and elastigirl, but this had nothing to do with being lazy. it was all about having a body that moves and flexs and bends gracefully and easily: no small goal, however natural it might seem to be. being bendy either comes as part of who you are (gumby, elastigirl, ballerinas, gymnasts), or it's something you work at constantly.
I work at it for my body, but I think I work harder at it for my mind.
I believe I have a super bendy mind.
this is a mind that can flow and adjust, can stretch and bend, and yet always retain its healthy self. it likes exercise, it likes to flex itself. it's comfortable with backbends and leaps (especially those of faith) and truly loves to be twisted and then right itself again.
it can listen to opposing opinions, it can take in new information. it can expand and swell and push itself all the way around to the other side, and see two visions simultaneously. it can accept dichotomies. it's comfortable with gray. and most fabulous of all, it knows that the more it exercises itself, the more gumby-like it becomes.
sam has no idea what he started when he spoke of super bendy people this morning.
but my mind heard those words and took off running. and twisting. and bending a bit, too.

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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.